Count down to H Hour

Is it a strike, a lock-out or just a labour dispute?

Is it part of an agenda by nurses  - directed by the national nurses union - to see “Newfoundland and Labrador taken to court over its principles”?  That little bit of dog whistling was part of the Premier’s scrum today outside the legislature.

The “principles” the Premier is referring to are not principles as most people would understand them. They are actually just clauses in a contract that are, like all other clauses, subject to negotiation, clarification or other action to ensure that the parties come to agreement.

Whatever you want to call those two clauses there is no question that the provincial government is insisting on them unaltered and that the nurses are rejecting them with equal vigour.

One would almost believe that the provincial government had intended to push this to the wall all along, given that they’ve caved on everything else except those two clauses. 

Take the wage portion, for example. Not so very long ago newly minted finance minister Jerome Kennedy was insisting that the 21%-over-four-years template every other union had signed was the only thing there was.

Listen to the scrum and count the number of times the Premier and finance minister refer to 31%.  They didn’t miss-speak.  They’ve actually sweetened the financial portion in an effort to get nurses off the objection to the two clauses so important to government.

Incidentally, the government was not intent on a strike all along so they could legislate the settlement of their choice.  Nothing could be further from the truth, as the Premier assured us all in a very peculiar bit of self-praise/pre-emptive denial:

We’ve bargained in good faith.

That would be as opposed to bargaining bad faith.

Lots of people are going to pay a steep price for this dispute.  In all honesty, it would be difficult to imagine that anyone outside government or the union could give us the simple explanation of why government is insisting on the right to pay new employees more than old ones doing the same job. 

Aside from creating an incentive for new employees, as claimed in the scrum today, or union busting as the union has suggested, the idea of paying new employees coming through the door the same or more than long-service employees just smacks of the most backward-assed labour policies.  it tells long-serving employees their loyalty and experience and dedication are worth exactly nothing.

Consider how unappealing is the scenario the Premier painted today, that of a nurse being able to attend a child’s wedding because there would now be a nurse to replace her on the shift.  The price for that nurse – with more than two decades of service – is to have someone hired off the street be paid more than him or her.

And for all the finance minister’s efforts to dismiss hypothetical scenarios, it’s pretty easy to see the concern.  The finance minister confirmed that government is developing a policy that would see just that situation:  new employees paid off the grid set out in collective bargaining.  Kennedy basically admitted that what the nurses have claimed is true.

For all the insistence on patterns and policy, it’s interesting, too,  that the provincial government didn’t apply the same rule to other employees - working close to ministers every day –recently, especially when those employees  who received across the board upward reclassification weren’t unionized.  Same problem – difficulty recruiting – produced an entirely different solution.

In another sense, though none of this matters.  The claims and counterclaims are irrelevant.  It doesn’t even matter if what starts tomorrow is a strike of a lock-out.

The only things we know for certain are that this could have been avoided and that a whole bunch of people across the province are going to pay a price for it.

-srbp-

NL exports down 50% in ‘09 according to EDC

Export Development Canada is predicting Newfoundland and Labrador exports will drop by half in 2009 and rebound only 7% in 2010.

“Newfoundland and Labrador will have a tough go in 2009 as massive commodity price declines and production cutbacks lead to high double digit drops for energy, industrial goods, and forestry exports,” said Peter Hall, Chief Economist of EDC.

“In 2010, gains in prices for key commodities like crude oil and iron ore will lift the value of the province’s exports, but volumes will likely weaken again as crude production continues to fall. Ongoing mega construction projects mean the long-term outlook is bright, but the export benefits of these projects lie largely beyond 2010.”

While oil prices started the year well above the EDC forecast of USD 47 per barrel, they may be right about production declines over the course of the year. Other economic forecasts have shown a forecasted 15% drop largely due to downtime at the three production platforms for regular maintenance. 

No one appears to have forecast the effect a drop in demand would also have on production levels.  According to figures from the offshore regulatory board, cumulative production in the first three months of calendar 2009 is down about 5% from the same period in 2007 and 2008.

The fishery is also expected to take a hit:

The agrifood sector accounts for 6 per cent of the province’s total export picture. While commercial fishermen have seen the combined pressures of high oil prices and a high CAD disappear since last year, faltering demand in the wake of the global recession has now set in. This will drive agrifood exports down 4 per cent in 2009 before a modest price increase adds to the underlying strength in the emerging aquaculture sector.

Exports of farmed salmon and steelhead trout could see tremendous upside as a result of the province’s significant coastline and ongoing investments. EDC does not anticipate any major quota adjustments for key species such as crab or shrimp through 2010, but there is some upside for landings of lesser valued ground fish.

-srbp-

Government follows through on promised AbitibiBowater corporate subsidy

Premier Danny Williams and a gaggle of cabinet ministers took the trip to central Newfoundland on Tuesday to announce that the provincial government will pay former AbitibiBowater workers money owed to them by the company.

That’s pretty much the logical result of government’s announced intention in late April to subsidize AbitibiBowater:

2.  If that’s the case, why doesn’t the government just cough up the cash and then sort it out with AB later on, rather than leave the workers hanging?

The announcement comes as discontent grows in central Newfoundland.

Meanwhile in totally, completely unrelated news, the provincial government’s pollster is currently in the field collecting the quarterly poll goose and the nurses are about to go on strike. 

In other totally, unrelated and completely coincidental events, the provincial government is threatening to legislate the nurses back to work in the event they take strike action.  Government has committed to paying the nurses according to the template agreement which would be considerably less than had been negotiated. Government is also insisting on two clauses which the union has said are deal-breakers.  The nurses have suggested sending the two disputed clauses to binding arbitration.  The provincial government has refused.

-srbp-

Two degrees of separation: nurses strike version

Anyone care to go back and look at the last nurses strike? 

Check the issues.  Check the government behaviour. Look familiar?  But then take a look at the premiers involved and play the old two degrees of separation game.

1.  Who connects Brian and Danny, besides Debbie Forward? This person isn’t directly involved in the labour issues.  It’s just curious to see the same people popping up.

(Hint:  it’s hard to differentiate two political parties when they are the same.)

2.  What was the political impact of government shafting the nurses and legislating them back to work?

3.  How long did Brian Tobin last in provincial politics after he legislated nurses back to work?

-srbp-

It’s war!

After lengthy talks on the weekend aimed at averting a nurses strike, the provincial government refused to change it's position at all.

A strike is now guaranteed, in apparent fulfillment of government’s agenda. The provincial government appeared to change positions on other language and provisions but consistently refused to change its position on two controversial clauses. 

One would enable government to set different wage scales for nurses based on recruiting issues.  The other would allow government to fire nurses injured on the job who hadn’t returned to work after two years and been deemed to have a permanent injury. These two provisions were aimed from outset, it would appear, at the nurses.  Other public sector unions accepted the government’s position whole, without change.  These provisions did not affect their workers.

The premier has promised that if the nurses strike (as opposed to buckle to government’s diktat), the government will introduce legislation imposing a settlement that includes all the provisions nurses have rejected. As well, the government has committed to eliminating all the pay raises and incentives that were negotiated.

-srbp-

Two degrees of separation

Around these parts, we’ve always joked that you can play six degrees of separation everywhere else but in Newfoundland and Labrador you can likely only get to two, at best.

Here’s a case in point:

1.   Engineering firm SNC-Lavalin just bought Spectrol Energy Services for an undisclosed sum.

2.   SNC-Lavalin is a contractor on the Lower Churchill project according to the project’s website.  Its boss is a strong proponent of the project.

If you google “SNC-Lavalin + lower churchill” or look in the upper right hand corner of your browser, the website still reads Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, incidentally, just to emphasise the interconnected nature of these ventures. The Lower Churchill project used to be run by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, but is now another subsidiary of NALCOR Energy, the provincial government’s umbrella energy corporation.

3.  In February, 2009, SNC Lavalin was one of six firms invited to express interest in a piece of work on the project.

4.  Danny Williams used to be a director  - some report it as president - of Spectrol Energy Services;  his interest in the company was placed in a blind trust after he became premier.  In his 2008 filing with the legislature’s members’ interest commissioner, Williams listed a loan guarantee to Spectrol as one of his liabilities.

5.  Spectrol is an oil and gas industry service company that has done work for, among others,  ExxonMobil and the Hibernia project as well as Husky and the White Rose project (starting in 2005). 

6.  The provincial government owns a 4.9% interest in White Rose, which it manages through a subsidiary of NALCOR.  It acquired the interest last year.

7.  Bill Fanning, Spectrol’s chief executive was appointed to the Bull Arm Corporation by the Williams cabinet in 2006.  Questions were raised about the appointment at the time but the government brushed them aside.

8.  Last year, the Bull Arm Corporation was made a subsidiary of NALCOR Energy.

9.  Fanning still sits on the Bull Arm board right alongside directors who also sit on the boards of the other NALCOR subsidiaries in the true fashion of interlocking directorates.

10.  SNC-Lavalin subsidiary BAE Newplan is suing the proponents of a refinery project in Placentia Bay.  In a trip to the Middle East in 2008, Danny Williams reportedly promoted the project unsuccessfully to overseas investors.

How many degrees of separation does all that add up to?

-srbp-

A mere pittance

Just a few other observations come to mind at the end of the week on the province’s newest old research and development agency.

The original post – that highlighted the sooper sekrit powers the R & D agency has – can be found here.

1.  Glenn Janes,  The chief executive officer of the thing, was appointed in December 2007. 

2.  The legislation to reinvent the agency was passed through the legislature in December 2008, isn’t in force yet and is already being amended in a bill currently being rushed through the legislature before the nurses’ strike hits.  It’s a council or agency or thingy since one of the changes being made will give cabinet the power to change the name whenever it feels like it.

3.  On the one hand, support for research and development is good.  On the other hand, $25 million is a paltry sum.  Well, paltry compared to what will be flowing from the oil and gas sector – for example – under offshore board regulations. 

The first three projects will pump considerably more than that annually.  As The Telegram described it in February:

The new rules require companies to spend a percentage of their annual offshore revenue on research, development, education and training activities in the province.

The rate will vary from year to year. This year, for instance, it is 0.36 per cent.

Basically, one project offshore will pump more cash into research and development than the provincial government alone.  We are talking hundreds of millions from Big Oil thanks to the offshore board.

4.  Had the government been really serious about R & D, they could have worked a deal with the oil companies to channel the Big Oil R & D payouts through the revamped agency/council/ thingy.  Since they appointed Janes way back in 2007, it’s not like they didn’t have time to work that into the Hebron talks or something.

5.  Speaking of Hebron talks, getting excited about $25 million in funding for R & D seems a bit odd given that the provincial government settled for a flat amount from Hebron.  That flat amount  - $120 million over the entire 25 year lifespan of the project - is way below what the project would have had to put into the provincial economy if the offshore board regs were applied. 

Put another way:  Big Oil involved in Hebron will shell out about less than $5.0 million a year.

Put another way still, Hibernia alone has put on average almost $20 million a year into local research and development since first oil in 1997.

6.  A couple of years ago there was plenty of tough talk, but the reality is that both the royalty deal and especially the R & D aspects of the Hebron project are actually a lot less than they should have been.

That’s pretty ironic, considering the Premier was quoted by the Financial Post two years ago talking about the need – supposedly – to get more out of Big Oil, not the less he settled for:

"In these times of extremely high oil prices where consumers are bearing the burden and companies are taking in exorbitant profits, the time has come for new arrangements for projects on a go-forward basis."

It was a new arrangement, of course, just one that ensures the companies keep more of their cash from Hebron.

7.  When it comes to the independence needed to run a successful research and development operation, the new agency won’t have it.  The chief executive officer is appointed by cabinet – not the agency’s board – and all staff hiring must be approved by the minister. 

With any R & D agency like this, autonomy should be the watchword.  Think of the research successes at Memorial University and its associated agencies.  Instead what we are getting is like a think tank where the thinking is watched over by Joan Burke and her colleagues. 

That never works well, especially if this new agency is going to be funding social science and policy research. 

All of this is a big shame really, since the guy in charge is evidently a sharp fellow.  Too bad he is working under such obvious hindrances.  It would be hard to imagine Janes came up with these himself working from what he described as a clean sheet of paper.

Maybe in a few years time, some other administration of whatever political stripe can  fix the fairly obvious problems with what started out as a really good idea.

40 years ago.

-srbp-

Whadidwetellya?

On Wednesday we warned the government was putting on the push to slam the House closed.

It’s twoo, It’s twoo, as Lily von Schtup would say. Even voice of the cabinet minister is covering it.

The reason:  nurses strike.

If the House is open on Wednesday, nurses will be filling the galleries and the opposition will be hammering away at the provincial government asking all sorts of difficult questions.

Hardly likely the provincial government would want that when their pollster is in the field collecting the quarterly harvest of poll goosing results.

Very embarrassing would it be to have nurses doing even one tenth what the crab crowd did to government in the spring of 2005. 

Not only that but with cracks opening within the government caucus there could be a sorry-assed repeat of the whole Fabian Manning fiasco.  Seriously, people.  If Ray Hunter has to get up from his uncomfortable new pew to refute an accusation he’s been muzzled – and thereby confirm the accusation – then you know there are others who are feeling a tad unsettled trapped between the wishes of their constituents and the diktats that come via blackberry from the Tower.

Ray’s on edge.  Who else? Sullivan maybe and the pressure she must be under from people in central Newfoundland pissed off about Abitibi.

Jim Baker and the crowd in Labrador west?  More bad news coming on Friday, if rumours pan out.

Anyone feeling heat from Corner Brook and the failed Grenfell autonomy thing? Increasing uncertainty about the Kruger mill and one of its machines?

How about townie MHAs?  Or those from the Third City?  Must be hard having all those former mayors in one spot and the guy who goes in to cabinet is the one who can’t speak in whole sentences.

Close the House and let the pollster do his part in poll goosing saga free from all that “counter-spinning negativity”.  The line still brings a chuckle since it starts from the premise that there is “spinning” in the first place that is being countered.  Think of it as a round about confession, like telling Randy Simms that if one wanted to goose polls one would start the week before the pollster goes to the field.  Which of course is exactly what they do.

Anyway, it’s not like someone didn’t tell you what was going on.

-srbp-

TJ the Latte Boy

The Kristin Chenoweth version that started a bit of a craze:

Another version which is actually much funnier in some respects:

And of course there had to be a counterpart from Taylor’s/TJ’s perspective:

Now the rest of you can be infected with a song that will get stuck in your head, too.

-srbp-

Turn off the damn phone

From a couple of months ago, admittedly, but still worth watching again.

Sexist and inaccurate coverage at macleans.ca

Apparently, macleans.ca couldn’t find a story worth writing about from Newfoundland and Labrador so they had to showcase provincial environment minister Charlene Johnson as the poster child for provincial legislatures and their lack of maternity policies.

The thing is called “Why MPPs aren’t having more babies.”

There are more than a few factual problems with this piece so let’s start running through them.

1.  If you look at the demographics of the legislatures across the country you’ll like find that very few of the elected members are women and fewer still of those are in their child-bearing years.

2.  If you look at the men elected, you’ll also likely find most of them are at the point in their lives where their families are already started. A lack of clear maternity policies isn’t keeping women – let alone younger women – out of politics;  other issues are.

3.  It is incorrect to state that there is no maternity leave policy in the House of Assembly.  Johnson had to apply for leave, the same as anyone else would in any other situation.  Why the management commission or the Speaker hasn’t addressed her request yet is the problem. Johnson has obtained leave previously for medical issues.  This one would be no different, at the very least.  if Johnson wanted to take maternity leave, she’d have no trouble getting it.

4.  Therefore, the suggestion she’d have to pay a couple of hundred bucks is crap since it is highly unlikely the Tory cabinet minister would be denied maternity leave from a legislature dominated by the Tories and presided over by a Tory Speaker (even if by some remote chance her application might be denied.)

5.   There is an entirely different angle on this story, of course, which macleans.ca ignored in favour of the sexist one they took.  Like any, modern, progressive couple, Johnson and her husband didn’t see it as automatic that the woman had to take time off to care for the child.  After a month or so, Johnson is returning to work and her husband is taking parental leave .

6.  macleans.ca also didn’t note that Johnson is eligible for $1,000 for her child as part of the government’s bounty on live births announced during the last provincial general election.

7.  Referring to members of provincial legislatures as MPPs suggests that someone at macleans.ca needs to check the old style guide.  That particular appellation – short for member of the provincial parliament – is strictly found in Ontari-ari-ario.  They are members of the National Assembly in Quebec and Members of  the House of Assembly in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Canadian Press warns against using the abbreviations for provincial legislature members since the titles vary.  Good advice, but even in a pinch MLA – member of the legislative assembly – is generic enough to pass.

8.  Stories macleans.ca ignored in favour of this one:

-  Public funds diverted to partisan purposes (rather timely given goings-on in the U.K.

- The related story of a partisan appointed as chief electoral officer

And that’s just two of the juicier ones with some national relevance.

9.  As a last note, though, it was nice to see Judy Tyabji back in the news again.

-srbp-

Quality matters

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians got a huge reminder today of a piece of red tape the provincial government deliberately ignored in its recent three year crusade to rid the province of unnecessary and burdensome government regulation.

Gas prices leaped six and a half cents.

The provincial government’s petroleum products price fixing agency has cost taxpayers in the province more than $65 million above what would have occurred if the regulatory system wasn’t in place. 

Some taxpayers, like those on the coast of Labrador, get an extra shaft from the province’s price fixing scheme.  Early price freezes mean the price per gallon stayed well above what the island portion of the province paid through the fall and early winter as prices everywhere else dropped.

Supposedly the provincial government eliminated 27% of the red tape that used to be there.  How they measured it is beyond anyone other than the people who issued the news releases over the past three years that contained little more than numbers:  government has cut another 3,652 pieces of red tape on its goal of cutting some other bigger meaningless number.

Rather than quantity, they should have gone for quality.  if they really wanted to wipe out useless government bureaucracy they’d have closed the gas pricing fixing office.

That’s something every consumer in the province – businesses included – would have seen every single day.

-srbp-

Reinventing the wheel and keeping it secret

According to a provincial government news release, the Premier announced something new today: the “Research & Development Corporation (RDC), a new Crown entity for improving the province’s research and development capacity.”

Problem One:  it isn’t new.

At some point in the distant past, the legislature passed the Research Council Act which created an agency to fund research and development.  The thing is old enough to be included in not only the 1990 consolidation of provincial statutes but in the 1970 one as well.

The purposes of the council, as established long ago, are to research into just about anything anyone can think of with respect to the local economy and society and to take whatever steps are necessary to support both the research and potentially the fruits of research.

Last December, the legislature passed a new bill to create a research and development council.  The new legislation isn’t in force by the way, so the announcement today was completely bogus on that front as well. 

But aside from those extra two words in the title, the new bill doesn’t do much that the old one didn’t.

Problem Two:   the research and development council act, passed in December, copies almost word for word the sections of the energy corporation bill and thereby that makes pretty well everything connected to the council exempt from the province’s open records laws based solely on the decision of the cabinet-appointed Rhodes scholar who runs the thing.

That isn’t sarcasm, incidentally.  The guy is yet another Rhodent appointed by the province’s chief Rhodes beneficiary.  

Public money – to the tune of $25 million is going in – but what happens to will remain a state secret.  Not only are the fruits of research to be hidden from the people who paid for it but the new corporation can hide just about everything related to its own operations.

The information and privacy commissioner and anyone else who would normally examine a secrecy decision by a government body are directed by this bill to uphold the corporation’s decision on keeping secrets.

The old corporation had a mandate to publish research results, incidentally, which is pretty much consistent with the idea of making ideas available so the private sector can develop them and make something out of them.  Academics publish the results of their research so their peers can either profit from it for their work or tear into it and find the flaws. 

Not so in the brave new world of the research and development council.

Everything will  be secret except for whatever trivial bits of information the people controlling this enterprise – cabinet appointees all – deign to tell the nasty little proles who are footing the bill.

The cabinet gets to appoint the chief executive officer and the staff hiring must all be approved by the minister.

But even though this new version of the research council legislation was just created last December – and the bill isn’t in force yet -  the government is already making amendments.  The government bill exempts the new entity entirely from the Corporations Act and gives cabinet the power to pick a name for the council (it went from being the Research and Development Council to a name to be chosen later). 

The tenure of board members has changed as well for some inexplicable reason. Here’s the December version of section 7(1):

7. (1) Members of the board shall be appointed for a term of 3 years but may be removed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council for cause.

Here’s the May version:

7. (1) Members of the board, whether appointed before or after this Act comes into force, shall be appointed for a term of up to 3 years but may be removed by the Lieutenant-Governor in Council for cause.

Anyone want to venture what difference the change makes?

To help you out, here’s the provision of the bill under which the current members of the council were appointed (remember that the new bill isn’t in force yet):

4. (1) Members hold office for a period of 3 years from the date of their appointment.

What we have here is yet another example of policy recycling by an administration that has been surprisingly bereft of any original ideas since 2003.

On top of that we have a government which can’t seem to sort out its own legislation.  We had three versions of the energy corporation bill in each of three years and here again we have a piece of legislation that hasn’t even been proclaimed and yet is being altered already.  Both of those things suggest serious problems in the policy-making processes of government.

And if all that wasn’t bad enough, we have yet another example of a government that talks a great deal about openness, transparency and accountability but seems to do exactly the opposite.

Where is the novelty, where is the innovation in any of that?

What a way to start out what is supposedly a bold, new venture to come with some original ideas.

-srbp-

Government pollster in the field

You can tell Corporate research Associates – the provincial government pollster – is doing the quarterly omnibus.

1.  Yet another federal-provincial funding announcement.  (The second in three days)

2.  More public cash for a ski club in Labrador.

3.  Federal and provincial cash for aquaculture.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

-srbp-

Legislature to close early?

Don’t be surprised if the House of  Assembly shuts down suddenly later this week or early next week before the nurses’ job action starts.

After weeks of no activity, there’s been a sudden flurry of night sittings and extended hours that seem designed to clear off a few pieces of legislation so the House can close well before the original planned closure in mid-June.

The reason for closing early is simple:  there’s no way government could afford to have the House open with a nurses strike on the go at the same time the government’s pollster is in the field.  That’s right folks:  Corporate Research Associates is making its quarterly calls as we speak.

They can adjourn the sitting and then call it back later, if need be to send the nurses back to work suitably punished, as the Premier threatened today.  Rest assured though, the House wouldn’t be called back to vote on the bill to end a nurses strike until Don Mills’ people have stopped making their calls or have all but finished.

Never forget the extent to which provincial government pronouncements are driven at certain times of the year by the poll-goosing imperative. 

-srbp-

One thing you can count on…

If the nurses take any strike action, the provincial government will legislate them back to work with a vengeance.

Sure the Premier and finance minister have drawn a dozen lines in the sand and made countless threats all of which came to naught.

But when it comes to the point where the labour struggle is, this provincial government will use the power of the legislature to smash whatever it needs to smash in order to get its way.

Just ask the Abitibi workers who thought the expropriation bill was about helping them out and not about skimming off the cream of Abitibi’s assets for the Premier’s pet crown corporation.

Plus, they’ll change the current legislation to make sure that there is as little chance of a court challenge as possible.

But…

It’s hard to imagine that the provincial government would follow on one aspect of the Premier’s latest threats simply because it would only have the result of making an already tough labour environment even tougher:

"So, there'll be no standby increase, there'll be no shift differential increase, there'll be no educational leave. There will be no additional steps for nurses coming into the system, and there'll be no additional steps for nurses that are already in the system."

No educational leave?

No additional steps?  That would have the effect of making recruitment and retention even tougher even allowing for the union busting provisions government will take for themselves so they can cut one-off deals with individual nurses.

Then again, in the Great Game of Chicken that is government’s negotiations with the nurses, logic and sense just don’t apply.

-srbp-

Nose-puller alert: Frank and Brian never spoke after 1987

Via the National Post,  a description of a bit of Brian Mulroney’s testimony at the inquiry into the whole Airbus mess:

His relationship with Frank Moores, at one time a great friend, was “nonexistent” after 1987, when Moores trashed Mulroney’s government. “I simply severed communications with him completely.”

Does anyone else find it hard to believe that Brian Mulroney and Frank Moores didn’t speak – even once – during the period after 1987?

Like say, maybe around the time of Meech Lake?

Maybe September 1990?  Frank was here for the Hibernia signing but the poor old e-scribbler brain can’t recall if the Prime Minister at the time made the trip as well.

-srbp-

S-92 Q and A

While it is stamped for internal use only, CBC has posted an internal questions and answers document prepared for use by the oil company officials and Cougar for use at some meetings being organized with offshore workers prior to the resumption of helicopter flights to the three platforms.

The answers are straightforward and leave out information that is still subject to the Transportation Safety Board investigation of the S-92 crash two months ago.

Some answers stand out, though, like this one about gear box warning indications:

Q79. Has there ever been a Gear Box alarm incident before? How was it handled? Was anything different from this incident? Did it happen with the S-92A? (Questions 112, 45, 277)

A. In the entire global fleet of Sikorsky S-92A helicopters, there have been a
total of five incidences related to three types of gear box issues.  Two (including Cougar’s helicopter) related to filter bowl studs, two related to lube oil pump Vespel spline couplings, and one related to overfilling of lube oil. The change from titanium to steel studs as mandated by FAA directive has been completed. The Vespel spline couplings underwent a design improvement that was previously implemented.

or another on the 30 minute run dry issue:

Q81. There has been comments that the gear box should be able to
run dry for thirty minutes, if this is the case why did this not happen?  (Question 240)

A. Sikorsky states that there is no “30-minute run dry” regulatory requirement for civilian certified helicopters. The S-92AA main gearbox is fully certified, without waiver or exception, to the latest Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs), including Part 29 through Amendment 47. Sikorsky states that total loss of oil is considered an extremely remote event based on system design. Further,that for all gearbox failure modes that are not deemed as extremely remote, continued safe operation of the S-92A helicopter main gearbox has been demonstrated in excess of three hours running time. In the circumstance of total loss of lubrication, a “Land Immediately” instruction is directed.

-srbp-

Clarity

Here’s an old chestnut used to teach people about clear communication.  Your humble e-scribbler first came across it about a decade ago in an army staff officers’ course and it has turned up in several places since then.

What you are looking at is a picture of a note written by General George Custer at the Little Big Horn to one of his subordinates. 

Your challenge, should you chose to take it up, is to translate the scribbles.

What does the message say?

-srbp-

Public cash not enough

Teletech, a controversial American call centre operator, is pulling up stakes and leaving the province after only four years of its five year agreement.

Back when she was innovation minister, Kathy Dunderdale offered the company $1.1 million annually in wage subsidies for five years in order set up shop in Mount Pearl.  Controversy erupted when it turned out that the company had a string of labour relations lawsuits but Dunderdale’s department hadn’t noticed even though the suits are well documented on line.

Due diligence for dummies, Jack Harris called it at the time.  He meant “google”.  Harris was playing on Dunderdale’s love of meaningless phrases which came out in force as the minister faced pointed questions about her departments fairly obvious incompetence:

In another interview, the minister said that the outside companies hired to carry out the "due diligence piece" would not necessarily pick up these sorts of issues. So what were they looking for? Lint?

She also said this information turned up by reporters wouldn't have "negatively impacted" on government's decision, had it been known.

Observers will note that Dunderdale loves those meaningless phrases when she’s under pressure – as in this and countless other cases – and when she isn’t.  It seems, as we suspected back then, that Dunderdale thinks this blather makes it sound like she knows what she is talking about when she likely doesn’t.

Interesting that the company never had to operate a single day in the province without a cash infusion from government. 

Wonder where they are going next?

-srbp-

Trade deals and petards

The premier’s excuses for not participating in talks on a European trade deal just get more bizarre as time goes by.

First there was the whole idea that Stephen Harper can’t be trusted to look after Newfoundland and Labrador’s interests so the best solution – according to Danny Williams’ logic – is to let Stephen Harper look after Newfoundland and Labrador’s interests.

Then there was the whole idea of a side deal which, of course is impossible constitutionally, not to mention practically.  As a European Union spokesperson put it:

"The Government of Canada is the only government with the authority to conclude international treaties under the Canadian constitution, so our interlocutor and negotiating partner will be the government of Canada,"…

The spokesperson indicated she’d apparently met with Our man in a Blue Line Cab to talk about seals.

But apparently, nothing else.

Then there was the whole go-it-alone thing, which consisted of nothing more grand than sending Tom Hedderson off to talk to a few ambassadors in a hastily arranged series of meetings on seals.

Now there’s this little gem, from Question period in the House of Assembly on Monday:

So there are other bigger issues. There is also the whole issue of the Atlantic Accord and what is going to happen when European countries do business in Newfoundland and Labrador.

What issue is he talking about? 

Or more accurately, which Atlantic Accord?

The 2005 one – the only one he usually talks about – doesn’t have anything to do with Europeans or trade.

The 1985 one – the real one – establishes a local preference policy for Newfoundland and Labrador companies doing business offshore.  The only way to get rid of that would be for the federal and provincial governments to agree to eliminate it.  That’s because the deal can’t be amended unilaterally.

Well, it isn’t supposed to be amended unilaterally.

Under section 60 of the 1985 Accord, neither party could amend the enabling legislation unilaterally. Until 2007, no one thought they might.  Then Stephen Harper amended the offset provisions in a rather sneaky way.

But the really odd thing is that the provincial government did not raise a single objection  - beyond some generalised gum-flapping about Equalization - to the amendment of the 1985 deal. 

Not a one.

No letters of protest.

Nada.

To the contrary, when they opted for O’Brien 50 this past winter – and pocketed  Equalization cash in the process – they accepted the federal Conservative’s 2007 amendment as part of the deal.  In fact, as the premier has indicated recently, the provincial government decided at least as long ago as early 2008 to flip to O’Brien/50 in early 2009 in hopes of pocketing Equalization cash. Heck, they might have even signalled that privately at the time to the federal government.

So maybe the real reason the Premier is in a snit is because he’s worried that through all of this he’ll just be hoist by his own clever Equalization petard.  Rather than see the local preference rules of the 1985 deal preserved to the benefit of local companies, we’ll see them disappear.

That would go a long way to explaining the sudden about face the provincial government did on this deal back in February.  Maybe the feds made it clear that the local preference provisions of the 1985 deal were up for consideration and one of the things the feds could throw back in the Premier’s face was his own acceptance of the unilateral changes to the 1985 Atlantic Accord.  You can almost imagine the conversation:  “Danny, it doesn’t matter if you show up or not.  We can change the thing by ourselves if we have to – you just told us we could when you accepted the changes from 2007.”

Still, though, it doesn’t explain why he would sit on the sidelines rather than become personally involved.  After all, as he told the legislature: :[w]e are going to do what we have to do here to protect the interests of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and I could not care less what the rest of them do, I have to be quite honest with you.”

Well, to be quite honest with you, if the provincial government was really hell-bent on protecting Newfoundland and Labrador interests, the place to do that is at the table, inside the Canadian negotiating team.

Seal-bashing just doesn’t seem like a reason enough to turn down the invitation to sit on the team.  And like we’ve said before, if custodial management and shrimp tariffs are so important – and they are – the place to deal with those is at the negotiating table.

And look, if you really want to get a sense of how much is at stake for the province just look at what the Premier said himself in the legislature:

There are also a lot of very big, multinational, European companies that want to do business in Newfoundland and Labrador, because of our minerals, because of our oil and gas, because of our fishery, and we have to take the abuse from these hypocrites basically saying that we act in an inhumane and a barbarian manner, when they chase bulls through the streets in Spain, and matadors pierce bulls in a Roman type atmosphere, and we are out trying to earn a living.

So  - if we try and follow the Premier’s own logic – a vote by the European parliament that affects maybe a few million dollars that comes to the province from seal-bashing is way more important than billions in new economic development throughout Newfoundland and Labrador that would come from participating in the trade deal negotiations.

Okay.

That makes sense.

Not.

-srbp-

Inconvenient truths: voting math

From the House of Assembly and a discussion of the recent vote taken among the province’s nurses on a contract offer from the provincial government:

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr. Speaker, quite simply, a strike can be avoided if the nurses decide not to go on strike. It is my understanding that 80 per cent voted and that 63 per cent of those who voted, voted to have a strike. The math on that is 50.4 per cent, so one out of two nurses wants a strike and one out of two nurses do not want a strike.

He’s right.

That’s the way the numbers break out if you look at the total number of eligible voters.

Of course, that isn’t the way, the Premier and his supporters like to look at the results of the last provincial election. They’ll talk about things like the nearly 70% of the popular vote for the Provincial Conservatives.

Of course, as some people conveniently forget, only 60% of the electorate turned out to vote.

The math on that is 41.76%.

So…

you can fill in the rest.

-srbp-

No deal. No cash.

The lack of a deal with the federal government is holding up approval of projects eligible for the federal government’s economic stimulus spending.

The provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Manitoba, as well as the three territories, have yet to reach agreements with Ottawa on the program, although some contacted last week said agreements were imminent.

However, one official told The Globe and Mail that the deal with Alberta was delayed because the government in that province wants some of the previous money it allocated to infrastructure spending to count toward its one-third share of the program. Alberta feels it has spent substantially more on infrastructure than any other province and that their actions should be recognized. A federal official said Friday that the two governments have since reached an agreement in principle.

Maybe the provincial government has sorted that out in the meantime.  There’s not much else that could prompt a joint federal-provincial newser.

Lots o’ cash and cuddles update:  Turns out that there was a deal and that the federal government was quite happy to hold a giant news conference with both federal and provincial Conservatives attending.

But the cuddles didn’t stop with the newser.  Provincial Conservative public works minister Trevor Taylor even issued a ministerial statement on the cash, this being polling season and all.

-srbp-

Airborne misadventures, Part Deux

For those who enjoyed the video of paratroops exiting an aircraft in a less than proficient manner, here is another one to lighten up your day.

This one is “Airdrop mishaps” which – as the title suggests – is a string of things that went wrong in dropping equipment and supplies to soldiers.

There are flipped-over trucks, a LAPESed pallet that breaks open, spilling  its load all over hells half acre, a parachute deployment problem (it didn’t deploy until it was way too late) and  - a personal favourite – the vehicle that broke free of its restraining straps and started off down range on its own.

-srbp-

Well positioned, indeed

In the past year, Newfoundland and Labrador has shed 8,800 jobs.

That’s right.

There are almost 9,000 fewer people working this time in 2009 than there were at the same time in 2008.

CBC News is focusing only on the 2,800 dropped in one month – that is last month.

Fair enough, but that other number is staggering what with all the talk from the provincial government the past few months about the province being supposedly well positioned to weather the economic crisis and then emerge unscathed on the other side.

8,800 jobs shed in a year.

If you look at the figures from Statistics Canada you see that the figure is made up of almost equal numbers of full-time and part-time jobs. But, look a little harder and you’ll notice that in the part-time employment segment, the job loss amounts to 12.5% in a single 12 month period. 

Those people didn’t switch to full-time employment status nor did they leave the province, necessarily.

-srbp-

Sound familiar?

A bunch of politicians accused of living high on the public hog and getting into an argument about what the rules permit.

From Guido Fawkes:

Guido has been shouting about the Green Book Rule changes which came into force on April Fools Day - and politicians really do take us for fools. To stop all the rule breaking by MPs they came up with a clever solution. Scrap the rules!

Meanwhile, there is a hunt on for the person who leaked information on the story to the papers.

The Mother of Parliaments might wind up following the path taken in the Bow-Wow Parliament once the whole thing explodes.

We could loan them a Chief Justice who could sort the mess out quite nicely.

In the meantime, it might be interesting to find out if any of their cash from their spending scandal had been directed to paying party campaign expenses as has been the case here, albeit something the ruling party isn’t at all interested to see investigated with the same judicial vigour.

-srbp-

First oil and a new discovery

Chevron announced two milestones this week.

On Wednesday, the company achieved first oil on the  Tahiti field in the Gulf Of Mexico. production is expected to 125,000 barrels per day of oil and 70 million cubic feet of natural gas by the end of the year.

The Tahiti production platform, left, is located 305 kilometres south of New Orleans and sits in 1250 metres of water.

On Friday, Chevron announced it had struck oil in a well drilled offshore Congo.

Moho Nord Marine-4 was drilled to a total depth of 13,907 feet (4,239 meters) and proved a 535 foot (163 meter) column of high-quality oil flowing at 8,100 barrels per day.

The discovery follows two previous successful exploration wells, Moho Nord Marine-1 and 2, drilled in the permit area in 2007, and the positive appraisal well Moho Nord Marine-3 in 2008.

-srbp-

There’s more to this than a few seals

Given the origins of and the scope of the trade talks starting between Canada and the European Union, Danny Williams’ refusal to participate is even more bizarre than it first appeared.

Whatever is going on with the government party and its supporters – including voice of the cabinet minister crowd who seem obsessed with clubbing seals these days - it ain’t really about seals.

The provincial government seems intent on ignoring both the reality of the province’s dependence on trade with the United States and the growing concerns about American trade protectionism. Of the $13-plus billion in exports to the top 10 trading partners for the province, the United States consumed $10 billion or 77%.  The U.S. accounts for 70% of all Newfoundland and Labrador international exports.

This, from the Economist, says much:

You can see why Canada would want to lessen its dependence on America, which bought 75.5% of its exported goods last year and provided 63.4% of its imported ones. Yanked into recession by America, Canada worries that trade will suffer from protectionism (in the form of new Buy American provisions and country-of-origin labelling requirements on farm products) and Washington’s moves to toughen up border security.

The deal could open new markets for Canadian exports of agricultural, fish and forestry products in addition to fish, aerospace, automotive and other exports. 

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is refusing to participate in the talks as part of the Canadian delegation.  The Premier claims it is because he doesn’t trust the Prime Minister to look after the province’s concerns about European opposition to the seal hunt, the push for custodial management of fisheries outside the 200 mile Canadian exclusive economic zone and impact of a EU shrimp tariff on Newfoundland and Labrador shrimp exports.

Since all those things are on the table plus a great deal more directly affecting the future of the provincial economy, it’s bizarre that the provincial government would leave all those issues entirely in the hands of someone they supposedly don’t trust.

Bizarre indeed.

 

 

-srbp-

What makes news? (Small Town News edition)

People wonder what it takes to get a story in the conventional media.

Virtually every public relations practitioner will be asked -  at least one thousand times over the course of a career - “what makes news?”

The conventional answers are sex, drugs, power, conflict/controversy, novelty, celebrity, bad weather and money.  There a bunch more but those will do for what we are talking about.

On top of that you have to add proximity.  Local news outlets usually don’t cover something that happened outside their area.  A car accident might make the news where it happened but it likely won’t be covered in the same state or province, let alone the same country.

All that is what makes it so bizarre to find that voice of the cabinet minister is pushing a story about some online “newspaper” in Thunder Bay, Ontario that carried an editorial/ news story praising Danny Williams.
Actually “online” is less accurate a term than “obscure”, at least for people who don’t live in Thunder Bay.  In fact, for most of us, Thunder Bay conjures up nothing more  edifying than that old joke about the only types of people who ever came out of Thunder Bay, one of which was a hockey player.

So somehow, the powers that be over at the province’s major radio outlet have determined that people across the province should be aware of the fact that one guy in Thunder Bay who runs a website has positive feelings about Danny Williams.

Whoopeee ding.

Now what are the odds, do you think, that the Saskatchewan equivalent of VOCM will run a story:  “PEI blogger lauds Brad Wall”.

Or maybe CHUM will carry word that “Antigonish e-mail whiz loves Dalton!”

And even to put it in a closer context – one assumes – might we expect British Columbia’s radio news giants to be heralding the online musings of NLPress about Gordon Campbell?

Somehow none of that seems even remotely likely.  Then again, it’s highly unusual for a news outlet to so favour the regime du jour in its programming that it can become known as “voice of the cabinet minister” and no one misses the joke. 

After all, are the guys running major news outlets anywhere else in the country so chummy with the local Power that Is that they take up a sea on the government’s oil and gas company board?  Highly unlikely.

But don’t take the word of a mere humble e-scribbler.  Just check the registry of companies and see who is sitting next to John Ottenheimer, Ken Marshall, Ed Martin and Glen Roebothan on the NALCOR Oil and Gas Co. board.

In pondering the curiosity of all this, we should not forget, of course, that the government’s polling firm will be in the field within the next day or so collecting their quarterly results.

Everyone knows this, including the crowd over at the Great Oracle of the Valley. They know full well that starting next week their call-in shows will be festooned with Tory politicians heralding the glories of their administration led by the Absolutely Splendiferous You Know Who. They’ve already started practicing in the House of Assembly, as labradore has noted. 

Even Hisself – who just launched a tirade about Steve Harper – will turn up at least once.  Last time he did one of the on air types asked Hisself about this poll goosing stuff. The Premier noted that the government pollster had started in the field the previous weekend and that, if he wanted to goose a poll, he’d have started the week before the polling started.

Which of course, he had already done last time.

And which of course he is doing yet again. 

-srbp-

How to tell when your position is wrong

When you are a political leader and your comments show you to be so far out of touch with the best interest of your province such that Stephen Harper looks sensible in comparison, then you know something is wrong.

Seriously wrong.

Like there’s a giant fireball in the sky above the place you’re heading and you can’t understand why all these cars are going the other way wrong.

Like you and a bunch of your drunken teenage friends go camping at Crystal Lake and you start making out with your girlfriend alone in a tent in the middle of the night and wonder where that machete came from sticking through the tent top wrong.

Topic:  the annual seal hunt, also known as March Madness (in this case in May) or as it has become, the platform by which every “C” list celebrity or celebrity wannabe seeks the public spotlight once again.

Issue:  The European Union voted to ban imports of seal products.

The Stephen Harper Comment: "If we were to make our trade relations with the European Union about only the sealing issue, we will never have any trading relations with the European Union because as we know this is a disagreement of long-standing," [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper said at a news conference.

The Danny Williams Comment:   "You know he's prepared to sacrifice Newfoundland and Labrador's interest in the interests of other issues for Canadians. And I think that's just dead wrong and it shows what this guy is all about," [Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams said].

Okay.

According to the provincial government’s own fact sheet,  “the sealing industry is worth $55 million” to the provincial economy. That was a figure for 2006.

In that same year, Newfoundland and Labrador did more than 10 times as much business with Germany and the United Kingdom combined as the total value of the seal fishery.

In 2006, exporters from Newfoundland and Labrador sold a heckuva lot more than seal pelts to European Union countries.  At that value, they shipped a heckuva lot more to European countries than the seal products they may have shipped through them.

In 2008, Germany alone accounted for $1.02 billion of Newfoundland and Labrador’s exports. According to CBC, total Canadian seal exports to the EU last year amounted to a measly $5.5 million.  That’s all Canada, not just Newfoundland and Labrador.

Get the idea?

Now just think – for one teensy second – about the implication of Danny Williams’ comment.  Apparently, the only issue of any consequence here for Danny Williams is the seal hunt and 10 times as much trade between our province and Europe and the chance to sort out some of the grievances doesn’t matter one jot or tittle.

Lest you think this remark is out of context consider that the provincial government earlier this year turned down the chance to work with an international trade mission aimed at increasing trade with European countries.

Why?

Because of the seal hunt, among a couple of other issues which would have been better addressed at the table rather than far away from it .Actually, if you follow the links you’ll see another classic Williams administration constantly-shifting-position, but let’s just go with the “No seal hunt, no play” position.

If there’s logic in the provincial government’s argument – as enunciated by Danny Williams  - it sure isn’t obvious. Apparently, the economic benefit to the provincial economy of increased trade with the Europeans isn’t something the provincial ministry could be bothered with. 

At this point, it’s hard to see how the provincial government is protecting provincial interests by launching into another tirade with anyone over seals when seals are only a tiny fraction of the overall provincial economic picture involved.

But seriously:

How can you tell your political position is crap?

When Stephen Harper sounds reasonable in comparison.

-srbp-

Updated – added sentences giving value  of seal exports to EU last year, according to CBC story.

Indy going under

Apparently, it has nothing to do with anything other than the trends in the market.

People don’t read newspapers evidently, especially ones that are following a fairly conventional advertising revenue approach.  As we know from the local experience even getting a massive weekly infusion of government cash doesn’t help.

Before the newspaper types get all incensed, your humble e-scribbler doesn’t think that newspapers are really going to die.  There’s a place for them in the news world of the future.

What needs to change is the information delivery model and the revenue model.

People just aren’t reading the conventional papers like they used to do, and as a consequence, the revenue is drying up from advertisers. 

Take a look across the United States and you will see bastions of the newspaper world  from Boston to San Francisco struggling to keep alive.

That’s a clue.

-srbp-

The Value of an Oxford education

"You see what's happening in countries like Denmark with the whale slaughters. We see other parts of the world where kangaroos are being culled by the hundreds of thousands, and yet they're after the seal harvest here in Newfoundland and Labrador," [Premier Danny Williams] said.

"So Europeans should have a good, hard look at themselves."

Europe = Denmark.

Okay.

Europe = Kangaroos.

Huh?

Evidently Williams didn’t read geography at  Oxford.

For the record, here’s Europe (the bit in yellow) and the place where kangaroos come from (Australia, shown in red). 

Not the same thing.

Kangaroos are found only in Australia.  There are no kangaroos in Europe, except in zoos but people aren’t allowed to bash them.

Your humble e-scribbler did not attend Oxford.

-srbp-

Hebron deal: fixed research and development, backed by Province

What natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale said in March 2007 about the offshore regulatory board’s regulations for research and development spending:

“The board is only requiring these operators to spend in this province in accordance with what has been the average and accepted norms in the industry elsewhere.”

What she signed in August 2008:

5.9 (D)

The Proponents shall seek Board approval of its plan to invest a fixed amount of one hundred twenty million dollars ($120,000,000) in Research and Development during the life of the Hebron Project, and the Province shall advise the Board of its full support for such Research and Development plan as described in (A), (B) and (C) above as the entire amount of the Proponents’ Research and Development obligations in respect of the Hebron Project.

What she said in February 2009, when the oil companies lost their last bid to appeal the offshore board’s research and development rules:

“The Provincial Government has taken major steps to strengthen R&D planning and capacity in the province through initiatives outlined in our Energy Plan as well as through the creation of the Newfoundland and Labrador Research and Development Council,” said the Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural Resources. “The R&D guidelines complement these major initiatives.”

Maybe Kathy hadn’t read that thing she signed in 2008 since the fixed amount she agreed to back, is less than the offshore board’s r&d regulations would require.

-srbp-

Kick-back? Did he really say kick-back?

From an international news story on the European Union seal ban, comes this curious phrase from provincial fish minister Tom Hedderson:

“This certainly is a serious kick-back,…”.

-srbp-

And they’re off…

to a bad start in Nova Scotia.

Well, bad start if you are Premier Rodney MacDonald trying to explain that a budget which is in the red is supposedly in the black but only if a piece of legislation was changed to allow the government to divert cash from debt reduction to program spending.

How much the budget is out of whack depends on who is doing the math, apparently, but there’s no doubt the government budget bill  brought in spending higher than revenues.

That alls sounds rather odd in a province where the government has flatly rejected any balanced budget commitments, let alone mandating it in law.  They’ve even rejected investing massive gobs of cash flowing from offshore oil prices, preferring instead to save them up – temporarily – to cover deficits in at least the next two fiscal years.

How much cash?

$1.8 billion, apparently, of which $1.3 billion will cover the overspending in the current fiscal year.

Nova Scotians, meanwhile, will head to the polls June 9 to elect a new government.  The opposition teamed up to defeat MacDonald’s minority Tory government on a confidence vote on the budget measures.

The opposition parties can’t promise they wouldn’t also bring in a deficit budget if they win the election.

The stakes are high, though with all three parties apparently polling around the same numbers.  As some astute Nova Scotian observers have pointed out in the past, the New Democrats may have a tougher time of things than it appears since their votes appear clustered in several areas and are therefore considered “less efficient” when it comes to winning seats across the province.

Sign of the high stakes came early with the release in early April by an unnamed Liberal campaign worker of a photograph of New Democrat candidate, actress Lenore Zann. The photo shows Zann topless and comes from her appearance on the cable show The L Word.

-srbp-

Related:  Issues, via Canadian Press

Live-blogging a trial

Anyone interested in the trial of Ottawa mayor Larry O’Brien on charges he conspired to keep an opponent out of the last mayoral race can follow the thing via twitter, e-mail, text message or someone’s live-blogging, thanks to a court ruling.

Judge J. Douglas Cunningham accepted an application by the Ottawa Citizen,  but  -oddly enough - rejected an application by CBC that would have allowed streaming of live audio and video.

The broadcaster offered no explanation of why it waited until the last moment to bring a motion in a trial it has known about for 14 months and did not even meet the minimum of 15 days notice for such motions.

The ruling is the first in the country, apparently. Cunningham also warned that his ruling applied only to this trial.  He said other concerns might be raised in a jury trial about such open communication.

-srbp-

Hebron deal: Big Oil’s new L’il Buddy

A curious extract from the financial agreement that was part of the Hebron development deal:

5.1 Support of Province.

The Province shall, on the request of the Proponents:

(A) assist and support each of the Proponents in seeking modifications for federal fiscal enhancements to the extent that such enhancements do not, in the opinion of the Province, have a negative financial impact on the Province, or where such enhancements do have a negative financial impact, they have been offset to the satisfaction of the Province by the Proponents;

(B) use all reasonable efforts to assist the Proponents in securing commitments from Canada and municipal governments in the Province regarding the legal and regulatory framework applicable to a Development Project; and

(C) support the efforts of the Proponents in responding to any future legislative and regulatory changes that may be proposed by Canada or a municipal government in the Province that might adversely affect any Development Project, provided such action does not negatively impact the Province or require the Province to take any legislative or regulatory action respecting municipalities.

Talk about your little gem of a concession to the oil companies.

This section commits the provincial to support any or all of the proponents on any action taken by the Government of Canada that “might adversely affect any” development project on any of the lands covered by the agreement.

What might we be talking about here?

Well, it’s pretty wide open. If you look up the definition of “Development Project” in the agreement you’ll see it’s broad enough to cover every aspect of the project from start to finish, including environmental considerations. If the proponents think the idea is bad, then the province is obliged to help out. It doesn’t have an option; if the proponents ask, the “Province shall.”

And before you note the little provisos there about the Province and the conditions under which it doesn’t have to lend support, bear in mind that the definition of the Province in the agreement is also pretty tight and tidy:

“Province" means the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, or the geographical territory of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, as the context may require.

Now this gets even more squirrely when you consider that the provincial government co-manages the offshore with the federal government through the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board. The sort of regulatory changes we are talking here are ones that are most likely to come through the offshore board.

Environmental regulations, shipping regulations, changes to safety requirements, that sort of thing: all covered through federal legislation since the offshore is legally in federal jurisdiction.

Even fallow field is covered by this provision. If a future federal government wanted to change land tenure in such a way that it would affect lands covered by Hebron, the provincial government would likely be obliged to toe Big Oil’s line. If the proposed federal regulatory “enhancements” actually worked out well for the provincial government, the Proponents can cut a side deal under this clause to secure their support to fight the “enhancements”.

Not a bad little clause.

Well, not bad for the oil companies, anyway.

This provision is even more squirrely because the provincial government – through the minister of natural resources (Kathy Dunderdale) and the provincial representatives on the offshore regulatory board – will not only carry on all this lobbying at the behest of and on behalf of Big Oil in the first place, they can do it from behind closed doors.

There isn’t a single clause there that would oblige the provincial government to disclose its lobbying on behalf of the oil companies; no disclosure to the public and indeed no disclosure to anyone.

Seems like a pretty big conflict of interest, but not one that should come as any surprise given that government’s policy is to be both a regulator and an operator simultaneously.

That’s pretty much the definition of conflict of interest as we’ve discussed here before, particularly when the talks broke off in 2006. We also raised the issue given the Premier’s curious claim after the recent helicopter crash that – despite the fairly obvious – the provincial government didn’t have a regulatory role in the offshore.

It also shouldn’t come as a surprise given that the Hebron deal sets the local research and development below the levels set by the offshore regulator. Government accepted that low amount - and the pledge to back Big Oil - after the offshore board won a court case against Big Oil over just those sorts of levies set retroactively by the offshore board. Next time out, Kathy Dunderdale or her successor will be working to make sure the regulatory changes don’t get out of the board in the first place.

All of that pales in comparison to the clause in a fiscal deal that obliges the provincial government to back the oil companies whenever the companies ask.

-srbp-

Best kept secret: musician/composer edition

Keith Power.

Originally from da Goulds, now making a living in California writing music for movies, video games and television.

-srbp-

CAE buys xwave defence unit

News release issued Friday, May 1, 2009:

CAE and Bell Aliant Regional Communications Income Fund ("Bell Aliant") today announced that CAE’s acquisition of Bell Aliant’s Defence, Security and Aerospace (DSA) business unit, operated by the xwave division of Bell Aliant Regional Communications, Limited Partnership, has been completed.

xwave’s DSA division supplies real-time software and systems for simulation, training, defence, and integrated lifecycle information management for the aerospace and defence industries. The division employs approximately 200 people in Ottawa, Ontario; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Esquimalt, British Columbia.

Background:  August 2008

-srbp-

Cuts not growth on air force agenda

Via David Pugliese, the air force is considering options to cut upwards of $123 million from next year’s budget.
Expanding search and rescue helicopter services isn’t an option.

-srbp-

Smelter talk more like smegma talk

Last October a federal briefing note prepared for incoming natural resources minister Lisa Raitt listed an aluminum smelter in Labrador as one of 14 projects expected to be announced within six months.

Unfortunately for the people writing the briefing notes, the proponents – Rio Tinto Alcan – were busily chopping production globally in response to the economic meltdown.

The briefing note story is in the Saturday Telegram along with some choice recent history of the smelter story.  It isn’t on line.

As the Telly notes, the Premier traveled to Brazil in late 2007 to pitch the smelter idea to vale Inco. 

A year later the government’s favourite economist was touting the idea of an imminent announcement of what – as we told you at the time – was supposed to be an aluminum smelter. 

The project would, as the Telly quotes Wade Locke, “make the earlier start of the project [Lower Churchill] more viable and …act more like a loan guarantee for the Lower Churchill that will allow them easier access to capital.”

Nice thought, that, except that reality was intruding on the fantasy even as the words were being uttered or the briefing notes being drafted. Major aluminum producers were busily shedding capacity through the fall of 2008 and early winter of 2009 as demand plummeted.

The problem for Australian-based Rio Tinto was a bit larger.  The miner completed its purchase of Alcan in late 2008 and took on responsibility for the company’s $40 billion net debt problem, as a result.

Plans to shed some assets melted in mid October. Since then the company has announced plans to chop 14,000 jobs globally – 12.5% of its workforce – and has slowed production by as much as 22% in some aspects of aluminum production. In February, Rio Tinto announced a deal with Chi Nalco, a state-owned enterprise, to allow the Chinese to farm into several existing Rio ventures, including bauxite and aluminum projects in the Pacific.

The company’s capex plan for 2009-2010 reduces expenditures in 2009 by 50% and sets the level for 2010 at sustainment.  in other words, for the next two years the company is not anticipating any significant capital expenditure.  On top of that, the company has already reduced production  especially in some its high-cost operations.

The Chinese deal suggests not only that the company is welcoming some fresh cash into the system but also is gearing to take advantage of growth in the Chinese market using facilities that are closer to the market than Labrador. 

For those who don’t know, Labrador is pretty much as far from China as one can get.  All the raw materials for a smelter would have to be imported and the power would have to be sold at incredibly low prices – well below current market rates in Labrador – in order to offset the production and shipping costs. That’s almost identical in concept to the Smallwood-era phosphorous plant at Long Harbour.  The project was only viable because of its low energy costs (initially the same rate as sales to Hydro Quebec from Churchill Falls) and its proximity to its major market in the United Kingdom.

Similar aluminum projects in Iceland involved selling power at half the rate for other commercial users.

The Quebec government provides massive subsidies to its aluminum industry but that hasn’t stopped recent shutdowns and layoffs.

The idea of establishing an aluminum smelter in Labrador dates back to the 1950s.

-srbp-

There’s a reason…

people call her Blunderdale.

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale has taken to answering opposition questions with an odd air of arrogance about her.  She tries to taunt and put down the questioner in a way that…well.. doesn’t work.

Some people can carry on arrogantly and get away with it  - sort of - because their abilities are far above that of others. Maybe their response is so witty that you just don’t see the arrogant jab.

Dunderdale ain’t one of those people by a long stretch.

MS DUNDERDALE: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I am going to divulge the name of his source. It is the Leader of the Opposition, and I gave her that information in Estimates, earlier this week, that these actions had been taken. We told her that the report had been received, although I had not been briefed at this point in time.

She was responding to a question by the opposition house leader about an audit into the local chicken marketing board.

Problem for Dunderdale was Kelvin Parsons could simply rebut her asinine comment:

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The minister must surely have a problem with timelines because she did her Estimates on Monday night of this week with the Leader of the Opposition. My questions were asked in this House of the minister last December. That is the source to which I refer, that told us there was indeed a forensic audit being done, which you denied at the time and you said you would check it out and get back, which the minister failed to do, and has not done now until it was taken out of her and pried out of her in the Estimates Committees again.

Mr. Speaker, the people who contacted our office certainly believe - and this was back in December - the people who contacted our office and provided the information back in December had very good information that there were financial irregularities. These people made significant allegations.

I ask the minister: Can you confirm that anyone in your office was, in fact, dismissed as a result of what happened involving this matter?

Now this is not the first time Dunderdale has had a problem disclosing things factually in the House of Assembly.  She got into serious trouble in late December 2006 when she wound up misleading the House – and by extension everyone else in the province – about details surrounding a public tendering controversy that had led ultimately to cabinet firing one of their political appointees:  Joan Cleary.

So serious did Dunderdale Blunder that her boss had to slam the House closed noticeably early to avoid everyone realising what had happened and calling for the head of one his most faithful lapdogs.

Then there’s the time last December when she couldn’t accurately recall what she’d said the week before.

First Danny Williams appointed Tom Rideout to run the place on all those occasions when DW is not around.

Tom left.

Then he picked Kathy Dunderdale to be his Number Two.

Does anyone else see a pattern here?

-srbp-

What got up Tom’s nose?

From the Thursday session of the provincial legislature, this odd response by fish minister Tom Hedderson to a question by opposition house leader Kelvin Parsons.

Simply put, the comment that he wasn’t in the House at 5:00 Pm was a useless taunt best ignored.  By answering as he did, Hedderson only raised more questions about what the personal business was;  that’s not a prurient interest.  It’s a natural reaction when someone gets upset to wonder why.  When he refers to "”a personal thing” there’s logically going to be more curiosity.

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

My next question is for the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

Mr. Speaker, there is a growing concern in the fishing industry that a dispute regarding prices for lobsters and crab could threaten both industries this coming season. The minister, in fact, was supposed to speak on The Fisheries Broadcast yesterday to address this issue, but apparently he says he was in the House until 5:00 p.m.  [Italics added:  here’s where the little jab occurred]

I ask the minister: Is the crab and lobster fishing industry in jeopardy, and what is government, particularly your department, doing to assist in finding some solutions?

AN HON. MEMBER: (Inaudible).

MR. KELVIN PARSONS: He was not here at 5:00 p.m.

MR. SPEAKER: Order, please!

The hon. the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. HEDDERSON: Mr. Speaker, again, I take a little bit exception. I was here until 4:45 p.m., by the time I got back to my office it was well past 5:00 p.m., plus I had a personal thing that I had to address after the House yesterday, which is of no business to him. So I will bring it up. Like I said, if you are going to go there, I will go there as well. My business is my business and when I can share it I will, but I am telling you right now is that you have gone over the line on that one. Absolutely! I say too, not the first time, and I am getting kind of tired of it. I am getting a little bit tired of it.

-srbp-