BCBusiness Report Card: Notes on a (B.C. Legislature) Scandal

We assess how different people/things and, of course, businesses fared this week

Welcome to another edition of the BCBusiness Report Card.

If you thought Victoria Day was going to keep us from assigning arbitrary grades to people and things around the province, you’re sadly mistaken.

Nothing, not even a boil-water advisory in Tofino, where we may or may not have spent the week—HEY, IT WAS A WORK TRIP—can get in the way of our service to you, dear reader.

With that, let the grades begin.

Scotiabank

Grade: A+ 

It’s not often we will bequeath such a rating to a company that, generally speaking, doesn’t care about people with less than $10,000 in their savings accounts. But maybe that rep ought to change.

After all, the bank pledged to create the Scotiabank Youth Transition Program, which will help support kids and teens with serious health issues at Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital.

This fantastic initiative almost makes us forgive Scotiabank’s habit of charging banking fees if you don’t have a certain amount of money in your account.

Biking

Grade: A

With Bike to Work Week around the corner and (mostly) good weather on the horizon, there was even more good news for the two-wheelers among us.

That would be the announcement that Cycle City was opening another shop, the first of its kind in central downtown Vancouver in 30 years. The location (on Hornby Street) will carry more than 300 bike rentals and offers repairs, bikes for sale, and the largest e-bike fleet in the city.

Who said retail’s dead?

Tofino

Grade: A– 

What a place, honestly.

We mean, uh, it was strictly a work trip and we didn’t have any fun at all and stop looking over here.

Craig James

Grade: C 

Hey, when the result of a  report finding you guilty of misconduct is that you get sent into early retirement…that’s not bad.

The former provincial legislature clerk is also going to be paid out his full pension.

“I have had enough,“ read James’s statement in the legislature. “I have been publicly ridiculed and vilified. My family has been deeply hurt and continues to suffer humiliation. In an effort to put an end to that, I have decided to retire and reach a settlement with the Legislative Assembly.“

Because those who spend luxuriously on things they don’t need with public funds are people, too.

Rich Coleman

Grade: F

Look, we hate to be picking on Good Ol’ Rich all the time. However, there is but one rule we have here at the BCBusiness Report Card: If you do evil shit, you’re going to get a bad grade.

That’s it. Pretty simple. We wish we could say that if you did good or smart things, you’re going to get a good grade, but the fact of the matter is that bad news travels fast.

On that note, soon after he compared agricultural reforms to the Holocaust, the Liberal MLA for Langley East had himself an absolute banner of a week.

Apparently a massive fan of The Handmaid’s Tale, the former deputy premier made comments against abortion at a pro-life rally outside the B.C. legislature and then tried to walk them back.

Later in the week, he said he was looking forward to the NDP’s public inquiry into money-laundering while simultaneously refusing to share cabinet documents to assist it.

Tune in next week to see if Coleman can get off the Report Card—or, better yet, garner a positive grade. You can do it, Rich!

Well, not if you continue with this abortion stuff. In that case, we’ll continue to bury your sorry ass.

The RCMP

Grade: F– 

And finally, this is just sad. Sorry to end on such a sordid note, but sometimes the thing getting graded just can’t possibly be made light of. 

She was 16 years old.