Time for another edition of the B.C. Monday Morning Quarterback – five things we’re thinking about to start our week.

1. Former B.C. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon told the Globe and Mail over the weekend that Premier Christy Clark overstepped her bounds when she made huge promises in Prince George about the long-promised Wood Innovation and Design Centre being the world’s tallest wood building. From the Globe:

On a September 19, 2011, visit to Prince George, home of two of her most powerful cabinet ministers, Ms. Clark stepped up the rhetoric around the long-promised Wood Innovation and Design Centre (WIDC), saying it would be the world’s tallest wood building.

Pat Bell, the Jobs Minister, also repeated the promise, making it difficult for Mr. Falcon, then responsible for the province’s purse strings, to pull back.

“That was an unfortunate description,” said Mr. Falcon in an interview. “As chair of Treasury Board and finance minister, I made it very clear it was not something that should be talked about because it was clearly not something we could deliver on with the dollars available.”

Falcon noted that the treasury board didn’t have the dough for what would be a 10-storey building:

“When we did the math, it represented a $100-million investment,” [said] Mr. Falcon.

This helps explain a letter sent by Falcon to his cabinet colleagues a few months later. From a Vancouver Sun article at the time:

Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has sent an extraordinary warning to members of his own government, telling them not to make flashy spending announcements without first having their budgets fully approved.

In an April letter obtained by The Vancouver Sun, Falcon told all his cabinet colleagues they must submit press releases and other announcement details to him or his deputy minister before a capital project can be made public.

“There was a bit of drifting off message,” Falcon said in an interview Thursday, explaining the need for his warning. It is natural in government, there is a certain level of enthusiasm that develops around potential capital projects. It was important for me to make sure that all ministers, every member of cabinet, understands that there is to be no dollar announcements before Treasury Board approval of business cases with respect to capital projects.”

I wonder if the current Finance Minister, Mike de Jong, will be as strong a spending hawk as Falcon tried to be – even with his boss, the Premier.

2. The Sun has a story today on the newish CAO of Metro Vancouver. Interesting piece, but I think our op/ed on how the former Metro CAO seemed to manipulate the Board is the more telling piece.

3. The Prince George Citizen debunks the government’s budget ads.

4. The B.C. Nurses Union sent out a construction tender anchored by three words in big, bold print: UNION TRADES ONLY. ICBA President Philip Hochstein wants to help save them some dough…

5. Finally, CTF President Troy Lanigan met Ron Paul at the Manning Centre conference last week. For someone like Troy, an unabashed fighter for personal liberty, it was a dream come true. Our board chairman, Michael Binnion, tweeted this photo: