Freedom from Information: the “how Irish are we” version

From the 2008 annual report of the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership:

Irish Legacy Project at The Rooms

The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, INP and IBP are supporting the establishment of the Irish Legacy Project at The Rooms Provincial Museum, Art Gallery and Archives (www.therooms.ca). 

The Irish Legacy Project will be a focal point for telling both the historical and contemporary stories of the Irish in Newfoundland. It comprises the development of a permanent exhibit for the museum, and the creation of an ancestral research workspace for the archives. It is expected that the museum exhibit will open to the public in September 2009.

There’s also a pretty good description of the project in the INP strategic plan for 2008-2010:

In 2007, INP became a partner in a major initiative titled the Irish Legacy
Project, which will establish a permanent exhibit at The Rooms Provincial Museum, Art Gallery and Archives in St. John’s. The exhibit will incorporate film, artefacts, maps, and text to describe the historical and present day relationship between Ireland and Newfoundland. It is envisaged that the establishment of this legacy project at The Rooms, will provide a focal point
for future culture and heritage projects and will assist the long-term sustainability of the Ireland Newfoundland connection. The core of the Irish Legacy Project will be a permanent exhibit in the provincial museum. To complement this exhibit, INP should continue to encourage art exchanges between the provincial art gallery and the Irish Museum of Modern Art, building upon a previous exchange in 2005.

You also won’t find anything over at the provincial version of the Ireland partnership.  There’s been no annual report from the Ireland Business Partnership since 2006-07 likely because the local website hasn’t been updated for the most part since late 2008. Even the “What’s New” section doesn’t mention the permanent exhibit, even though that page was updated in June 2009.

So what about The Rooms?

Funny thing is, you won’t find any reference to this exhibit on The Rooms’ website, even though the project has been underway since 2007  - at least  - and is apparently slated to open in September 2009.
This is really strange since in the museum world a permanent exhibit is a pretty big deal.  It’s basically the core of what the museum is supposed to represent.

You can see that by looking at two of the three permanent museum exhibits at The Rooms right now.  One is on the province’s natural history.  A second one focuses on aboriginal people in the province.  That pretty much follows on from the old Newfoundland Museum which combined a natural history museum and a human history museum in one pile.

A permanent exhibit that focused on one of the groups of European settler populations wouldn’t necessarily be the logical next step. Given the limited permanent space in the building, one might expect the next permanent exhibit to have a broader look at European history in the province with sections devoted to various aspects of that history.  The Irish would be there, along with the English – as the largest group – and the Norse, French, Basques and others.

An approach that emphasises diversity and the complexity of our history would also be in keeping with the provincial government’s own stated image of the province:

My Government will affirm Newfoundland and Labrador’s status as a distinct people, not uniform in lineage but multi-cultural, one nation inclusive of many nations living in harmony together.

Focusing in one one specific ethnic group - even one with as significant a role in Newfoundland and Labrador history as the Irish  - would be a pretty powerful political statement for one thing. 

Such a narrow exhibit would also run the risk of  providing a potentially distorted view of the history of Europeans in Newfoundland and Labrador complete with the stamp of museum authority.  That’s no small issue given the absence of a required history course in the provincial high school curriculum, for example,  and what appears to be a popular tendency to imagine or fantasize our history.

Then there’s that ancestral archives thing.  The provincial archives already get a huge chunk of business from people doing research into their own family tree.  Putting in some sort of dedicated genealogy workspace is a significant undertaking.  If the new workspace had an ethnic overlay to it, like say a special emphasis on the Irish alone, we’d be looking at a major alteration of the archives’ philosophy.

So with such a big thing in the works, it’s a bit peculiar that there has been so little public mention of it by the people behind the “legacy” project.

Let’s look a little deeper.

There is a reference to the project in The Rooms strategic plan (undated, but covering the period 2008-2011) tabled in the legislature in 2008.  It refers to completion of an undefined “Irish Legacy Project” by 2011, as one example of how the museum division will “have increased opportunities for the public to interact in a meaningful way with the history and visual arts of the province.”  Planning would be done by 2009.  The strategic plan doesn’t saying anything about this being a permanent exhibit.

There’s also a reference to the project in The Rooms 2007-08 annual report (tabled in February 2009 (!)):

…working with the Irish Business Partnerships and the Irish Newfoundland Partnership, and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, the Museum initiated the Irish Legacy Project. The project, scheduled to open in March, 2009, will result in an exhibition focusing on the historical and contemporary connections between Newfoundland and Ireland.

Again, there’s no definition of the project nor a reference to a permanent exhibit but we do have a new date:  March 2009.  Now that’s not a date for planning to finish, that’s a date for the thing to open even though a different timeline was given in the strategic plan.

Let’s go back to digging and see if there’s more somewhere else.

Forget the provincial government website.  There’s nothing there on it at all in the way of a news release or ministerial statement. 

Over at the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John’s website you’ll find this bit:

The Archives of the R.C. Archdiocese will have a number of archival documents on exhibit in Talamh an Éisc – The Fishing Ground , an exhibition that introduces the Irish peoples who have been in Newfoundland and Labrador since the late 1600s, the exhibit explores the communities they built and celebrates the contributions they made to life here in Newfoundland and Labrador. The permanent exhibit will open in The Rooms on March 18, 2009. [Bold in original]

They even have a specific date, but no exhibit opened in March 2009, though.

But there’s that word “permanent” again.

This is all very peculiar.  Neither The Rooms’ strategic plan nor annual report are documents people are going to leaf through impatiently trying to find out what is coming up.  Even if you did, the language is so vague as to be impenetrable. 

Sure, the documents are publicly available but if no one from The Rooms or the provincial government highlighted the project, mentioning it in the annual report or strategic plan is as good as saying nothing about it at all.

And if the crowd at The Rooms were hopped up on this major project, you’d think they’d be mentioning it, letting us now how important it is, how much work it will involve, and generally trying to build up a bit of attention for it.  After all, a new permanent exhibit on the Irish in Newfoundland is no small venture.

And since both the archdiocese and the Irish government think this is going to be a permanent feature of The Rooms, it seems very strange there’s been not so much as the peep of a pipe or the lilt of a lyre about it.

This is all very interesting and very peculiar.

And it makes you wonder what is really going on over in the box the Basilica came in.

-srbp-

Better late than never: Oram version

The province’s health minister putting his business interests in a blind trust.

The issue arose when Oram  - who owns two personal care homes – was appointed to his new portfolio.
As CBC reports it:

Not only is he moving all his shares in personal-care homes into a blind trust, Oram said, but he is going even further by moving all of his business interests — including stakes in funeral homes, a grocery store and a construction company — into a blind trust.
It makes sense to do it all at once, Oram said, in case he changes portfolios.

Yes.

Good idea this blind trust thing.

Heaven knows you wouldn’t want to be appointed to a portfolio  - like say the Department of Business (which Oram held at the time of his appointment to health)  – and be running businesses in the province.

That would be a conflict of interest, wouldn’t it?

-srbp-

Told ya so Update:  The CBC story, linked above, has grown a tail made up of people essentially tossing back and forth comments in defence of Oram and attacking him.


All wonderful stuff and all completely unnecessary.

A real or perceived conflict of interest could have been avoided in this case and others if cabinet ministers were required to place their business interests in a blind trust when they are appointed to cabinet.  It's a simple solution and one that's been used in this province before.


All you can do is shake your head in disbelief.

Another OCIO triumph

How do you deal with a government computer system that is hopelessly out of date it wants you to “update” your Internet browser to a version that is actually three version older than the one you are using?

You don’t really.

You just shake your head and laugh.

This picture is the screen that appears when you try and access some provincial government websites.  In this case, it’s the lobbyist registry set up after 2004.

Note the dates:

“Copyright 2000”

“Last updated January 12, 2003”… that is the year before the lobbyist registry bill passed the House of Assembly and long before the bill was even thought of.

The version of Firefox that screen appeared on is 3.0.12.

The government computer won’t let that higher version to access the registry because supposedly it doesn’t meet the minimum “security and compatibility requirements.”

The truth is the Firefox version currently in use by your humble e-scribbler exceeds the security requirements but in order to use it, the version it will accept is two full iterations old.

The alternatives are no better. 

There are still lots of people out there using Internet Explorer 6, but more and more of us users have upgraded to version 8.

Netscape Navigator was last updated in 2007.  The only thing you can get these days is an archive for it. That last iteration was version 9 which, as you can see, is two full iterations beyond the current government-supported version.

What about Chrome?

You get the same silly blocking screen recommending you use antiquated software.

The Office of the Chief Information Officer is the giant bureaucracy created by the current administration to manage all provincial government computing services.  The thing has been a pretty spectacular  - and expensive - failure, at least when it comes to ensuring the public face of government is functioning at something reasonably approaching modernity. 

This mess at the lobbyist registry website is a case in point. Incidentally, the companies registry is no better.  The only thing it will accept is IE.

So what’s a body to do? 

Try Internet Explorer.  For some inexplicable reason, the OCIO system still supports IE no matter version you are using.

One suspects, therefore, that security isn’t really the issue.  Rather the issue is likely that giant , expensive unwieldy bureaucracy cannot deliver what it should be delivering to government and especially to the public.

Running into this little annoyance time and again makes you wonder, though, if the current hardware standard throughout government is a 286 hooked to a dot matrix printer.

Oh.

One last thing.

That contact link at the top of the page people are supposed to use if you download the old browsers and still can’t get through?  it takes you to a list of telephone numbers that are only available during government working hours.

There’s no e-mail contact address at all, anywhere.

Welcome to the 21st century, courtesy of the provincial government.

-srbp-

Cruising the numbers

The local tourism industry is a notorious spin machine, constantly trying to make things sound as magically delicious as possible.

That may be great for marketing but the hyper-torque makes it very difficult for anyone trying to get a handle on what the actual trends are in tourism or if all the money spent is bringing real dividends.

Take the local cruise ship marketing crowd for instance.  Their website is famous for predicting banner years in visitors, but the actual performance sometimes comes a little shy of the forecast.

In 2008, the tourism marketing agency predicted there’d be 60,000 passengers and crew visiting the province. The actual number was 50,000.  In fact, between 2005 and 2008, the number of passengers and crew from cruise ships has ranged between 50,000 (the low for the period) and 55,500 in 2007. The cruise authority’s forecasts are something else again.

This year, the prediction is for 65,000 visitors bolstered by provincial government cash. In fact, what catches the eye in a government news release is this claim:

Newfoundland and Labrador’s cruise industry has experienced significant growth in recent years. The latest industry research projects a 38 per cent growth rate since 2008 in the number of passengers and crew visiting the province – to exceed 65,000 visitors in 2009.

Since they don’t tell us what the performance was before 2008, we don’t know the basis on which the “research” makes the projection and we certainly don’t know how much growth there has been.

Usually a lack of concrete information is the first sign of bullshit and in this case, you’d be right on. Once you’ve checked the numbers, you’d discover that they’ve actually been pretty stable over the last four “recent” years.  Between 2007 and 2008, the trend was decidedly downward.

That second sentence is a bit dodgy as well since it holds out a prediction for this year compared to last year but without any solid underpinning.

Now once you have the numbers, you can also start to question basic math skills.  65,000 visitors in 2009 would represent 15,000 more than actually showed up in 2008.

That’s 30% more, not 38%.

But that number “38” didn’t wind up there by accident.  It was probably cut and pasted from an earlier news release.

You see 38% would be the increase CANAL predicted earlier this year when they were forecasting there’d be 69,000 cruise visitors in 2009.

Luckily they didn’t cut and past the earlier earlier prediction:  a 56% increase - 78,000  - in cruise ship visitors to in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2009. 

In other words, in the space of a few weeks, the cruise authority’s “research” forecast a 56% increase, then successively smaller numbers until this most recent one which is now 13,000 visitors lower than their first prediction.

Now the cruise ship industry, like the whole tourism industry, is a key part of the local economy.  Unfortunately, when it comes to facts, there are some in the industry who prefer the stuff that sounds good over the stuff you can measure. That’s too bad because every one of these visitors is a real visitor bringing new money into the economy.  Whether there are 50,000 of them this year or 60-, 65-, 70- or 78, 000, that’s a good thing.

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INP boondoggle tagged for axe in Irish expenditure cuts

A decade old business/trade project between Ireland and Newfoundland and Labrador that seems to have generated only cultural exchanges and ministerial trade missions has been identified by an Irish government-appointed panel  as one area of government spending the Irish government could cut in tough fiscal times.

In the report issued last week, the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programs recommends chopping public spending for the Ireland-Newfoundland Business partnership:

“…the discontinuation of programmes within the Department of the Taoiseach which are no longer justifiable given the significantly reduced Exchequer resources available and the existence of other more important priorities. Expenditure on the Active Citizenship Office and the Newfoundland Labrador Partnership falls into this category.” [Emphasis added]

In the report’s second volume, the panel cited a lack of an economic rationale to underpin the project as a key reason for recommending it get the axe:

This programme was developed to promote and develop cooperation with the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The Group understands that the partnership developed from the recognition of extensive migration ties between Ireland and Newfoundland/Labrador and the desire to build cooperation. However, there is no significant economic rationale to underpin continuation of the scheme and the Group recommends that the scheme be abolished to save €0.3m a year.

In setting the background for the recommendations, the group noted that the Irish government is facing a projected deficit in 2009 of 18.4 billion Euros.  The panel was also aiming at reducing the Irish public service which had grown overall 17% in the past eight years. 

In some sectors, the report noted disproportionate growth “in the ratio of senior-level grades where, for example, the numbers at middle to higher management levels in the civil service grew by some 82% in the period 1997 to 2009 at a time when civil service numbers as a whole increased by 27%.” (page 12)

The government is looking for ways to return the budget to balance in the shortest possible time.  The scope of the financial problems being faced in Dublin are laid out succinctly in the opening of the report:

Consequently, Ireland is now in a position where we need to borrow more to fund a larger budgetary deficit, while paying higher costs for this borrowing. This means that ever increasing proportions of our tax revenues will be needed to service the national debt. In 2009 over 11% of estimated tax revenues will be used for this purpose, compared with a figure of about 4½% of tax revenues as recently as 2007.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, innovation minister Shawn Skinner expressed his belief that the partnership would continue but his comments suggest that either he hadn’t read the report or had been very badly briefed before speaking with reporters.

"They are physically moving the office of the INP to the Taoiseach's office which is like … the premier over there or the prime minister over there and that to me speaks to the significance that the Irish hold this office in," he said.

The report clearly indicates that the partnership is already housed under the Taoiseach’s (first minister’s) office so that is really no indication of anything. 

Moreover, given the magnitude of the country’s financial problems, no office was safe from recommended cuts.  Even defence, which had seen a reduction of 8% in staffing over the past eight years, is included in the projected cuts and rationalisation.

The CBC online story (linked above) erroneously refers to the report as being prepared by consultants.  This suggests something with far less official status than it does.  The review panel was appointed by the Irish government as part of a specific government financial management project.  It received technical and administrative support directly by staff from the country’s finance ministry.

Skinner also said:

“"They are very cognizant of the good work that's being down by the INP with the IBP and they want to see that continue and I have no doubt they will continue to fund this office."

Pretty well all the projects and offices proposed for the chopping block do “good work”.  Most do far more “good work” core to Irish domestic social and economic interests than the half-million dollar partnership.

The current Irish national debt is more than 65 billion Euros.

The report is now in the hands of a parliamentary committee for detailed review before the next budget is set in the fall.

-srbp-

The Shoe Cove Connection

On July 20, 1969, humans first walked on the moon and Newfoundland and Labrador has played a role in the American space program since the beginning.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) operated a  station at Shoe Cove, north of St. John’s to provide telemetry for launches from Cape Canaveral and to assist in track spacecraft in orbit as part of the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN). The Shoe Cove was one of dozens operated around the globe in support of the NASA program.

The site is identified in NASA historical records as being at St. John’s, but the facility was located north of the city, near Cape St. Francis.

The Shoe Cove facility operated from 1960 until it was phased out in 1970.  As such, Newfoundland played a role in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. A portable Minitrack and Optical Tracking System (MOTS) was moved to Newfoundland from a site in the Bahamas to support launches for Skylab.

The dates for the site are given incorrectly in some local accounts.  Several  documents available online give dates for the site from the late 1950s until the early 1970s.  One, dated 1962,  includes the frequencies on which the local system operated. An application for the site was approved by the federal cabinet in 1959.

With the end of the Apollo and Skylab projects in the 1970s, the connection between the American space program Newfoundland didn’t end.

Newfoundland remains a site in the Cape Canaveral range monitoring system.  With the closure of the U.S. naval facility at Argentia,  the 45th Space Wing, headquartered at Patrick Air Force Base, took control of one of the buildings still covered by the 1941 lease on the site. It is the last remaining American military location in Newfoundland and Labrador.  

An X-band radar installed on top of the building provides telemetry for launches from Canaveral along the northern portion of the range. The site is operated remotely but may be manned as needed.  The building and its systems are not part of NASA  - they belong to the U.S. Air Force’s 1st Range Operations Squadron, 45th Space Wing - but support NASA operations.

-srbp-

Halberstam on the late Walter Cronkite

From The Atlantic, an excerpt of David Halberstam’s piece on television journalism:

…He knew by instinct the balance between journalism and show biz; he knew you needed to be good at the latter, but that you must never take it too far. He was enough of an old wire-service man to be uneasy with his new success and fame. He was just sophisticated enough never to show his sophistication.

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Ospreys 3

Here are some shots of CV-22 “0032” on the runway at St. John’s.  Apparently the US Air Force Ospreys  didn’t leave a couple of days ago as these came through this afternoon.

Note the heat plumes on the bottom shot coming from the engine.

 

Meanwhile, you can find one of Gary Hebbard’s shots at Avweb, in the slide show of reader-submitted shots.

Plus ca change pour M. Hodder

The Jim Walsh trial continued in court this week.

Former House of Assembly Speaker Harvey Hodder is still on the stand.

The Telegram account of his evidence on cross examination suggests the former Speaker is continuing the curious pattern he has had of offering accounts of events that vary somewhat over time.

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Kremlinology 4: there and not there

Another news release of cash for Trevor Taylor’s district but no sign of any comment from the cabinet minister in the official news release from government.

Then again, a news release issued the same day with cash for a different project in the same community and Trevor is there, large as life.

Curious.

-srbp-

Back to the moon

As part of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing NASA is spending US$230,000 to restore video footage of the first mission that put humans on the moon.

NASA lost the original video in the 1980s when old tapes were inadvertently erased and re0used.  The lunar mission sent video pictures from the moon using a format unusable by television.  NASA converted the images into a TV-friendly format and it is those converted images that were broadcast around the world.  in the process, much was lost, apparently.

The restoration project involved a combination of footage found in video archives around the world and some 36 hours of video that survived in NASA’s own archive.

Some of the restored footage was unveiled Thursday on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch of Cape Canaveral. There is also a NASA website containing still and video images of the Apollo 11 mission as well as NASA’s Apollo program page. Google also has a Google Moon site which covers the lunar landings from Apollo 11 until the last mission Apollo 17.

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Conflict of interest curiosity

Under the 1995 Conflict of Interest Act, a public officer hold is defined as any person who “receives a salary or other remuneration, in whole or in part, from money voted by the legislature…”.

That would make a cabinet minister a public office holder under the meaning of the Act.

Pretty simple, right?

There are also sections of the House of Assembly Act  that cover conflict of interest for elected members. There are provisions that tell cabinet ministers what to do.

They all come down to the same basic points.  People can’t further their private interests using information they gain from their public office.  In addition, cabinet ministers who may find themselves in a conflict of interest have a couple of options on how to handle a specific case, should it arise.

The simplest way for a cabinet minister to avoid an appearance of conflict is to place any business interests in a blind trust as soon as he or she is appointed to cabinet.

The reason is pretty simple:  lots of things come before cabinet or a cabinet committee, especially at budget time.  If you had certain types of business interests, the “leave the room” or “get someone else to do it” procedures set out in the House of Assembly Act would basically mean some ministers would spend more time out of the cabinet room than in it.

The Premier sensibly put his interests in such a blind trust after the October 2003 election.  He may have taken a while to do it and he may have moaned and complained as he went through the process but ultimately, his approach is the most sensible way to avoid political problems. When you have important work to do, there’s no reason to be distracted by issues that can be easily avoided.

Odd then, that the Premier has apparently made no such rules for his cabinet.  In response to reporters’ questions today, the Premier said that handling potential conflicts of interest would be a matter for the new health minister to sort out with former Tory party president Paul Reynolds ( in his role as Commissioner of Legislative Standards) but, for his part, Danny Williams advised Oram to put things in a blind trust.

Advised him?

Odder then, that Oram has been in cabinet – as business minister – but hasn’t bothered to sort out this issue before now.  A blind trust is a really simple, practical solution to a very real potential political problem.

And the whole thing is odder yet again considering that in 1997, then-Premier Brian Tobin issued cabinet conflict of interest guidelines that added to the requirements already in legislation.

1) Ministers shall place in a blind trust all assets, financial interests or other sources of income within the definition of "private interest" in S. 20 (e) of the Act, except for those that are an "excluded private interest" within the definition of S. 20 (a) of the act;

(2) Trustees for these blind trusts shall be other than members of the Minister's immediate family; and

(3) Ministers shall cease to serve as directors or officers in a company or association, as referred to in S. 20 (e) (iii) of the act.

Tobin acted amid accusations of a conflict of interest involving one of his ministers.

Maybe that’s what Danny Williams referred to before the 2003 election when he laid out his own ethics and accountability commitments to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador:

We've seen blatant abuse of office and taxpayers' money, allegations concerning conflict of interest, questions of fundraising contributions, and suggestions of impropriety during leadership conventions. These are very serious issues that are eroding the people's confidence in government. [Emphasis added]

Who knows?  Maybe he had other issues in mind.

But there’s no doubt he was aware of the issues and concerned enough about them to issue a suite of promises on ethics.

He didn’t mention a specific commitment on cabinet ministers and conflicts of interest but it seems passing strange that he hasn’t given his ministers any specific instructions on conflict of interest for his own cabinet.  If nothing else, clear instructions remove needless political problems like we said already.

The Premier certainly has the power, authority and everything else needed to set the rules for his own cabinet.

So how come he has decided to let Paul Reynolds sort it out?

-srbp-

Last Osprey shot

The CV-22s from 8 Special Operations Squadron and their escort Hercules aircraft left St. John’s at around 1430 hours local time on Wednesday afternoon.

That doesn’t mean the end of the great shots, however.

This one shows “0028” on approach, transitioning the engine pods to the vertical position in preparation for landing.  They are at about 45 degrees in this shot.

Incidentally, the pointy bit on the nose is the end of the  refuelling probe. 

Ospreys at YYT: Day 2

A flurry of photographers arrived in ye olde e-mail inbox this morning from local aircraft enthusiasts.

These people can also use a camera.

With the better pictures, it is now easy to confirm that the aircraft belong to 8th Special Operations Squadron, US Air Force unit that is part of Special Operations Command. 

To quote the factsheet:

“The primary mission of the 8th SOS is insertion, extraction, and re-supply of unconventional warfare forces and equipment into hostile or enemy-controlled territory using airland or airdrop procedures. Numerous secondary missions include psychological operations, aerial reconnaissance and helicopter air refuelling. To accomplish these varied missions, the 8th SOS utilizes the CV-22 Osprey, a highly specialized Bell-Boeing tilt-rotor aircraft.”

They fly out of Hurlburt Field in Florida.

Unlike the Marine and Navy aircraft, these come with a variety of specialised attachment including countermeasures, radio and different radar.

Here’s a shot of the one included in last night’s update.

You can see some of the additional bumps on the nose to accommodate some of the specialised add-ons.

Here’s another spectacular photo of 0028 on approach. 

Look at the tail ramp and you can make out the loadmaster next to what appears to be a weapons mount covered in a yellow tarpaulin.

Turns out to that these aircraft have been through St. John’s before.  In October 2008, they transited through St. John’s, presumably on the way to an international exercise in Mali. 

The photos below are from the October visit.  They clearly show “0028” and “0031” both of which went through St. John’s in the past 24 hours, destination across the Atlantic presumably.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“0031” with blades folded.

Another aircraft being readied for flight.

“0031” ready to launch.

Fantasy Island; Flags of Our Fathers version

A cabinet minister whose doesn’t know his historical arse from his current events elbow.

And now a bunch of guys who put up a flag to remind us, supposedly, of where we came from, of our past. That’s how one of the guys behind a giant pink, white and green flag described the project for CBC Radio’s Chris O’Neill-Yates.

Seems some yahoo unscrewed the flag base and demolished the thing a month or so after the boys put it back. Apparently it’s been vandalised every year since it was stuck up there a few years ago.

Ah yes, a glorious reminder of our past.

Our past as the pre-Confederation Newfoundland, it would seem:

As mentioned in my last post, we’re putting up the Republic of Newfoundland flag on the South Side hills, and everyone is invited to join in on the hike.

Those familiar with what actually happened will no doubt be scratching their heads and rightly so. Just stop before you cut through the skin.

The Republic of Newfoundland is fiction.

Never existed.

Never happened.

The “republic” is entirely the invention of a local guy looking to make a buck on a few tee-shirts. And he’s made it too what with the popularity of the shirts among the latter-day corner boys.

The flag – in all its pink, white and green gloriousness – belonged to a St. John’s crowd but over its whole history it never gained widespread popularity through what became the Dominion of Newfoundland.

It was certainly never adopted as the official flag of the country.

In other words, at the very best, the flag is a townie artefact but as the flag of a republic? You can’t be the flag of something that never existed anyways.

The crowd who demolished the flag are very likely not a bunch of historians on a rampage.

They are most likely just another bunch of locals who like to destroy what others have made, even if – in this case – what the flag represents is entirely a figment of someone’s imagination masquerading as reality.

Oh well.

If the boys with the flag are raising some money to fly their flag again, maybe they can get in touch with Paul Oram.

He seems like the poster child for their project.

Update November 21, 2009: New title to deconflict with another post. Both were originally titled "Fantasy Island"

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Seen at YYT: Ospreys!

Pictures to follow but three Osprey tilt-rotors arrived at St. John’s airport within the last hour, apparently accompanied by a KC-130.

The Osprey is an unconventional aircraft that is entering service with the United States Marine Corps, Navy and Special Operations Command.  Launching and recovering vertically like a helicopter, the engine pods rotate in the air allowing the aircraft to fly like propeller driven airplane.

For those who haven’t seen one, here’s a US Navy stock shot of one in a hover.

 

 

 

 

 

-srbp-

 

No Joy Update:  Your humble e-scribbler is not a photographer.

St. John’s airport has a ramp where aircraft are parked in cases when the owners don’t want them seen.

That’s where the three Ospreys and a bevy of Hercs are parked, with the Hercs positioned in such a way that only the tips of the blades of two of the Ospreys could even been seen from the airport fence.

In the twilight, the third could be seen, behind a service truck, with its rotor blades folded.  if you squint and look at the shape inside the red outline above, there she is.  That glint slightly right of centre is the reflection of the airport trucks yellow roof light on the aircraft windscreen.  The starboard engine is just above the truck.

Hopefully some other local aircraft enthusiasts had better luck and are better photographers.

Having big guns helps

Paper maker Kruger may be getting additional financial help from the provincial government to keep its mill in Corner Brook operational.

There’s nothing new in this.  The provincial government has been subsidizing the forest industry for years.

What makes this a bit different is that the area has such strong representation in government.

No one is explaining to forestry workers why subsidies are bad, as fish minister Tom Hedderson did a few weeks ago when people wanted some cash to help out that troubled industry.

Having big guns helps.

Of course,  having those big guns a wee bit worried doesn’t hurt either.

You can tell they are worried about local public anxiety about the future of the Kruger operation when a news release appears advising that every provincial politician from the Corner Brook area will be traveling in a pack on Wednesday.

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Good news on fishery

It may have taken a global crisis to bring everyone together but the provincial government, the Association of Seafood Producers and the Fish Food and Allied Workers union have reached an agreement to develop a plan on restructuring the fishery.

Working groups will look at financing, marketing and overall restructuring.

The process will be directed and overseen by a steering committee consisting of two representatives from each of the FFAW, ASP and the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture. An independent chair will be appointed by the Provincial Government and the working groups will be assisted by a facilitator from the department.

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Sorta NSFW Monday

There is no limit to the human imagination.

Proof can be found in the marvellous Lego.

Millions of children have grown up with them, building entire worlds out of a few small bricks.  We loved them and cherish them and sometimes choked on them, but with Lego we could build a world which was entirely ours.

Some of us couldn’t bear to part with these special toys from our childhood. Your humble e-scribbler still has a bag of all his 1960s and 1970s era bits and pieces but they haven’t been played with in a while.

Okay.

Maybe since last week.

Ummm.

Anyway…

For your amusement, here are some links to what some of the hornier adult Lego fans get up to in their spare time.

Given that they involve sexual images, we have to put a warning label on them that they may not be suitable for all ages and may not be safe for work.  Given that they are Lego people, they might be safe for some workplaces, hence the “Sorta NSFW”.

There is the Lego Kama sutra, although there are only 12 pictures in that link.  If memory serves, there were a few more positions than that in the book.  Bonus points to anyone who can find a Ferrari in the original illustrations.

Rest easy, literary purists.  Someone else has reproduced additional positions from the  Kama sutra and made a slide show of the result.

There is another collection of 40 pictures of Lego people in various suggestive positions.  We call them “suggestive” since the wee Lego people are not even close to anatomically correct and they are merely positioned close to each other in certain poses that hint at  certain sexual positions. 

With that in mind, the genius behind this  little collection evidently has an obvious fondness for one position.  Given the frequency with which it appears, odds are he or she isn’t getting  much of it.

Note that the one with the elephant and  another with the Batman characters are just warped enough to put some people off their oatmeal.

Those of you of the kinkier persuasion will probably like the rather elaborate one that isn’t depicting intercourse.  Or police officers, for that matter although handcuffs show up.

Now if all that Lego smutification isn’t your cup of tea, there are some other truly inventive and well-done bits of animation on youtube using Lego.

Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Sorta.

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Sudbury workers on strike

Vale Inco’s unionized employees in Sudbury hit the picket line Monday after 85% rejected the company’s latest contract offer in voting on the weekend.

According to the Globe and Mail:

At issue was Vale's proposal to reduce a bonus tied to the price of nickel.

In addition, workers opposed a plan by the company to exempt new employees from its defined-benefit pension plan, which guarantees employees a reliable and steady income after retirement.

The company is proposing to provide them with a defined-contribution plan, which bases retirement benefits on investment returns.

Employees at the company's Voisey's Bay operations in Labrador voted 99 per cent against the same offer on Wednesday and are set to begin a strike on Aug. 1.

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$300 million for Goose Bay environmental clean-up

The federal government will spend $300 million for environmental clean-up at 5 Wing Goose Bay. The clean-up project will end in 2020.

The clean-up is being touted as an economic boost to the town in addition to the obvious environmental value.

"This significant investment benefits the Wing, contributes to the economic foundation of the community and mitigates risk to human health and the environment," MacKay, who visited the base Sunday, said in a news release.

Liberal member of parliament Todd Russell sees the clean-up as a prelude to shutting the military base. Russell is quoted by the Ottawa Citizen’s David Pugliese:

"When governments clean up they're looking to clear out," he said.

The defence minister’s spokesman, Dan Dugas, denies the claim according to Pugliese:

Dugas said Goose Bay continues to play an important role in the Canadian Forces operations. "We believe in the base," he added.

Dugas noted that around $100 million a year is spent annually operating the base. In addition, $20 million was recently spent on improving runways there.

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Government on shuttle watch?

STS-127 will launch from Cape Canaveral in less than four hours.

The shuttle Endeavour will launch on an inclination of 51.6 degrees taking it over the Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose platforms.

Is our offshore oil safe from the possibility shuttle pieces will fall on top of them in some sort of fiery cataclysm?

Don’t laugh.

Only four short years ago, the Premier threw a very public and very ill-informed panic attack over rocket launches heading over the precious oil fields and the prospect one might drop and blow everything up.

It was one of the early dramas in what seems to have become  a drama-filled administration.

Not all have been so preposterous or as laughable.

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Weather Report Update:  They scrubbed the launch due to bad weather.

Paul Oram: Minister of Revisionist History

Former business minister Paul Oram did a series of interviews when he was in Atlanta last October to attend a trade mission.

His interview on diversifying the economy is interesting mostly because Oram manages to completely cock-up just about everything.

According to Oram, the cod moratorium took place in the “early to mid-1980s”.

If you think that was a slip of the tongue consider that according to Oram, once the moratorium started,  we then turned to diversifying the economy with mining for things like iron ore and uranium.  Iron ore mining dates back to the 1890s, not the 1980s and as for uranium, there isn’t a functioning uranium in the province at the moment.  There never has been one. There are prospects but no actual mine.

The Lower Churchill will start up within the coming year (i.e. 2009) according to Oram, even though the thing had not even started the environmental review process when he did the interview.  It won’t complete the process until 2010-2011.

When asked about innovation, Oram couldn’t give an example.  Instead, he talked about the difference between his department and the innovation department.

We’ll be generous and say that oram sounded like the minister of revisionist history.

Others might say he was the minister of  the “Don’t know a Damn Thing” department.

Oh.

Incidentally, just count the number of times Oram says “to be honest with you.”

We assume he is being honest.  It’s just that he honestly doesn’t have a clue about recent events in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Well, that didn’t work

A quickie cabinet shuffle – the third in eight months – didn’t produce the media coverage they likely thought it might.

Check the headline.

Of course, it doesn’t help when you have to admit in the post-shuffle scrum that the shuffle postponed a scheduled update in the breast cancer scandal that has dogged the government.

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Who’s laughing now smart arse? update:  There was no secret that Danny Williams, Premier was not enamoured of John Crosbie, former cabinet minister.

No surprise, therefore, that Stephen Harper, arranged to have Crosbie installed as lieutenant governor.

Crosbie may be silenced daily but he still gets his shots in.  Like say reminding everyone assembled for a cabinet swearing in that -  as the Telegram put it -  “Brian Mulroney used to have frequent cabinet shuffles when the former prime minister wanted to deflect criticism from his government.”

Everyone laughed and the incident made news.

Talk about getting payback with the seemingly most innocuous of comments.

It’s not easy being green

Well, at least not under a variety of American state and federal laws in New England especially if you are proposing a hydroelectric project like the Lower Churchill.

Sure, we all think of hydro power as pretty friendly to the environment and a source of energy that is pretty low on carbon emissions.

Heck, in the ruckus over erections in Gros Morne, the provincial government has been pretty quick to talk about how green – as in environmentally friendly  - the Gull Island and Muskrat Falls projects are.

As an aside – in some of the online discussions,  some people have been talking about ripping through the park because it’s a way to sell the power to the United States.  Let’s get this clear:  there is no current proposal to build any transmission lines to the United States through Gros Morne park. 

The line that Danny Williams would drive through a UNESCO World Heritage Site ends just west of St. John’s.  It’s the same line Brian Tobin proposed in 1998.

That’s right. 

It’s a line to bring Lower Churchill power to townies, not Yanks.

And while we are at it, Holyrood will not close either even with the infeed.

The comments coming from some quarters makes plain just how much fundamental ignorance – lack of information, awareness and understanding  – there is out there about major public issues.

But anyway, back to green energy and American markets.

Turns out that American state and federal governments are working to develop new, renewable sources of energy.  They are looking at a system of emission credits and what sorts of projects would qualify for credits. 

If the current trend holds, Big Hydro projects  - just like nuclear plants  - won’t count toward renewable energy credits.  New England states have various rules in place currently that look at qualifying hydro power from plants of less than 100 megawatts.  In some states, even these small hydro projects must not change the water level (i.e. no dams) or otherwise impact the natural environment.

A bill currently in the United States Senate – HR2454 the American Clean Energy and Security Act 2009 – limits hydro that qualifies for certification to incremental power from technological upgrades to existing plants, generation from existing dams built for other purposes and “hydrokinetic generation”, that is power generated by ocean currents, wave action and the like.

So two honking great dams across a river, even a few thousand miles away, isn’t necessarily where the Americans are looking. Missing MOU anyone?

Not surprisingly, some states are looking to find a local economic spin-off from new energy sources.  Rhode Island recently adopted a bill mandating the state electricity distribution company to enter into long term power purchase agreements for upwards of 90 megawatts of power from new renewable sources locate din Rhode Island.  They are looking at a $1.5 billion wind farm project  - among other things - to help meet that requirement.

This doesn’t mean that the New England markets are closed to hydro power from Canada but it does mean that proponents of the Lower Churchill are not looking at easy pickings.  

If states and the US federal government are getting stickier about local renewable projects, there’s a very good chance they’ll get stickier about imports as well. 

That’s the thing about American democracy:  people get to participate.  If an environmental lobby builds up against a project like the Lower Churchill, the thing could have a rough ride.  Imagine what might happen if environmentally conscious consumers managed to figure out that the same people promoting this hydro megaproject are the same people who turn up on CNN promoting some old-fashioned seal bashing.

There’s anothing thing too:  look closely at some of this legislation, like say the Rhode Island bill, and you can see limits on the length of the purchase agreements with a maximum of 15 years.  That’s also an issue to think about given that a project the size of the Lower Churchill would likely be financed over a period twice or three times that.

Are states going to be willing to sign PPAs over such a long period?

Would bondholders be prepared to offer up cash with the prospect that markets could go soft half way through the bond life? How about American lenders who are already hurting through the recession and who may still be leery of investing large sums even after the recession ends?

Any way you want to look at it, the Lower Churchill project is still a very long time from starting.

There are currently no power purchase agreements of any kind with any customer. No PPAs means financing will be much tougher on a project that was estimated to cost at least six to nine billion dollars when talk about the project was revived in 2005-2006. Imagine what it will cost in two years time.

The environmental review process won’t finish until 2011 and that alone puts the project two full years behind the schedule mapped out in 2006.  Hydro Quebec is already well on its way to having power to market from new projects by the time NALCOR is looking to start construction of the Lower Churchill. They’ll have a goodly chunk of their new projects done by the time Muskrat and Gull Island turbines start turning, even if the current 2018 timeline for first power could be met.

On top of that there are serious questions that still exist within the Innu community about the draft land claims agreement between the provincial government and the Innu.  Bear in mind that the federal government should be in there as well, but so far hasn’t offered any comment on the darkness that has befallen the New Dawn.

And all of that is without considering the potential for even a teensy bit of public backlash over environmental issues.

It really isn’t easy being green, is it?

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The Great NL Gasoline Price Fixing Scheme: Summer 2009 edition

Gasoline prices in Newfoundland and Labrador are set by the provincial government.

While gasoline prices across North America have been dropping recently, the government’s price fixing mechanism hasn’t kept pace.

To give an idea of the consequences, take a look at this chart.  It shows the average Canadian price per litre (blue) and the average price in Newfoundland (red).

Look closely at that blue line which has been on a steady downward trend since June 20.  The average stands at $1.01 per litre on July 9, down from  $1.06 at peak.

In Newfoundland, the number has pretty much been a steady average above the current average $1.12 per litre since June 20. There were even a couple of upticks in the Newfoundland number during the period.  The current average prices is less than two cents down from the peak.

If none of the previous arguments against government-controlled prices worked, then surely this chart should cause you to sit up and wonder why gas in this province is 11 cents per litre above the Canadian average. 

There’s obviously something wrong.

Seriously wrong.

There have been two big winners from gas price regulation in Newfoundland and Labrador and neither of them is the average consumer.

Gasoline retailers have been gifted with steady and predictable profit margins. They buy at market prices and sell at the government price.  As you can see from the charts below, that can be pretty sweet.

The provincial government also wins.  Its taxes are buried in the price and when the price stays high based on the vagaries of some contrived formula, its tax haul stays nice and fat.

Not surprisingly, there aren’t any politicians calling for the elimination of gas price fixing by the provincial government. In fact, one of the guys who pushed hardest for this scheme – St. John’s mayor Dennis O’Keefe – has been conspicuously silent about the whole issue.

And it’s not like this is a new phenomenon.

Over the past four years not only have prices been substantially above the Canadian average, there are too many occasions where the local prices have bucked the downward trend.  And on some of the upward trends the local price jumps have been disproportionately highly compared to the national average.

Just for good measure, let’s look at the trending over six years.

 

More of the same.

The only astonishing thing in this has been the dead silence from consumers, let alone from the various self-appointed consumer advocates out there, one of whom has managed to find himself a sweet job leading a Great Sittee.

If you didn’t think there was a reason to scrap the government-dictated gasoline price scheme in this province, surely the events this week and this evidence should make you sit up and take notice of what is a fairly obvious problem.

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Oil drops 18 % in a week

Prices for front month crude have dropped more than 18% in the past week.

The markets appear to be reacting to news of continued economic uncertainty in the United States and continued gluts in gasoline supplies. Stockpiles of gasoline in the US have grown by 1.9 million barrels last week as Americans curb their driving. 

“The recession is far from over,” said analyst Stephen Schork. “Perhaps the run-up in prices was a bit overstated.”

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Strike looming at Sudbury and Voisey’s Bay

Unionized workers at Voisey’s Bay voted on the weekend to reject a contract offer by the employer Vale.

A vote at Vale’s Sudbury operation is also expected to reject the contract, according to the Globe and Mail.

Workers could strike as of August 1.

Related:  Vale chief executive Roger Agnelli has described Vale’s Sudbury operation as unsustainable at current cost levels.

 

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Chew the wafer

The Prime Minister is in a bit of a political hard spot with questions over what he did with the  Eucharistic host at the recent funeral for Romeo LeBlanc.

Some say he didn’t eat it, as one is supposed to do, but rather slipped it into his pocket.

His office insists he did the appropriate thing.

Oh yeah.

There’s video, of course.

But it’s basically a piece of junk that shows absolutely nothing other than the PM accepting the communion wafer like everyone else.  If you pay attention to the text slides inserted at the front and the back of the clip, though, you might be fooled into thinking something else happened.

If there’s a question, then perhaps we should look to his staff who may have simply forgotten to make sure that every protocol point was covered.

Frankly, given the occasion – the funeral of a fine and respected gentleman – people should be willing to ignore this even if every accusation were true.  The controversy doesn’t damage Stephen Harper so much as it tarnishes the memory of the late governor general.

So let’s just turn the page on that one, shall we?

And if you want to watch a video that will unsettle some Roman Catholics out there,  just sit back, relax and enjoy a little vintage Tom Lehrer, complete with the introduction to set the stage and Tom’s momentary lapse of memory for his own lyrics:

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Of mice and antelope through the looking glass

In this summer of political problems across the province, of meltdowns and power lines, some old posts at Bond Papers take on a renewed relevance.

In November 2006, your humble e-scribbler brought out the idea of mice and antelope as a metaphor for the political problem of focusing on side issues  - trivial issues - rather than keeping eyes on the big prize.

A couple of years into the administration, its tendency to get distracted was plainly obvious.

Now a couple of years into its second term and the tendency has become the main operating method.

Around these parts, we’d say the mouse hunting is one of the big reasons why projects tend to hang around - unresolved - for years or why legislation is passed and then left to the sidelines or why major capital works projects are announced and then seem to take forever before a shovel is even waved above a sod let alone pushed into it.

The thing is that as time goes by, any government that tends to get distracted by mice will wind up having more things not accomplished than it has accomplished.  The magnitude of what it gets done, even if they are big things like offshore oil projects or a massive hydro project,  starts to look puny compared to the mountain of others things that hang around seemingly gathering dust.

That Lewis Carroll notion  - think “un-birthdays” - is one we’ve gone to before.  There is un-communication, for example.  Now it seems to be appropriate to start talking of the current administration’s un-accomplishments.

The Fan Club, at this juncture, is no doubt rushing about shouting something about shooting or lopping off heads, but in doing so they miss the point entirely, as usual.

People typically want their government to succeed.  They like it when schools are built, roads are paved, and jobs are created.  They like it when the party that wins an election actually does all the good things they promised;  sustainable development acts, improvements to open records laws, a New Approach that involves listening to people and giving them substantial input into how they are governed.

Pointing out the shortcomings is a reminder that there are antelope over there aplenty waiting to be slain.

It’s a call to the Fan Club and its idol to stop getting distracted by the mouse scurrying by.

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Gros Morne erections trump the unforgettable natural environment

Natural ecosystems were worth protecting in 2007 – the election year – because they define us as a people.

In 2009, yeah, maybe not so much.

The 2007 Progressive Conservative election platform:

“Among our greatest sources of pride is our clean and beautiful natural environment. It defines us. It makes living here wonderful. It makes visiting here unforgettable. Our natural ecosystems are worth protecting for future generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.”

Also from the 2007 Tory election platform:

…enforce the provisions of the Sustainable Development Act regarding the responsible and sustainable development of our natural environment, ensuring that our resource development decisions address the full range of environmental, social and economic values and that workers, environmentalists, industry, communities, aboriginal peoples and others have a say in how our resources are managed. [Note:  You actually have to have a sustainable development act that’s in force in order to enforce it.]

From 2009, the plan for massive steel erections in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as CBC describes it in their online story:

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams says he is willing to risk losing Gros Morne National Park's UNESCO world heritage status if the cost of preserving it is too high

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An equity stake in the province’s natural heritage

A cynic, Oscar Wilde once wrote, is a fellow who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

There is no word, apparently for someone who knows neither the price of stringing hydro lines around Gros Morne National Park nor the value of leaving the park free of the steel girders and humming wires.

In his first media scrum since returning from a weeklong junket to Europe,  Premier Danny Williams said that he was prepared to risk the World Heritage designation for Gros Morne because the cost of the alternative might be $100 million. 

“Might be” since the thing had not been properly costed, according to the Premier:

"We can't just start carving out those kinds of dollars … without even have a proper costing. It's wrong to oversimplify it, but if it meant putting it into health care as opposed to putting it into UNESCO, I would put it into health care, he said.

The value of Gros Morne, untrammelled by NALCOR Energy’s plan to build a giant power line from Labrador to the northeast Avalon, should be obvious to all those who appreciate the national park’s natural beauty.

It’s value  - sans girders - to the provincial tourism department should be equally obvious to everyone who has watched a television ad or looked through a tourism marketing brochure.

But in the meantime, that’s a pretty startling admission:  that after four years and as the project barrels along, the proponents don’t know what it would cost to find another route a few miles to the east of the one they have in mind.

It smacks of scrambling rather than a careful weighing of all options, each properly studied and costed.

Then again, that’s what you’d get if you just abandoned the process you started and decided to go down an entirely different road from the one first proposed. You wind up looking at plans made 25 or 30 years ago, ones that involve slinging lines along a stretch of ground that – when the plans were hatched – weren’t inside a national park.  The national park didn’t exist then.

But the whole thing gets a wee bit bizarre – there’s that all-too-familiar-word again –when you consider that the Premier seems to think $100 million is too much money to talk about:

"It's not as simple as that, but we do have to strike that balance. It's not a small amount of money. It is a significant amount of money."

This is a guy who supposedly is used to dealing with grand schemes that cost in the billions.  The one he wants to push through the park is estimated at upwards of $10 billion.  Even the low-end estimates, which few would believe, put the total cost at somewhere between six and eight billion.  The infeed line alone, the one through the park, is likely to cost a couple of billion.

$100 million against $2.0 billion.

What is that? 

5%?

That’s like half an offshore equity stake’s worth of only a fraction of the whole project.

Surely to Heavens, when put in those terms, Danny Williams can figure out that shifting the steel girders outside the park isn’t really much of anything to do.

He can think of it as his equity stake in the natural heritage of our province.  A piece of the action that he can pass on to future generations.

Shifting the power lines outside Gros Morne might not conjure up the big buck announcements the Premier seems to thrive on, but by recognising the simple value of unadulterated nature, Danny Williams could show that he actually knows both the price of something and the value of something far greater.

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One Trick Pony Update:  Apparently, as much as Danny Williams likes to talk about the importance of going it alone, the whole Gros Morne thing seems to be a bit of a dodge to try and force some money out of Uncle Ottawa to fund the whole Lower Churchill scheme:

"If the federal government is interested in an alternate route because of the importance of the UNESCO designation, because of the importance obviously of Gros Morne as a federal park, then I would expect the feds to participate with us in rerouting that cost," Williams said Tuesday.

The cost of developing an alternate route could be as much as $100 million, Williams said, but he added that was a preliminary estimate.

"If in fact we can get support from the federal government and if in fact we can justify another route, then that's something I would prefer to do ... but I can't turn around and say today without proper costing that that's something I would definitely do," he said.

"It's a significant amount of money."

Of course, the project has never been a go-it-alone affair.  Williams has been trying to find federal backing for his grand design from the beginning.

9 Wing Gander to get new buildings

The Department of National Defence will spend $42.5 million on three new buildings at 9 Wing Gander.

One building will give a new home to 91 Construction Engineer Flight, a reserve unit.

Two other buildings will bring together 9 Wing support units from different facilities at the Gander airport.

Work is expected to start in 2011 on the home for 91 CEF.  Work on the other buildings is not expected to begin until 2015.

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NALCOR may be exempted from offshore royalty payments

If the provincial government acts on a provision of the Hebron fiscal agreement, the government’s own energy corporation could wind up paying nothing to the provincial treasury in royalties.

That would set it apart from any other offshore interest holder,  including the federal government’s Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation (CHHC).

Under sections 8.4 of the Hebron fiscal agreement, the Hebron partners agree that the provincial government can “make amendments to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Act”…, “make amendments to the Royalty Regulations” or “make an agreement pursuant to section 33 of Petroleum and Natural Gas Act…to adjust, vary or suspend OilCo’s liability for the payment of royalties on oil produced from the Lands”  that would be different from the arrangements with the other project partners.

That provision  - which could see the province’s own oil company pay nothing at all in royalties - might also violate the agreement that is the basis for the province’s offshore wealth.

Under section 41 of  the 1985 Atlantic Accord memorandum of understanding between Ottawa and St. John’s,  “Crown corporations and agencies involved in oil and gas resource activities in the offshore area shall be subject to all taxes, royalties and levies.”

That section was intended to put any Crown corporation operating offshore, federal or provincial,  on the same footing as a private sector corporation.

That section applies to CHHC and should also cover NALCOR Energy.

The provision of the agreement appears to take advantage of hasty 2001 amendments to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Act which gave the provincial government the ability to make an agreement on royalties that differed from the generic royalty regime.

Although the changes to the province’s fundamental oil and gas law were substantive, the entire set of amendments passed through the House of Assembly in a single evening with only three speakers.

Energy minister Lloyd Matthews described the changes as “administrative.”  He did not give any detailed discussion of any amendment, and simply glossed over the section on royalty agreements – the new section 33 – as if it was nothing more than a change of numbering.

John Ottenheimer, the opposition energy critic at the time and now the chair of NALCOR Energy’s board of directors,  spoke on the bill but made absolutely no reference to the details of the changes concerning royalties and variance to royalty arrangements.

That’s surprising given that the opposition leader at the time had already begun to speak publicly against give-away resource deals. Section 33 set the legal stage for just such a give away.

Jack Harris also spoke on the bill, spending considerable time criticising the existing royalty regimes.  He made no reference to the substantive changes the bill made to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Act.  That’s surprising since section 33 gives the government the right to sign a royalty deal which wasn’t even as lucrative as the existing regimes which he was criticizing. 

Then opposition leader Danny Williams made no comment at all on the bill during debate.

There’s no way of knowing at this point if a similar provision exists in the deal on Hibernia South. Details of the fiscal agreement on that project have not been made public.

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CHHC pays off for provincial government

Even without owning it, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador will likely earn more from the federal government’s 8.5% share in Hibernia than it will from its own 10% stake in Hibernia South.

That’s because the Canada Hibernia Holding Corporation (CHHC) pays royalties to the provincial government like any offshore interest holder and with Hibernia in payout, the royalty jumps this year from 5% to the current 30%.

CHHC’s stake covers an 8.5% interest in the remaining oil in Hibernia, including Hibernia South.  The total remaining oil could be as much as  1.2 billion barrels which would work out to the equivalent of about 100 million barrels for CHHC.

NALCOR Energy – the provincial government’s energy corporation  - owns a 10% interest in Hibernia South.  That works out to about 17 million barrels in the approximately 170 million barrels of the extension project in which NALCOR holds an interest.

Assuming an average price $50 per barrel, the NALCOR interest in Hibernia South would generate $850 million in gross revenue over the life of that project, less royalties that might be paid to the provincial government, as well as development and operating costs. The royalty on $850 million would be $255 million, assuming only 30% royalty.

But, using the same price,  the royalty paid by CHHC to the provincial government on the federal stake remaining in Hibernia – including Hibernia South  - would work out to roughly $1.53 billion.  That royalty comes with no deductions.

That’s not a bad return considering the provincial government took virtually no financial risk in Hibernia by acquiring an operating interest.

Between 2000  - the first year royalty payments were made - and 2008, CHHC paid the provincial government a total of $104.8 million according to figures released to Bond Papers by the federal finance department.

Table:  CHHC Hibernia Royalty

Year	Royalty Amount
2008	22,536,000
2007	15,576,000
2006	17,902,000
2005	20,582,000
2004	11,308,000
2003	6,254,000
2002	4,436,000
2001	2,205,000
2000	4,040,000
Total	$104,839,000

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Province’s political puff posture goes “Poof!”

Sure, the Premier claimed the provincial government wasn’t participating in the trade talks with the European Union, but Geoff Meeker discovered that over the past 18 months the provincial government has been working with the talks team.

Provincial government officials have been attending regular meetings and they have a seat at the table alongside the other provinces.

Meeker rightly wonders what all the bluster was about earlier this year. Turns out that there may be even more of a dysfunction or disconnect within the provincial government than first appeared.

We might also wonder therefore why the Premier suddenly headed off to Europe last week claiming he was working on the trade talks.

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Agricultural land freeze action MIA

The provincial government announced a  review of the agricultural land freeze in the metropolitan St. John’s area  in early 2007.

The commission didn’t hold hearings until 2008, but it managed to submit a report in June 2008.

The provincial government released the report in September 2008.

Of the 1,450 acres recommended for deletion from the ADA, 1,061 acres (75 per cent) are within the boundaries of the Town of Portugal Cove-St. Philips. The report also recommends the deletion of 120 acres from the protected area in the Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove area and 170 acres within the Town of Torbay.

The majority of this land base being recommended for removal from the zone has severe limitations and is unsuitable for agriculture. The review did not recommend any changes in the Goulds or Kilbride area, the main agricultural area in the St. John’s Urban Region.

At the time, the news release said the government was reviewing the recommendations.

A year after the provincial government received the report, there’s no word on what – if anything – came of the recommendations.

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Kremlinology 3: Gros Morne version

The provincial government’s  tourism folks love Gros Morne with all its beautiful views and its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation.

The provincial government’s energy folks want to sling 40-odd metre tall hydro towers through the park because it would be cheaper than going around the park.

So when the Telegram goes to the tourism department looking for a media line on a project that has – presumably – been endorsed by cabinet and therefore all of government, the tourism people suggest that reporter go speak to someone else.

Like the natural resources minister, she who oversees the line slingers.

Now it’s not like the comment was about something outside the tourism department’s mandate.  They should have a line on it ready to sling in the event someone asks them about the power line slinging.

But they didn’t.

They instead pointed to the other bunch.

And that’s a bit odd.

It suggests that somewhere in the tourism department there is at least one e-mail, at least one memo perhaps pretty high up the departmental food chain that considers the liner slinging to be “the most serious threat” to any tourism campaign featuring the pristine natural beauty of the province.

There might even be a document of some kind that says that, having looked at the “trade-offs”, the tourism people don’t like the idea of high voltage direct current electricity wire zapping bugs all down through the park.

Because, the surest way to put an end to any news story about the threat to Gros Morne  from the potentially unnecessary infeed from the Lower Churchill – if that even gets built – is to have the tourism people state publicly that having Gros Morne festooned with steel girders and power lines  is just a lot of fuss about nothing at all.

But they didn’t do that.

The tourism people passed the buck to someone else.

Very curious.

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“Negativity” and “bloggers” part of Palin excuses

Some aspects of Sarah Palin’s resignation excuses will sound familiar to people living t the other book-end of the continent’s northern reaches.

From the unedited transcript of self-described hockey mom Palin’s public remarks:

It’s pretty insane – my staff and I spend most of our day dealing with THIS instead of progressing our state now.

Palin was referring to complaints of ethics violations against her using state ethics laws.  Palin blamed people she described as “political operatives” for her woes.

Sounds a bit like frivolous access to information requests and people with a personal vendetta against government.

Then there are the comments that come from a senior Alaska Republican official:

Asked why Palin was stepping down as opposed to finishing her term (which ends in 2010), the RGA header cited pesky bloggers and activists as the reason. Palin had insisted she didn't want to put Alaskans through two years of a lame-duck governorship.

"I don't think this is buckling to pressure," said Ayers. "I think this is her coming to the realization that the legislature in Alaska and that some bloggers and activists in Alaska are going to do everything they can to stymie her progress. This is a governor who didn't run for the office because she wanted a title. She wanted to make significant change in the state. She realized that that was no longer going to be able to happen, because things had become so partisan there."

Even that sounds just a wee bit familiar – eerily familiar -  although the specific words used by the province’s Leading Hockey Player may be slightly different:

My biggest frustration in coming from several decades in the private sector to public life is trying to maximize my time to be the CEO of Government and run it to the best of my ability with my management team of Cabinet and public servants, and simultaneously deal with the day to day nonsense of counter- spinning negativity. That's politics, but for a pragmatic results oriented leader with a social conscience it can be very counter productive.[Emphasis added.]

Too negative. Too partisan.

Trying to “progress” but always being held back by these nefarious forces.

Makes you wonder.

Things get tough in Alaska, Palin packs it in.

Things get tough in NewfoundlandLabrador…

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