This is your political life: Ross Wiseman #nlpoli

Anyone surprised by the news isn;t paying any attention to local politics at all.

Ross Wiseman has his pension. It cannot get any fatter.  He likely won’t get re-elected in the November general election and even if he does, Wiseman has no interest in sitting on the opposition benches now that he has been in government.

15 years is long enough, sez Ross, so he won’t be running in the next election.

For those who are shocked and for the entertainment of the rest here are three moments from Ross’ political life over the past 15 years.

Better more, and better #nlpoli

The provincial government has a very serious financial problem. 

The forecast deficit for the current year is the second highest on record at $916 million. 

No one knows how big the deficit will be next year,  but with oil prices forecast to stay in their current range for the next couple of years,  odds are very good that the provincial government will turn in a record deficit next year.

That is saying something.  The forecast in 2004,  the first year the Conservatives took office, was for a deficit of $840 million.  Finance minister Loyola Sullivan called it “the largest deficit in our province’s history.”  He was a wee bit off.  The actual accrual deficit in 2003 was $958 million.

Judge Headroom #nlpoli

The Crown Prosecution Service lost an application last week to overturn a decision by a Provincial Court judge.

That’s not the newsworthy thing.  The Crown wins applications and loses them all the time.  What’s important about this is the back-story
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The Telegram covered the decision itself, although you can read the whole decision for yourself. The Crown applied to the Supreme Court in Grand Bank to overturn a decision by Judge Harold Porter on a case in Clarenville on the grounds that Porter had presided over the case in Clarenville from his courtroom in Grand Bank by teleconference. 

The Crown wanted to force Porter to sit in Clarenville.  There’s been no judge there for the past six months ago since the judge there retired.  There’s a relatively light case load in Clarenville so Porter has been handling Clarenville.

And that’s where the rest of the story begins...

“We are an island economy” and other nonsense #nlpoli

CBC’s On Point  this weekend delivered up some all-too-familiar conversation on the budget and a political panel talking about Judy Manning but sometimes you have to look closely at things to appreciate the value in public comments by politicians and reporters.

In an interview with David Cochrane, finance minister Ross Wiseman confirmed that he cannot even think about trimming government spending because the economy is heavily dependent on it.  Wiseman put the figure at about 30%.

Regular readers of these e-scribbles have know this for years.  What’s news in this is that we have a finance minister admitting it publicly.

Wiseman violated privileges and rights of all members #nlpoli

Ross Wiseman violated Gerry Roger’s rights as a member of the House of Assembly.

He did so, by his own initial ruling, with no evidence whatsoever that the member had committed any contempt of the House.

He thinks an apology is good enough.

Ross Wiseman is wrong again.

Here’s why.

Privacy commish sues Dunderdale gov over “political” e-mails on gov comps, phones #nlpoli

The province’s access to information and privacy commissioner is taking the Dunderdale administration to court for its refusal to provide the commissioner with copies of e-mails on government computers and cellular telephones that government officials describe as “political in nature”.

Atlantic Business Magazine’s Rob Antle broke the story Wednesday afternoon on his blog at the magazine’s website.

At the heart of the suit are e-mails [that cover a period that would includes] related to accusations by erstwhile Tory leadership candidate Brad Cabana that a political staffer for then business minister Ross Wiseman attempted to bully him into quitting the leadership race. [There may be other political or party records involved as well.]

As CBC reported in January:

Cabana said the meeting with [Wiseman’s executive assistant Chick] Cholock happened in his [Cabana’s] home in Hickman's Harbour on Jan. 5 and his wife witnessed the exchange.

"They would marginalize me as a person. They would make me look like a quirk candidate and a glory seeker rather than someone who was really interested in the leadership and the people of Newfoundland and Labrador," he said.

An unidentified individual requested access to e-mails sent and received on government equipment by Cholock and Wiseman over three specific days in January.  As Antle reported for ABM:

The Department of Business provided the requester with about five pages of records. But the department advised that other responsive records were “political in nature” and exempt from disclosure.

The privacy and access commissioner’s office contacted the department to investigate an appeal of the department’s decision.  Under the province’s access laws, the commissioner has the legal right to review documents to determine if the department’s decision was correct.

The department refused the first request and ignored the second.

The commissioner then applied to the Supreme Court’s Trials Division for a review.

According to Antle, the provincial department appears to be relying on an earlier decision – currently under appeal – that barred the commissioner from reviewing many types of documents even if he did not subsequently recommend their disclosure.

In this case, according to Antle, the government is relying on a wide interpretation of a prohibition in the Access to Information and Protection of Personal Privacy Act that prohibits disclosure of constituency and political records.

That would be section 5(1):

This Act applies to all records in the custody of or under the control of a public body but does not apply to…

(c) a personal or constituency record of a member of the House of Assembly, that is in the possession or control of the member;

(c.1) records of a registered political party or caucus as defined in the House of Assembly Accountability, Integrity and Administration Act;

…

(d) a personal or constituency record of a minister;

According to Antle the department described the records as “political”.  There’s no indication of whether or not the department cited a specific section of the Act, as required by law,  when refusing to disclose certain records. 

In the past departments have used a fictitious category called ‘non-responsive” to cover information they did not wish to disclose but  which they had no legal basis to withhold. 

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Updates:  There are changes to this post to correct wrong information and some mistaken extrapolations of what Rob Antle wrote.  Any errors and incorrect extrapolations are mine and mine alone.

Para 3: The initial request was a blanket one that covered a period of time.  Some of the e-mails that are withheld and labelled political are likely related to the cabana affair however until someone reviews them, there is no way anyone knows specifically what they contain.

Para 10 (currently under appeal) deleted.  Two decisions.  One under appeal, the other not.  Your humble e-scribbler confused the decisions.

Sections of the Act being cited by government are c and c.1 and not c and d.

Cabinet Shuffle Bored

The back room plan to slide Kathy Dunderdale into the Premier’s job isn’t going so well.

The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight is back shooting itself in the foot.

Kathy Dunderdale meets with Danny Williams one day and then the next day there is a surprise cabinet shuffle that Dunderdale explains with some lame comment about getting fresh blood and shifting ministers around to give them experience.

That is most definitely NOT what this is about.

Oh and to be really sure, you can guarantee that it is not about Dunderdale “picking her key lieutenants” as CBC has been presenting it. None of the portfolios involved are biggies.  This is purely a shuffling around at the bottom end of the cabinet list.

So what is it about?

Well, for Derrick Dalley it is a huge promotion that can only mean he is in serious political trouble in his district.  Danny’s coat-tails were barely enough to get him elected last time and without the Old Man, that seat is likely to flip.  This way Dalley gets a nice boost in pay and a higher profile.

Dalley has no background in business so sticking him in that portfolio makes no sense at all.

Charlene Johnson got a sweet little promotion after years of slogging it out in a  department that is usually a starter department for ministers.  She’s a loyal Dan-ite so giving her a higher profile helps bolster the back-room deal crowd:  she takes direction very well.  Johnson’s never shown signs of understanding the portfolio she had and she’s unlikely to inject anything other than further listlessness in a new department that is still struggling.

Here’s hoping there are no more giant controversies in a department known to generate nasty headlines. Charlene had a tough time even with Danny on the ground to shore her up.  With the Old Man out of the picture, she could be a major disaster waiting to happen. 

Ross Wiseman slides downward to environment and conservation.  He isn’t likely to run again so this just keeps around one of the Dan-ite stalwarts until Dunderdale gets through the current crisis and the spring budget.

Darin King gets a huge demotion.  The leadership hopeful and likely internal dissident got the big ole bitch slap for something.  Like he’s paying a double price that includes a bill for the shitstorm he caused by trying to do his old job at Eastern School District.  Darin’s school reorganization is a cock-up of monumental proportions since it has served only to agitate voters needlessly in seats the Conservatives normally would call safe. 

Joan Burke is being called back to the limelight likely to clean up Darin’s mess.  It’s a novel concept and logically, Burke’s arrival should mean the plan goes in the bin.  Burke’s usual approach would be like adding gasoline to a political fire and even Dunderdale couldn’t blunder that badly. 

Putting her back in charge of education also gives Burke the chance to raise her profile again in anticipation of the leadership race that will inevitably follow the next election. 

Everyone knows Dunderdale is just a placeholder.  Well, everyone except people who think she is promoting her key lieutenants for the next election.

Sheesh, what a head-slapper of an idea.

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Scrum Update:  Take a watch of the post-swearing in scrum. The most over-used line – after Charlene talking about “the children” and how important they are -  is the effort to portray this as some sort of renewal and refreshment.

The cliché is so over-worn that all you’d have to say is “deck chairs” but everyone will know instantly how true it is as a description of Thursday’s cabinet shuffle.

As for Darin King, notice that he spoke last of all and started by thanking Dunderdale for the privilege of serving.  If anyone has any doubt that this guy is being punished then let them watch the scrum and seen the proof.

Three-on-a-match and then some: another failure of taxpayer cash give-away policy

The list of failures is growing for the Williams administration give-aways of public money to businesses.

In late 2008, Progress Software received $325,000 in an interest free loan from the Williams administration.  The company was supposed to add 10 new software engineering positions to the company’s operation in St. John’s.

The company closed its St. John’s office less than 18 months later without adding any new employees.  NTV and the Telegram reported the story this month but neither version is available online.

According to the Telegram, the provincial government is looking for the money back.  The company has agreed to repay it but to date there’s no sign of any cash.

The story is all too familiar. 

In May, the Telegram reported that Kodiak received an $8.0 million interest free loan of taxpayer cash from the same government fund – the Business Attraction Fund -  to add 75 new positions at its boot-making factory in Harbour Grace.  Instead, the company slashed its workforce.

There’s no word on whether the provincial government has sought repayment of any of that money at all.

Bond Papers readers will recall SAC Manufacturing.  That company went belly up a mere four months after it received a total of $675,000 in taxpayer cash from the provincial government. 

According to the province’s auditor general, the money would likely have to be written off.  In late 2009, though, the provincial government’s audited financial statements still showed the shares in SAC manufacturing and in another failed company on its books as assets.  That fourth company – Consilient – figured prominently in an auditor general’s report criticising the way the Williams administration hands out business development cash.

Fortunately for taxpayers, sometimes these deals fall apart before the company gets the cash.Last month, taxpayers watched  - likely with jaws agape - as natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale entertained a proposal from a bankrupt company seeking $52 million to take over the defunct paper mill at Grand Falls-Windsor.  Neither Dunderdale nor her officials seemed to know what was going on until the story broke about the bankruptcy and the company withdrew its offer.

The litany of failure stands in stark contrast to the 1995 EDGE program.  At a cost to date of $17 million, the program has produced between 1500 and 1600 jobs.

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Oram and Williams give wildly contradictory accounts of Lewisporte decision

As a sharp-eared reader picked up, the raw video of the Premier’s scrum revealed that Lewisporte MHA Wade Verge knew about cuts to health service in his district some time before July 9, 2009.

That’s the day Premier Danny Williams shuffled Ross Wiseman out of health and moved Paul Oram in.

The decision wasn’t announced until August 31, almost two months later.  And even then, some people claim,  the wording of the news release didn’t make plain what was happening in the affected communities.

The regional health authorities involved didn’t hear about the changes until the morning they were announced.

But even that is now at odds with comments by health minister Paul Oram.  Under questioning in the House of Assembly on Wednesday, Oram said the decision was made after a trip he made to the region to discuss the issue with local officials:

The fact is that this decision was made during discussions, Mr. Speaker, with Central Health and Community Services, also with discussions that we had ongoing with the community. The fact of the matter is, we went out to Lewisporte, and we told them very clearly that this facility would not be built or put inside of the new facility. We would not have X-ray and lab inside of the new facility. That is exactly what we told them, Mr. Speaker. They understood where we were coming from and we moved forward on that basis.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Leader of the Opposition.

MS JONES: Mr. Speaker, I ask the minister: Isn’t it true that you told the people in Lewisporte at that time that there would not be a one-roof concept for lab and X-ray services, but you did not tell them you were prepared to gut their service within two weeks, did you?

MR. SPEAKER: The hon. the Minister of Health and Community Services.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. ORAM: Mr. Speaker, I said exactly what I said, and that was that there would be no laboratory and X-ray services under the one roof in the new facility that we were building in Lewisporte. In terms of –

MS JONES: (Inaudible).

MR. ORAM: - if she would let me answer. In terms of a discussion around what was happening with closing out the lab and X-ray part of what we were doing in Lewisporte, that discussion was had but there was no final decision made on that when I was out in Lewisporte.

Either the Premier has his story shagged up or Oram does.

Which is it?

 

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Jabberwocky

Get a load of this little bit of ministerial bafflegab. It’s Ross Wiseman, lately the business minister talking about the issue of air service to the southeast coast of Labrador:

We were working on this overall strategy piece. Work has been pretty well advanced. What we do in Labrador is a response to the unique circumstance in Labrador, yes, but at the same time we do it in the context of a provincial strategy. It’s difficult sometimes to go into one region of our province and develop a policy framework, or develop a strategy, or provide a response, without giving some consideration to what impact that might have on an entire province, and how that might fit into a broader strategy, so we’re cognizant of what we’re trying to do in the bigger piece.

There’s something even stranger about this.

Wiseman is not the minister responsible for transportation, in whose lap this issue falls.

That would be Trevor Taylor.

Nor is he the minister of Labrador affairs.

That would be John “The Shoveller” Hickey.

Nor is Wiseman likely the alternative minister for any of those portfolios. Not only has Ross had no experience with them, there is no connection - logical or otherwise – among them.

Wiseman used to be the health minister. Now he is the minister responsible for figuring out how much money he should take from the most indebted taxpayers in Canada in order to give it to give some rich foreigner in order to get them to come here and make work.

So on the whole, Wiseman’s face on this story of a domestic company – Air Labrador – is peculiar.

It’s not even odd that the airline in question has let slip this little story long before they actually intend to cut the service.

And it’s not the least bit peculiar that the local member of the provincial legislature - Liberal leader Yvonne Jones - wants government to think about funnelling cash into this local private sector company. That’s what local MHAs do in Newfoundland and Labrador, regardless of any political affiliations involved.

Nor is it odd that Jones has no problem with pouring public cash into a local airline but doesn’t like pouring public cash into the oil and gas exploration business.

And it’s not odd that Jones wants to make sure there is good air medical service in the large Labrador, one of the services the airline provides. In fact, Air Labrador made $3.4 million in 2007-2008 flying medical patients around the nearby health region along the north shore of the St. Lawrence.

That would be the health region in Quebec, for those whose Labrador geography is a bit dodgy.

But that cash came for providing an essential service, not just for having planes flying into and out of a community carrying passengers or – as the company decision suggests not carrying passengers - just for the sake of saying there is a plane coming into the local airport.

That idea is as wacky as the utterings by the jabberwock about the whole issue in the first place.

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The Do Nothing Department in a Do Nothing Administration

in American politics, there used to be the Know Nothings.

They were a group of native-born Americans who had a problem with immigrants yet whenever anyone asked a member of the group about it, he'd claim that he "knew nothing" at all.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, we should call the current administration a Do Nothing government.

You see, in 2004 a provincial government task force laid out a plan to deal with the problem of hospital-related infections. That's when you go to hospital and get sick from a bug you picked up in the place where you went to get better in the first place.

Anyway, it is now 2008.

Four, maybe five years later depending on how you count it.

The Auditor General released a report this week noting that not only does the province have no freakin' idea how many infections are caused by hospital infections or nor how many deaths come from those infections, but also that there are a raft of problems with hospital sterilization techniques and cleaning procedures.

That's pretty much what your grandmother taught you about disease prevention: wash your hands. Oh yeah, and boil things to make them sterile.

And the hospitals aren't quite getting it yet. But anyway, someone gave them a plan.

In 2004.

So, in response, health minister Ross Wiseman promises that by 2009 - that is 12 months from now and definitely five years AFTER the plan was laid out - there will be "significant progress" made on a "comprehensive, provincewide infection control program."

Uh huh.

And we are supposed to believe this from a guy whose department is embroiled in controversies of one form or another.

Like the breast cancer one.

Or the one also revealed this week where the health boards created in 2004 that were supposed to save money are actually costing more money.

And we are supposed to believe a guy who just by pure coincidence scheduled his media availability to coincide with one being held by his colleague minister talking about the InfoSec breach.

Flying wingman for a guy who is himself trying to obscure the facts of a very serious political and legal problem for government is not a way to enhance your credibility.

But then again, speaking of Jerome, this is a government where things explode, fail, fall-apart or collapse based on government inaction over a long period of time and the standard government response is that a "plan is in the works", that this is "a priority of government" and that "all is well."

These cabinet ministers seem to spend too much time torquing and talking to actually accomplish anything real.

Around these parts, they used to be the serial government: one thing after another.

But all this talking and lack of action is actually part of a bigger problem: this is a Do Nothing Administration.

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Related:

- Serial government and Labrador

- "and there shall be plans, and planning for plans, and plans to co-ordinate the plans of the planning for plans..."

The Darwin Awards of Crisis Communications

Health minister Ross Wiseman and how not to handle a crisis, a detailed commentary at Persuasion Business.

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