Jerome’s Guarded Language

labradore does yet another commendable job on demographics and recent population increases.

He also dissects the former finance minister’s guarded language when attributing the in-migration trends to a cause.

Basically, Jerome doesn’t.

He talks instead about things that will happen manana.

Tomorrow is a very important concept in the language of Newfoundland politics.  it is when things happen.  Unlike American politics where happy days are here again, Newfoundland politics is a place where good things will come tomorrow. 

We must be ready for a better tomorrow.

Today is a chore to be endured until tomorrow.

Today there must be cuts in health care and so forth, but it will be all worth it, tomorrow.

There are lessons to be learned from here or there that will prepare us for the rapture coming tomorrow.

The Lower Churchill is on the way.  It gets here tomorrow just as it has been getting here tomorrow for 40 years now. Some people aren’t attuned to the local political argot and so get taken for a ride. It’s especially wonderful to read the post on selective perception from 2006 and note the issues that still dog the Lower Churchill three years after the most recent political resurrection of this golem.

Heck, in one sense, Tom Rideout can hardly be faulted for thinking one June that tomorrow was actually four months away.

And tomorrow as we all know is a day that never arrives anyway.  When it does get here it is actually “today”.

Yet for all that, people still wonder why Alice in Wonderland is a good metaphor for Newfoundland politics.

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66 at 6 in 2

Once it was a million dollars, but heck if there was only a half a million there are better things to do with it than give it to Rolls-Royce or any other company that could get along without it and still create jobs in Mount Pearl.

And heck, I wouldn’t be pumping cash into getting more women to have babies. 

I’d put the money into looking after the ones we have and are having. Your humble e-scribbler would support breast feeding in Newfoundland and Labrador.

It’s good, preventive health care.

It helps change attitudes toward women way better than being crude and beating the crap out of Randy Simms for something he didn’t say.

There is a campaign apparently, as this story from The Aurora notes.

"We are launching this campaign in Labrador-City Wabush to highlight the success this region has had in promoting breastfeeding," Ms. Murphy Goodridge said during the launch. "Labrador-Grenfell Health is the first regional health authority in the province to implement a comprehensive regional breastfeeding policy based on international standards. Breastfeeding rates throughout Labrador have always been higher than the rest of the province, so I am here to recognize Labrador-Grenfell Health employees and their community partners on their tremendous success and to encourage them to continue to strive to improve breastfeeding rates. Other areas of the province are looking to replicate your success."

According to the article the province-wide initiation rate is a mere 64%.  That’s up a mere 1.3% since 2006. The old article had an old link to the Breastfeeding Coalition:  here’s the new one.

And initiation isn’t the telling factor.  Three years ago only 11% of mothers who started breast-feeding were still breast-feeding six months later. Women aren’t sticking with it. The rate by 2008 was a mere 12%.  That’s basically no change.

Whatever the ponderous government agencies have been doing ain’t enough.  Maybe we need to free-up the people actually running the programs and get a lot of that health care bureaucracy and stodgie government-ish thinking get out of the way.

And lookit, nothing would work to start our children out healthier than to encourage breastfeeding.

The BFC has a campaign to boost breastfeeding but frankly a few posters ain’t gonna do the job.  The campaign needs to have a much higher profile.  For one thing, there could be a group of prominent local someones in addition to all the other stuff outlined in the BFC strategic plan to help reinforce the message about breastfeeding.

And rather than just talk about the need for supportive environments, people need to start initiating action.  There needs to be a concerted effort to make the workplace more tit-friendly, for example.  There needs to be a much wider effort to make more parts of society accepting of breastfeeding.

So there’s an idea.

Rather than kick Randy Simms in ‘nads for something someone misheard or deliberately misrepresented, maybe someone could have done something positive like asked him about the City of Mount Pearl’s breast-feeding policy. 

Are women councillors who are breastfeeding their children able to do so during a council meeting or a committee meeting? 

What about the provincial government?

Was Charlene Johnson able to get her little one to latch on while Danny was in full rant around the cabinet table?   Not ideal for the digestion, admittedly, but still,  you get the point.

And what was all that with her having to get back to work a mere month after giving birth supposedly – and the emphasis is on supposedly – because there was no maternity leave policy in the House of Assembly?

Pish-posh.

Talk about your unfriendly work environment for women.  Now I may have missed it but I don’t recall anyone from PACSW championing that cause at that time.  There’s one for the government appointed pseudo-bureaucrats to tackle.

But there’s an example of simple issue that directly affects the ability of women to get involved and/or stay involved in many more aspects of life outside the family once they start having children.

Simple.

Practical.

Effective.

And everyone wins in so many ways.

People in Newfoundland and Labrador need to get involved in an effort to dramatically increase the breastfeeding rates in this province.

What’s been going on already is great but it isn’t enough.  Clearly.  Not enough.

So on this thanksgiving weekend, let’s applaud the efforts of the provincial Breastfeeding Coalition.  Let’s applaud Labrador West with the highest initiation rate – 75% – in the whole province.

But let’s recognise that that 75% is still 15% below the national average.

And we need to get some kind of “66 at 6 in 2” drive going to ensure that  within two years, we have 66% of mothers in the province still breastfeeding their infants six months after giving birth.

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Some ideas for 66 at 6 in 2

-  A better website.  It’s do-able and younger families are more likely to use the Internet for information.  The current one is buried away and it doesn’t have the kind of simple stuff you’ll find elsewhere.  A good example of a BF supportive site:  the US government one.  There are lots of others.

-  Paul Daly’s shot is great but there is a need to use a much more aggressive approach with messages tailored to different audiences.  And for mercy sakes don’t post the poster as a pdf.   You can get some ideas from this approach mapped out by students in the UK.

-  Nothing work better at changing attitudes and behaviour than making it clear that the dominant attitude has shifted.  People openly supporting breastfeeding – highlighted by some prominent locals – would start the ball rolling.

-  And just do it.  Nothing will work better than having the women who are breastfeeding just doing it.

Blooms and roses

News reports about a climb in the number of jobs across the country buried a key aspect of the story, as in this example from the Globe.

But there was a catch. Much of the private sector has yet to start hiring again. The job growth was due to 36,000 positions added in the public sector, while the private sector shed 17,100 jobs, in sectors such as transportation, professional services and accommodation. Private sector employment has dropped 3.9 per cent over the past year.

That was paragraph four, long after the stuff about huge gains and ones bigger than expected.

Now this is a rather interesting revelation in light of economic developments in Newfoundland and Labrador.

You see the boom on the northeast Avalon isn’t being fuelled by the offshore.  It’s coming entirely from massive increases in public sector hiring, public sector wage increases and a huge jump in public sector spending.

The most recent round of ‘stimulus’ spending for capital works is just more cash in on top of the gigantic increases in public spending over the past four years. That would be the “unsustainable” ones for those who missed the drama of the past few weeks.

Incidentally, the guy who revelled in boosting spending beyond the levels that the economy could support is back in charge of the cash box.  He proudly noted for listeners of one local call-in show that the province currently outspends Alberta on a per person basis just as it has done for most of the past decade and a half.

Yet for all that, the province just shed 4200 full-time jobs between August and September 2009 and there are 3100 fewer full-times jobs this September compared to last.

All this should lead people to be a bit cautious about predicting the end of the recession and the quick return to happier times. 

Here in this province, the current provincial economy is sustained by huge levels of public sector spending.  But that just isn’t going to work given the anticipated drop in oil production over the next four years.  Even if the global economy rebounds, crude oil prices aren’t likely to hit levels double and triple what they are today:  that’s the sort of prices the provincial government would need to keep up its current spending.

No one should be surprised, therefore, that the premier and his new health minister – the guy who used to be finance minister – just headed out to a by-election and pulled a fast one on the locals.

Come help us figure out cuts to the building cost, they said, so you can keep lab and x-ray services.  What they didn’t point out is that the savings needed are not the $200,000 in annual operating costs but the millions in construction costs.

In Lewisporte, for example, estimated costs for the new combination seniors home and acute care clinic skyrocketed from $22 million to $42 million before they even got to thinking about putting the first shovel in the ground.  In order to contain costs, government scrapped the acute care bit for a saving of $10 million.

But do the math. 

In order to restore the acute care centre and its anticipated cost of $10 million, the locals in Lewisporte will have to cut out one third of the beds – at least – in the new chronic care centre in order to get laboratory and x-ray service back.

So where are those old people supposed to go?

That’s a very good question.

Too bad the current administration doesn’t have an answer even though the problem and a viable solution have been available  - but ignored - for over a decade.

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Darrell Dexter: sucker

From the Chronicle-Herald:

Premier Darrell Dexter had a private meeting Monday with the president of Newfoundland’s energy corporation in an attempt to have electricity from the Lower Churchill Falls hydro project go through Nova Scotia.

Dexter apparently thinks the project is going somewhere and that there is any intention to run a power line through Nova Scotia.

Danny Williams hasn’t even been able to convince Hydro-Quebec to take an ownership stake in the project currently valued – not at $6 billion as claimed by the Herald – but at more like $10 billion. Heck, he even got bitched slapped into an emergency session of the legislature after his legal drafters tried a childish bit of word-play to screw with the 1961 Churchill Falls lease.

On top of that, the province’s finances are apparently so tight they have to cut health care despite having billions flowing in oil revenues. 

There are no – that’s right:  no – customers for the project.  A potential deal with Rhode Island has been buggered up. And that’s something the Premier once described as being “very,very” crucial to the project.

The land claims deal vital to getting the project going is lost in the wilderness.

The timetable on the project has been pushed back repeatedly and there are even rumours swirling now the thing will be sent back for a major environmental overall because the first set of environmental documents submitted to the federal assessment process were grossly deficient.

And, most amazingly of all given Dexter’s efforts to get in at the front end, there just are no plans whatsoever to run a power line from Labrador anywhere near Nova Scotia. 

If the Nova Scotians is fronting any money for this thing or even thinking of dropping cash on the Lower Churchill, he is being snookered, big time.

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Coming soon: the book they tried to suppress

When you care enough to send the very best

As David Pugliese notes, the Americans are speeding up work on the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.

Basically, it’s a honking great non-nuclear bomb that buries itself in the ground before exploding.

It’s purpose to reach down to the big, underground concrete shelters of the kind you might find in places like Iran or North Korea.

Let’s just say that it would f*ck up the day of the people inside.

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coughsoundsfamiliarcough

Jeff Simpson sayeth:

In Alberta, swimming in oil and natural-gas revenues, the Conservatives after Peter Lougheed (an old-style conservative) put next to nothing into the Heritage Fund, spent like drunken sailors (as conservatives often do, rhetoric notwithstanding), handed out tax rebates and left the province on its fiscal knees when commodity prices fell.

Boy.

That sounds mighty familiar.

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The Yiddish of Newfoundland Politics: the chutzpah of political hackery

Tory MHA Ed Buckingham reads a prepared talking point on CBC Radio praising Jerome Kennedy and attacking – of all people – the politically deceased John Efford for his comments about recent events in the province.

And Buckingham calls Efford a political hack?

That’s chutzpah.

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The Yiddish of Newfoundland Politics: the chutzpah of monkey-tossing

According to CBC, health minister Jerome Kennedy is saying the by-election in the Straits is bringing to light issues and concerns about health care.

Kennedy says this like he never heard of the issues and concerns before.

But it’s the job of the elected member and his political staff – in this case former cabinet minister Trevor Taylor and his constituency assistant Rick Pelley – to make sure the issues and concerns were known by people like Kennedy.

So basically, Kennedy is saying that Pelley – now the Tory candidate – wasn’t doing his job before now.

Nope.

Kennedy and his boss may have decided to chop health service as part of the budget process but the fact people didn’t like that is really something he never heard tell of before.

And so it took a by-election for Kennedy and his boss to  discover  - oh my Gawd, they’re upset? - that their decision to cut health service Flower’s Cove might cause a bit of consternation for the people in the area.

That’s chutzpah for you.

A result of a  financial decision Trevor and Rick didn’t make is actually is Rick and Trevor’s fault. And no one mentioned this local anger to Trevor before.

Didn’t he read the letter from Labrador-Grenfell?

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Simms in PACSW’s gun sights

Popular and influential talk show host Randy Simms is now firmly in the gun sights of the provincial government’s official advisory organization on women’s issues.

The Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women is planning an opinion piece for the province’s newspapers and is encouraging people on the PACSW e-mail listserv to join in by writing pieces of their own for local papers and calling both Simms and Bill Rowe on air to voice their opinions.

The controversy centres on remarks Simms made Tuesday to Long Harbour deputy mayor Ed Bruce which didn’t make a headline until Simms was challenged on Wednesday, on air, by newbie St. John’s councillor Sheilagh O’Leary.

An e-mail Thursday from PACSW communications director Elaine Condon described her having the “unfortunate task” of listening to Simms’ show Thursday and hearing what she described as “blatant sexism rear its head over and over.”

The e-mail also included the text of a front-page Telegram story by Alisha Morrissey. That’s not online but an earlier BP post linked to an shorter version of the story that appeared yesterday.

What the Telegram story on either day didn’t make clear is that O’Leary was working on the basis of a half-baked version of Simms’ remarks posted on a local blog. 

But as it turns out, the Signal writer also got a half-baked version of events:

I didn't hear it myself and heard it from a third party I trusted. I had never done that before, even for a blog, and I definitely learned my lesson.

Anyway, the transcription is up on Signal now, with a little apology.

And indeed the correct version and an apology has been posted.

The only question that remains is whether or not the half-backed version of Simms’ remarks fed to Signal and O’Leary was an honest misunderstanding in the first place or a deliberate misrepresentation to advance some unknown political agenda.

Simms may well have earned the hatred of some locals for criticising an event featuring only women municipal candidates in the middle of the election. He pointed out that such an event gave an unfair boost some candidates based solely on gender during the campaign and was clearly not in keeping with an effort to encourage more women to come forward as candidates.  Simms might now be targeted for payback as a result of his earlier criticism.

The 11 members of the PACSW governing board are appointed by the cabinet under the Status of Women Advisory Council Act. Under the Act, its permanent staff are covered by the Public Service Pensions Act.

The minister responsible for the status of women is natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale.

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But what does Get to Half mean now?

h/t to I.P. Freely.

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A political object lesson

Not-yet-sworn-in city councillor Sheilagh O’Leary got off to a very rocky start to her political career on Wednesday as she called Open Line Show host Randy Simms to give him an on-air lecture for comments he supposedly made yesterday.

Right off the bat, O’Leary displayed some questionable judgment since she effectively embarrassed Simms on the air.  Had he done something, she could have taken the route of calling him off air.  Simms would have then had the chance to offer a mea culpa on his own, thereby saving a huge amount of face.

As it is, O’Leary put Simms in a corner and he responded according.  The exchange was heated with Simms at one point referring to O’Leary’s comments as bullshit.  O’Leary evidently wasn’t prepared for any push-back and as the thing went on her voice got evidently more tight.  In places she came across as condescending and, contrary to her denials, as an advocate for political correctness of the worst possible sort. 

It’s not where she’d want to be at all politically, as many of the comments on the Telegram story would attest.  Outside of a very small and very narrow group in this town, O’Leary’s attack on Simms will seem to many to be off base and poorly handled.  Most of those those who voted for her may wind up wondering what they got for their efforts if this is the way she goes off right at the start.

And they’d be right.

Those of us who heard Simms’ comments initially could not have taken offense at them.  Anyone who has listened to Simms would understand his sense of humour.

But you don’t have to take the word of your humble e-scribbler.  The Telegram was good enough to give the entire exchange:

“There are two men and five women. Oh, my son you have my sympathy (laughter). You and Gary are not going to get your way on anything, you know that don’t you (laughter). It’s just going to be like being at home, buddy (laughter). We’re being nasty to your lady councillors aren’t we (laughter). No, you’re going to have a good crew out there.”

The problem for O’Leary comes from the fact she got her version not from the horse’s mouth but from a local blog.  They didn’t link it but here’s the post from Signal:

“Five women and two men on your town council? My sympathies go out to you, buddy. You’ll never get anything done; it’ll be just like home”

Big difference when you make the edits, isn’t it?

Sheilagh didn’t take the minute to double check the information or to call Randy and give him the chance to back down on his own.

She launched into him live, on the air and without warning.

Bad move.

It’s a political object lesson for the newbie councillor in how to handle issues and political relationships.  This is especially the case, as here, where the thing involves someone who is potentially a very influential and supportive ally in provincial politics. 

You see, the couple of people who gave O’Leary this story may have been heartened by her call but in the long run this sort of thing can damage the chances of achieving their goals.  An experienced politician might have handled it differently. 

An experienced politician would have recognised that it is far more effective and far more desirable to have Randy Simms promoting – for example  - getting more women involved in the elected side of politics.  There may be other issues on gender or access where Simms’ support would carry a lot of way. 

It isn’t a question of compromising principles but rather of sacrificing a first blush and admittedly amateurish impulse in order to achieve a larger goal.

O’Leary  - understandably – made the noob mistake.

The sensible thing for her to do would be to call Randy publicly and sort the thing out quickly.

And the next time think before picking up the phone to a call in show.

Oh yes, and here’s a big one.

Find someone she trusts who has more experience in politics who she can rely on for advice.  She’s at the start of what could be a long and promising political career.  If she settles in, that will be the case.

O’Leary’s voters were looking for a Shannie. If she does more of what her voters heard on Wednesday, they might wonder if they instead got a politician more along the lines of …shall we say… the opposite of Shannie.  And Heaven knows St. John’s had enough of that kind of politics before it got a better paying job.

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Kremlinology 6: the curious last days of Paul Oram

On September 10, 2009, then health minister Paul Oram gave a version of the health care cuts decision that contradicted what his boss was saying.

On September 21, 2009, then health minister Paul Oram said that his own administration had boosted spending to levels that were unsustainable.

That was an amazing admission that the province’s finances were in such a horrendous state.  Until then virtually every cabinet minister had claimed the opposite.

Paul’s talk of cuts prompted your humble e-scribbler to remind the universe of a previously unsuccessful health minister whose daughter now works for the Premier and of the current Premier’s own phrase when talking about a previous administration.  But that was just fun.

On September 29, 2009, then justice minister Tom Marshall turned up on a local call-in show to discuss the province’s finances.

Marshall said a whole bunch of things that tended to affirm Oram’s statement, although Marshall – who had been finance minister for the highest of the high-spending years never actually said the word “unsustainable.”

But notice that it was Marshall delivering the message.

Not Jerome Kennedy, the guy actually holding down the title of  finance minister at the time.

But Tom Marshall, the former finance minister, calling from his ministerial office in Corner Brook.

This was the day Danny headed off for a gigantic swan hobnobbing with the international environmental hoi-polloi that ran from the 30th of September to October 2.

On October 1st – and despite his previous insistence that the cuts at Flower’s Cove and Lewisporte were carved in stone - Paul restored at least some of the previous cut in Flower’s Cove.

Danny got back on the weekend.

On Monday, Paul told Danny he was leaving.  That’s by Paul’s own version of  the timing.

Paul heads off to Buchans for an emergency town meeting, called very hastily by the provincial government Tuesday morning.

The next morning, Oram ends it all, politically, in front of the House of Assembly.

Of course, Oram has some cock and bull set of talking points about health issues and the pain his family suffered and the evils of the CBC none of which explained why he was not only bailing out of cabinet but hauling ass out of politics altogether.

Oram was slitting the wrists of his own political body and yet he was blaming someone else for wielding the blade.

One of the examples Oram cited as painful was having his wife’s name on the television news in connection with the family business.

Odd that Paul Oram backbencher had no trouble with his wife’s picture and name being in a Labrador newspaper when she and her husband travelled to Labrador west talking about opening a new personal care home in the area.  Anyone got a picture of that to share for posterity?

But that’s to get away from the real oddity here namely the appearance of the former finance minister a week or so before he got the job back again to tackle a finance issue when there was a perfectly serviceable finance minister more than capable of sorting out the whole issue.  And to really add to the oddity, the formerly serviceable finance minister has now become the health minister.

The timing and the comments all seem a little curious.

One of the Premier’s most loyal foot soldiers leaving politics so quickly is highly unusual in itself.

The context might make it more unusual.

And if that’s the case, then Paul’s reference to Danny Williams as having been a father figure to him? 

Well, that’s just likely to give a body the heebie jeebies. 

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Jerome! gets his dream job

Jerome Kennedy is the new health minister.

There was talk a year or so ago that Kennedy was anxious to move into the high pressure job as a way of proving himself on the way to the Eighth Floor.

He didn’t get his wish at the time, what with the Premier stuffing him in finance instead.

Well, a short while later Jerome got his dream job.

And he won’t have quite the same commute as his predecessors did when cabinet meetings were on.

Interestingly enough, the Premier didn’t take the opportunity to replace Trevor Taylor who quit last week.

Instead, the acting minister of transportation will carry on.  Tom Marshall will go back to finance and Felix Collins will get the minister’s job in justice.

There won’t be a permanent replacement for Trevor until some unspecified time later, apparently.

Curious.

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No slack for Oram from reporters

Paul Oram left politics entirely today blaming ill health and the news media who apparently hounded him and his family.

That second one never lasted a second as reporters quite rightly pointed out that oram himself and his boss have said far worse about their political enemies than any reporter ever said about either one.

Watch the scrum down the right hand side of the cbc.ca/nl website.

The reporters cut him no slack, in other words and nailed his bullshit about the media for what it was.  He mentioned the coverage of his conflict of interest, in particular during the scrum. 

There are still many questions left by Oram’s sudden departure.

Why did he leave so hastily, leaving the Premier so little time to lash together a replacement scheme that he couldn’t even replace Trevor Taylor properly?

Why did Oram opt to quit entirely when he could have asked for a temporary leave from cabinet until he got his blood pressure under control?

Why did Oram leave politics altogether?  The back bench is not a hard spot and Oram could have taken the pause to get his health in order. 

As with Trevor’s departure there is much more to this than meets the eye.

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Breaking: Oram to commit hara kiri?

Embattled health minister Paul Oram is holding a newser in 15 minutes to discuss his political fate.

That’s usually code for announcing his resignation.

If he resigns quickly that would cause another by-election before Christmas but it would certainly be the second high profile cabinet minister to resign unexpectedly within the space of two weeks.

 

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Tom Hedderson, Time Lord

Ever the eagle eye, labradore has noted that Tom Hedderson is the latest provincial cabinet minister to have problems with time.

Tom Rideout thought tomorrow was a day months in the future.

Tom Marshall thinks that half a day of cursory mentions of a bill in the legislature in 2007  is widely debating something.

Now Tom Hedderson’s make-work project for fishermen announced just within the past few days has an application deadline last July:

  

And Tom issued a news release just yesterday claiming this was the best make work project in the province’s history.

Sure.

It could be.

If people can travel backwards in time to get the application in.

You just cannot make this stuff up.

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The Deader Sea Scrolls

A mere six years ago this month, the Provincial Conservatives were on the campaign trail promising to bring a new approach to the province’s affairs.

In light of recent events, it’s useful to recall what they promised way back then if only to see just exactly how much they haven’t accomplished. For the record, here are the Tory fishery commitments, found stuffed in a bunch of old Kraft Cheez-Whiz jars in a cave somewhere along the coast. Contrary to rumour it wasn’t in Tors Cove.

This is the batch of Tory promises on the fishery from 2003, word for word as they appeared in the Blue Book.  The notes in Italics are comments by your humble e-scribbler.  In some cases, it’s pretty clear what happened but in others there may well be things that slipped by unnoticed.

If someone can update or correct the information, by all means do so.  Credit should go where it is due, if it is due.

FISHERIES

A healthy fishing industry must play a leading role in Newfoundland and Labrador's long-term economic well-being. It is the Province's largest private-sector employer. Entire regional economies are based on the sustainable harvesting and processing of fisheries resources, and transportation, fuel, technology and service industries rely on the business the fishing industry generates.

Sound and Scientific Fisheries Management

The industry must be restructured and managed to avoid the disasters of the past and adapt to the opportunities of the future. In particular, a shared fisheries management structure should be developed that will merge federal-provincial policy and management responsibilities into a complementary process for better conservation and management of the resource. It also requires fisheries policies based on the best available scientific evidence, enforcement of Canadian conservation measures, and monitoring by Canada of all fishing activity on the continental shelf.

A Progressive Conservative government will pursue a Canada - Newfoundland and Labrador Fisheries Agreement for a decision-making process in which the federal and provincial governments work in partnership for the sustainable management of the fisheries.

[BP Note:  Did they even try for that one?  Bitching doesn’t count since they also promised a better relationship with the feds based on rationality not  and name-calling.]

Research and Development

The fishery is undergoing dramatic changes. Cod and other ground fish have collapsed. Stocks of snow crab and shrimp have expanded dramatically. Changes of such magnitude require precise, up-to-date scientific information on the marine ecosystem, the sustainable harvesting of fish stocks, and efforts to restore naturally reproducing populations.

Scientists and economists also play a leading role in establishing new directions for fisheries management through research into underutilized species and new value-added marine products, innovative harvesting and processing technology, successful marketing strategies, aquaculture, and the use of marine genetic resources for pharmaceutical and commercial applications.

A Progressive Conservative government will establish a Fisheries Science and Management Research Institute at Memorial University that will provide scientific, technical, and economic support for the sustainable development of Newfoundland and Labrador marine fisheries and aquaculture. The multi-disciplinary Institute will:

• Undertake research and establish links with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, other federal and provincial agencies, fish harvesters, and experts around the world to provide decision-makers with the research-based information they need to develop sound fishery management policy.
• Supply the industry with product, technology, market and economic research and information needed to diversify and improve value-added production.
• Find out how resource management decisions affect people and communities.

[BP Note:  This was such a great idea they made essentially the same commitment again in 2007, albeit in a much more modest form:

• provide $6 million for fishing industry research and developmental work over the next three years, which will include work associated with the development of new species, new products, new markets and new techniques to harvest, handle, process and market our marine fish resources. [Emphasis in the original]

Foreign Fishing on the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks

For the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, the fish stocks on our continental shelf could be fished indefinitely with proper management, while foreigners see them as stocks to be harvested intensively until they are no longer economically profitable, or are fished to extinction. These conflicting values underscore the need for Canada to extend its management over the entire continental shelf and to regulate both the domestic and international fishery for sustainable development.

• A Progressive Conservative government will carry out nation-wide public information campaigns aimed at persuading Ottawa to take custodial management over the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks, and to undertake whatever regulatory and enforcement activities are necessary to manage sustainable fisheries on the entire continental shelf.

[BP Note:  nation-wide information campaigns?  Anyone recall seeing anything that looked like that?]

A Sustainable Seafood Processing Sector

Seafood processors have to deal with resource scarcity, different species, and markets that are more oriented to value-added products than ever before. Consumers clearly prefer a variety of products that require a minimum of time and effort to prepare and retain as much of their original appearance and taste as possible.

For today's consumers, value-added not only means further processing of raw materials but also consistent quality standards in handling, packing and transporting seafood products. Added to these trends are new applications for marine products in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, and many other new and useful biochemical commodities.

Workers in our processing plants are plagued with low incomes and inconsistent employment. Part of the solution to this chronic problem is in doing more with what we have and finding new uses for that which we have not utilized in the past. A Progressive Conservative government will implement a comprehensive strategy to improve the viability of our industry and increase employment levels in the Province by:

• Requiring value-added processing where it is economically feasible and putting greater emphasis on retail packs where possible. [BP Note:  This look familiar to anyone?]
• Promoting utilization of a variety of marine species in food processing, as well as new industrial uses of marine products in pharmaceuticals, biomedicines, and other chemical products.
• Forming partnerships with industry to implement an international procurement program to secure primary seafood products for local seafood processing plants. [BP Note: How about this one? Finding raw materials overseas to push through local plants.  Did they even try that?]
• Encouraging local investment in fishing enterprises and related industries, and requiring fishing enterprises to register and maintain their head offices in the Province.  [BP Note:  Does breaking up FPI count as the complete opposite of this?]
• Restructuring the harvesting and processing sectors of the industry around the principles of resources sustainability, adjacency, quality assurance and economic viability. [BP Note:  Just going out on a limb that this never got out the door.]

Quality Assurance and Marketing

Quality control is important for the fish processing industry, which is heavily export-oriented. Maintaining high standards of food quality and food safety is necessary to retaining access to international markets, and adds millions of dollars to the value of our annual seafood production.

A Progressive Conservative government will upgrade the Quality Assurance Program to include a mandatory quality control system for handling fish and seafood products intended for export that meets the highest international standards for food quality and safety.

As international markets become increasingly competitive, we must ensure that Newfoundland and Labrador seafood is at the forefront of the global marketplace.

A Progressive Conservative government will work with industry to develop and implement a comprehensive, long-term marketing strategy aimed at promoting the Province's seafood industry with a goal of increasing sales in world markets. Promoting the quality of our seafood product is key to successful marketing, and must play a pivotal role in the strategic plan. The strategy would also include the following:

• Providing processors with the marketing expertise required to successfully promote and market products.
• Developing effective techniques for promoting the quality of seafood products in national and international markets through trade missions, product promotions and trade shows.
• Facilitating the sharing of ideas and experiences in the interest of enhancing the marketing of Newfoundland and Labrador seafood products. [BP Note: Again, just thinking here that the destruction of FPI and the sale of the marketing arm to a Nova Scotia company, along with all the well-established and recognised international brands would be pretty much the opposite of this policy plank.]

The Province will also acquire the necessary expertise to participate in Canadian trade negotiations through NAFTA, the European Common Market, and Asian countries to ensure that Newfoundland and Labrador seafood products have fair access to markets in the United States, Europe and Asia.  [BP Note:  Seeing this commitment in 2003 just makes the whole thing about European trade all the more whack-o.]

Aquaculture

Many of the Province's wild fisheries are either fully- or over-exploited, and those remaining have to be harvested on an ecologically sustainable basis, which means the volume of wild fish landed around the world will be well below the market demand for seafood products.

Aquaculture offers the main prospect of filling this gap, and will be a significant contributor to the economy of coastal regions in the future. Farmed products are rapidly replacing declining wild species on the international seafood market. Since 1990, values have doubled to over $75 billion.

Although this Province is an important player in the wild fisheries, it accounts for only a tiny fraction of world aquaculture production. Considerable development will be required over the coming years to establish Newfoundland and Labrador farmed fish and shellfish as a viable addition to wild fishery supplies in domestic and international markets.

Aquaculture can be a financially viable industry in this Province and operate within environmentally sound parameters. We have the site capacity to become the largest producer of aquaculture products in Canada, which would bring related economic activity and thousands of jobs to dozens of communities along our coasts.

A Progressive Conservative government will facilitate the expansion of profitable and sustainable aquaculture enterprises in the Province through:

• Support for scientific research to identify potential new locations, develop technologies, investigate potential environmental problems, and cultivate robust stocks of existing and new species, so that the industry can produce better quality products and receive better prices.
• Incentives to promote long-term venture capital investments in aquaculture enterprises.
• Development of high levels of skill and knowledge in the technical, business and marketing aspects of the industry.
• Working with the industry to raise standards and improve efficiency so as to secure a profitable and sustainable future for aquaculture enterprises.

[BP Note: Here’s the one place where the current administration has done fairly well.  They’ve dropped large chunks of cash into aquaculture and managed to lure a major player into the local scene.  Then again, this was the easiest thing to accomplish.  It only required throwing money into it and that’s pretty much the one thing they had plenty of.

-srbp-

Vacuous, 2009 edition

Political media commentary in Canada is usually funny.

Lately, commentary on federal politics is even funnier.

Example The First:   Winston Smith makes several cogent observations which should  - among other things - put to death that always laughable Connie excuse that the news media are biased in favour of the Liberals.  Read Winston.  He’s always sharp as a tack. he’s not the funny stuff;  the people he’s writing about are funny, albeit not meaning to be laughable.

Example The Second:  the bevy of comment in many quarters prompted by the Prime Minister’s recent tickling of the ivories at the National Arts Centre.  Again, unintentionally risible.

You got your American bloggers of the conservative variety.

You got your locals of the something variety, including the line “I am growing more and more impressed with Stephen Harper.”   Now just note that for what it’s worth.  If that comment is coming from that source, be sure that there will be no ABC campaign in the next federal election.

But anyway…

There are news stories and columns all over the place.

Only one journalist so far has nailed the point about the whole NAC thing and she did so this morning with a pithy line to the effect that the piano is the latest version of the sweater vest.

In other words, it’s a contrivance.  Sure the guy plays the piano but the entire episode was designed to create exactly the commentary it is generating.

As great as that is, it is a sure sign of just how vacuous is the political landscape that the biggest national story is that the PM can bash out a Beatles tune on the nearest Yamaha.

It’s as irrelevant to the universe as the claim the Liberals are on a campaign to bring the government down or any protest that Jack Layton and his Dippers propped up Stephen Harper just recently because they could score some dough for their peeps.

All three federal political parties are suffering from a gross leadership problem the proof of which is the fact that the big news out of Ottawa is about Denis Coderre, a non-election scare and a guy who took music lessons.

In the meantime, just think about the stuff that none of them are actually talking about.

Anyone been following economic news lately, for example?

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Oh, how far the mighty have fallen

In 2003:  a bevy of promises designed to restructure and rebuild the fishing industry.  Heady days were those:  “The industry must be restructured and managed to avoid the disasters of the past and adapt to the opportunities of the future.”

In 2009, the provincial fisheries minister can only defend his government’s policy by saying they have come up with the best make-work scheme ever:

This is the first time that the province has provided a CEEP program for harvesters and it is the best program the province has ever provided for plant workers. [Emphasis added]

Could there be any more astonishing an admission of the abject failure of the provincial government to deal with the fishery?

Well, that would be the laundry list of subsidies, money and other spending on the fishery in lieu of that restructuring and management promised in 2003.

Hand-outs are – by their nature – evidence of a government that has run out of ideas and/or political ability.

-srbp-

R’uh R’oh, the people version

it took a bit but labradore has laid waste to the latest bit of silliness coming from some quarters about the Glorious Growth of In-Migration.

There’s even a nice little graph that shows that since 1961 upticks in in-migration coincide with recessions.  Not surprisingly, the most recent uptick is the biggest and coincides with what the late lamented Tory Trevor Taylor described as the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The diaspora returneth not to the homeland after all, it seems.

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An admission of abject failure

A quarter of a century ago, Doug House and the Royal Commission on Employment and Unemployment heard time and again of the the need to get rid of make-work programs. 

Qualifying people for federal employment insurance benefits promoted a culture of dependence and destroyed innovation and self-reliance.

Some 17 years ago, the province’s Strategic Economic Plan introduced a bold, new approach in order to bring about fundamental changes within Newfoundland and Labrador.  There’d be no more make work and government free gifts to businesses.  Neither one worked to produce sustainable jobs.

Less than a decade after the Royal Commission – with the change of administration in 1996, in fact -  things were heading back to the old ways of megaprojects and make-work schemes.

In 2003, there was a new crowd, who supposedly had a plan called the New Approach.  Some of it seemed familiar.  Doug House came back and then left again.

Nothing changed.

It’s still megaprojects,  make-work and more make-work and handouts to business, hand-outs to business, hand-outs to business, hand-outs to business and hand-outs to business.

Oh, and let’s not forget hand-outs to business.

And hand-outs to business.

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The race is on in the Straits

We can all know for sure because not only did the leader of the provincial Tory party announce it, the former president of the party “confirmed” it.

Did Paul Reynolds think we didn't trust Danny or something?

This should be an interesting race.

-srbp-

Innovation?

A 10 minute video from the provincial government’s energy monopoly corporation is titled “Innovation in Renewable Energy”.

So what’s so innovative about damming off a river to generate electricity and running transmission lines to market?

Why nothing at all, of course, and in the case of the Lower Churchill project, the ideas from transmission line running around Quebec to the entire project itself have all been around for about 45 years.

There’s even the highly unimaginative and incorrect claim that running a power line down to Soldier’s Pond will “displace” the diesel generators at Holyrood.

And the project is a heckuva long way from starting if the current trends continue.

The only real innovation mentioned is in the discussion of the Ramea wind-hydrogen-diesel test project. 

But that’s one project, it’s a small project and it’s more than five years away from anything significant.  Meanwhile, the rest of the world is much farther along in developing alternative energy technologies.

Maybe what the provincial government should be doing is figuring out a way to turn bullshit into energy.  If that was the case, videos like this show they’ve already got a powerhouse that could displace the entire global output of greenhouse gases until the end of time.

At least when it comes to the Lower Churchill, the current administration has shown it is highly adept at recycling  even if it’s complete lack of planning beyond what was done 20 years ago is painfully obvious.

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When all they can offer is an E.A.…

There’s something about the life of provincial political parties that gets to be a bit predictable.

Like you can tell how healthy the party in government is by how successfully it attracts high quality, high profile candidates into its ranks after the first general election when it takes power.

You see one of the jobs the leader of a party gets to do is find candidates.  They get to pick the people or approve of the people who run for the party.  Leaders of parties in power usually have an easier time, but the leader still has some work to do in spotting talent and bringing it forward. 

Now some people like to think otherwise.

You’ll see comments in the local media lately that Hisself would not work with some of the current governing crop if this were his own private business.  But the thing is that Hisself actually did pick ‘em all.  And even if there were a couple he didn’t recruit to run or approve to run and work to get elected, he certainly picks the people who serve in his cabinet.

And it’s not just the health of parties in power that shows up in candidate selection.  Take a party like the provincial New Democrats during the leadership of the fellow now in Ottawa helping  Jack Layton keep Harper and the Connies in power.  Every by-election and general election seemed to come like a total surprise to them. The party never seemed to grow and never seemed able to capitalise on a couple of noteworthy successes in the 1980s.

Ditto the Liberals in the aftermath of 2003 or for that matter in Trinity North before the fellow changed teams.

Take a look at the pending by-election in the Straits and White Bay North. Just ignore the fact that the seat is vacated with unseemly haste by a fellow Danny Williams has come to rely on as a bit of an attack crackie alongside John Hickey.

Just notice that even though the seat used to be held by a Tory big-wing and even though said big-wig was looking to bail about six months ago and even though he made a firm decision a month ago, the best the Tories could come up with to replace Trevor was the guy who was Trevor’s constituency assistant.

You won’t see much mention of that in media stories on Rick Pelley but that’s who he was until today.

Now some executive assistants can wind up being superlative politicians in their own right.  But there’s something about a guy bailing out and his EA being the  one to get the nomination that makes you scratch your head.  Maybe what’s really so noticeable here is that Pelley is running a mere six years after these guys got to power.

Maybe it’s because the first Tory EA to run and get elected was in 2007, a mere four years after the party took power.  back in the 1990s, the Liberals got through two terms before the first executive assistants started turning up as candidates.  Before that there were fresh faces.

Now maybe there’s nothing to this at all beyond the original questions raised by the way Golden Boy Trevor Taylor bailed in the first place.

But still, maybe you only have to look at the stark contrast between what Taylor said back in 2001 and how things turned out to find out why the Tories got the candidate they got in this case:

I want to ensure The Straits & White Bay North is poised to ride the wave that's about to wash over this province. This is no time for backroom silence and backbencher obedience. Now is the time for the district to take a bold step in a new direction. It's a time for someone who will speak up loudly and effectively for this district, and people know that's exactly what they'll get in electing me.

Electing Trevor’s EA hardly would seem like a bold step in a new direction.

And as for that bit about backbencher obedience, well, these days everyone pretty well knows how much of a joke Trevor’s words turned out be.

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And you think Hisself has it bad

As much as some people like to moan about The Racket, there were a couple of things this past week to show that that self-serving load-of-crap bit of whinging for what it is.

First, Arnold told an audience at the Governors’ climate conference in California that it was worth putting up with all the shit he takes as governor because he wants to give something back to the state that has given him everything. 

Yes, there are people looking for more government money and people complaining about him and people poking into his life, but darn it, everything he has – from his success as an actor to his family – are attributable to California.

Yes people, real leaders don’t bitch about a job they volunteered for six years ago.

Second, not a single person during the entire period since 2001 has dared ask Hisself a question even vaguely as outrageous as the one faced by Gordo Brown earlier the week:

Heck they have a hard time putting a real question to Ole Twitchy sometimes let alone getting an answer.

Even people asking simple stuff like how many people went with him on the swan to California and how much it cost taxpayers get told to file an Access to Information request.

At least the crowd that surround Hisself have a sense of humour.

And trucks keep on rolling

Fire truck month is turning into a regular occurrence.

-srbp-

A modern method of deciding

For all those people who find it a little silly to be picking a winner out of a hat, labradore notes that the current municipal elections law passed the House of Assembly at high speed in May 2001.

As to the charge of antiquity... the Act was shepherded through the Bow-Wow Parliament as Bill 7 in 2001. It received First, Second, and Third Reading, Committee Stage, and Royal Assent, in the present, 21st, century.
So, what did the Members have to say about the tie provisions when it came before them for their measured and serious examination?

Hansard records the eloquent and passionate debate for posterity; reproduced here in its entirety:

“On motion, clauses 55 through 96 carried.”

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Of course he’s unbiased and non-partisan

From the 2003 Progressive Conservative Party news release launching their blueprint campaign platform:

The plan has also been vigorously studied by Wade Locke, an independent economist and Memorial University professor, who endorses the plan as a positive step for the province.

In a letter to Williams, Mr. Locke stated, "I find the ideas contained in the Blue Book 2003 to be progressive and encompass a vision that holds great promise for the economic future of Newfoundland and Labrador. I find the balance between the business/economic initiatives and the social/cultural approaches to be encouraging.... Should you be successful in implementing your vision, current and future Newfoundlanders and Labradorians stand to gain significantly."

Musta been a smelter in there or a can opener?

-srbp-

Americans look to home-grown hydro

The United States can generate an additional 70,000 megawatts of electricity by upgrading existing hydro facilities according to U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu.

The juice would come from newer, more efficient turbines and other technologies that would goose more energy without having to undertake megaprojects and risk additional environmental damage.

This further dims the prospects for the Lower Churchill as the Americans are looking at a wide range of ways to meet future energy needs. 

It also reinforces the idea that megaprojects like the Lower Churchill just aren’t considered to be green anymore.

The Americans are developing real energy plans.  That is they are developing ways of meeting their energy needs in environmentally friendly ways and by encouraging ingenuity. 

By contrast what is called an energy plan locally is nothing more than justifying a bunch of decisions already made to produce a megaproject called the Lower Churchill and create ways of stymieing any development that isn’t controlled by a large, ponderous government monopoly.

h/t RenewNewEngland.

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Dear Ralph: resign

Ralph Wiseman was screwed either way.

On election night, the veteran politician lost his seat as mayor of Paradise to a 19 year old up-start.  he lost by a mere three votes.

So Ralph asked for a recount.

If the recount affirmed his loss, he was out of a job.

If the recount put him on top, then Ralph could only stay in office dogged by the knowledge he had pissed off enough of his residents that they would rather see a kid run the place before him.

He’d be the lamest of lame ducks for four years.

But now Ralph Wiseman has found a way to screw himself in a whole new and even more politically painful way.

After today’s recount, Wiseman and challenger Kurtis Coombs were tied.

So someone drew a name - no shit; that’s what they did  - and Wiseman is back.

Holy Dead Duck, Wise-man.

Ralph is foolish to be grinning and claiming he won fair and square.

Maybe he did, but there’s no mistaking the fact that right now Wiseman does not have the comfortable support of a majority of the people of  the town called Paradise. His election lacks legitimacy.

Wiseman got the job because someone pulled his name out of a hat.  What’s next, election at the local amusement arcade?  Break the balloon with this blunt dart and you could win a cheap stuffed toy or be mayor of the fastest growing town in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The only thing for Wiseman to do if he wants to govern is  resign.  Resign and cause a by-election to take place for the mayor’s seat.  Call it a run off.  Maybe someone else will come forward.  Maybe no one will.

But at least at the end of the contest Wiseman can say the choice was unmistakeable and democratic.  In a healthy  democracy, only the voters get to make the choice. 

As it stands right now, Wiseman stands to have nothing but political trouble for the next four years.  At the very least he’ll be a laughing stock across town and across the province.

And frankly, having  accepted this ridiculous way of settling the tie, Wiseman deserves every ounce of grief, every snicker he gets.

-srbp-

Lahey on the lam

A Roman Catholic bishop accused of possessing and importing child pornography is still at large.

Raymond Lahey resigned abruptly last week as the bishop of Antigonish. Turns out child porn had turned up on his laptop when it was examined by border services agents when Lahey returned to Canada via Ottawa.

There’s a Canada-wide warrant for Lahey.

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Anderson cops to 90K; Walsh files for bankruptcy

Another spending scandal player has copped a plea.

Wally Anderson, the former Liberal member for Torngat Mountains admitted to fraudulently receiving about $90,000.  That’s a fraction of the total he was accused of obtaining and there is no admission he engaged in bribery like former Tory cabinet minister Ed Byrne.

There’s another difference.  Anderson claims he never pocketed any of the cash himself.  Byrne funded his party with the illegal gains in addition to funnelling the money to his own benefit.

Anderson will be sentenced on Friday.  The Crown is seeking up to two years less a day, a sentence on par with the Byrne plea agreement.  The Crown’s rationale for sentencing is interesting:

"Mr. Andersen is clearly a respected individual in the area he represented," said lawyer Frances Knickle. "But that's what makes this so troubling. We are not talking about a crime of impulse but something that was done deliberately over many years."

That’s interesting because in Byrne’s case, he was the leader of the party and leader of the opposition at the time of the crimes. Some of his activity involved illegally funded his party, and the scope of Byrne’s illegal activity isn’t known.  How much money was directed to his party simply hasn’t been revealed and may never be known.

Meanwhile, former Liberal cabinet minister Jim Walsh  - another one of the spending  scandal accused - has filed for bankruptcy in an Alberta court.  Walsh apparently now resides in Alberta.  Bankruptcy would frustrate efforts to recover any of the money in the event Walsh is found guilty.

During his trial, Walsh has acknowledged receiving thousands more than permitted by his allowance limits but is claiming he isn’t responsible.

His trial continues in November.

-srbp-

You know them as sooks, Ma’am.

In Corner Brook, they are apparently called penders, after the big sooky former mayor of the great city of the west.

Rather than be gracious in defeat, Charles Pender decided to moan and whine a bit:

“It wasn’t a one-on-one campaign,” Pender said. “I had other forces I had to deal with ... Mr. Greeley had a definite strategy with the support of Gerry Byrne’s campaign team, which is a formidable opponent, and Eddie Joyce bringing people to the polls all day in Curling.”

Pender must get the sooks from some of the company he’s been keeping since 2001.

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Population and the economy

labradore may do more of his own with this, but in the meantime, it’s useful to steal his observations on the most recent quarterly population statistics.

He left them at Townie Bastard’s corner. Some people, including local media, took the wrong perspective which is not surprising since the StatsCan release wasn’t very clear on what’s been happening in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Anyway, here’s Wally’s take on things. Bear in mind he accurately predicted a recession in 2008 by noting the sudden change in in-migration and hence in population that took place in mid-2007:

The population bump from in-migration happens during every recession.

Out-migration hasn't really slowed down. Actually, it hasn't slowed down at all. International migration is stable at best; the last two quarters have been slightly worse for international immigration than the same time last year.
And the imbalance of deaths over births is trending in death's favour. This was the third consecutive quarter of natural population decline (more deaths than births). Six of the last seven, and eight of the past eleven quarters have seen negative natural population change. One more quarter, and there'll have been a full year of it - the first time for any province, I believe.

The only thing that's causing population growth is net in-migration, largely driven by people moving in from Alberta and Ontario.

Two guesses as to what's driving that. First doesn't count.

Now anyone who looks at the release and stopped for a second might have noticed that the increase was only about one quarter of one percent. And if that person had clicked back to the release before, he or she might have noticed the previous quarter where population declined in Newfoundland and Labrador.

But those wider points – about persistent out-migration and the deaths/births ratio – require a level of analysis that reporters just don’t have time to do.

Sadly for the reporting world, that’s where the real story sits.

You can find it over at labradore.

-srbp-

Predictable Update: You won't find the real story in a provincial government news release, as Jerome!'s effort Wednesday morning confirms.

Micromanaging health care = vague direction and uncertain authority

Back then, the Tories wanted to get out of the business of deciding how and where health care was delivered.  They wanted to get the department out of operational decisions.

From Our blueprint for Newfoundland and Labrador (2003):

Effectively Managing Health Care Services

The Department of Health and Community Services spends too much time micro-managing the health system, and too little time articulating policy. As a result, health care suffers from vague direction and uncertain authority, and managers continue to apply patchwork solutions to a system that is becoming more unmanageable every day.

In 2009, the cabinet decides what communities will have laboratory and x-ray service and the minister responsible tries to claim that the health regions made the choices when – quite obviously – they didn’t.

Odd that the people who had the right answer, consistently pick the wrong answer.

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Municipal round-up

1.  St. John’s:  A bunch of things already noted.  Here are a few additional quickies:

Municipal politics has never been issue driven and that seemed to be the case across the board.  2009 confirms the iron law:  to get elected talk about anything but what you’ll be responsible for.  Tom Hann and Sandy Hickman both boosted their votes at large, Hann by talking about search and rescue and Hickman with ferry service at Port aux Basques.  Colbert reputedly took a holiday in the middle of the campaign.

Recycling is popular in the city, especially if you look at the trend to re-elect incumbents.  In Ward Three, voters elected a guy who used to be on council almost 20 years ago.

Cost per vote:  Sheilagh O’Leary brought up something about finances but it wasn’t clear if she was complaining about the cost of  campaigns or about the fact that campaign contributions aren’t tax deductible.

Doesn’t matter:  just take a look at what the candidates spent in the mayoral and deputy mayoral campaigns compared to the votes received.  Gigantic sums, even if some of its was comp/in-kind and the vote results were appalling. On the other hand, look at what other candidates in city-wide races did with only a tiny bit of spending. 

We’ll have to wait until the official reports, but a preliminary winner would be Gerry Colbert who spent nothing but sweat apparently and pulled in 16,000 votes.

2.  Paradise:  Ralph Wiseman loses either way.   As of last night, a 19 year old second year university student beat him by three votes.  If the recount affirms that victory, the voters just slapped Wiseman hard.  if he wins on the recount, they have slapped him hard and put him in a really tough spot for the next four years.  held have to radically change his approach or risk being run out of town on a rail.

3.  Corner Brook:  A last minute promise of hundreds of millions in a new hospital couldn’t save Danny and Tom’s hand-picked mayor.

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“Unsustainable” public spending: the fin min version

Former finance minister Tom Marshall said on Tuesday that he was once asked by an analysis for Moody’s bond rating service if he felt the growth in public sector spending was sustainable.  Marshall didn’t reveal his answer. 

The subject came up in a discussion with talk show host Randy Simms on VOCM.  Marshall noted that the province spends more per person than any other province in Canada. 

Simms suggested that high rate of spending was because of the geographical dispersion of the population.  He didn’t mention that costs in Newfoundland and Labrador are typically lower for many things, including wages.

At that point, Marshall noted that people not from here often don’t understand the issues and then mentioned in passing the comment from Moody’s.  He also referred to boosting spending based on oil revenues only to be faced with a problem when oil prices drop dramatically.

That matches recent comments by health minister Paul Oram that the provincial government’s spending levels were “unsustainable.” 

It doesn’t match claims by Marshall and other cabinet ministers up to now that the current administration was practicing sound financial management.

-srbp-

Ron Ellsworth: R.I.P

The big political story of the 2009 St. John’s municipal election has got to be the political implosion of Ron Ellsworth.

The supremely ambitious fellow burst on the political scene in 2005 with a big win in Ward 4.  His lust for higher office was no secret and in 2008 he ran for the deputy mayor’s job grabbing more than 19,000 votes.

But he fumbled badly a little over a year later, polling almost 7,000 votes less than he got in 2008 and going down to defeat at the hands of one of the weakest mayoral incumbents in recent St. John’s history.

Heck the top six at large candidates all polled more votes than Ron Ellsworth.

Talk about a political catastrophe.

And in record time.

Ellsworth may have made a furtive try at municipal politics in 1997 but when he came on so strongly in 2005, he seemed to be destined for bigger things.

A mere four years later, he is politically left high and dry.

Maybe he’ll do -  as the rumours suggest -  and look to replace Bob Ridgley as the Tory candidate in St. John’s North provincially. 

If he does, Ellsworth will need to find new help with his political advertising.  Whoever did the work for him this time did him a huge disservice at every step.  The only mayoral campaign that sucked more was the winner’s. 

The surprise upset in the election has to be Danny Breen’s victory in Ward One over incumbent Art Puddister.  That isn’t the way your humble e-scribbler called the race and this is one case where it is great to be proven wrong.

St. John’s city politics and its appalling mail-in ballot system are notoriously skewed in favour of incumbents.  Where else but at Tammany on Gower could the polls close at 8:00 PM and the election machinery – literally a machine – could declare victors two minutes later?

It normally takes a herculean effort to unseat a townie incumbent unless you have some kind of momentum behind you as a local celebrity of sorts.  Name recognition and affability often count for  more than any demonstrated knowledge or ability. 

Whatever Dan Breen did to win, he deserves much praise and a whole pile of credit. No one helped him outside of his driven campaign team and that should prove interesting if and when some of the moneyed interests come forward looking for friends to return favours.  

Meanwhile, in the deputy mayor’s race, Shannie Duff handily defeated Keith Coombs.

That wasn’t much of a surprise since Coomb’s resort to negative ads was a huge tell that his campaign was getting desperate.  he wasn’t helped at all by the poor timing of them since they hit the papers – who reads any more – and the airwaves after the crucial date for voting. 

Coombs might have beaten Duff in a old-fashioned race, but he and his crew should have know all that the mail-in ballot system changes the voting dynamic dramatically. 

Pushing poorly executed negatives ads too late in the campaign was just a waste of time and money.  Going negative may have suppressed some of Duff’s vote – which is what going negative does – but it also may have turned off some of Coombs’ potential supporters as well.

At this point, it doesn’t matter.  Keith will have two years to get ready for a provincial run or four years if he wants to try and pull a Sears.  Maybe he an Ron will get together and compare notes.

-srbp-

How many consultants does it take…

to figure out where to put a hospital?

One.

And then, after a year of consulting, another two batches of highly paid, high priced consultants  will do some very expensive cogitating to figure out what services the hospital will provide.

As if the people already delivering health care services couldn’t figure out what services are needed in Corner Brook.

Still no word on when construction of the new hospital will start.

And then people wonder why government’s capital works budget is ballooning wildly out of control.

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Bozosity Index 12.    You hire a big name consulting firm who brings in MBAs with one year of experience to re-think your corporate strategies.

Freedom from Information: Right to Know Week 2009

labradore lays waste once more to the annual event called Right to Know Week.

At least this year the thing is pushed by the guy who actually cares about your right to know.

Last years’ release was from a guy more inclined to be concerned about frustrating your right to know.

-srbp-

Top 10 Warning Signs of Bozosity (plus a few extras)

Guy Kawasaki is smart.

After years of working among some of the most creative companies on the planet he invented the concept of a “bozo explosion.”  That’s what happens to great companies after a certain point, if the company isn’t carefully managed with an eye to continued success and innovation.

As Kawasaki rightly puts it, the whole process is depressing.

For your amusement, here’s his list of warning signs that a bozo explosion is underway. You can find this and whole lot more great ideas at his blog How to change the world.

1.   The two most popular words in your company are “partner” and “strategic.” In addition, “partner” has become a verb, and “strategic” is used to describe decisions and activities that don't make sense.

2.   Management has two-day offsites at places like the Ritz Carlton to foster communication and to craft a company mission statement.

3.   The aforementioned company mission statement contains more than twenty words--two of which are “partner” and “strategic.”

4.   Your CEO's admin has an admin.

5.   Your parking lot's “biorhythm” looks like this:

• 8:00 am - 10:00 am--Japanese cars exceed German cars
• 10:00 am - 5:00 pm--German cars exceed Japanese cars
• 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm--Japanese cars exceed German cars

6.    Your HR department requires an MBA degree for any position; it also requires five to ten years work experience in an industry that is only four years old.

7.    Time is now considered more important than money so you have a company cafeteria, health club, and pet grooming service. Moreover, the first thing that employees show visitors is the company cafeteria, health club, and pet grooming service.

8.    Someone whose music sells in the iTunes music store performs at the company Christmas party.

9.    An employee is paid to do nothing but write a blog.

10.    The success of a competitor upsets you more than the loss of a customer.

Addendumbs (sic) to the list from readers:

11.    You have a layer of middle management who worked at big-name companies (usually consumer goods) who like to call meetings and designate “project leads.” (I experienced this first hand.)

12.    You hire a big name consulting firm who brings in MBAs with one year of experience to re-think your corporate strategies.

13.   Your company likes some of these MBAs and hires them away from the big-name consulting firm.

14.   Your CEO or CFO spends more time on CNBC than in the office

And then it got much worse Update:  The short list quickly became the Guy Bozofication Aptitude Test (it pays to read more than what google turned up).

15.   The front-desk staff gets better looking and less competent.

16.   The only time you see your CEO is when you're watching CNBC.

17.   You watch CNBC during the day and don't feel guilty.

18.   The ratio of engineers to attorneys dips below 25 to 1.

19.   The company has created a “company values” poster.

20.   “Leveraging core competencies” and “maximizing shareholder value” show up in official documents, in the same paragraph.

21.   New executives campaign to improve the product before they understand how to use it.

22.   Your company outsources its mission statement.

23.   Your CEO's chair is more expensive than your first car.

24.   You have more than two execs with the word “chief” in their title.

25.   The company becomes a schwag fountain: pens, bags, notepads, messenger bags.

Add two points for each

26.   Your CEO writes a book.

27.   Your CEO gets invited to the World Economic Forum in Davos where he gives advice to the presidents of Eastern European countries.

28.   Your company has a corporate jet.

29.   Your company hired a retired professional athlete as a motivational speaker.

30.   Your company hired a retired politician as a motivational speaker

 

 

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Offshore board calls for land plot nominations

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) today announced a call for nominations from industry stakeholders for lands in the offshore area that would be considered for a possible call for bids in 2010.

A call for nominations is a preliminary step prior to a competitive call for bids.  It  provides interested parties with the opportunity to nominate areas of interest to be included.   CNLOPB can also nominate lands on its own initiative for inclusion.

The offshore board is not bound to proceed with a call for bids in respect of any lands nominated, nor is a nominee obligated to bid on any lands nominated and included in a subsequent call for bids.

Interested parties will have until 4:00 p.m. on November 2, 2009 to submit sealed nominations to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board. Further information is available from the board’s website.

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