CBUT - Monday, May 27, 2024 - 09:00 a.m. (ET) - Segment #4

cbc vancouver radio one everywhere and then all of the speakers in the house go on. >> Do you say, please? >> Stephen: no. No I don't because it gets confused if you add too many words. It does not have the ai stuff yet. >> I throw in a pleas because I like to be kind to the robots because eventually they may be controlling us and I want to have a good relationship with them. >> Stephen: I once said that to google and google said thank you for asking so nicely. >> See! Right. >> Stephen: but that was in the early days before the robots stopped caring. They don't need us to be polite anymore. They think, whatever. >> I'm thinking they might still need us. >> Stephen: how are we looking out there? >> A stall northbound in the north lane otherwise watch for fog over the port mann bridge and if you see a problem out there and you can safely let us know than text is, (236) 330-2623. Metro vancouver weather today cloudy with a chance of showers. High of 16. Looks a bit rainy tomorrow and a chance of showers wednesday with a clearing on thursday. I will be back in ten minutes with another look at traffic and weather. >> Stephen: thank you. Lots to come in this half hour of the program. Twenty-one minutes before 7:00 and right now checking in with peter cowan from world report. >> Good morning. I'm in a radio station so you will have to imagine what I look like. Three piece suit, stunning tie, great looks. Picture that. >> Stephen: wait a minute, are you john northcott? [ Laughter ] >> I have way more hair then him. >> Stephen: is your call or a different colour than the rest of the shirt? >> No, I'm not going for the banker look. [ Laughter ] >> Stephen: tell us what is coming up. >> We are keeping our eye on a story, demands for a mission -- admission reduction. By 2026 they will have to reduce them. We are hearing from big landlords who are introducing new technology to reduce emissions and there is also lots of severe weather may be making people feel better for the weather they have. Tornadoes in the united states, cyclones in india and bangladesh and the one that has really stuck with me is the landslide in papa new guinea. A heartbreaking story. 2000 people buried in their homes when the side of a mountain collapsed. So we will hear from one woman who fears she lost 18 of her family members and we will also hear about the international relief effort underway in order to help the small country. And we are talking about facebook skin -- scams. How good are you at being able to spy if something is legit? >> Stephen: I think everything is fake. It doesn't matter. I assume everything is a scam and then my bank calls me and says why haven't you done this? I thought it was a scam, sorry. >> Not a trusting person is what I'm getting from this. >> Stephen: is zero. >> That works out well because in this particular scam to this woman from new brunswick, or facebook account was taken over and they posted that stuff was for sale and then when her friends were like I will buy that off you they sent the money and thought it was being sent to her but of course it ended up in the scammers bank account. She is embarrassed, or friends or out thousands of dollars and she is giving this morning. Scams have gone so much more sophisticated. Back in the good old days it was just a nigerian prince with a pile of money and we all laughed at them but now this is a message from a friend but is it really from a friend? Some of your scepticism is warranted. >> Stephen: ai is here and everywhere and someone mimicking your voice in a convincing way is easier to do. >> It's a good reminder that if you are chatting with a friend and thinking about sending money maybe connect with them another way and send them a text instead of a facebook message and say is this really you? >> Stephen: or because you need to get out of jail or something like that. >> Whenever it's like are you really in trouble? Maybe give your spouse a call. Are they really in jail? Should we leave them there? >> Stephen: great idea. Thank you so much. We look forward to hearing you at the top of the hours. >> All coming on world report. >> Stephen: 18 minutes from now right here on cbc radio one.

>>> Two major infrastructure projects, pattullo bridge and broadway sublayer -- subway line have been delayed. The replacement was supposed to be in service last fall and is now scheduled to open in the fall of 2025. Meantime, the broadway subway project delayed by a year and now opening in the fall of 2027 and for more on this we reach bc united mla trevor who is the opposition critic for infrastructure. Good morning to you. >> Good morning, how are you doing? >> Stephen: I'm well. The part that I really like about this is that we learn this on may 24th and we learned it by way of a provincial government news release that says two major infrastructure projects reach milestones. And then buried and that was the fact that they will be late. But this is not delay -- the first delay on either of these projects. >> It's not. The pattullo bridge, let's start with that, that project was initially delayed from 2023 to 2024 and now as you correctly said it's now being pushed back, this case can air -- scenario I'm assuming is fall 2025. The broadway subway project was delayed from 2025 to 2026 and known delayed till the fall of 2027. It's on brand and for most people it's a question of transparency and these are projects obviously that people are counting on and this government has overpromised and underdelivered. >> Stephen: is this not the danger with all major projects that we see. I think about new convention centre that was built when the bc liberals were in power. Cost overruns were substantial and I think about the new roof of bc place stadium that was also late, cost overruns there were substantial and that certainly was not as transparent as people would have liked. This is not something that comes with billion-dollar projects. >> It can be and those were things that were done and obviously that will be correct but one of the challenges, whether it's the new port mann crossing, the sea to sky canada line another example of infrastructure that was done on time and on budget. We do have a commitment when using taxpayer dollars to get things right and no government is perfect but I think we need to be upfront on our timeline and this one is struggling with the budget implications and what the cost will be and they have not produced that yet and I think that people deserve to know what the cost of these delays will be associated with. >> Stephen: the broadway subway line, that is a major multibillion-dollar project we are talking about and now opening in the fall of 2027. We don't know what the impact of that will be beyond the delay? >> No. That was not part of that so with the announcements that you referenced buried there, no information about the budget which we are past estimates which was only a couple months ago and part of the challenge on that is if people go back and you look at my questions I asked on the subway line and I know my colleague did, michael we did. Everything was status quo. Nothing to worry about. Same thing for this project, and we are talking under two months ago when I asked the minister and his staff about this project. It's not like somebody comes to you the day before the news goes out and says minister we have a problem here. We have to delay these projects. That's not how it works. >> Stephen: the provincial government is saying these are projects that started during the pandemic early on in the pandemic, relatively early on in december of 2020 and they ran into things like a concrete strike in the case of the canada line and again that strike was only five weeks long. Do you forgive them anything for that? >> No. The entire world has been dealing with the pandemic. I hear the pandemic come up quite a bit in almost every portfolio that a minister holds and to be honest with you we all work through it and continue to

work through but that cannot be the fallback every single time. I also heard the minister reference the previous bc liberal, bc united government. I have no idea what he's talking about. These are there projects. For the pattullo bridge they have delayed it now twice. I referenced before for the subway project they have delayed it now three times. This government has a massive problem in terms of delivering on infrastructure. They have two ministries dedicated to infrastructure and both have failed. If you want to talk about the fact that we should then be having a bridge to drive on for two years. I have no idea when that project will be completed. It won't be a bridge, it will be a tunnel so again we get a lot of announcements and now announcements about delays and it's on brand for this government. >> Stephen: delays of course mean a lot to businesses along the way. We saw lots of businesses left in desperate situations with the camby line. We've heard about the negative impact that this upgrade project has had on those businesses on the broadway line. I want you to hear a little bit from the owner of greene's organic market on broadway. >> It affects us in many ways. Bottom line, we've lost 40 percent of our sales year-over-year so we have lost a tremendous amount of money. We probably won't be able to come back from it. We've been in the brink for a while. Line of credit after line of credit. Borrowing money from family friends, banks, whoever would lend us money to keep us afloat. My dreams, I won't let them die without a fight. We've had no help from the province, the city or the federal government. They give us a lot of service. I don't know if I will ever recover from what I've lost from this last four years. >> That is the owner of greene's organic market on broadway. We were told, because we did hear concerns about this project from businesses and we were told this is not a cut and cover tunnel and will be a repeat of cambie street, what do you make of what we just heard? >> Again, a lack of transparency. And these are those that he referenced about lines of credit and things like that. People, especially small businesses and this is something that michael brought up several times is if you are telling them one thing and then the goalposts are changing and all of a sudden it's okay we will be shutting down from this time to this time , they need to know when that is going to be, where it will be so that they can adjust on how that will effect a business. We also need to make sure we are looking at everything possible. This is something that is a decision made by government that is ultimately in a benefit but this is impacting people on the ground that are trying to provide for their employees so this is something where we need to actually make sure we are fully transparent about the timeline by putting this, I'd be interested to see if they've communicated with these individuals on these delays in the answer is probably no. >> Stephen: in the case of the pattullo bridge, a bridge owned by translink, does not make any difference? >> Good question. I don't know one that. And I hope it wouldn't but again its infrastructure that needs to be delivered. It is well passed its life expectancy and I think that we need to find ways to actually make sure that we are getting this infrastructure delivered on time and on budget. I know that any time they say it said and done but part of the issue is whether it's transportation infrastructure projects or if you look at the cowichan hospital and the massive cost overruns that have been done over there. If you look at the new surrey hospital they are proposing, already at $1 billion and they don't even have shovels in the ground yet so it's pretty alarming that we are going at this pace and like I said it's over promise and under deliver. >> Stephen: we will have to leave it there for a time. Good to hear you this morning. >> Appreciate it. >> Stephen: goodbye. That is trevor, mla first serve rewhite rock. Charis hogg back with traffic and weather. >> The stall northbound has been quickly cleared. No other problems to tell you about but volume building and volume northbound on highway 91 for the alex fraser bridge. Of course if you see a problem on the roads or transit and can

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