When it sucks to be you

What else do you need but a website that takes trendy, hideous business jargon and translates it into plain English?

You know the garbage-words and crap phrases.

Things like “on a go-forward basis”. 

Pure drivel.

So run it through the grinder at unsuck-it.com and this is what you get:

On a Go-Forward Basis

We will be leveraging core competencies across the enterprise on a go-forward basis.

Unsucked: In the future.

Some of you might be surprised to find out that “on a go-forward basis” means nothing more grandiose than “in the future” or “from now on.”

Others of you are no doubt wondering why some people use jargon quite so much or why it is that politicians like to use gobbledy-gook when there are perfect simple words available in English that everyone can understand.

And then there are the people who work for those politicians who will be thankful there is a website that spits out this shite so they don’t have to do the miserable job any more.

Don’t say your humble e-scribbler didn’t try and help you all out.

- srbp -

No surprise in Quebec’s position on federal cash

No one should be surprised that the Government of Quebec is objecting to federal funding of an electricity line between Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

Since talk started up again about an East-West electricity grid in Canada, Quebec has objected to federal funding.

A cyberpresse.ca article on August 9, 2007 gives Quebec’s succinct position, straight from the lips of Premier Jean Charest:

« Est-ce que le gouvernement fédéral devrait intervenir pour financer la construction de lignes ? C’est là-dessus où le Québec dit non », a-t-il déclaré.

This particular statement is interesting for two reasons.  First of all, it came at a news conference during a Council of the Federation meeting on energy.  Second, the issue at the time was a potential line from Labrador to Ontario.

Hardly surprising, therefore, that Quebec continues to object to federal involvement in funding electricity lines.
And, as labradore pointed out last week, Quebec’s intergovernmental affairs minister repeated the government’s position that electricity infrastructure ought to be paid for by provincial governments but not the federal one:

«N'importe qui peut vendre de l'énergie aux Américains, a réagi mercredi le ministre provincial. Ce qui compte, c'est que les gens suivent les règles. Et la règle, pour nous, c'est que quand on construit une ligne, ce sont les sociétés d'État qui paient. Pas le gouvernement fédéral.»

The context of those comments was announcement of the interconnection upgrade between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

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Williams, Dexter ink secret energy deal …but with whom?

A service contract between a public authority and a private sector concessionaire, where the public authority pays the concessionaire to deliver infrastructure and related services, Typically, the concessionaire, who builds the infrastructure asset, is financially responsible for its condition and performance throughout the asset lifetime, or the duration of the agreement.

P3 Canada Fund definition of public-private partnership

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams and Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter have apparently signed a deal to build underwater electricity transmission between the two provinces in partnership with a private sector company or companies.

Williams revealed the agreement when he launched into yet another tirade against the province of Quebec during a hastily-called news conference in St. John’s last week.

Williams said that the two provinces applied for federal funds in late June under the federal government’s public-private partnerships infrastructure funding agreement.

But that’s all he said about the secret deal.

Six weeks after the provinces reached an agreement, the people of both provinces still don’t know when the deal was signed, the conditions of the agreement, how much taxpayers will be on the hook for or the proposed financial arrangements with the private sector company or companies the two governments are or will be partnering with.

In his scrum, Williams very obviously avoided giving a simple, direct answer to a question on costs. He said only that the project cost would be billions depending on which combination of dams and transmission routes NALCOR built.

The cost of the project is currently estimated at more than $14 billion, including an interconnection to the United States. A study completed for the Nova Scotia government earlier this year  - reported by the Chronicle Herald but no longer on line - put the cost of the interconnections between $800 million and $1.2 billion.

Williams also made the false statement in his scrum that the decision of the Regie de l’energie – presumably meaning the May decision – had blocked NALCOR transmission through Quebec.

Meanwhile, though, the public doesn’t even know the name of the company or companies involved in the new secret deal on an intertie to Nova Scotia.

And obviously, there has to be a private sector partner or partners involved even if the two provincial governments haven’t said anything about that aspect of the deal.

The federal government established the $1.2 billion P3 Canada Fund in 2007 to “develop the Canadian market for public-private partnerships for the supply of public infrastructure in the public interest.” The fund will supply qualifying projects with a maximum of 25% of the projects qualifying direct construction costs. 

Typically, public-private partnerships include private involvement in everything from design to the long-term operation of public infrastructure. As the fund’s annual report puts it,

[t]he P3 procurement model is unique in that the private sector assumes a major share of the responsibility for the delivery and the performance of the infrastructure – from designing the concept, architectural and structural planning to its long-term maintenance.

The public sector gets needed infrastructure at reduced risk and cost.  Among the examples cite din the annual is the Confederation Bridge between PEI and New Brunswick.

In order to qualify for assistance under the fund, the private sector partner must have a substantive, continuing role in the project.  It must design or build the project and finance or maintain and operate it. [Round Two application, s. 5.2] 

In a P3 project, the private sector partner would also typically share in the profits of a long-term project as well as adopt risk. In some scenarios, as the application appendices suggest, the project may offer potential spin-off money-making opportunities for the private sector partner separate from the core public interest in the project.

Infrastructure assets developed by public authorities are rarely used to generate additional revenue. In some instances, private sector providers are motivated to develop opportunities for revenue beyond the public authority payment stream and this could be used to reduce the cost to the public authority.

Applicants must submit a business plan for the project between September 2010 and March 2011.

While Danny Williams mentioned a connection between the secret deal and the Lower Churchill, the Nova Scotia intertie is a separate project.  

It’s also bizarre that Williams mentioned possible shipment of power from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland and Labrador.  Demand projections used in the Lower Churchill environmental review show that demand on the island isn’t strong enough to support development of the Lower Churchill, let alone warrant importing power from Nova Scotia.

And if the intertie carried Lower Churchill power, there’d be no need to send Nova Scotia power into Newfoundland and Labrador.

A connection to Nov Scotia without the Lower Churchill would facilitate the development of untapped alternate energy potential on the island of Newfoundland.

To do that, though, the provincial government would have to abandon the 2007 energy plan and Williams’ obsession with the Lower Churchill.

- srbp -

Fact Check: the mainstream and Williams/Quebec

The following quotes all appeared in recent media stories about Danny Williams’s comments on energy developments and Quebec.

Neither of them is true.

1.  Montreal Gazette:  “…after Quebec's energy regulator refused to grant a request from Nalcor Energy, Newfoundland's energy corporation, for capacity on the Quebec power grid.’

2. CBC:  “particularly after regulators in Quebec in May dismissed Nalcor's bid to move power to U.S. markets on Quebec's transmission system.”

3.  Telegram (Transcontinental):  “after Quebec’s energy regulator decided not to grant Nalcor Energy’s request for capacity on the Quebec power grid.”

Here’s what actually happened:

NALCOR started talks with Hydro-Quebec’s energy transmission division on access to the Quebec grid in order to transmit power from the future Lower Churchill project.  HQ conducted studies based on the route and load options NALCOR indicated it was interested in studying. The goal of the studies were to determine whether capacity existed on the existing infrastructure to handle the new demand or if the companies (NACLOR and HQ) would have to build new transmission lines.

Premier Danny Williams has consistently stated that NALCOR would pay reasonable prices for transmission including the construction of new transmission facilities.

HQ completed the studies and informed NALCOR of the results.

NALCOR submitted five complaints to the Regie de l’energie for adjudication.  None of these was an application for access to the Quebec grid.

Among other things, NALCOR sought to stop the clock on timelines under Quebec’s open access tariff rules that give a company with power to ship 45 days to either book the space or to signal an intention to book the space.

As well, NACLOR sought a ruling on what was including in the Quebec management grid.  One effect of the ruling on one appeal, if NALCOR had been successful, would have been to displace existing power generation and transmission from Churchill Falls in favour of non-existent Lower Churchill power. 

NALCOR lost each of the five appeals.  None of the decisions prevented NALCOR from proceeding with acquiring space on the Quebec grid.

The Regie did not, at any time, refuse to grant, decide not to grant or dismiss NALCOR’s bid for access to the grid.

As it appears, NALCOR opted for its appeals because it did not have a project and power to transmit, nor did it have a prospect of developing it within the time frames originally proposed.  It opted instead for administrative delay tactics. 

In June 2010, Danny Williams told the House of Assembly that NALCOR did not pursue other contracts for transmission at the time  “because we did not have any power to sell.”

Earlier that same month, Williams confirmed that the Lower Churchill is up in the air indefinitely.  The Telegram buried the comment  - a nugget of hard news - at the end of another story.

However, when it did have power to sell, NALCOR successfully concluded a contract to wheel power through the Quebec grid.  At the time – April 2009 – Danny Williams declared that the transmission deal was historic as it opened the way for future developments. The NALCOR appeals to the Regie de l’energie predated the April 2009 deal.

The facts of the Regie decisions on NALCOR appeals are contained clearly in the decision of the Regie on NALCOR”s appeals. They are available in English and French from the provincial natural resources department’s website as well as from the Regie de l’energie in French.

It is understandable that mainland reporters might rely on other news reports without checking the details.

It is inexplicable why local reporters continue to make false statements when the correct information is right in front of their faces as to what actually took place.

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Traffic Drivers, August 9-13

1. The Old Man, Old Habits and Old Chestnuts
2. The World the Old Man Lives In
3. NALCOR: the power of constipation
4. Connies, pork and electoral ridings
5. AbitibiBowater creditors meeting
6. The Search for Meaning Challenge
7. Connies and “Stimulus”
8. Jerome! if you want to
9. Disclosure/scheduling delay Vermont/Quebec hydro deal
10. [tie]  A summer like no other:  torquing in Technicolor on the cheap
11. [tie]  Williams-era capital spending pales in historical terms

Quebec and Vermont signed a long-term power purchase agreement on August 12.  here’s the Montreal Gazette version.

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Finance department reveals low tech privacy shag up

An unidentified employee in the finance department mailed personal information on 78 applicants to the province’s heating subsidy program to an unidentified person outside the provincial government.

There’s no indication in a typical wordy government self-praise release what information actually went out in the envelope.  The release only tells the sort of information government collects for the program.  If the phantom recipient got all the information, it included: the applicant’s name as well as his or her spouse’s name, social insurance number, and “whether the amount of family income falls above or below a particular threshold level.”

The release also doesn’t say when the information originally went out, how long it was before officials in the the finance department figured out the mistake and who it was that got the information by mistake.

It only really tells you that the provincial government is serious about privacy and that they cleaned up the mess in their usual efficient way.

There’s no praise like self-praise.

- srbp -

A campaign against typos in the Untied States

Your humble e-scribbler* brought you links to the campaign against typos back when it happened in early 2008 all as a way of segueing into a riff on some local typographical errors.

Well, now the duo who traipsed around the United States of America armed with sharpies and a grammarians sensibility, are the proud authors of a book on their adventure.  The title is the Great Typo Hunt.

Typos are a scourge, as regular readers of this space know all too well.

Typos also manage to creep into federal grant applications:

Are their opportunities for the private sector to generate revenue by delivering ancillary services to the public?

Maybe there’s public cash available in this country to develop software that would check for typos.  There’s got to be provincial cash for something like that.

Such an innovative idea.

Surely.

- srbp -

* corrected typo

Loyola new ambassador to Dublin next?

Looks like Loyola Hearn is up for a new job.

With former Prince Edward Island Tory Premier Pat Binns shifting from his comfortable digs in Dublin to more comfortable ones in Boston, that leaves a diplomatic post open. Binns went to Dublin in 2007 to replace a career diplomat who’d been in the job of about a year.  Binns’ relocation looks to be a bit premature.

Word around Ottawa for some months now has one of the architects of the Conservative Party merger heading to the Emerald Isle to replace Pat Binns. Yes, folks, if the rest of the little scenario plays out, Loyola Hearn will be the new Canadian ambassador to Ireland.

Loyalty to Stephen Harper certainly seems to have its rewards so it wouldn’t come as any surprise if the next diplomatic appointment sent Hearn to his native soil.  Hearn stuck with the party he helped create and its new leader through the family feud. 

Now that the feud is officially over its would be only natural for the leader of Canada’s other Reform-based Conservative Party to endorse the appointment.

Wonder what Danny would say about that appointment given the harsh words he used to have for Loyola?

- srbp -

Housing starts in NL down by 28% in July

Housing starts in the province were down 28% in July 2010, compared to July 2009 according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation. [Link to Telly story]

There were 195 starts across the province in July 2010 compared to 270 in the same month of 2009.

More interestingly, only 19 of the 195 starts were outside the metropolitan St. John’s area.  That puts a July 2010 CBC story on the economic boom that is supposedly Grand Falls-Windsor in a different light.  it also gives an excellent sense of what is happening in the provincial economy, as a whole, when one gets beyond the overpass.

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The Old Man, Old Habits and Old Chestnuts

labradore lays bare the foolishness that is the Old Man’s latest anti-Quebec tirade.

Score one for His Premierness’s crack research and intelligence team; after all it was just three weeks ago that Quebec’s intergovernmental affairs Minister — unlike some provinces, they actually have one — telegraphed his province’s opposition to federal subsidies for transmission lines.

…

Curiously, these nefarious Quebec plots seem to cycle at about three-month intervals; His Premierosity exposed the previous one back on May 12th.

And yes, ladies and gentleman, the last time the Old Man got in a back-risking lather was during the month his pollster was in the field collecting numbers.

Funny how that happens.

Regular readers of these scribbles will recall that the Premier’s foray into the anti-Quebec realm prompted this rather neat diagram of The World as the Old Man Sees It.  Thousands of you read it, no doubt laughed and – in a great many cases- downloaded it as the wallpaper for your computer desktop.

Perhaps it’s time to get some tee shirts made up. They’d go like hotcakes.

Levity to one side – and it is hard not to snort at this same old story being recycled yet again -  your humble e-scribbler would be remiss if there were not reminders of the following salient points:

1. There is no Lower Churchill project the power from which would presumably course down these currently non-existent but hopefully federally-funded transmission lines.  NALCOR has no customers and doesn’t have the $14 or so billion the thing will cost.
2. Not so very long ago, Danny Williams was working feverishly to get Hydro Quebec to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill, with no redress for the Churchill Falls contract included.  This would be – of course – completely contrary to his pre-2005 comments/commitments on the subject.  This is the biggest story of 2009, if not the entire Williams administration to date.  It remains one story that the conventional media in the province have steadfastly – and one must say now very deliberately – refused to mention for almost a full year. They have determined it is an “un-story” despite the evidence from natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale’s own mouth.
3. There is no Lower Churchill project.
4. Your humble e-scribbler first discussed the whole idea of the permanent campaign and the quarterly poll goose in a series of posts in 2006.  There’s “The ‘Danny’ Brand”, “Playing the numbers”, “The media and the message” and “The perils of polling.”
5. There is no Lower Churchill project.
6. The bit from the CBC story after “particularly”  is false:  “Williams has had a tempestuous relationship with Quebec officials, particularly after regulators in Quebec in May dismissed Nalcor's bid to move power to U.S. markets on Quebec's transmission system.”  The Regie d’energie did no such thing. Anyone who read the decision in English or French would know that. Your humble e-scribbler’s challenge from May remains unanswered.
7. There is no Lower Churchill project.
8. This bit is absolutely true:  “when we have a situation when one province is deliberately trying to thwart at least two other provinces, and indirectly affect four other provinces, that's sad."  And the Old Man should know since the last time it happened, he did it.

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A summer like no other: torquing in Technicolor on the cheap

One of the great things about summer for perpetual campaigning is that cabinet ministers can spit out sheer nonsense and reporters for the local paper won’t even bother to ask pesky questions.

Like how will an imaginary project could ever  lower carbon emissions in the real world.

And in this bucolic world, where minister’s publicists apparently don’t have to pitch a puff piece, even one of the most incompetent of ministers can sound like she knows something.

The result is better than the stuff pumped out by the official government publicity system:  in this case, the reporter’s name goes on the piece and it appears in a local newspaper. Having gone through a supposed editorial review, the resulting piece suddenly has way more credibility than it actually deserves.

Charlene Johnson – arguably the second biggest bumbler in the current provincial administration  - recently got the chance to dazzle readers of the Western Star with her thoughts on how the province has an opportunity to lead the world in tackling global warming.

“There are opportunities to use energy more efficiently, displace fossil-fuel based power generated by Holyrood with renewable energy from Lower Churchill, and ensure we continue to manage our land and forests in ways that store greenhouse gases rather than release them to the atmosphere,” Johnson said.

If Johnson knew something more than her briefing books or was willing to speak frankly, she’d acknowledge a couple of relevant points here.

The most obvious is that the Lower Churchill doesn’t exist and likely won’t exist within the next decade or two.  As such, any ideas about reducing emissions from Holyrood using the Lower Churchill is just pure bullshit.

Second, the government’s energy plan places economic benefits ahead of environmental ones.  It isn’t about sustainable development or reducing the province’s greenhouse gas emissions.  It isn’t an energy plan or environmental plan as much as it is a business plan.

Everything is held hostage to the LC anyway, but the project talks about ways of building new energy generation for export.  It doesn’t address local needs at all.  If it did, the plan would set policies that encouraged energy conservation on the island and the development of new generation that has a low environmental impact. 

You can see this rejection of local needs in the Lower Churchill environmental review documents, for example. The first thing that strikes you is that the LC isn’t needed to meet current or anticipated energy needs on the island. 

Those demands are so minor that a combined program of conservation (including improved efficiency) coupled with new generation (more than 54 MWs of wind) would meet any demand anticipated in the LC documents.  And just remember that document was drawn up in a world where all that hydro from Abitibi’s Grand Falls-Windsor operation was making jobs in central Newfoundland.

As for Labrador, the Lower Churchill documents plan to continue using diesel generation, despite the fact power lines for the Lower Churchill would pass right by some of the communities it plans to leave on diesel generation. As astonishing that seems, that is the project the province’s environment minister is holding out as a way of dealing with emissions in the province.

This is not a new idea, by the way.  The 2005 climate change action plan contains the same fundamental bias in favour of large, expensive megaprojects.  It anything but a modest development of wind energy because wind is supposedly intermittent.  However, experience elsewhere shows that wind can deliver consistent power levels if a series of projects over a wide area are joined together and managed effectively.

There are opportunities for Newfoundland and Labrador in the fight against global warming.  The problem is that the provincial government policy rejects ideas that could take advantage of those opportunities or puts obstacles in their way.

Anyone can see the fundamental problems in the provincial government’s policy – it doesn’t actually have a sustainable development act or a green energy policy, for example – if one had the time or took the time to read.

Fortunately for Charlene, the crowd at the Western Star didn’t have the time to get ready for her.  As a result she gets to spout complete bullshit and have the Star present as if it were gold.

What better way for a bumbling minister top spend August than torquing in Technicolor on the cheap.

- 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.

Offshore #oilspill review gets indefinite extension

A provincial government review of offshore oil spill response that was supposed to be done with 90 days will now have an indefinite extension.

The initial news release  - issued May 12 - said that the “consultant will meet with the Department of Natural Resources to develop a work plan to complete the scope of work within 90 days.”

That means that under the original deadline, the commissioner was supposed to hand in his report on August 12.

In a news release issued on August 9, natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale said he would now have an extension.  She didn’t indicate the new deadline.

Dunderdale said the the extension came at the request of the commissioner. She did not say if the extension came as a result of the consultation that was supposed to happen three months ago in order to ensure the work was done by the original deadline or if it came more recently.

- srbp -

Polling month update: This post was written based on the news release issued by the department on 09 Aug 10.

While Dunderdale didn’t think it was important enough to mention in the news release, both the Telegram and CBC are reporting that Dunderdale expects to receive the report in November.

November is the next polling month. How convenient.

But how firm is that deadline?

Disclosure and scheduling delay Vermont/Quebec hydro deal

A 25-year power purchase agreement between Hydro Quebec and Vermont is being held up because of HQ’s concerns about disclosure of sensitive commercial information,according to Vermont Public Radio.

HQ is reportedly concerned that some information, such as pricing, be held back from public disclosure when the deal goes to the state’s public service board for review and approval.

The deal involves the Vermont Energy Commission, which has already agreed to the terms, but other entities, like the Burlington city energy authority will also buy a small portion of the 225 megawatt purchase.  Burlington and other similar authorities will have to put the deal to a public vote.

“Simple logistics” is also reportedly still holding up the deal. Mid-summer proved to be a difficult time to ensure that politicians and state and provincial officials are all available at the same time when some of them would be taking vacations.

- srbp -

Williams-era capital spending pales in historical terms

Danny Williams is proud of how much money his administration spends, like, for instance, the amount spent on roads, bridges, schools and other public works.

In the run-up to the 2007 general election, Williams told the St. John’s Board of Trade that his administration “invested like never before in neglected and crumbling infrastructure, and creating significant employment.”

Here’s what he told a small audience in Ottawa in early June:

We [weathered the recession better than anybody] by taking our already aggressive infrastructure strategy from four years earlier and expanding it. "Stimulus spending" was well underway in our province long before it became the trend of 2009.

A five billion dollar infrastructure plan in a province of our size is substantial to say the least, and has not only helped to create jobs and boost consumer confidence; it is also rebuilding communities so that we have the economic foundations necessary to succeed.

He just “expanded” an “already aggressive” infrastructure strategy. That’s the same line he used on Calgarians in 2009.

But figures available from the provincial government show that Williams’ claims don’t match reality. There was no shortage of capital spending nor could Williams’ approach be characterised accurately as aggressive let alone unprecedented.

Between 1991 and 1995, for example, public sector capital spending in the province ranged between 25.4% and 30.4% of the total CAPEX spending in the province.  From a low of 9.4% in 2004, Williams has doubled the share of CAPEX spending but the highest year is still only 18.4%.

But the real tale comes when one looks at the actual amounts adjusted for inflation. In 1991, for example, while the province experienced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, public sector capital spending was $548.8 million in 1991 dollars.  It peaked at $898 in 1994.  During that time the entire provincial current account budget was less than $3.5 billion.

Adjusted for inflation (to 2009), though, capital spending in that same period ranged from $853.62 million to $1.284 billion.  The best the province has seen since 2007, by contrast is 2010, where public sector capital spending is expected to hit $1.127 billion.

The figures are available at the provincial finance department’s website.

This comparison does not take into account the project delays and massive cost over-runs experienced during the Williams period to date.  Almost half the capital works projects announced in 2009 as “stimulus” were either begun or announced previously. At least one dated back before 2003.

- srbp -

Connies and "stimulus"

According to the parliamentary budget officer, capital works projects funded by the federal government's stimulus program are far enough behind that some of the provinces and cities might lose out on the promised cash from Ottawa.

According the PBO report, an optimistic projection would see all projects finished on time, a middle scenario would see 936 projects unfinished by the deadline resulting in $293-million or 7.3 per cent of infrastructure stimulus money going unspent. A pessimistic scenario would see 1,814 projects missing the deadline, resulting in $500-million - or 12.5 per cent - of the infrastructure stimulus lapsing.

Meanwhile in the easternmost province, a Reform-based Conbservative Party has consistently had trouble delivering everything from capital works to legislation. Cost over-runs are now the norm.

And if that wasn't bad enough,almost half of their "stimulus" was actually old stuff already underway.

- srbp-

AbitibiBowater creditors meeting

10:00 AM Eastern Time, September 14, 2010 at the Hilton Montreal Bonaventure.

Big ad in the business section of the Monday Globe and Mail.

Will the provincial government be there?

- srbp-

NALCOR: the power of constipation

Supposedly all we need is to know that the provincial government’s energy corporation, d.b.a. NALCOR, is “aligned” and will take all the time it needs in order to arrive at a “quality decision” on whether or not to install emission control equipment on its diesel generating plant at Holyrood.

For now, let’s leave three things out of this discussion.

First, this isn’t the place to rehash the nonsense which is NALCOR’s two, inherently contradictory position on Holyrood.

Second, and related to that, let’s not draw too much attention to the fact that NALCOR chief executive Ed Martin’s proposed solution to the $600 million cost of cleaning up Holyrood’s act is a multi-billion dollar pair of hydroelectric dams in Labrador and a giant set of power lines, the lines by themselves estimated to cost more than three times the scrubber cost, that will stretch out to the Avalon.

And third, let’s not note that NALCOR’s own capital plant maintains that Holyrood will have to continue running for the next two decades at at least one quarter to one third its capacity.  In other words, it won’t be shutting down at all.  As such, NALCOR will have to spend the $600 million or so in order to reduce noxious emissions from the plant regardless of whether the Great White Whale gets built or not.

Why Ed Martin and his boss, the Old Man, continue to pack around about this and bullshit the people of the province is beyond rational comprehension.

Instead of that, let us focus Martin’s suggestion that maybe some new types of generation might allow NALCOR the dirty power at Holyrood with some nice clean stuff. That might be cheaper, sez Martin than the environmental cleaners.

For starters, Martin is already sitting on juice to help replace Holyrood.  He got it as a gift from Danny in December 2008.  The only problem – apparently  - is that the interconnection between the Avalon and the rest of the island cannot carry the whole load. 

NALCOR needs some cash to make things happen. NALCOR has the cash, of course, or the capacity to borrow it, thanks to some generous gifts of public money  - yours and mine – courtesy of the Old Man and his crowd. The company is in a nifty position, frankly, since they get to play at being an oil company without having to pay all the costs.  NALCOR won’t pay the owners of the resource  - you and me - a penny in royalty for the oil we’ve given then.  We get the liability and the cost.  Martin and his crowd get the cash.

Pretty sweet deal, if anyone is asking.  And frankly, given the generosity of the current administration with resources and cash – yours and mine - it wouldn’t be too much if you and me expected Martin to install the cleansers and the new line most ricky tick.  He can spare us the bullshit and just get on with the job.

But it is when Martin mentions wind energy that he turns from a purveyor of  annoying bullshit to profound disingenuousness.

As Martin knows, this province has the smallest amount of wind power installed or under development of any province in the country.  It is a mere 54 megawatts in two sites. Tiny Prince Edward Island has more than twice that already on the go.  In short, this province, the one the Old Man and his retinue proclaim as a current and future energy warehouse is so far back in the field that it is not even close to being able to see the far distant ass the of the last place contender for the Crown.

There are two reasons for that.  Assuming that Martin read the Lower Churchill environmental applications he already knows that there is actually no reason to build the LC if the main reason is shipping power to St. John’s.  There’s really no need for additional generating capacity and, as it stands, NALCOR can now reduce Holyrood to virtually nil capacity.

As for the rest of the province, that is, the largest bit of it, the reason there are no wind farms under consideration is simply because NALCOR and the province don’t want them.  Official government policy subordinates any new generation, from small hydro to wind, to the Great White Whale project.

Put another way, innovation is dead as a doornail in Newfoundland and Labrador. The provincial government’s energy policy is working against the best interests of the people of the province.

Ed Martin’s comments to CBC recently could just as easily have been summarised with a parody of the old Mexican bandito line:  “Innovation?  We dun need no stinkin’ innovation.” Martin merely affirmed the power of constipation that afflicts the administration and its energy company, at least when it comes to innovation and energy.

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Connies, pork and electoral ridings

On the federal level, the Globe and Mail reports that the federal Conservatives directed federal spending cash from the stimulus program heavily toward battleground ridings.

Wow.

Connies, pork, patronage and polls all tied together.

Quel surprise.

Meanwhile, in a small province to the east ruled by a Reform-based Conservative Party,  nothing could be further from the truth.

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Telly Torques Tourism: one story, two headlines

Submitted for your approval:  the same story with two headlines. 

“Northern peninsula needs to spark interest: group” as the Telegram put it.

Ho hum.

But what about ‘Tourism association looking for ways to battle drop in visitors” as you find it in Western Star?

This is a good an example as one will find of an editor sticking a headline on a story that doesn’t match the story underneath. Sometimes it is the result of unadulterated stunnedness.  Sometimes, it is deliberate.

The telegram headline makes it sound like the Viking Trail Association just needs to pull up its socks and do better.  But the actual story includes this comment from Barbara Genge of the Viking Trail Tourism Association:

The Northern Peninsula falls under the umbrella of the Western Destination Marketing Organization, which is a setup Genge says has expectedly seen a drop in marketing funds specifically to the region. Since they are one piece of the whole western region, she says they are competing with other areas for what is available.

In order words, the Viking association is losing out to other more populous areas or ones led by people with more clout.  A UNESCO World Heritage site may be getting short-shrift.

The Telegram headline covers up a far more intriguing and complex tale. The Western Star – where the story originated – actually got it right.

And the story actually includes a balancing view from the umbrella tourism association.  Mike* Clewer, executive director of  WDMO told the Star:

“We have limited resources, both financially and in human terms, and we try and do the best we can, which is to work with groups like that who are trying to help themselves,” Clewer said.

But none of this is as devoid of flavour as the Telegram would have you believe.  It’s almost like they were trying to make you skip over it.

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* Mike, not Mark.