November 7, 2001

CounterAttack Saved

At the November 7, 2001, staged cabinet meeting, ICBC's Nick Geer announced that ICBC will continue to fund CounterAttack. No one will ever know whether or not that is the result of the public backlash to the leak.

November 6, 2001

Cutting Our Safety
Encouraging Drunks and Speeders

Finance Minister Gary Collins is digging a deeper hole rather than reducing the damage from yet another one of the Campbell government's anticipated cutbacks. CBC quoted Collins as saying that funding for "some form" of Counterattack might have to come from the municipalities. Shifting the costs onto the municipalities would break yet another New Era promise.

The head of RCMP Traffic Services, Inspector Don Saigle, appears to be trying to help the government with its damage control. CKNW reported that the RCMP traffic head believes that an overhaul in Counterattack is long overdue. It seems that Inspector Saigle is focused on getting all those drunks who take to the side streets. Fair enough, but before they removed the information from the ICBC website, the data existed to show the deterrent effect of the highly visible drunk driving road blocks and accompanying TV ads. Get this inspector - before rushing to defend the Campbell government understand that part of your job is to prevent crime - after all when the Liberals are done there won't be enough court time for the crooks you do catch.

ICBC has funded much of the Counterattack program. A search on the revised ICBC website now fails to turn up any reference to Counterattack - the extremely successful 20 year old program to fight drunk driving. In fact, almost all public services have been eliminated from the revised ICBC website. The Campbell government is not only making the roads more open for speeders and drunks, it is laying the ground work for selling off the very successful public auto insurer.

Having witnessed someone speed through a red light and T-bone another driver, it was particularly disturbing to see that the Campbell government might take another step to undermine our safety. First they sent a message that speeding is OK with the elimination of photo radar despite pleas from the police to keep it. Second, CKNW and Global TV reported that given the current cuts in provincial spending BC's Counterattack program will be abandoned by the province.

No one cast their ballot for this kind of change.