Kash Heed may no longer be in charge of the province's law enforcement policies. But the former solicitor general appears to have been helping influence them south of the border, Public Eye has learned. The former West Vancouver chief constable was a scheduled panelist at two recent conferences sponsored by the New York-headquartered Drug Policy Alliance, which works to "advance policies that reduce the harms of both drug misuse and drug prohibition." The conferences - one of which took place in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles - discussed "strategies for moving beyond drug war policies and toward a health-centered approach to drug use."

Bill Bennett's relationship with the independent provincial agency responsible for regulating British Columbia's oil and gas industry is starting off on a different foot than that of his predecessors. In a blog posting published yesterday, the East Kootenay MLA writes he "spent a few hours with Oil & Gas Commission" on July 23. "Surprisingly," he continued. "I am the first Energy minister to spend time meeting with the OGC! I guess the guys before me figured they knew enough about the Commission's work but OGC staff sure appreciated my being there discussing the issues they encounter."

The independent agency responsible for regulating British Columbia's oil and gas industry has no restrictions on its staff being seconded to the firms they're responsible for watchdogging. The agency confirmed that position after Public Eye learned one of its senior employees was temporarily assigned to work for Encana Corp., Canada's largest natural gas producer. Leading British Columbia environmentalist Will Horter has said that secondment "raises a lot of issues around bias" at the commission. But a spokesperson for the regulatory agency outlined measures that were taken to ensure the employee wasn't in a perceived or potential conflict while at Encana.

By law, former provincial ministers are, in effect, prohibited from lobbying the government for 24 months after leaving cabinet. And that's exactly how long it was from the time Rick Thorpe left cabinet to when was registered to begin lobbying the Campbell administration on behalf of a subsidiary of Canada's largest investor-owned gas and electric utility company.

The provincial New Democrats have distributed a summary of their Our Province Our Future launch conference 89 days after it took place. That conference was attended by more than 200 British Columbians as part an ongoing initiative by the opposition to engage citizens in a dialogue about "the economic, social and environmental renewal of our province." According to the summary, participants discussed a number of motherhood ideas such "addressing the high cost of post-secondary education" and "promoting green technology." But several more interesting proposals were also talked about.

"Leadership Tips from Tony Hayward (or Not)." That was the headline of an article published yesterday in which Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter opined the now former BP p.l.c. chief executive officer "must have studied management in a parallel universe, where a set of anti-rules for bad leadership are taught." Among those rules: deny and minimize problems; emphasize your own power and importance; make the story all about you; never apologize, and don't even pretend to learn from your mistakes; and hang onto your job even when it's clear you should go. So here's a question for our readers: based on that analysis, which provincial politician appears to have gone to the same school as Mr. Hayward?

"They don't look like they're in step with a lot of economic times people are facing." That's what Community and Rural Development Minister Ben Stewart said when the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. asked about Port Coquitlam's decision to increase the salaries for its mayor and councillors by 27 percent and 42 percent respectively. "However, in a community like Port Coquitlam, where they haven't dealt with this issue for 15 years, they need to establish more regular reviews of it and not leave it for so long," the minister said, having earlier told The Vancouver Sun's Kelly Sinoski he had asked his staff to review the raise. That brouhaha has made headlines and broadcasts across the Lower Mainland. But, put in context, it has also been a source of amusement for the chattering classes. Consider this:

New Democrat MLAs will be organizing Our Province Our Future events in their ridings, Public Eye has learned. That's the initiative party leader Carole James launched in April to engage British Columbians in a dialogue about the "economic, social and environmental renewal of our province." The first Our Province Our Future conference was considered to be something of a success. But a regional summit in Kamloops was the subject of critical coverage by the city's daily newspaper and the initiative's online discussion forum is moribund, attracting only 15 comments to-date. The expectation to have riding-level Our Province Our Future events came out of a New Democrat caucus meeting that took place earlier this month at the St. Eugene Mission Resort.