What’s the hang-up this time? #nlpoli

 

Via VOCM:

Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says he is looking forward to working out details for the Muskrat Falls loan guarantee with Premier Kathy Dunderdale. … Flaherty says the feds have made a commitment to provide the loan guarantee for Muskrat Falls, but they still need to work out the details.

Working out the details?

Merciful jumpin’s!  At this rate, the damn dam will be built before they work out the details on the loan guarantee.

-srbp-

How Jim will screw Iggy and his crew…

Tax cuts are always politically popular.

What political party – especially one headed by a guy who isn’t at all keen on an election any time really soon – would possibly vote against putting more money in the hands of ordinary Canadians especially in these uncertain economic times?

Steve can leave on his own time and never have to sweat his job again.

-srbp-

Nothing says election like politicians and cash: the desperate leprechaun version

Oil prices may be plummeting and with them gasoline prices, but if you are an incumbent politician looking warily at the electoral weathervane, you'd be talking out loud to anyone who will listen about finding a way to gasoline and other fuel costs.

He might be running a deficit, but federal finance minister Jim Flaherty is talking about finding some way to interfere in the marketplace in a way that would likely bring more problems than it cures.

Next thing he'll be screaming for tight monetary policies and jacking up interest rates to frighten off the inflation demon.

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Facts do matter

Except to this man, apparently.

From federal finance minister Jim Flaherty's latest Equalization news release:

To do so [not to alter two federal-provincial agreements unilaterally] would give Newfoundland and Labrador access to Equalization payments above all the other Equalization provinces even though its fiscal capacity is higher than Ontario's and British Columbia's, which receive no Equalization payments.

If Newfoundland and Labrador's own-source fiscal capacity exceeds the national standard for Equalization, then the province doesn't qualify for either Equalization or for Equalization offsets contained in the 2005 agreement between Prime Minister Paul Martin and Premier Danny Williams:

5. If in any fiscal year in the period 2006-07 to 2011-12 the province does not qualify for receipt of an Equalization payment, no additional offset payment in respect of clause 4 will be made for that fiscal year beyond the payment specified in the existing Atlantic Accord.

The federal Equalization formula currently used and the O'Brien formula contained in Flaherty's 2007 budget set the standard used to determine if a province qualifies for Equalization.

That standard in both cases is below the fiscal capacity of Ontario (the lowest non-recipient province) by several hundred dollars per person.

Yes, facts do matter, Jim.

They just don't matter to the current federal administration.

Obviously.

That was then. This is now.

Then, federal foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay said:

"It is important to note that if Nova Scotia opts for the new system, it doesn't have to give up its Accord–in fact, the Accord will be fully respected and continue to provide benefits to Nova Scotia," said Minister MacKay. The Accord provided Nova Scotia with $830 million immediately upon signing.

Then - a mere few days ago - federal fish minister Loyola Hearn told reporters much the same thing:

Hearn insists the Atlantic Accord, which the province and Nova Scotia negotiated with the former Liberal government in 2005, is safe.

"Are we going to get screwed? The answer is no, we're not," Hearn told reporters Friday.

"Are we going to be disadvantaged … by a billion dollars or by a dollar? The answer to that is no, because the government of Canada committed that we would not be disadvantaged."

Then, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told the House of Commons:

"The Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador asked repeatedly that this government reject the recommendation of the O'Brien commission that would have put a cap on the equalization benefits of the Atlantic accord," Harper said to the House.

"The Atlantic Accord is preserved in this budget and is preserved due to the good work of the minister of fisheries and oceans and of course other members of our Newfoundland and Labrador caucus. Promise made and promise kept."

Now, finance minister Jim Flaherty admits that his budget caps Equalization offset payments in both the 1985 Atlantic Accord and a supplementary deal in 2005:

The province will also have the right to opt permanently into the new, improved, Canada-wide Equalization system. This choice provides the province with flexibility for the future and improves Newfoundland and Labrador's chance of qualifying for an extension beyond the existing system. If the province chooses the new Equalization system, it is only fair that the whole package would apply, including the fiscal capacity cap, to ensure fairness. In this case, it would not be just to other provinces if only Newfoundland and Labrador is allowed to double-dip or cherry-pick only those parts of the new Equalization program that will benefit the province.

To do so would give Newfoundland and Labrador access to Equalization payments above all the other Equalization provinces even though its fiscal capacity is higher than Ontario's and British Columbia's, which receive no Equalization payments. [Emphasis added]

To apply the cap, the Government of Canada is unilaterally amending both the 1985 Atlantic Accord signed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Premier Brian Peckford and the 2005 deal between Prime Minister Paul Martin and Premier Danny Williams.

Forget a broken election promise.

Harper and his cabinet can't even stick to the same commitment over the course of four weeks.

To see the full impact of this latest revelation, compare Wade Locke's original analysis and the one based on capping what they said wasn't capped.

If the provincial government had waited until the evidence was amassed, the impact of this Conservative perfidy would hav been plain for all to see.

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Connies write off three NL ridings

A news release like this one virtually guarantees the seven seats in Newfoundland and Labrador will represented by someone other than a Conservative after the next federal election.

It confirms that federal government will be altering the 1985 and 2005 offshore agreements if and when the Newfoundland and Labrador government adopts the new Equalization program, something they never mentioned until caught at it last week.

How many times have the federal Conservatives said there were or would be no caps on the Atlantic Accord?

Surprise.

It isn't a cap.

It's a hood.

Around Bond Papers, we've been callin' 'em Connies for a couple of years.

Seems they are Connies.

Trying to con people into giving them votes.

Danny Williams must be especially rotted, seeing as he threw his lot in with these guys, even though it was painfully obvious at the time what the result would be.

Danny Williams even attributed things to Harper that Harper never even said, all in an effort to get Harper a few seats.

Wow.

That's gotta hurt.

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Update: Among the others like Danny Williams smarting at the latest Harper political shaft must be the local talk show maven who sometimes calls herself Hydroqueen.

She spent a lot of time shilling for Steve Harper and his local candidates during the last federal election.

She even invented bizarre political theories to bolster her argument. Hydroqueen was wrong in the theory and, as it turns out, in the practice as well.

Maybe we need to start a special Homer Simpson gallery of people who backed Harper in 2005, lambasted any Liberal in sight on a purely partisan basis, and who today are feeling just a wee bit used.

Update Update: Yet another person who fell for the Connie job. Well, "fell" doesn't accurately describe someone who actually reworked reality in an effort to back his cause, but let's be generous.