Horses, bears and taxes

Okay, so what do you do with a guy who was a university hockey star, captain of his team, turned down an offer from the Detroit Red Wings, went to university instead, earned a number of degrees, has received 13 Honorary Doctorates, is said to be more popular in his home town than Justin Bieber, had top jobs at 4 universities, convinced Google and RIM to set up shop on his campus, then sets up his own campus shops in China and the United Arab Emirates, writes books, has hosted TV shows, wrote the guidelines for the Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry and gives the credit to his horse-trainer scientist wife for raising 5 successful daughters?

What do you do with him? Well, you make him Governor-General of Canada of course.

And that's exactly what our PM wanted to happen as Dr. David Johnston was sworn into the vice-regal position.

Our departing Michaëlle Jean has warmed the hearts of practically everyone she met at home and abroad while she was Governor General. I've had the honour of meeting with her a number of times, including at a wonderful evening event here in the riding at Mission Hill.

She adores the Okanagan and has promised to return.

Val, in her position as President of the Parliamentary Spouses Association, has mentioned to me a number of times how gracious Michaëlle Jean has been to work with on event planning for the Association and for Ambassadors' groups.

Yes, Michaëlle Jean will be a tough act to follow. However, the manner in which Dr. Johnston and his wife and five daughters and seven grandchildren captured the emotions and attention of the crowd, from the horse drawn carriage to his compelling speech from the Chair at the swearing-in ceremony suggests he'll do just fine.

I'll do what I can to have him out here at some so you can meet him and see for yourself.

Ever hear of taxes or fees going down? Well, besides the fact we are moving taxes downward for entrepreneurs and that we've lowered the federal GST by 28%, we gave taxes another nudge downwards this week for us right here in BC.

There's been a punitive 25% tariff on our shipping industry for years.

As you may know we recently announced our National Shipbuilding Strategy. It will invigorate our West Coast ports with the opportunity of multi-year, multi-million dollar, multi-job contracts.

Going back to that 25% tariff, two major BC ship companies had been hit with it when they had imported vessels a few years ago. One of those companies was BC Ferries. That tax had cost them about $119 million. Those costs find their way into the price you and I pay to get on and off the Islands.

With the contracts now available for our own builders there was agreement across the industry in Canada to drop the 25% tax and rebate the BC businesses.

So we did.

We announced it a few days ago. Ticket prices will go down 2% almost immediately. That may not be a huge amount. But it’s the first reduction anybody can remember.

And the rebate also means about $20 million in maintenance contracts for BC workers.

Once again, lowering a tax instead of raising one proves to be a win-win.

Local citizens know that one of the treats of the fall season is watching the salmon run (or should I say 'leap') their way up to Hardy Falls.

With the kokanee at record levels it seems there have been other sets of eyes attracted to the annual spectacle. You guessed it, black bears looking to replace a diet of dried berries with sumptuous salmon. I guess they like the thought of all those Omega 3's enriching their brains before they take their 5 month nap.

So, in case you missed it, the Falls are closed till further notice for obvious reasons. We don't want you or your kids being another dietary supplement for our furry friends.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.