Not surprisingly, Darin King has decided to leave politics after only eight years.
King is just the latest in a long line of pensionable Conservatives who have decided it would be better to quit politics now with a fat pension rather than risk sitting on the opposition benches for a few years.
If he is remembered at all, King will stand out among his colleagues in the current Conservative administration for two reasons.
Starting last Friday, the ironically-named Conservatives currently running the place started holding a series of “pre-budget” announcements.
They started with news that to deal with the massive financial crisis they would be dumping 77 and a half teaching positions in the provincial school system. About twice that many would retire, so the school boards in the province would only hire enough teachers to fill half the empty slots. To make that fit with the declining student enrolment, the school boards would adjust the allowed class sizes by one student per teacher for grades 4 to 6 and by two students per teacher for grades 7 to 9.
Other than that, no change in staffing.
On Monday, the finance minister announced that the massive financial problem the government is facing led the government to cut the public service by zero real people.
In addition to the $17 million in public cash announced in 2011, the provincial government has given an additional undisclosed amount of public money from several departments to a company trying to re- open a fluorspar mine on the Burin Peninsula.
Justice minister Darin King made that apparently unwitting disclosure in answer to questions in the House of Assembly from Liberal leader Dwight Ball. King was answering a follow-up question from Ball on the $17 million. He’d originally posed questions that fisheries minister Keith Hutchings answered. Hutchings said the company had drawn down $300,000 of the public money. When Ball asked King to clear up the obvious discrepancy, King said emphatically:
I said zero of the $17 million has been drawn down because it is targeted toward the wharf project. There are other sources of funding from Natural Resources and other departments where the company has availed of to move the project forward. The $17 million was targeted specifically to that particular project. [Emphasis added]
On the face of it, anyone even passingly familiar with political events in Newfoundland and Labrador for the past decade would look with some justifiable scepticism on an announcement from justice minister Darin King on Monday that the provincial government was going to have another look at building a new provincial prison to replace one built in 1859.
After all, this project has been on the go for a lot longer than 2008, the year mentioned in the news release. The current crowd running the place have been trying to get the federal government to pay for the prison pretty much since they took office.
The favoured location for the new prison for most of past decade has been Harbour Grace. That’s in the district recently vacated by Jerome Kennedy.
There’s another reason to be on your guard with this announcement.
Nice to be wrong Update (7:50 AM): Telegram. Top of Page 4. Canadian Press story on Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter’s lack of concern about the Nova Scotia opposition to Muskrat Falls and the Maritime link.The Norwegian Model: Norwegian energy giant Statoil announced this week that was reconsidering a major offshore project in part because of changes to Norwegian tax rules.
"In addition, the Norwegian government has recently proposed reduced uplift in the petroleum tax system, which reduces the attractiveness of future projects, particularly marginal fields and fields which require new infrastructure. This has made it necessary to review the Johan Castberg project," says Øystein Michelsen, Statoil's executive vice president for development and production in Norway.The Norwegian government is a majority shareholder in Statoil. Norway manages its state-owned companies like all others, though, subjecting them to the same laws as private sector corporations.
When did the companies involved in the Hebron project sanction it?
Anyone?
Don’t google it.
When did ExxonMobil and all those companies give the project team the green-light to start building the gravity base and all the others bits that will lead to oil production on the fourth field offshore Newfoundland and Labrador?
Sanction.
The green light.
No?
A couple of the exceedingly small changes in the recent cabinet shuffle came out of the Bill 29 fiasco. Felix Collins went from the relatively low profile job of justice minister to the complete obscurity of intergovernmental affairs.
Everyone saw that.
And over in another corner, there was a switcheroo people didn’t notice quite as much. Jerome Kennedy gave up the job of directing Government business in the House so that Darin King could take over.
There was no doubt Jerome had completely frigged up in the House, just like there’s no doubt the Tories are way down in the polls. The two went hand in hand all last session and indeed, for most of the last year or more.
Darin King offers no chance of changing that.
On Friday, the Telegram’s Brian Jones takes issue with fisheries minister Darin King:
Fisheries Minister Darin King’s tantrum this week against the Fish, Food and Allied Workers’ (FFAW) union is the latest example of this government’s extremely bad behaviour.
Jones warns of the dangers of contradicting the current administration:
These days, suggesting differently will entail not only a public lashing by the minister in charge, but a pulling of government funding.
What’s particularly fascinating is that Jones’ column treats King’s comments and the implications of them as if they had not been the way the Conservatives have ruled the province since 2003.
All that has happened is that Williams’ pigheadedness (and that isn’t entirely a criticism) and short temper has been replaced with an utter and thorough contempt.
Yes, Brian, Danny never continually displayed utter and thorough contempt for anyone who disagreed with him, for the provincial legislature, for free speech, openness, transparency and accountability, other people’s accomplishments, the facts…you get the idea.
Darin is punitive, vindictive, callously petty, or authoritarian according to Jones.
Danny was just pigheaded.
Potato, potato..
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The basic problem in the fishery is that the provincial fisheries minister has too much control over the industry and - inevitably - tends to use it all for political purposes rather than for the good of the industry.
So fisheries minister Darin King’s answer to the current mess in the industry is to go looking for more power for the fisheries minister.
Nothing good can come of that.
Nothing.
But it also shows just how fundamentally screwed up things are.
Oh yes, and you can’t slide a sheet of paper between the parties on their fisheries policy. King’s latest idea is straight out of the same worn-out playbook the provincial Liberals pushed in the last election. And it’s the same as the bullshit the NDP is pushing with their claim that the problem is corporate greed.
Damn fool ideas from the lot of them.
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From deep inside the Conservative bunker this past couple of weeks have come one consistent set of stories.
Someone doesn’t want to have a leadership contest. Whether it is the pressures of time on the party or fear of opening up internal divisions that just won’t heal, Conservative back-room boys have been trying to engineer a coronation.
Until Wednesday, those were just stories.
Then events started to unfold.
A couple of weeks ago, Darin King said he would take the time over Christmas to discuss his political future with family and friends. Christmas must have come early.
"My children are not that old — my son's in grade 11, my daughter's in grade 7 — my wife is a full time professional and I'm sure people would appreciate, its very taxing on the family, just time alone that you're away from home," said King.
"To consider taking on another challenge such as this at this point and time for me, it was our conclusion, that it's not in the best interest for us collectively as a family." [via CBC]
Reporters heard about King’s media scrum from a strange source: Jerome Kennedy. After announcing he was bowing out of the race because he had two teenage children, Kennedy told reporters that King would be along later with an announcement of his won.
And to confirm that the fix was in, both endorsed Kathy Dunderdale as the leader of the province’s Conservatives. By default, she gets to remain as Premier.
Now a young family or other unspecified family pressures are usually a genuine explanation of why someone leaves cabinet or even leaves politics altogether. But these aren’t young families. Both men have teenage children and they got into politics when their children were much younger – that’s the time when a young and needy family would be the reason for someone to stay out of politics.
Wednesday’s announcement by Kennedy and King sounds like someone who quits a job to spend more time with the kids and then goes after another job that would have him spend less time with the family. As a story, it just doesn’t hang together.
The stories about a back-room deal only grew stronger as time went by. If the latest whisperings are true, the back-room manoeuvres involved none other than Danny Williams Hisself. Williams was the only one who could contain the ambitions of so many for so long. And as it seems now Williams may have been the one who could convince the ambitious to bide their time a while longer.
There’s no question, though, that someone is working behind the scenes to manoeuvre everyone into a certain position. There might be a few more minor shoes to drop – maybe some staff changes in Kathy’s suite - but Darin King and Jerome Kennedy made it clear on Wednesday that the fix is in: it will be Premier Dunderdale leading the Conservatives into the election, whenever it comes.
How long the fix lasts, though, is another question.
Oh…
Just coincidentally, you might have noticed some changes to the government online phone directory lately. Right at the end of the listings for the Premier’s Office is an interesting entry:
Danny Williams is still listed in the office. He holds the position of “Premier Dunderdale”.
Makes you wonder.
According to education minister Darin King, employees at College of the North Atlantic in Qatar will see their contracts honoured, as it would appear, with the mistaken salary numbers in them.
"It's not their issue or their fault as to why the college made an error and entered into an agreement that they ought not to have. So we'll honour the contracts," King said.
But reports from Qatar quote the College president there - Enid Strickland - as saying:
She said new contracts with the correct salaries were signed at a meeting with the staff yesterday.
“This only affects a limited number of faculty members and some support staff,” said Strickland, adding “and now we have discussed the situation with them and signed their new contracts, everyone is fine.”
So when King said that contracts would be honoured, did he mean the old contracts or the new ones signed apparently on Wednesday, two days after King said what sure looks like the old contracts that existed at the time would be honoured?
To anyone else it sure looks like a case of two completely different stories.
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h/t to comments by One Woman on another post in the ongoing Qatar story.
Fortunately for the employees of College of the North Atlantic – Qatar campus - education minister Darin King always says exactly what he means:
"It's not their issue or their fault as to why the college made an error and entered into an agreement that they ought not to have. So we'll honour the contracts," King said.
Well, no. Apparently, the minister doesn’t have enough information yet to determine what happened. As a result, it’s too soon to know if the money will be written off.
Unfortunately for those employees, Darin King said exactly what he meant on Thursday, too:
I could easily do, Mr. Speaker, what the Leader of the NDP wanted me to do three or four days ago; washed my hands of it, abdicate my responsibility, walk away, pretend it never happened, write-off the $5 million and perhaps do as my colleague the Minister of Tourism would say, add it to the NDP debt clock. I could have done that or I could have done what the Leader of the Liberal Party asked me to do which was the complete opposite.
Well, Mr. Speaker, we are taking a responsible action here and when we determine what exactly has transpired here, and when we determine the appropriate actions that need to be taken; we will take them. Until such a time as we have the information to draw the appropriate conclusions; I am not prepared to stand here and speculate for a bit of political posturing on the other side of the House. [Emphasis added]
Fortunately, Darin says they can keep their current contracts, and the pay along with it, until they renegotiate or leave their current position whichever comes first:
“At that time we will make sure the salary and compensation package that’s offered is the one that’s approved, not the one that was offered in error,” King said.
Unfortunately, King told that to the Western Star before he said he didn’t have enough information to figure out what “appropriate actions” need to be taken.
Oh well, at least Darin thinks he’s been clear in everything he’s said.
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Plenty of people in Newfoundland and Labrador are running around thinking that, as a result of a bureaucratic error, a bunch of people at the College of the North Atlantic got more in their pay envelopes than they were entitled to receive.
It’s understandable that they believe this or something like it since that is exactly what is implied in the very careful selection of words education minister Darin King used to reveal this issue on Monday:
Education Minister Discloses Errors Made at
College of the North Atlantic’s Qatar Campus
There is that word right there in the headline on the release: “errors”.
That same idea is also there in the release itself, referring to “salary overpayments”, and “errors” that were “made in determining salaries”.
All through his comments in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, King kept using the word “error”:
I made a release yesterday that fully disclosed to the Province an error that has been made to the tune of approximately $5 million. I also made it fully clear that this is not a decision of government that made this error; …
…we would do an external review for the purpose of trying to determine exactly where the College of the North Atlantic made mistakes that led to the error that has been identified
But then there is a curious statement attributed to the minister in the news release:
"I want to assure employees of the Qatar campus that they will continue to receive their current salary for the remainder of their contract," said Minister King. "We will continue to work with the college as they address this situation and assess the full financial impact of the errors."
Okay.
Just follow this for a second.
As a result of an “error”, people have been overpaid – supposedly – but then there is an assurance that those same people will continue to receive their “current salary” – that is, presumably, the overpaid one – until the contracts expire.
Odd, isn’t it?
It’s odd because what people think happened and what actually occurred are two different things. All those people are running around believing things that aren’t true because the news release and the minister’s media lines bury the real story under mountains of obfuscation.
If you confronted King about the news release, he will insist he told all. Well, he didn’t really do that in the release itself, but between the news release and his subsequent comments, the real story is there; you just have to dig it out from underneath the vague words and sentences in what is truly a classic piece of uncommunication.
To find out what really happened, though, you just have to read carefully.
Take a look at what education minister Darin King told the House on Tuesday:
I also made it fully clear that this is not a decision of government that made this error; it was a decision made by the College of the North Atlantic which is an arm’s-length corporation of government, Mr. Speaker.
The editors at Hansard mistakenly stuck a semi-colon in there but there is no mistaking that the error was not overpayment. Just take out the mistake in punctuation and read the resulting sentence out loud.
Poof.
The “error” not a mistake at all. It was some unspecified decision taken by the people who run the College of the North Atlantic.
But what decision?
Well, that bit too is buried away in another comment King made:
For example, it is only about a month and a half ago, Mr. Speaker, when the former president of the college decided, without the proper authority and authorization, to sign a one year extension to the current contracting tender, …
Poof.
He tried to obscure the relationship between the “error” and this example of him being helpful but that’s just a bit too convenient a bit of timing to be real.
Put that comment about helpfulness together with the rest of it and a more complete and accurate version of the current crisis appears than the one most people seem to be getting.
All clear now?
King’s two news releases on Monday are a classic example of uncommunication, of concealing crucial information by carefully selecting words and sentences that have fuzzy meanings. It’s like issuing a news release that makes it sound like Abitibi abandoned a mill site rather than admit that the provincial government had shagged up royally and expropriated the thing by mistake.
Oh yes, and it was two releases.
The second one – issued as King scrummed reporters – announced that that president of CMA tossed her teddy in the corner on Friday afternoon citing, among other things, inappropriate provincial government interference in the management of her operation.
Despite the fact King had the resignation three days beforehand, the announcement appeared one and a half hours after the first release in which King claimed credit for disclosures he really didn’t make. It might just be bungling – Lord knows there’s been enough of that lately – but there is something about the second release and the timing that screams “uncommunication.”
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Education minister Darin King seemed a wee bit confused about his own department’s policies in a recent macleans.ca story on competition among Atlantic Canada universities for students.
Darin King, the minister of education in Newfoundland and Labrador, said his province already has a recruiting advantage over its regional competitors.
Since 2001, tuition fees in the province have been frozen. And earlier this month, the Newfoundland and Labrador government eliminated interest on provincial student loans - the first province in the country to do so - in a move that could make it a more attractive place to study.
"We're trying to do our best to offer a student aid package ... and enticing them to come to Newfoundland," King said.
Of course, eliminating interest on provincial government student loans wouldn’t entice students from outside Newfoundland and Labrador “to come to Newfoundland” since they wouldn’t be eligible for that assistance.
Interest elimination only applies to residents of the province who receive student loans from the province. On top of that – because of the peculiarities of something called geography – they wouldn’t have to be enticed to come to the place where they already live anyway.
So it seems that education minister King can’t really explain at all what sort of “recruiting advantage” post-secondary institutions in Newfoundland and Labrador have when it comes to “enticing [students] to come to Newfoundland.”
He also doesn’t know the name of the province he represents either, but that’s another issue.
Perhaps the next time King gets one of the now infamous oral briefings for ministers, he should try a novel approach and take notes. That would be something he presumably learned to do as a student. Either that or he can get his officials to prepare written briefing notes so he can refer back to them later on. After all, notes are what students use to help them keep track of a wide range of information on a wide range of topics.
As education minister, Darin King should know the value of a written note even if some of his colleagues are more interested in covering their asses than covering the material.
This interview certainly shows the importance of a cabinet mi9nister knowing what he is talking about.
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