SOL Day 28: An orgy of summer lovin'

Cabinet ministers trolling through districts listening to the concerns of locals, with the local Tory candidate in tow, smiling and nodding wisely.

Then, some Pitcher Plant calls a VOCM talk show to report that, for example, Percy Barrett the Liberal incumbent couldn't get roads paved in the district. But transportation minister John Hickey visited, not with his deputy minister or roads director, but the Calvin Peach, the local PC candidate and things are lookin' good for that few feet of pavement.

This election summer in Newfoundland and Labrador, love is measured in cash and kilometres of black-top. The incumbent party is lovin' everyone and anything and they'll be expecting the voters to come across in the fall.

All politics is local and in Newfoundland and Labrador over the past decade, local politics has turned back the clock to the 1920s. The ghost of Sir Richard must be lovingly thumbing his pit prop account receipt book.

All politicians agree that elections are fueled by public cash. The opposition Liberals bitch that the government has an "unfair advantage" by being able to hand out public funds. The incumbent Tories - the party elected to bring a change - defend the announcements because, among other things, what they are doing is no worse than what the Grits used to do when they were in power.

On Day 28 of the Summer of Love, there was love and announcements of love to come, most of which involved the minister of transportation and works:

1. New money for agriculture, to be announced at Roaches Line, without a awareness apparently of any political irony in the location.

2. Yet more new money for a Calgary-based company that makes software for car dealerships.

3. 40 large will be headed to the local film producers to help with their marketing. The announcement comes complete with the standard grip-and-grin suitable for the website or the local papers.

4. A progress report on $58K worth of a consultant's study into the feasibility of establishing a dairy industry in central Labrador, announced not by the agriculture minister but by the local member of the legislature.

5. Another progress report on $50 million plus to be spent building two ferries.

6. Tenders awarded for construction of a new health care centre and refurbishment of a seniors home in Grand Bank, worth almost $9.0 million. Included in the announcement is not the chief executive of the health authority but the chair of the hitherto invisible board of trustees.

7. From Day 27, a reminder from Hickey of how much has been spent across the province on road paving.

8. on Day 28, the busy Hickey pledged to hold Gord O'Connor's "feet to the fire" on Gordo's promise for federal pork for Hickey's district.

9. Even backbenchers can get into the act of dispensing public pork. Two cheques for $12,000 from Exploits Tory member of the House Clayton Forsey presented to the Bishop's Falls recreation committee, and dutifully reported by the Advertiser in mid July, complete with grip 'n' grin.

Sports programs switch into high gear as town prepares for central
games

By DAVID NEWELL

In spite of difficulties with federal funding, Bishop's Falls will be a hot bed of sports again this summer.

Exploits MHA Clayton Forsey presented the town's recreation committee chair Nancy Stewart with two cheques this past weekend, which will help the community host the Central Summer Games Aug. 13-15.

Stewart said the games are a wonderful opportunity for the town to showcase its facilities, spirit of community and ability to work together, as well, put forward a healthy lifestyle.

"I think it encourages and promotes exercise and recreation within the community for the children, so that is all very positive," she said.

The games will involve teams from Springdale, Grand Falls-Windsor, Botwood and Bishop's Falls. Stewart said she expects at least 200 participants in her town for the three-day event.

She said the games are not only fun for the athletes, but it will bring the people of Bishop's Falls together as well.

"It is a way of bringing everybody out together," Stewart said. "I am hoping to recruit a number of volunteers. We want to do a really good job with this so the more people who come out and help the better job we can do."

Stewart admitted it is a challenging task to host the games. Athletes involved in the sports of volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball and ball hockey will take part in the games.

Not all of the action will take part on the courts and playing fields, however. The organizers have decided to arrange several social events around the games, including a dance, to help the athletes make lasting friendships.

SUMMER SPORTS PROGRAMS

In anticipation of the games, the summer sports programs in Bishop's Falls are now in full swing after some disruption due to the lack of federal government student job funding.

"We didn't received any federal funding this year," she said. "In previous years we had (up to) five positions. That is all bad enough, but imagine hosting the Central Summer Games this year and being faced with a shortage of five staff. We needed everyone we could have gotten."

She said the lack of student jobs, combined with an unfortunate printing error on the literature promoting the summer program made start-up this year very confusing.

"Posters for the summer program went out wrong," Stewart said. "They said we were offering tennis, which we are not, but it also left out the fact that we are having a volleyball program."

The sports offered by the town this season are volleyball, basketball, softball and soccer. There are currently 80 young people enrolled in the summer programs, but the recreation committee is encouraging more to join and take part in their own summer games.

The addition of soccer to the list of sports is very encouraging for the recreation committee. The town has teamed up with the Exploits Soccer Association, which is looking to expand outside the confines of Grand Falls-Windsor in an attempt to involve more young athletes in that sport.

"We have Exploits Soccer Association coming to Bishop's Falls two afternoons a week to coach the children aged ten and up," Stewart said. "People really like the idea of that. To have qualified coaching is wonderful."

Another sport being played in Bishop's Falls this summer has received huge interest from youth, but it is not a part of the town's program.

The Bishop's Falls Ball Hockey League is a pilot project and has been organized by residents Rob Canning and Mike Thomas. This league is operating at capacity and is a resounding success.

Numbers for the Bishop's Falls programs are down slightly from last year, which is something Stewart said they hope to change in the future.

"I think the lower numbers are caused by the fact that we started so late getting the programs off the ground," she said.

Stewart was thrilled to accept cheques totaling $12,000 from the provincial government this past weekend.

The first amount of $10,000 was the amount usually provided to the host community of the summer games. Another cheque in the amount of $2,000 was an additional amount secured by Forsey to assist in hiring students for the summer programs.

The MHA said the town was in dire straits when it came to the loss of student funding this summer.

"They said that without the funding from Service Canada they would not be able to proceed with the summer recreation program," he said. "The $2,000 over and above is to help them with the shortfall. It is good news, for sure."

Eleven students are now working for the Bishop's Falls for the summer. Seven are with the recreation programs and are being funded by the provincial government. Four employees at Fallsview Municipal Park are being paid solely by the town.

Picture: Bishop's Falls Recreation Committee chair Nancy Stewart accepted two cheques from Exploits MHA Clayton Forsey this past weekend. The funds totaling $12,000 will assist with the town's hosting of the Central Summer Games Aug. 13-15.

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SOL Day 12: Strawberry Fields Forever

Isn't it strange that in the middle of what is supposed to be a war between Danny Williams and Steve Harper, so many provincial cabinet ministers and wannabes are taking part in joint money announcements with the supposed enemy?

Strange isn't it?

Strange isn't that from the moment he was elected until the federal election in 2006, Danny Williams typically used the most vicious language to describe the federal government and its supposedly perfidious ways. Misrepresentations, distortions all were fair game.

Ottawa was pure evil.

But there seems to be something decidedly fake about Danny Williams and his reaction to the Equalization racket with Ottawa. Oh sure, he mouths a few words and every agrees it is a terrible slight to call the Prime Minister "Steve" - gimme a break, Simpson - but that more likely shows the generally vacuous nature of media commentary in the country.

Doesn't it?

In this the Summer of Love in Newfoundland and Labrador, it should surely be The Summer of Hell for Harper in Canada, with Danny Williams hitting every bar-b-que across the country telling people what an untrustworthy s--o-b that Steve guy is. That's the way you'd look to take out a federal politician, as Danny pledged to do repeatedly.

Pledged repeatedly, mind you.

Confirmed by Paul Oram that defeating Harper is government policy. If Oram says it, the talking point must be straight from Liz's Crackberry.

So where's the campaign exactly? Is it keeping the energy plan company?

And what's with all of these announcements with Loyola Hearn?

If the feds have doled out 32-odd million dollars, someone needs to total up the provincial share announced by this minister or that minister at the same event the federal cabinet minister attended right next to his provincial buddy.

Heck, the participation in events with Loyola Hearn must be officially sanctioned by the Premier's Office - Paul Oram took part in one.

The truth is, the whole War Against Steve is a sham. A farce. A put-on. A fake. A stunt conceived by people who spend too much time on their Crackberry.

A distraction.

Like announcing a lawsuit against the former director of the House of Assembly's financial operations the day after postponing implementation of the Green restrictions on House of Assembly spending.

Such convenient timing. People think the restrictions are in place today, but they don't realise today, as Tom Rideout seems to think, is actually tomorrow and tomorrow is October 9. And so while they are thinking the wrong thing let's launch a lawsuit - a civil suit - while the whole thing is under criminal investigation.

Looks like something is happening when in fact it isn't. no lawyer representing the poor sod at the centre of this political farce is going to let the civil suit proceed until the criminal stuff is done.

And a judge will agree.

Just like a former justice minister and attorney general, now the finance minister, could claim there would be swift action to recover all the money allegedly paid improperly to politicians. Then the lawyers asked for the documents to back the claim and the whole thing disappeared from public view until the week of the Green bill fiddling when suddenly it's the civil servant schmuck - not his political masters, any more - who is facing the law suit.

It's hard to keep track of the twists and turns of that story without being stoned. Imagine what it took to come up with it in the first place. You are either stoned or you are in government. The second one just feels like the first one sometimes.

But all that to one side. The reason Danny Williams is not really at war with Stephen Harper is that he knows one thing: if Nova Scotia gets a better deal, it automatically flows to Newfoundland and Labrador.

So the Summer of Love can roll along, including the summer of lovin' your supposed enemy while you both hand out cheques to the voters, man.

And the Green bill is there, dude, but not really. Chill, Rob. Have another brownie and share the rest with your friends in the press gallery. We just baked 'em on the Clerk's Table. Mace makes a cool whisk, man.

Anyone else got the munchies?

It's nothing to get hung about. The reporters are reporting the stuff they think is there. But it might not be, man. Might be the 'shrooms.

The whole province is living the anthem of the Summer of Love, just like 40 years ago:

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
It doesn't matter much to me.
Let me take you down, 'cos I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real, and nothing to get hung about.

-srbp-

Summer of Love Day 30: Carrying on business

Flanked by two Progressive Conservative candidates in Bay Roberts, Premier Danny Williams told reporters on Wednesday that what government has been doing over the past couple of weeks is just government "carrying on business."

The optics were pretty clear about what really happened.

The local Tories were in Bay Roberts for what was described as a caucus meeting, that is a meeting of elected members of the House of Assembly. But, it was really a meeting of Progressive Conservative candidates in the undeclared election campaign. Normally, unelected people, like Tory-come-lately Steve Kent, don't get to sit in a meeting of elected members of the legislature from a particular political party.

It was also fairly clear the Tories were having an election meeting since the Premier arrived in his most obvious visual campaign symbol: the Winnebago, or as it some wags have started to call it in this, the Summer of Love, the mobile Love Shack.

So what has been going on over the past few weeks? Let's look at the numbers of news releases issued by the provincial government for 2004 to 2007. For our purposes, we'll exclude offshore board routine announcements and environmental bulletins since these are routine, statutory announcements. What's left is revealing.

Total News Releases, July, By Year

2004: 93
2005: 91
2006: 76
2007: 98 (to 25 July)

The drop in 2006 can be attributed to disruption caused by the House of Assembly spending scandal which broke in late June.

Media advisories/Notices of ministers attending local festivals. July, By Year

2004: 13/1
2005: 16/0
2006: 28/0
2007: 28/5 (to 25 July)

Money announcements, July, By Year

2004: 37
2005: 22
2006: 10
2007: 37 (to 25 July)

The year of the first Williams budget, money flowed or appeared to flow. The disastrous January 5 announcement of wage freezes affected public opinion and government responded with a series of positive announcements to blunt the fall in popular support. The drop in the polls continued up to October when the Premier's war against Ottawa contributed to a dramatic upturn in voter support.

Note, however, that cash announcement in the 25 days of July 2007 already done are already at the same level of 2004 and they are double those of 2005 and almost quadruple those of 2006.

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Not quite the Summer of Love, again, is it?

Nope.

It’s pretty far from the Summer of Love when the provincial government has to start issuing lame news releases in an effort to quiet the discontent growing around the province.

Not the Summer of Love.

Not by a long shot, although the government cash is flowing with the same or greater intensity.

If Danny jumps in the Winnebago again, you’ll know things are bad.

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Summer of Love: Of cliches and rip-offs

Things you can expect to see or hear in Summer of Love.

Phrases:

• "Quite frankly"

• "[Insert name of organization here] receives government funding"
  

• "Lower Churchill"

• "Energy Plan"

• "Big Oil"

• "Energy Powerhouse"

• "Equity"

• "Accountability"

• "Transparency"

• "Danny Williams team"
  

Advertising:

• Grip 'n' grins galore

• A Tory television spot that looks suspiciously like this one.

• Not much of the Love Shack, left, but plenty of the mobile Love Shack marketing gimmick.
  

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Looking beyond normal

labradore wasted no time in converting the numbers from Friday’s editorial in the Telegram into a chart to show the number of money announcements issued by the provincial government in each week in August for the past four years.

The Telegram editorial uses these numbers to refute Premier Kathy Dunderdale’s claim that:

“There’s nothing going on here now that hasn’t gone on every year since we’ve brought down a budget, no matter who formed the government,..”

She made the comment.  They counted the news releases.  Way more, finds the Telegram, so therefore “liar, liar pants on fire.”

Or words to that effect.

In defence of Kathy Dunderdale, there is nothing that her provincial Conservatives did in August 2011 that is different in kind from anything the provincial Conservatives did in any other one of the four polling months each year since 2004..

The fact that there are more money announcements in 2011 is really much ado about nothing.  Sure the whole thing is so outrageous in August 2011 that the local media couldn’t ignore it any more, but other than that this is just another Tory poll-goosing month.

And the fact this is an election year doesn’t really make the Dunderdale version stand out.  Scroll back through the archives list of these e-scribblers for the summer of 2007.

Summer of Love.  On August 18, your humble e-scribbler note that the Tories seemed to be inventing excuses to issue happy-news releases.  25 additional campsites at a provincial park, for example.

Toward the end of July 2007, you’ll find a post about the spate of announcements comparing July to previous Julys:

Note, however, that cash announcement in the 25 days of July 2007 already done are already at the same level of 2004 and they are double those of 2005 and almost quadruple those of 2006.

The post starts off with a quote from Danny Williams that will look awfully familiar:

Flanked by two Progressive Conservative candidates in Bay Roberts, Premier Danny Williams told reporters on Wednesday that what government has been doing over the past couple of weeks is just government "carrying on business."

What really stands out in the Telegram figures is the big jump in 2010 and the larger jump in 2011. Poll goosing and the pre-election impetus – the Telegram’s point – are just penetrating insights into the stunningly obvious. Something else is going on.

It’s the trending that shows up when you look beyond the polls as most people misinterpret them. In May this year, your humble e-scribbler pointed out that the Tory polling numbers have been slipping pretty significantly.

This chart shows CRA polling as a percentage of actual respondents not of “decideds”.  That second hard point from the right shows the results of last August’s jump in cash announcements.  And the reason for it is the slide the quarter before.

But then look what happened over the next three months before Danny Williams left abruptly.

Big slide.

And in the months since then, the Tories have continued to slide downward.

They were at a point in May where losing a raft of seats in October looked like a very real possibility.  As noted around these parts last May, if the trends continued the Tories would be even weaker in August.  The leader numbers could also continue their downward trend to the point where all three party leaders shared the same distinct lack of interest from voters.

So if you were the incumbent party headed into an election with public support apparently weakening,  you’d pretty much be guaranteed to do the only political thing you know how to do:  take as many spending announcements as you can type up and e-mail them out to try desperately to stop the spiral in the polls.

As far as Kathy Dunderdale and her crowd are concerned this is normal.  For the rest of us, though, you have to look a little beyond the obvious to figure out why their “normal”  is even more “normal” than usual.

- srbp -

Summer of Love: MHAs continue gifts of public money

Remember Tom Rideout's dance trying to explain away how he and all his colleagues in the House of Assembly misled the public on when the Green report was taking effect?

Remember his gift of $5000 of public money to a local charity just a few short weeks before Chief Justice Derek Green condemned the practice?

Remember the claim that the Progressive Conservative caucus had taken The Pledge and would not be handing out public money as gifts? It was a big part of the story on how - according to Rideout - today was today but tomorrow was October 9 and not June 15, the day after the Green bill was passed. The old rules can stay in place - even though we suggested something else to you already - because we have promised not to hand out public money as gifts to the public.

Turns out to have been a crock.

The gifts - always labelled "donations" - are just coming from a different pot than the one they used to come from.

Clayton Forsey, the Progressive Conservative MHA for Exploits, shows up in St. Alban's (not in his district) in August and is referred to in the local paper as handing out $500 "on behalf of" none other than Premier Danny Williams.

Then two weeks later, the local paper prints a correction saying that the "donation" - to a local fundraiser for a cancer centre - was actually from the provincial health department. The money came, but it was from the health department. Check the hard copy because Transcon hasn't updated thecoaster.ca for almost a month.

Delivered by Clayton Forsey, mind you and so obviously identified as a partisan. The money didn't come from the minister or even the deputy minister or even the head of the local health authority. Nope it came from visiting Tory back-bencher, like that was a secret.

Since when does any provincial line department give a "donation" to an event such as this in the first place let alone deliver a cheque by such an obviously partisan means?

Good cause, mind you but departments put up the capital to build cancer centres and staff them. They don't make "donations" to local fundraisers, especially through an MHA, Tory now or Liberals before. If the Liberals did it before, then it is no more right than Forsey and whoever of his buddies are doing it these days.

This one needs some investigation by someone. If there's one example, there's like more that never got picked up by the local weekly.

This little story is highly suspicious.

So suspicious in fact that it should get the attention of the Auditor General, not to mention members of the general public who have already been misled on this issue at least once before by members of the House of Assembly.

oh yeah and while we're at it, where did this grand come from? [By mid-day this link turned up dead for some unknown reason. google search "clayton forsey $1000" and it will re-appear. Check the "cached page" for the full story from August 20. if that doesn't work, try this link which seems to be a new page identity for this story.]

Someone should be taking official notice of these goings on. After all, it's not like this is the first time Forsey's been reported handing out public money, even before the Summer of Love officially kicked off.

-srbp-

SOL Day 53: Backdraft!

As Russell Wangersky points out, the provincial government isn't above arranging some photo ops for firefighting equipment that has already been in service all in aid of the Summer of Love 2007 undeclared election campaign.

Of course, it's also time for the quarterly polling by Corporate Research Associates so the photo ops and associated news releases come in extra handy. CRA will report its results around the time the writ for the official campaign is dropped.

If you do the math, you'll find about 84 news releases issued by the provincial government since August 1, along with some 14 media advisories of minister's attending this festival or making that announcement. overall, the releases and advisories are running about the same as last year - they always boost the good news stuff during polling season - but this year the whole little huckster game of goosing the polls seems to be taking an intensity that smacks of desperation.

Like the environment minister opening an additional 25 campsites at Butterpot provincial park on August 14, even though the season opened on the May 24th weekend. That sort of staged event just screams out as a staged political event.

Polling season plus the Summer of Love are also as good an explanation as any for the bizarre events this past week with Danny Williams chastising one of his candidates for doing what all the rest have been doing all along: telling people it's imperative to have their member sitting on the government side. Dennis Normore's only mistake: he finished off the "or else" part of the implicit threat.

The premier obviously felt a bit sheepish about having that sort of target out there in the middle of polling season. The opposition and the media would jump on it quickly, as they did.

Meanwhile, expect that the old chestnut of local politics - the threat of dirt roads, no schools and reversion to the honey wagon unless the district goes for the winning party - will still find its way into this, that, or another political conversation. The candidates making the pitch will just be sure to keep it off the airwaves and off the newspaper pages.

At least, until polling season is over.

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Lono Launches into the Deep

Now when He had left speaking, He said unto Simon: "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught."

And Simon answering said unto Him: "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at Thy word I will let down the net."

And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.

Luke 5: v. 4-6

Provehito in altum.

"Launch forth into the deeps", or in some translations "reach for the heights."

It's the motto of Memorial University which chose the words from Luke to set a goal for students seeking knowledge.

The motto is also an admonition to strive for seemingly unattainable goals, to abandon the comfortable and the secure.

By any translation, that pretty much describes what Simon Lono has decided to do.

Lono announced today that he will be seeking the Liberal nomination in the provincial district of St. John's North in the October 9 general election.

St. John's. Traditionally deep blue Tory country.

Launching into the deeps is nothing knew for the guy who tried for a seat on St. John's city council two years ago n a shoe-string budget and with a call for greater accountability for council and investment in basic municipal infrastructure.

Lono didn't win a seat, but he finished in the middle of a large pack; not bad for an unknown. Dismissed by Mayor Andy Wells as a nitwit who didn't know what he was talking about, Lono was vindicated with the attention Wells and his newly elected council paid to investments in roads, sidewalks and water and sewer projects.

As the author of Offal News, Lono has been taking some shots and offering some insights. When the House of Assembly spending scandal broke open last summer, he spearheaded a call for a public inquiry into the mess.

So far we've been jokingly referring to this pre-election period as the Summer of Love. Well, something says that as of tomorrow, there'll be a few people who will be showing something other than love for candidate Lono.

All their personal attacks will do is show how much a particular crowd are worried Lono will get elected. The louder they howl, the more you know Lono has scored a point.

Here's Lono's news release as he launches once more into the deeps of local politics:

Simon Lono Declares for Liberals in St. John's North

Simon Lono today declared his candidacy for the Liberal Party nomination in the provincial district of St. John's North.

"The people of St. John's North deserve strong, vigorous representation in the House of Assembly," said Lono. "They deserve more than the attitude that St. John's can take the hit in elder care, education and the economy."

This was not a decision taken lightly, Lono said. "It was not an easy choice; I have been thinking about this for a while. I'm running because I'm concerned about the direction the province going."

"The Williams government has neglected important issues and has misplaced priorities," said Lono. "They've taken no action to address the needs of our aging population. In education, they've decided to break up Memorial University without counting the cost to the public purse, the effect on post-secondary education or even if this is the best option for our students.

"As for the economy, we can't be satisfied to accept mere crumbs of information on a project as important to our future as Hebron; we need more information than government has revealed so far, so we can judge for ourselves. Secret deals are not acceptable."

Lono notes that it takes a strong representation to make the difference. "The people of St. John's North have had no voice. We have too many silent, passive members sitting on the government side of the House," he said. "This government has taken St. John's North for granted and it shows."

"Public service has always been important to me, and I know I can contribute energy and new ideas to this province as a member of the House of Assembly working for the people of St. John's North."

-30-

Contact:
Simon Lono
689-0809
Simon@SimonLono.ca

-srbp-

A summer like no other: the labradore analysis

Take a gander at this analysis at labradore of the stunning blizzard of funding announcements from a single ministry in the Williams administration.

More than one third of all releases issued since June 1 have been from a single department and all involve hand-outs of government cash. The traditional ministry of pork – transportation – is in second place with 8% (23 releases).*

Now your humble e-scribbler has another perspective on the Summer of Love, Part Deux in the works, but in the meantime, labradore gives a couple of useful observations:

For two, a whole lot of little funding announcements, of a few thousands to tens of thousands of dollars at most, keeps the public mind dutifully associating Danny Williams-Government with the expenditure of money, in a wide variety of geographic locales, without the sticker shock of using roads, schools, or hospitals to generate happy headlines.

For three, there really isn’t anything of substance going on inside Danny Williams-Government that can be used to keep the flow of Happy News flowing in a pre-pre-election summer. Anything big and important that can be delayed until calendar year 2011, will be. That leaves the smaller stuff.

There will be plenty more small stuff next year - don’t be so foolish – but both those points are dead on the money. It is a perpetual campaign in Newfoundland and Labrador.  The politics never stops. Only the naive and Danny-lovers would have you believe otherwise.

- srbp -

*  Corrects from typo in original.

Full of sound and fury

Public consultations on a strategy for “the inclusion of persons with disabilities” in society.

In the 21st century.

A strategy to include people with disabilities in society.

Another consultation to develop a strategy for early childhood education.

Novel idea.

41 cash announcements in the month of August alone, according to the Telegram editorial, a great many of which involved the announcement – yet again -  of earlier announcements.  In some others, announcements include money for new food carts in hospitals and nursing homes.

Announcement of a plan to install a new set of road scales in Labrador.

A gaggle of ministers and government members of the legislature visit a shipyard to look at construction of new ferries that have been in the works for most of the current administration’s tenure.

And then there’s the study of garbage.

This is a provincial government that talks more and more about less and less.

The reason is simple enough:  we are in a pre-election/pre-leadership period. We know that, all things being equal, there is an election in October 2011.  We also  know that Danny Williams will leave politics sometime over the next two to three years.

Now governments in either of those phases alone aren’t famous for doing much of anything new. Pre-election governments like to spend cash, as everyone in the province saw in 2007’s Summer of Love vote-buying orgy from the Reform-based Conservative Party currently running the local show.  Pre-leadership governments usually get caught up in the internal division as people jockey for position in the party leadership race.  And since they can’t get any agreement on any major initiative until someone winds up as leader, there is nothing knew likely to happen until the leadership issue is resolved. Well, nothing that is except spend money,

Governments in the double-whammy of pre-election and pre-leadership are rare.  But what they do is guarantee a unique kind of lowest-common-denominator politics.  Money is everywhere for everything.  In addition to that, you have the raft of consultations on things that are the sort motherhood issues not likely to raise controversy.  Inclusion?  Early childhood education?  These are hardly debatable subjects.

Even John Hickey  - seldom heard from any more - is getting in on the act. He’s got an information session scheduled for Churchill Falls.  Apparently there is something about the Northern Strategic Plan they haven’t heard yet.

You can tell these things are busy work, by the way.  First of all, there is that word strategy.  This is nothing more than the latest government cliche.  Second there is the schedule.  A good half of the consultations on childhood education take place in the afternoon, a time when the people most likely to be concerned about the subject are working.  As the video of the session from Mount Pearl showed, the room was nearly empty and two of those in the audience were cabinet minister Dave Denine and his executive assistant.

Added to this whirligig of deep thoughts are the early stages of a leadership racket.  Until lately, cabinet ministers seldom showed up to talk about anything substantial with anyone. Danny and Liz wouldn’t let them. But now education minister Darin King is on any radio station with a phone to discuss his early childhood education initiative.  Health minister Jerome! Kennedy is the face of health care spending.  Note the number of news stories about multiple sclerosis that described government spending as something Jerome! himself was doing personally.

Personally is the clue.  Cabinet government is normally collective government.  Sure there is a powerful front man, but cabinets wind up being committees that share the load of deciding on this problem or that one. Except of course, in the Danny Williams administration. It’s only natural that those who wish to replace The Old Man should work hard to be seen as the one person with an idea.

And while all of this consulting, and announcing and news conferencing is going on in public, not much else is happening.  No discussions about labour relations.  No talk about reforms to economic development policy, the fishery, a strategy to address problems in the labour force or anything else that might actually involve some serious discussion and tough choices that everyone in the province has a right to be involved in.

No.

That’s the sort of stuff that will have to wait until after the next election and Danny’s successor is firmly in place. Meanwhile, the people in government no one has heard much of in a while are busily sorting out the budget for 2011. 

That’s right. 

We are now half way through 2010 and it is usually around this time that government officials try and figure out what next year will look like.  For the past seven years that’s been pretty much Danny’s exclusive responsibility and odds are that’s where he’s been holed up lately.  He’ll work hard into the winter and make the big decisions well before sending old Tommy Marshall out for that biggest consultation farce, the one on the budget.

While the Old Man works quietly in the background on the stuff that involves real choices, government officials are wondering if you think that in 2010 we should find ways to allow people with disabilities to become fully contributing members of our society.

The busy-work will continue.  The number of news releases and consultations will only multiply as time goes by. It’s all part of an effort to make it seem like stuff is happening when, in truth, not much of consequence is. But it will certainly seem important, as only a Fernando Administration would allow. It is better, after all,  to look busy than to be busy.

And lest you doubt all this consider that coming soon to a motel meeting room or bingo hall near you, is a round table on that burning question on the minds of fish plant workers, and foresters and soccer moms everywhere -  puppy dogs: cute or what?

- srbp -

“Old money” from Williams cabinet called “stimulus”

Danny Williams may not like it when federal cabinet ministers recycle announcements, but of  the 52 specific projects listed in the provincial government “economic stimulus” update news release issued on Thursday, almost half - 21 projects - were already announced, some as long ago as 2005. 

Some of the recycled old news slipped out earlier but the announcement on Thursday made the whole thing plain.

The Corner Brook long-term care facility project listed among the stimulus projects has been underway since March 2005. The Corner Brook court house, health facilities in Lewisporte and Labrador west  and renovations to the James Paton hospital in Gander date back to March 2006.

Many of those in the “old news” category were announced in 2007 in the Summer of Love spending commitment frenzy leading up to the last provincial general election. 

One project - the St. Alban’s aquaculture veterinary facility  - was announced in 2007 with a commitment the place would open in 2009.  Instead, the project has just been tendered.

There’s more to it than just the inclusion of old announcements that predate the ‘stimulus’ news conference pulled together as part of the February poll-goosing frenzy; some of the projects seem to include contributions of federal money as if the whole thing was provincial government spending.

The Torbay and CBS by-pass roads, for example, were announced in 2007 and 2008 respectively.  They’re cost-shared 50/50 with the federal government but the provincial news release shows the total cost without indicating it is only ponying up half the total. 

And while the Premier may sneer when his federal cousins announce announcements previously announced, that didn’t stop his own team from discussing projects, some of which have been included in as many as seven separate government news releases.

They are:

College of the North Atlantic campus, Labrador West:

• One
• Two
• Three
• Four
• Five

Francophone school, HVGB:

• Un
• Deux
• Trois
• Quatre
• Cinq
• Six
• Sept

Port Hope Simpson school:

•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/exec/0420n04.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/exec/0420n04bk1.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/edu/0426n11.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/edu/0429n08.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/edu/0725n10.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/edu/1121n02.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/edu/0904n05.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/laa/1120n04.htm

L’Anse au Loup:

•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/laa/0129n05.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/edu/0426n11.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/edu/0619n08.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/edu/0725n10.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/edu/1121n02.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/edu/0429n08.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/edu/0904n05.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/laa/1120n04.htm

Labrador West hospital:

•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2006/exec/0313n02.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2006/laa/0330n014.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/tw/0212n05.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/exec/0420n04bk2.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/health/0426n14.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/health/0429n04.htm
•  www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2008/nr/0905n13.htm

Here’s the list of the 21 Old Announcements from the “stimulus” update:

• Corner Brook long-term care facility:  October 26, 2005
• Corner Brook court house:  March 2006
• Colonial Building redevelopment:  started before November 2006.
• Labrador west health centre:  March 13 2006
• Two new ferries:  2007
• College of the North Atlantic, Labrador West:  March 13, 2006
• Francophone school, Happy Valley-Goose Bay: April 2007
• New school for Port Hope Simpson:  April 2007
• New school, L'Anse au Loup:  January 2007
• St. Alban’s aquaculture veterinary facility:  Budget 2007
• New schools in Paradise:  August 2007
• CBS By-pass road:   January 2008, cost shared 50-50 with the federal government
• Torbay by-pass:  May 2007, cost shared 50-50 with the federal government
• Happy Valley Goose Bay long term care facility:  June 2007
• Hoyles Escasoni complex replacement:  October 2008
• Renovations to James Paton hospital, Gander:  March 2006.
• Lewisporte long term care facility:  March 2006
• New K-6 school for Torbay:  Summer 2007.
• New K-12 school in Baie Verte, Summer 2007.
• St Anthony School, Summer 2007
• Port Saunders School, Summer 2007

-srbp-

 

 

 

 

The deep roots remain

Harvey Hodder is the outgoing speaker of the House of Assembly.

His comments on the House spending scandal on Monday make plain that the people who endorsed, condoned, approved of and participated in the excesses simply do not appreciate that what they were engaged in was ethically wrong.

"Some members, myself included, paid some of my constituency expenses out of my own pocket so I would have more money to give to the school breakfast program ... I don't apologize for that," Hodder told a news conference at the legislature, saying the donations were the actions of "sensitive, outreaching, loving people."

"It is regrettable that there are hungry children in this province, in my former constituency, who could've benefited from some of that money."

As much as Hodder crowed about the new rules and the new standards, his own self-serving defence of inappropriately directing public money as cash gifts to individuals and organizations goes a long way to explain how the old system - which had rules - was systematically dismantled by the members of the legislature themselves.  Far from being a star chamber, the old House management committee comprised the senior leadership of the legislature, including successive Speakers.

If there was criminal activity, they did not know of it.  But they knew and condoned the excessive, and inappropriate, spending.  The allowances and assistance budget of the legislature was overspent by almost $1.0 million in the first two years of Hodder's tenure as Speaker. He and his colleagues knew that. They knew of the "donations" system and, as Chief Justice Green revealed, they overwhelmingly endorsed it. Newfoundland and Labrador was the only jurisdiction in North America and certainly the only one in Canada where elected officials had access to what amounted to a slush fund to dispose of as they saw fit.

The members of the legislature directed public money to whatever group or organization or individual they alone deemed worthy. They did so out of the public eye. They gave not a moment's thought - as Hodder makes plain - that the recipients of the legislator's largesse with public money were very often groups that received funding from the provincial government through established programs that were far more fairly and transparently administered than the legislature's scheme. 

As the school lunch association's annual report noted in 2003-04 (the last year available on line) "[e]ach year the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador contributes $75,000 to the program." The members of the legislature had it within their considerable power to increase funding through proper channels if there actually were "hungry children."  They had the ability to fund health care transportation or volunteer fire departments properly.  Instead, they elected to keep a fund available to themselves to hand out personally and largely secretly. If there are indeed hungry children in Hodder's district since the donations scheme was exposed, then that is because Hodder and his colleagues failed utterly to discharge their considerable responsibilities appropriately.

Hodder's staunch defence of inappropriate actions - even as he introduced new rules designed to undo the old scheme - should give every single voter in Newfoundland and Labrador considerable concern. While Hodder will soon be gone, his colleagues from all parties who participated in and enthusiastically endorsed the donations scheme have been re-elected.  Beth Marshall - the former auditor general - is even more strident than Hodder in her defence of of the inappropriate spending. There is no sign the re-elected legislators have changed their minds on what is appropriate and what is not, when it comes to spending public money any more than Harvey Hodder has.

And as the summer of pre-campaign love demonstrated, some politicians were quite willing to use public money for donations and to do so in a partisan fashion.

The roots of the House spending scandal are far deeper than most have been prepared to acknowledge.  The roots  - the very deep roots  - obviously remain.  Perhaps the new rules will starve them.  The people of the province can only hope the roots will rot.

Voters in the province would be justified in keeping a very close eye to make sure that, rather than starve the weeds, the politicians might find a way to nurture them to bloom in a new pot of public money.  Politicians who can see nothing in wrong in what they did, re-elected with what they may take an as overwhelming public endorsement of their actions, might find a way to bring back the old scheme in a new place.

As Harvey Hodder demonstrates - indeed as virtually all the old hands have demonstrated - self-serving rationalizations are never far from their lips.

-srbp-

Our plastic history revisited

One of the earliest posts among these e-scribbles dealt with a proposal – in 2005 – to rework the Colonial Building. 

The plan was to fix the place up, set up some displays to “interpret” some parts of the province’s political history for visitors and turn the rest of the building into offices.

The plan is striking for its ability to reduce the significance of our historic seat of government to yet another mouldering artifact of the past. The language of this discussion paper is sterile: "The Colonial Building is one of the most significant heritage properties in Newfoundland and Labrador." It is said to have heritage character-defining elements.

The plan is also striking since a committee of government-appointed experts from government and the local arts, cultural and heritage associations has determined the fate of the building, now vacant with the absorption of the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador into the bland collective known simply as The Rooms.

The Colonial Building is to be restored in some fashion and turned into offices for arts, cultural and heritage organizations in the province. There will be the obligatory charade of "stakeholder consultations", but the Colonial Building will continue to be what it has been since 1959 - home to yet another group of technocrats.

In 2005, the whole thing was supposed to cost a little over $3.0 million, with the bulk of that going to restoring the building.

The original post raised a few hackles on someone involved in the whole plan.  He fired off some odd e-mails.

And then the whole plan vanished off the face of the Earth.

Like so many plans, strategies and other Great Initiatives of the current crowd what is running this place, people just stopped talking about it.

Stopped talking about it, that is, until the last day of announcements in the Summer of Love 2011 Great Orgy of Spending Announcements by the provincial Conservatives. These announcements have absolutely nothing to do with the pending election or the fact that the provincial government’s pollster is in the field this month.

Premier Kathy Dunderdale and federal intergovernmental affairs minister Peter Penashue pulled off a mega-announcement in St. John’s of federal and provincial cash totalling more than $60 million for three projects. 

The two governments will get together with the City of St. John’s to drop $45 million into expanding the St. John’s Convention centre.

Another chunk of cash will go to turning an old industrial site in Paradise into a municipal park paradise sort of thing.

And the balance will go to the Colonial Building project.

There’s no dollar value on the Colonial Building project in the official news release, but odds are it is considerably more than the $3.0 million the whole thing was supposed to cost six years ago.*

Our plastic history, inordinate delays and massive cost overruns.

Plus ca change.

- srbp -

Holy Frack Update:  According to the Telegram:

Premier Kathy Dunderdale also announced $8.6 million from the province (to be matched by the federal government) to complete the restoration and modernization of the historic Colonial Building, which used to house the provincial legislature and archives. That funding will be added to $4.4 million previously committed by the province and $625,000 from the federal government.

Clicking and clacking the old calculator gives us $22.225 million.

That would be seven and a half times the projected cost for the whole she-bang in 2005.

SOL Day 29: The Zombies - "Who's your Daddy?"

Tom Rideout may be tripping out, not knowing what day it is but Danny Williams' mobile campaign platform rolled into Bay Roberts today to dispense some direct lovin' on the people of Conception Bay North.

Flanked by two blank-looking Tory candidates - they being unelected at this point - Williams told reporters that having ministers and members of the Tory caucus handing out cheques was just part of the business of government.

Business of government.

Accompanied by two unelected candidates in the election campaign that hasn't been called yet, but everyone knows is under way because Danny arrived in the Winnebago.

Riiiight.

Maybe it's time to unveil the Tories campaign theme song. From the original Summer of Love, 1967, it's the Zombies with their hit "Time of the Season".



Somehow it seems to sum up the entire business.

Now all we have to do is put the appropriate name on Danny's rolling campaign palace, which, incidentally is heading to Twillingate for the annual Fish, Fun and Folk festival.

Yes.

Danny Williams is the Premier, and the announcement came from the government news service but bet your bottom dollar Williams will be travelling in the Winnebago festooned with PC party logos.

You see, it is just the Summer of Love gettin' into full heat!

Who's your Daddy, indeed?

-srbp-

The ferry tale of New Ferrole

Not exactly destined to be a Christmas classic but a tale that is nonetheless as misshapen as the dental work of any Pogue’s front man.

The Telegram reported on Saturday that the provincial government’s ferry building program is behind schedule with more delays expected. One new ship is expected later this year with another to follow next year.  More will come along after that.

Transportation minister Tom Hedderson didn’t have any explanations to offer for the delay:

"It's a catch-up game, and we understand that," Hedderson said in an interview.

"But the significant dollars that we've put in are making significant differences. We plan - and not always can we stick to the timeline - but we have made the commitment, and the money. It is going as fast as (it) can, given the circumstances."

He never said what the circumstances were just that they were there. Hedderson was, however, fulsome in his self-praise:

"Obviously, very simply, we've taken the bull by the horns," Hedderson said.

"It's not an easy task, especially when the shipbuilding industry had not been developed over the years as well."

These sorts of delays are now par for the course in the Williams administration.  capital works projects and legislation routinely take years from the date they are announced. Cost over-runs mount at the same time for many of the capital projects.

The Telegram doesn’t really give a full accounting of the delays in the ferry work.  Nonetheless, it is worthwhile to take a look at just exactly how long this construction work has been in the works.  After all, Hedderson told the Telegram the vessel replacements might not be finished for another decade.

September 30, 2005: transportation and works minister Tom Rideout said that government was thoroughly examining options for building vessels in this province. Minister Rideout said, “My department is analyzing opportunities to build vessels in this province in terms of net economic benefits to the province, including job creation and economic development.”

February 16, 2007:   Transportation and works minister John Hickey,  said "Our plan to build these two new ferries is the first stage of our Vessel Replacement Strategy," At the time, Government anticipates the total cost of the two ferries will be approximately $25 million 

November 15, 2007:  The provincial government announced that Clarenville and Marystown Shipyards were to bid on ferry construction. Transportation and works minister Diane Whelan said that Clarenville Drydock Limited and Peter Kiewit and Sons of Marystown had been invited to submit bids on construction of two new provincial ferry vessels. 

June 10, 2008:  The provincial government awarded a $50.5 million contract to for the ferries.  Peter Kiewit got the contract with a guarantee that 25% of the sub-contract work would go to Clarenville.  The release refers to design work for a possible fourth ferry of the same size in addition to the three contemplated.

The Southern Gazette reported that work on the ferries was expected to begin immediately, with the first ferry due to be delivered by the end of next year (2009) and the second in the spring of 2010, notwithstanding any unforeseen delays.

December 17, 2008: Transportation and works minister Trevor Taylor told the House of Assembly:

Mr. Speaker, the member is correct, we did make an announcement back earlier this year on construction of two new ferries in – basically led in Marystown but part in Clarenville.

Mr. Speaker, discussions with Peter Kiewit and Sons have been proceeding. As the member may know, the construction of these two ferries is basically a design-build approach, where approximately 70 per cent of design has been done. The testing on the hull and what have you was done at the Centre for Ocean Dynamics, or the Centre for Marine Dynamics over at back of MUN.

Basically, where we are right now – actually, just earlier this morning there was a meeting between officials of the department and representatives from the Marystown Dockyard. Mr. Speaker, it is moving along. I hope that in the very near future we will be able to begin construction. There are some relatively minor, I would hope, matters around the design of the vessel and the performance of the vessel that Peter Kiewit and Sons have to commit to. When we sign off on the vessel, we want them to guarantee us that the ship is going to float and that the ship is going to perform and have the appropriate sea keeping as was required and that is what we are –

…

I can tell the member and the House that the propulsion systems for both ships have already been bought. They are here in a warehouse in St. John’s right now. As for cost overruns, Mr. Speaker, given the current state of the world economy and the declining demand for steel and cooper and everything else that you would be required to put into a ship, we would not expect any cost overruns. If anything, Mr. Speaker, our indication to Peter Kiewit & Sons is that we would probably see a decline in some of this stuff.

February 26, 2009: The Packet reported the Clarenville shipyard had pulled out of the ferry construction project for unexplained reasons.

June 10, 2010:  With two ferries delayed, the third not begun and fourth in the design stages, the provincial government announces calls for expressions of interest in designing six new ferries.  Note that, as part of the Summer of Love 2007 election campaign, the Williams administration made a large number of capital works announcements that didn’t happen for two to three years.

- srbp -

Poll goosing: Can you say fire truck?

There are two bits of humour in the same post.

The first is this video of a child having some interesting trouble saying the words fire and truck together. 

It’s a wee bit predictable but still funny and cute.

Also predictable, funny and cute is the fact that the provincial government likes to announce and deliver fire trucks in a particular season of the year that just coincidentally is also the time the official provincial government pollster is on the go collecting his latest data for a government-sponsored poll.

Since 2007, the provincial government has consistently started announcing fire trucks with the bulk of the announcements coming just before and during Government Polling period.

July 11, 2007:  $108,000 dropped on the association representing firefighters.  Don’t forget that was also part of the pre-election Summer of Love spending frenzy.

August 9, 2007:  Government pollster Corporate Research Associates starts collecting data.

August 16, 2007:  A new fire truck for Conception Bay South,  “presented” by municipal affairs minister Jack Byrne with incumbents/candidates Terry French and Beth Marshall in tow.

August 16, 2007:  A news release listing off $1.7 million in emergency services spending, including a list of nine new fire trucks and other emergency vehicles for communities across the province.

August 17, 2007:  As if the announcement of the presentation on the 16th wasn’t enough, there’s a second news release on the fire truck in CBS. It includes three photos of people posing with the fire truck.

August 31, 2007:  CRA stops polling.

Other than one lone fire truck presentation in October, there’s no other fire truck activity in 2007.  By the way, that one in October was the presentation of a truck included in the August 16 release and it was presented in a town in the minister’s district.  He didn’t “present” any other trucks, at least with a news release going with it.

Skip ahead one year and you will find the next Fire Truck Season that – just by coincidence  - matches up to Government Polling Season.

July 15, 2008:  $130,000 in government cash for the firefighters association.

July 25, 2008:  New fire trucks for Badger and Whitbourne.

August 5, 2008:  New fire truck for St. Anthony

August 7, 2008:  New fire truck for Irishtown-Summerside.

Government pollster CRA polled from August 12 to 30, 2008.

There were three more vehicle presentations extending into October last year. Of course by the time the last one was done, the government pollster was getting ready to go back to the field in November for the last poll goosing foray of the year in November.  Lo and behold there was even the announcement of a new fire hall in that month, as well. 

Fire and polls really do go together.

The pattern has continued in 2009.

An announcement in January – covering a raft of new fire trucks -  in advance of the February poll goosing season and with plenty of time for the weekly newspapers to cover the stories.  Even more funding for the firefighters association in July 2009 and of course the August announcement. CRA’s been in the field since last week.

Now some of you might protest that these announcements don’t match up with polling time.

But if you think that you might be forgetting what no less an authority than the Premier himself said about the whole idea of poll-stacking when he was asked about it last year.   If he was going to poll goose, he’d be out there a week or two before polling started.

Oh, he knew exactly when CRA started polling, by the way.  Not exactly the sort of information you’d expect a busy Premier to have at his finger-tips.

Well, not unless he needed to be aware of it for some reason.

-srbp-

James McLeod’s Three Questions #nlpoli

On his Telegram blog post on Monday, James McLeod posed three questions about the Muskrat Falls debate.

Let’s answer them.

Summer Polling Month Top 10

The weather may have been da pits but this was the sweatiest Summer of Love pre-election poll goosing month in recent Conservative Party history.

And if it wasn’t the steam coming off the overheated Tory news torquing machine it was the sweating in Liberal circles as one leader left and another arrived.

Along the way, the province got its first story where the reporter admitted he “broke” the story from a bar stool. 

Not surprisingly, that story wound up inspiring what became the top post here at Ye Olde Scribble Pile for the month of August.

Very much a surprise was the number two story. It is the tags “Soper Inquiry”, a series of posts that contain the first report by Judge Lloyd Soper in his 1979 inquiry into the leak of police reports into a fire at Elizabeth Towers.

One of the leading figures* in the inquiry – and the leaks – has a new book out, incidentally.  No word on whether he is offering Lysianne Gagnon a cut of the sales given that one of the columns in it seems curiously similar to Gagnon’s column on the first volume of a biography of Pierre Trudeau.  Your humble e-scribbler point out the similarities in 2006 in another post that was popular at the time.

Another surprise is the third place story for the month.  As part of the changed layout, your humble e-scribbler crated a page about the blog itself.  A lot of people found that interesting.

The rest of the top posts are predictable bag of political stuff from the Liberal leadership to Muskrat Falls.

1. If Rick Hillier really runs for the Liberal leadership…
2. Soper Inquiry
3. About SRBP
4. Sun TV/Fox News wannabe?  VOCM hits new low
5. NDP avoids straight answer on Muskrat Falls
6. The continued taberization of political reporting in Canada
7. Westcott packs it in
8. Changing the game
9. Court docket now online
10. Bloc NDP MP backs Tory Premier Dunderdale

- srbp -

*Add word eaten by wonky Microsoft software

His own private Gene Krupa

Oram says there are a lot of companies inquiring about the potential to do business here, especially with the economy booming as it is now.

The Oram in this quotation from the Great Oracle of the Valley would be the disciple Paul Oram, minister of business.

Look at his news release pile and that of his predecessor and we might conclude he is the "minister-of-traveling-around-giving-speeches-to-anyone-who-will-listen", but that's another issue.

Now back to the quote.

The Quote.

Now presumably the G.O.V. got the quote right and Paul actually did say that the economy is booming right now. And presumably he was talking about the economy in this province, it being the economy which a business minister in this province would be concerned about.

'Cause if he did say the economy is booming,  you got to wonder if the disciples talk among themselves.

The disciple Tom delivered his budget earlier this year with predictions for economic growth across the province that were not booming. Indeed no economic oracle  - public sector or private - has been predicting a booming economy in Newfoundland and Labrador since at least the Summer of Love last year.

In fact, they aren't predicting a booming economy next year, either.

And even if all that weren't true, we need only look to last week's provincial forecast issued by RBC Economics. 

They issue these things quarterly and Bond Papers has posted more than a few from the major banks. Here's the RBC one from June 25 2007.

The forecast for Newfoundland and Labrador and it has been consisten since last year - is for the province to go from leading the country in growth to trailing badly.  They've refined their forecast of "trailing" to say that the economy will grow at the blistering pace of point two percent.

That's two tenths of one percent for those weaned on the New Math.

That is so perilously close to a recession that a breath in the wrong place would push it over.

That is so not a "boom".

Take a look at the forecast for next year.  Run your eye across the line in the pdf linked above.  Run your finger if you have to and move your lips to read the words.  That's what your humble e-scribbler had to do just to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.

Even if you have to move your finger so slowly people would think you were dead or asleep,  there's no way you'd describe the next two years in the provincial economy as a "boom".

Growth in employment?  Two per cent this year versus one half of one per cent next year.

Housing starts?  Two thousand  - that's it two friggin' thousand versus the double digits - like in the 30, 40s and 50 thousands in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and Bee Cee.

Even in Saskatchewan they'll have double Newfoundland's starts next year.

Manitoba?  Poor Equalization-receiving Manitoba? 

New Brunswick?  The benighted crowd up the Saint John river?

Both are forecast to see more than twice as many housing starts as "booming" Newfoundland.

Retail sales?  From a growth of 8.9% in 2007 and an anticipated growth of 6% in 2008, RBC says that  there'll be just 2% growth next year.

There is no an indicator in that pile that says "boom", unless we are talking about last year.

The disciple Paul must be dancing to his own drummer, to borrow a phrase.  That's the only way to explain the comments which are, at least, somewhat inconsistent with the facts.

In fact, Paul Oram's comments are so far removed from reality that he must have his own private drum kit pounding away with skins pounded by no less a drummer than the ghost of the long-late Gene Krupa or maybe  Buddy Rich in the middle of a seizure of some kind.

If Paul has a pile of  prospective projects on his desk - at last count, the disciple Kevin was scanning 60 of the things when he went off to look after issuing permits and licenses - or even just a list of companies that are looking to come here and set up shop, perhaps Paul'd be good enough to give us a list of them.

Let us see the reason for his optimism.

He can just pass them along to the Great Oracle of the Valley and they'll get the word out.

Otherwise, we'll just consider that his latest word is as good as his description of the economy as "booming".

-srbp-