Arrogance never impresses

Mr. Speaker, that is the difficulties with letting people see these reports when they do not have the technical expertise to be able to interpret the results.

That’s environment minister Charlene Johnson under fire in the House of Assembly for sitting on environmental assessments of sites related to Abitibi’s operations in the province.

The video  - via CBC - is even less impressive.

At this point in the questioning, Johnson was clearly having difficulty justifying her actions in keeping the reports from the public. What else to do then but to blame the ignorance of everyone else for her decisions.

Yes, folks, the public are too stupid to understand these things so everyone must trust Charlene to do the right thing.

And if there was a problem, she’d tell us.

Sure.

Just like she and her cabinet colleagues told us they’d expropriated the Abitibi mill, arguable the worst environmental mess of the lot, and they did it completely by accident.

Really, though, that’s just the least of Johnson’s problems in the credibility department.  Take a gander at the environmental assessment for the mill that Johnson released yesterday but only because the same documents were posted to a Quebec court website as part of the ongoing legal wrangles since the expropriation Fubar Follies started last year.

They don’t look pretty.  And given that Johnson tried her damnedest to keep them from being public until forced to do so as a result of a related court action, she also looks like she was trying to hide them for some reason other than the stupidity of the average Newfoundlander.

Her other comments in the legislature surely won’t help.

Take for example, her reference to Buchans where she and her cabinet colleagues acted swiftly to alert the public to potential health issues:

When we had these reports done, Mr. Speaker, if there was anything that was identified as an immediate human health and safety issue we acted immediately. Look at the case in Buchans, Mr. Speaker. [Emphasis added]

Immediate.

The word stands out against the backdrop of Johnson’s other words.

Immediate.

As in, something that can’t be avoided, postponed or delayed.

But otherwise?  Not a peep, if you take the full implication of Johnson’s words.

Trust her.

People might be willing to trust her unquestioningly if only we weren’t talking about hazardous chemicals and other products. They might be willing to give her the blind obedience of a Chris Crocker Brigade member if only Johnson hadn’t tried to keep everything under wraps.

And maybe they might be able to look past even that if  she didn’t try to fall back on a mishmash of pseudo-technical gibberish that perhaps even Johnson doesn’t fully comprehend:

Just to break it down so you can put it into laymen’s terms, there was one single arsenic excedence that was taken between a half a metre and a metre below the soil in the ball field. The excedence was twenty-five milligrams per kilogram. If you compare that to the risk-based number that was done for Buchans on the surface, that was forty-eight milligrams per kilogram.

Here’s how the government environmental analysts described the results of earlier testing on the ball field.  Incidentally, they didn’t do any test work of their own:

A previous investigation completed by JW included the collection of two soil samples from test pits, one borehole soil sample, and six surficial soil samples in the area of the present Ball Fields. The soil samples contained BTEX, TPH, and metals at concentrations
greater than the applicable criteria.

Let’s put that into plainer English:  In a total of nine samples – not one but nine – there were of petroleum, oil and lubricants spillage and metals residue at levels above those allowed by the environmental guidelines.

It doesn’t sound nearly as innocuous when you put it real layman’s terms.  Maybe that’s why Johnson avoided plain English.

Johnson and her colleagues have a huge political problem.  Arrogance – the standard defensive tactic of the current administration – doesn’t make things better.

At some point people will remember Johnson’s abysmal performance over a raft of bridges the public used regularly and which fell to Johnson’s department to keep track of. Public safety was so important to her department – to borrow Johnson’s own talking point – that her department didn’t inspect the bridges. 

At all.

One disappeared altogether without explanation and no one seemed to know it until a federal government inspection of some of the bridges showed potentially very serious hazards.  That prompted a panicked inspection by Johnson and her department.

Something should tell Charlene that with that sort of track record “trust me” is not going to work for her again.

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Potato, potato: hydro version

vocm.com is making much of the fact that NALCOR and Hydro Quebec are taking different interpretations of the ruling yesterday by Quebec’s energy regulator.

The truth of the whole affair is actually in VO’s news story.

Here’s what happened:  part of the ruling yesterday was on an effort by NALCOR to suspend the timelines under Quebec’s open access tariff rules that give a company with power to ship 45 days to either book the space or to signal and intention to book the space.

NALCOR didn’t want to book the space now, especially on a project that doesn’t really exist.  No markets.  No money.  Still mired in environmental assessments and all that.

So two and three years ago, they simply couldn’t afford to book space and build new lines for a project that – at the current pace – likely won’t even be sanctioned before the date NALCOR still claims they’ll be shipping power. Even today they still can’t afford to book the space because the project is entirely a figment of everyone’s imagination.

And here’s the line in the VO story that clinches it:

Nalcor counters that the Regie refused to suspend the timelines association with their request while the company was following formal complaint procedures, resulting in a termination of Nalcor's application.

So instead, there’s even more talk about a project to ship power to New Brunswick through the island of Newfoundland.  While that option has always been technically feasible, it has also always proven to be a route that doesn’t make economic sense.  You just can’t ship the power to distant markets in a way that you can still make money.

The reason is geography, especially for the Lower Churchill.  Look at it on a properly oriented map and you’ll notice it is actually farther away from any major market than any other hydro project in eastern Canada (current or proposed).

But whatever the problem with the Lower Churchill is, we know one thing for certain:  NALCOR boss Ed Martin  doesn’t think it is Hydro Quebec. 

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That was Then. This is Now: Desperation edition

Then:  Max Ruelokke’s “ties” to the oil industry made him an unacceptable candidate to head the offshore oil industry regulatory board.

Now:  Mark Turner’s ties to the oil industry make him the perfect candidate to assess offshore oil industry regulations.

Then:  Hydro Quebec was a worthy partner to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill, no redress for 1969.

Now:  Hydro Quebec is the latest incarnation of foreign evil.

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Lower Churchill: Imaginary project. Imaginary News Stories. (and one they ignore)

CTV  - via the Canadian Press’s Shawn McCarthy - got it wrong.

Badly wrong.

So too did the Globe:  they relied on McCarthy’s story.

VOCM got it wrong, too. 

They relied on NALCOR and the provincial government.  After all, Danny Williams admitted he hadn’t read a translation of the decision;  he was relying on four pages of “errors” from the decision by the Quebec energy regulatory board on three applications by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro related to transmission lines through Quebec.

The Montreal Gazette got it right.

So too did CBC St. John’s, graced for the first time in a while by Hisself live and in person.

Here’s the CBC lede:

Quebec's energy regulator has turned down a request from Newfoundland and Labrador to intervene in an ongoing dispute over pushing power from a proposed hydroelectric megaproject across Quebec's power lines.

And here’s the Gazette [link above]

Hydro-Quebec's existing power lines don't have the capacity to transport energy from a new hydroelectric project in Labrador south to export markets, Quebec's energy board said in a controversial ruling Wednesday.

The CP story started out completely wrong:

Quebec’s energy regulator dealt a blow to Newfoundland and Labrador’s plan to develop a massive power project on the Lower Churchill River, denying the province’s push to have Hydro-Québec transmit electricity to markets in the U.S. and Canada.

One of the reasons CBC got the story right is because they have the actual decision.  They weren’t relying on the opinions  - legal or otherwise – of the same rocket scientists who delivered the Abitibi FUBAR Follies.

The Lower Churchill project has no markets and it has no money, other than what is coming from provincial taxpayers.  As such, it is a project that exists on paper;  it’s an imaginary project.

There is also absolutely nothing stopping NALCOR from doing what Danny Williams has committed to doing all along;  running power through Quebec and, if need be, paying for new transmission facilities to carry the power. Therefore, there is no reason to believe this decision by the Quebec energy regulator affects the Lower Churchill project at all;  therefore it is an imaginary news story, at least as presented by the people who got it wrong.

And by the way, in the got-it-wrong, imaginary news category,  the new CBC story  that the Premier is thinking of taking his campaign against Hydro-Quebec to the Untied States is way off:

The Régie de l'énergie dismissed a complaint of fair dealing from Nalcor, Newfoundland and Labrador's Crown-owned energy corporation.

NALCOR’s three applications to the Regie included in the decision on May 12 were about technical questions in the way certain calculations were made in preparing an assessment of the costs and implications of Hydro’s plan to wheel power from the imaginary Lower Churchill project to five destinations.

This wasn’t a “fair dealing” issue either directly in the sense of the other lawsuit NALCOR is pursuing, nor was it a decision against fair dealing, as implied by the sentence. 

But for all that, there is a huge Lower Churchill story the mainstream media continue to ignore.  What a time to bring it up, as Danny Williams is ranting once again about the evil Hydro-Quebec:

Despite five years of secret efforts, Danny Williams could not persuade Hydro-Quebec to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill without having to pay any compensation for the 1969 deal. That’s the story natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale  - inadvertently - revealed last fall. 

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Retribution

Hisself in the House of Assembly on Tuesday:

Let me be very clear. This government never has and never will inflict retribution on a district. It does not happen.

Jerome! on the same day, in the same place:

Mr. Speaker, as pointed out by the MHA for The Straits & White Bay North, there is quite extensive medical personnel in St. Anthony; four anaesthetists in St. Anthony for a population of 14,000 people on the Northern Peninsula; four general surgeons, Mr. Speaker, more than in Grand Falls-Windsor or in Gander.

Mr. Speaker, besides all of that we have put over $12 million in capital equipment in this hospital in the last number of years. There is a hospital there to serve the needs of the people. I would suggest to the members opposite that they should concentrate on that because when you look at the numbers of doctors there, it certainly causes concern.

Given that Jerome!’s information on how many doctors of what type are where in the province is highly suspect, Jerome either didn’t get the memo about retribution and threats or Hisself is no longer in charge.

The two comments can’t live in the same space.

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Desperation

How do you know Hisself is desperate to change the political channel during polling month?

He appeared live on CBC Here and Now.

The same evil CBC he and the Chris Crocker Brigade just spent the last year or more vilifying in any forum they could find.

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Nothing could be further from the truth: political pavement pork punishment version

As labradore documents yet again, the Premier can deny all he wants that things like paving is apportioned on a partisan basis, with the most money going to districts that vote the “correct” way.

The facts tell a complete different story.

When it comes to Danny Williams’ claims that he doesn’t do political retribution, you might say that nothing could be further from the truth.

The first set of tables show the simple distinction of Tory versus Grit and Dipper.

The second set of tables colour cabinet ministers in a darker blue.

Here’s the 2008 figures:

There’s only one quibble.  Labradore claims that the minister of pavement, as he calls it, is the transportation minister.

As the people of the province discovered during the Rideout resignation fiasco, the whole pavement program is supervised by a political staffer in the Premier’s Office. Some people described this sort of thing as “normal” at the time.

Oh, yes, one more thing:

As labradore also notes, the provincial government no longer gives dollar amounts for road paving done in each district.  They hype the heck out of the cash but they hide the amounts involved.

Purely coincidentally, they stopped giving the dollar figures last year after labradore’s analyses started making the rounds.

Transparent and accountable sounds like “Canada’s New Government”.

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Corridor hits big gas

The company looking to explore the Old Harry oil prospect in the Gulf of St. Lawrence has another discovery on its hands.

According to CBC, Corridor Resources president Norm Miller told a Halifax audience Tuesday that Corridor and its partner Apache found a significant deposit of natural gas in Sussex County New Brunswick.

The gas find came in a hole originally drilled and abandoned 11 years ago.  Miller said that new technology allowed Corridor to find gas in a shale bed where it previously missed it. The Chronicle Herald reports the find is the largest shale gas deposit in North America. One independent estimate projects as much as 67 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could be found in that area of New Brunswick.

The find is also related to Corridor’s ongoing exploration for oil in New Brunswick. [map]

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Jerome! ducks reporters on medevac fuss

Health minister Jerome Kennedy today refused to answer questions from reporters following his claim that incidents in St. Anthony related to his decision to relocate the air ambulance service had reached the pointed where he was speeding up the relocation.

As CBC reported:

"There has been at least one other incident that has caused us some concern," said Kennedy, who added that the situation in St. Anthony has become so volatile that the government moved up its timetable on relocating the air ambulance service.

But Kennedy would not describe other incidents, and was not available to speak with reporters later.

Kennedy is moving the air ambulance without a trained crew to handle medical evacuations.  As a result, the aircraft will have to fly from its new home in Goose Bay to St. John’s to pick up a crew and then return to carry out the med evac.

The relocation came after two incidents in Labrador where aircraft were unavailable for medevac flights.  Neither incident was connected to the aircraft base location.

In the fall of 2009, for example, a child waited for nine hours while the lone air ambulance then flying made a series of runs to and from Labrador with more urgent patients.  The second of the provincial government’s two medevac aircraft was down for repairs at the time and – apparently – no arrangements had been made for a backup.

Other aircraft were potentially available.  For example, Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation – owned 65% by the provincial government’s energy corporation  - owns a B-300 King Air that is both available for charter under certain circumstances and which can be configured for medical evacuation.

In late 2006, entrepreneur Bill Barry tried to interest the provincial government in chartering aircraft from a company he owned at the time to provide medevac service from Deer Lake. It appears nothing came of the idea.

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Justice minister approves of double-dipping

From the House of Assembly, Monday May 10, 2010:

MR. F. COLLINS: Mr. Speaker, given the situation we had in that office as of September of last year, this government had to make a decision to find somebody who was competent to fulfill that role in an acting capacity, to get that office back on stream, to re-establish morale, to advocate for youth, and to do all of the things that office is supposed to do.

We were very fortunate, Mr. Speaker, to get a person of such impeccable credentials as Judge Rorke. He is a retired judge - I assume he has a pension as a retired judge. Whether he is collecting it or not, I would not know, but if he is, he is certainly entitled to it.

And people wonder how the province’s finances could be in such a mess.

They need only ask a cabinet minister who thinks such double-dipping is just tickety boo.

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It’s always about the money

Former cabinet minister Trevor Taylor, whose surprise resignation last fall triggered a wave of set-backs and problems for the ruling Conservatives, wrote a letter to the newspaper in his former district last week about the air ambulance controversy.

Trev’s argument in a nutshell, paraphrased by your humble e-scribbler:

• “Any intelligent person” would have seen that an independent review of the air ambulance service would lead to government shifting the airplane from St. Anthony, however, it was only through Taylor’s political intervention that the ambulance stayed in St. Anthony.
• Oh yes, and I brought $163 million to the district and [some people] claimed I did nothing.  You elected the other guys.
• Live with your f*ck up.

Did he really mean to suggest he created the situation that triggered the review and relocation, i.e. the incidents in Labrador?

Methinks not.

But the logic is inescapable:  Taylor is effectively taking responsible for the circumstances that existed before the relocation.  If any “intelligent person’ could have foreseen the service needed to be moved, then only Trevor’s political arguments based on something other than the most effective and efficient operation of the service kept it in what Trevor suggests would be the wrong place, were it not for political interference.

Interesting.

Curiously,  he makes no reference to the fact that the review recommending relocation was structured in such a way as to support that conclusion already, not as an independent and open-ended review on the efficient operation of the air ambulance service. 

Oh yes and it is all about money:

During that time I had the complete and unwavering support of the Premier for viable legitimate investments in the district, to the tune of $163 million during the six years we were in government, one of the biggest investments in any district in the province.

And then he finishes with a heartfelt “f- you to his former constituents:

The district voted for change, change is what you are getting.

Trevor’s letter also suggests that there was a deep-seated dissatisfaction with Taylor and no shortage of deep animosity between Taylor and his constituents.Taylor’s letter speaks volumes about how he and his colleagues operate:  pork, for one, and if you read between the lines, payback for the other.

The current administration is viciously partisan in a way not seen in this province since the 1960s.

Maybe that’s why it feels like 1970.

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Rumpole and the Double Dippity-Do

Simple question.

But first, the background:  Retired Provincial Court judge John Rorke is pulling down $175 an hour for a 35 hour week as the acting child advocate in Newfoundland and Labrador.

That’s more than double what his predecessor made.

It’s also more than a sitting justice of the Supreme Court of Newfoundland and Labrador pockets annually.

Rorke is also the commissioner for the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary Public Complaints commission.

So here’s the simple question:

Has Rorke parked his judge’s pension?

It’s one thing to be pulling in some pin money as a complaints commissioner, essentially a part-time job. 

But collecting a gigantic salary as acting child advocate and  collecting a pension at the same time seems a bit extreme if it were to be happening.

After all, in Ontario, the issue is a hot one across Ontario where the Globe revealed that school boards spent $16.7 million last year using retired teachers to fill in rather than hire new teachers. It wasn’t so long ago that the same thing happened here.  In fact, if memory serves, there was even a treasury board directive that placed some pretty strict conditions on the practice of hiring people who were already collecting provincial government pensions.

After all, it isn’t like Rorke doesn’t have a pot to piss in.

 

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Democracy Watch: Newfoundland and Labrador edition

Think of it as another type of mother’s day:

"The reality is that a friendly dictatorship definitely applies in this case."

Resulting legislative dysfunction is "quite shocking," [Memorial University political science professor Alex Marland] said.

"A number of the parliamentary principles that are supposed to occur don't occur here. The biggest problem is the lack of opposition and the lack of scrutiny of government operations."

Three things:

One:  there’s nothing friendly about the sort of nasty, mean-spirited, vicious, petty, personal digs quoted in this Canadian Press piece running across Canada this weekend. They may not be friendly but they have been very much par for the course since 2001.

Two:  Marland ought to know how dysfunctional politics is these days in Newfoundland and Labrador.  He used to be a comms director in Williams’ administration.

Three:  Irony is referring to a Quebec judge making palpable errors in the context of the Abitibi expropriation TARFU.

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Head Shaker Update: The Globe headline on this CP story makes it sound like the Old Man just dropped the writ:  “Williams seeks third term as Newfoundland’s premier”.

The next election isn’t due until October 2011.  A lot can change in the time between now and then.

The Same and the Different

Bob Wakeham may find this irritating or revealing but, contrary to Wakeham’s conclusion, there is nothing ironic in Danny Williams’ letters to the CBC ombudsman complaining that CBC producer Peter Gullage is biased.

First, here’s Wakeham’s comment from his Saturday column:

The irony in all this is that Williams has absolutely no need to stoop to this thin-skinned foolishness, turning molehills into mountains, and portraying himself as a mannequin for diapers.

The premier is still immensely popular, has done more things right than wrong, and should keep his disgust with journalists like Gullage (and commentators like me) buried.

Perhaps it’s part of the addictive power trip.

Now here’s a definition of irony:

Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.

There is nothing about Williams’ action in the Gullage complaint that is different from what occurred before.  So if one expected Williams not to moan, whine, bitch and complain, then one has not found irony, but blindness on the part of the observer.

Williams’ relentless negativity is legendary.

His capacity to slag off anyone, friend or foe, is equally legendary.  Take friend George Baker, for example, who has nothing but Bill Rowe-like praise for the powerful Premier and his amazing awesomeness.  The senator was not immune to Williams’ wild accusations, as labradore recently noted:

What about George Baker who got muzzled after they bought him off? What happened to him?

George Baker:  bought, i.e. corrupt as in bribed into silence.

Nothing could be further from the truth – to borrow one of Williams’ ironic phrases - and at the same time, nothing could be closer to Williams’ hyperbolic ranting.*

Nor is this the result of the supposedly usual addictive power trip that seduces Premiers. Wakeham tells a story about Clyde Wells complaining  - legitimately - about Wakeham’s crowd, the ombudsman ruling and Wakeham ignoring.

Yes, folks, Bob’s balls are legendary, at least in his own mind even if, as it turns out, his memory isn’t.  There was another episode in which the Ceeb buggered up a story about expenses.  They thought that the amounts to be spent went up when -  in fact – the administrative rules had changed on how much entertainment needed** pre-approval from treasury board.

That’s as arcane an issue as it gets but it was also a highly contentious one at a time when the government is hurting for cash and laying off workers.  And, in the case of the Ceeb, the story was totally wrong in the implication that cabinet ministers and senior executives were whining and dining better than ever before.  They aired a nice correction to that once the ombudsman ruled.

The lesson there is not what Bob would like us to focus on. The story here is not of sameness but of differences.

For starters, the complaints to which Wakeham refers were ones where the issue was about specific incidents and actions by Wakeham’s crowd with specific details anyone could look at and judge.  The complaint was not about Bob Wakeham but Williams’ bitch about Gullage seems to be characteristically personal in all its dimensions.

Then, the complaints to the ombudsman followed a series of calls and letters (no e-mail in those days) trying to resolve the disagreement in that way.  One gets the sense the Gullage episode was basically a letter straight to the Big Gun.

Then, it was all perfectly normal stuff in the dance between politicians and government on the one side and news media on the other;  pretty much indistinguishable from what happens between reporters and other people being reported on.  No screams  - necessarily - of “your mother wears army boots” or “you don’t have the balls for it”.  Just disagreement, heated or otherwise. Not personal; just business.

And the most important distinction of all:  it wasn’t Wells, if memory serves, who penned the missives and made the phone calls. He knew to leave decisions to the people he hired to do specific jobs.  He had staff and in particular senior staff who were seasoned enough and capable enough to talk him out of doing the sorts of things that Williams is now famous for.  Refuse to let him do the things that would damage his reputation in the community.

As much as something got up Wells’ nose, he – and they – appreciated that becoming the butt of jokes, even if confined to the newsroom, diminished not him but his entire administration and the people in it. Once you’ve become a mannequin for diapers, to borrow Wakeham’s phrase, it really doesn’t matter that you’ve “done more things right than wrong”.

They knew that if Wells spent huge chunks of his time and all that emotional energy chasing after every little thing, there’d be crap-loads of work that simply didn’t happen.  There’d be projects delayed by years with all the cost over-runs  - wasted public money - associated with the sluggishness.  Legislation would get lost in the bureaucracy.  Other laws would be passed but not enacted.  Staff appointments would be delayed and at times there’d be an enormous turn-over in a short period.

And that was at a time when government wasn’t run, in detail, from the Premier’s own office.

Wakeham’s basically out to lunch on this one:  Williams behaviour in going after Gullage is exactly what anyone who has watched the man for more than five minutes would expect.  Everything about the episode is typical.

It isn’t confined to people of Gullage’s stature.  Judges are a favourite target, usually because Williams has lost yet another legal case. Even a letter from Ordinary Joe to the Gulf News or some other of the weekly organs across the province can net an unhappy call from the Old Man.

At some point, mainstreamers like Wakeham will start noticing there’s much more to this than an addictive power trip:  If Hisself is writing letters and making phone calls about this trivial stuff, what is it that he isn’t doing?

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May 8, 1945 – Victory in Europe!

$8 million government loan to Kodiak under review

The provincial government is reviewing an $8.0 million interest-free loan made two years ago to Kodiak, according to the Telegram.

The cash was supposed to cover the cost of consolidating the company’s Canadian operations at Harbour Grace. As a result, and according to the official government news release, the work force of 170 at the boot plant in Newfoundland was supposed to increase by another 75.

Last week, the company slashed the Harbour Grace operation to 100, blaming a depressed marketplace.

In the government hand-out photo, from left to right, Harbour Grace MHA Jerome Kennedy, Premier Danny Williams, then-business minister Paul Oram and then-innovation minister Trevor Taylor try on some Terra boots at the cash hand-out ceremony in September 2008.

The loan to Kodiak represents more than half the cash the Williams administration has managed to hand out to business since it announced its cash give-away programs in 2007.

Out of $75 million in total budgeted for the business attraction fund since 2007, only $14 million has actually been announced. In the first year, the government spent not so much as a penny of the $30 million initially budgeted. As the Telegram’s Rob Antle noted:

Other pots of cash set aside by the department to generate economic activity in the province have had similarly little take-up.

A "special initiatives" fund has doled out just $4 million of a budgeted $19.5 million over the past three years.

The department has budgeted an additional $7.75 million for special initiatives this year.

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Related – The Fragile Economy series:

• Staying the course
• Reductio ad argentum
• …and two steps back

Kremlinology 21: Tells

The local CBC is to the local Tory crowd as the Globe is to the local, umm, well the Tory/nationalist tribe.

It is the only news medium they pay attention to.

Just look at the number of times they reference the Globe about something related to this province either because it is or is not in Toronto’s national newspaper.  If it isn’t in the Globe it never happened.

Ditto CBC.

Item: Fred Hutton and NTV broke the story about Danny’s sooper sekrit trip to Florida to fix his heart problem.

The Chris Crocker Brigade attacked the CBC.

Listening to Cross Talk that day was like listening to a pack of enraged hyenas tearing kittens to pieces.

Just insane.

Item:  Danny files a complaint with the CBC ombudsman about a comment made by a local CBC producer in a story in the National Post. 

Item:  the editorial in the Western Star suggesting the Old man might consider packing it in if he is getting too tired and cranky.

Never got much attention until CBC posted it online.

And then all hell broke loose.

But don’t just look at the fact the Fan Club reacted to the location of the story.  Look as well at the content.  labradore picked it up.

It’s all fairly typical stuff for the Fan Club what with the sneering personal attacks in lieu of anything else or the fact that the editorial opinion of the newspaper was not signed. Again, a hunt apparently for the individual to be sliced and diced.

Rather than look just at that, though, look at the fact they reacted to what – according to them and the Old Man  - is supposedly a non-story.

If it wasn’t something playing on the minds, if the fear of his departure did not cause their stomach to shrink, then they wouldn’t have to work so viciously to deny it or spew so savagely at their mortal enemies, well enemies other than Reason and Civility.

Call it a tell or, as those of us not inclined to gamble might say, a dead give-away. There have been other little dead give-aways, like Ed Buckingham’s test drive last February of a eulogy line for the Old Man’s political career.

Or Jerome!’s moustache.

Or his shoulder twitches.  Check the House of Assembly video for Question Period on that one.

Or Tony the Tory’s letter to every paper in the province  to reassure himself it seemed that last falls’ political disaster in the Straits didn’t mean the Tories were dead as a political force.

But when it comes to tells, nothing is so telling as the fact the government crowd are predictable.

From the Lower Churchill illusion to Jerome!’s use of salaries and a personal attack on the exec director of the medical association to the old chestnut that Charlene flicked out about working for Quebec and not the province in the Abitibi thing, these guys have nothing new.

We can’t do a deal because this guy is blocking?  Like you never tried that line before and still got a deal at the end once the bullshit stopped?

Or like this government itself doesn’t try to and sometimes do business with the Great Satan to the West:

• Danny, Kathy and the five years of secret talks to get Hydro Quebec to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill, no redress?
• And environmentalist Charlene’s deal to burn used tires from here at a Quebec site? No pollution there, buddy.

There are plenty of signs if you open your mind to the possibility they exist.  The truth is there waiting to be seen.

And it all makes you wonder what would happen if not a single leader but a handful of credible potential cabinet ministers popped up on one or another of the other political sides.  People the rest of the province outside the Fan Club could see as the nucleus of a credible alternative administration.

The Tories would never notice, of course, until it appeared in the Globe or on the Ceeb.

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“Tell Danny I love him thiiiiiiiiis much” Update:  The legendary Tony the Tory displays his ignorance of how newspapers write editorials.

Yes Tony.  He is popular because he is right and right because he is popular.

How do you know it’s polling month?

Sure there is a sudden uptick in the number of happy-crappy announcements about everything from water bombers to smoother roads.

But you can really tell it is polling month because of this.

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Libs accuse Tory minister of keeping enviro risks under wraps

In a news release issued Thursday, Opposition leader Yvonne Jones accused the provincial government, including environmentalist minister Charlene Johnson of being “negligent in not revealing they had reports which exposed the full extent of pollution on former Abitibi properties, particularly the scope of contamination at the mill site in Grand Falls-Windsor.”

Jones said evaluation by the government’s enviro consultant – Conestoga-Rovers Associates  - revealed that reports on Grand Falls “identify heavy metals and other toxins polluting 16 areas exceeding human safety guidelines.”

In the House of Assembly, Johnson said that:

Mr. Speaker, this information is public. I have offered it to the member, to come over to my office, and she has sent her staff over. I have offered it to the mayor of Grand Falls –

Of course, the information wasn’t public until Johnson let the opposition take a peek.  And the documents aren’t publicly available if the public has to troop into Charlene’s office, find the papers among the mound of major issues that have been stacked up unattended on her desk for years and then only take notes on them.
Johnson also was doing a bit of a nosepuller with respect to Grand Falls-Windsor.  Apparently, the mayor didn’t have any information until Jones’ office sent him an e-mail wondering if the town council had seen anything on the enviro review of the mill site.

We know he didn’t have the information, since, as Johnson admitted in the legislature:

Mr. Speaker, I had to pick up the phone and call the mayor of Grand Falls-Windsor yesterday to reassure the people of that community that there is not an immediate health and safety concern there.

Johnson defended her actions by saying that the reports showed a potential life safety issue in Buchans  - tailings supposedly blowing around town - but not in Grand Falls where, according to Johnson, all the enviro issues are confined to the site.

Of course, the whole matter could be cleared up if the documents in question were actually in the public domain.

-srbp-

IOC expansion back on

Ironore Company of Canada is reactivating its half a billion dollar plan to expand production at its a facility in western Labrador.

IOC shelved the project in 2008 during the Great Recession.

Work on the expansion is expected to be finished by 2012.

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The Polling Month Issue

Yes, CRA is in the field again.

No, not Conestoga-Rovers and Associates doing more environmental work for Charlene in the battle against the Great Satan of the Moment.

Corporate Research Associates.

While many of you might think something else might wind up being a big issue in public during that time, offshore drilling might well top out whatever you’ve got on your list today.

The Globe’s got it started with questions about Chevron’s planned deep water exploration well offshore Newfoundland.

And @cbcnl Morning Show in St. John’s is adding to the discussion with comments by biologist Bill Montevecchi who had a go at all comers, including the offshore regulatory board.

Let’s see how things shape up.

-srbp-

Imho-humtep Update:  This story is not going to develop any traction whatsoever if the best anyone can do is start quoting implacable offshore drilling foe Ian Doig.  Apparently someone has managed to resurrect Doig for a quote.

If all we get to listen to are people who thought Hibernia was a bust then let’s just quote Wade Locke and be done of it.  Next thing you know we’ll be hearing about aluminum smelters in Labrador again.

New “no fly list” rules

The new rule is:  The person on the no fly list is not allowed to fly on a plane.

Any questions?

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The Silence of the Jam Jams

When you’ve been writing a politically-oriented blog for five years, some things stand out by their presence, others by their absence.

Like the complete absence of any Fan Club comments on any posts by your humble e-scribbler after Monday.

A post back in early April that mentioned  - just mentioned mind you - the Premier’s 8th floor digs in a Florida condo tower generated 49 comments.

One on his potential successors last week picked up a few but for the most part they were pretty weak.

But after that Monday post, as things turned particularly sour for the current governing party,  there’s not so much as a peep out of them.

And it’s not like there has been plenty of stuff they could sink their teeth into.

Maybe they are just bored.

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The Thick of It: environment minister version

Environment minister Charlene Johnson.

Think Nicola Murray but without the gravitas.

The province’s environment minister might still be wrestling to find a way to deal with a tire recycling program.  Her only solution to the piles of tires thus far has been shipping them to Quebec for burning.

Johnson might be struggling to sort out the waste management strategy she and her cabinet colleagues photocopied in 2007 from their Liberal predecessors’ version from 2002. 

Yes, friends they just pushed back all the implementation dates by a decade.

Charlene and her colleagues may have buggered up the Abitibi expropriation such that the public is on the hook for cleaning up three of five sites needing remediation.

The sustainable development act may be lost under someone’s desk.

But Charlene knows what it is to be a minister responsible for protecting the environment.

Consider her comments about calls for greater protection for woodland caribou, creatures she has under her jurisdiction:

"I know there [are] calls to have no harvesting at all within the core areas and the buffer areas, but then there would be no logging industry," Johnson told CBC News.

So there’ll be $15 million of study. That’s despite the fact that a decade-old study by government scientists showed that logging within nine kilometres of caribou can seriously affect the animal’s behaviour.

And in her latest round, Johnson thought a bottled water ban in provincial government offices was risible.

Yes, gentle readers, she didn’t just give a straightforward answer.  Charlene thought that ridiculing the New Democrat leader was the right way to go:

Mr. Speaker, I have to say I am absolutely shocked. We are dealing with an oil spill in Louisiana. We have all kinds of fishery issues that have been before the House. There are health issues, there are other issues in environment and I am getting asked questions about banning bottled water in government -

It is not to say that we do not take the issue seriously, Mr. Speaker, but I would certainly suggest that there are a lot of other issues, particularly in the environment that we can address.

Mr. Speaker, I just had a scan around government the other day. There are offices where meetings are held in government that there are no sinks. So, what is she proposing that we do not have anything to drink?

At the very least, we should all be thankful.

Thankful, that is, because even if Charlene is confused about what ocean it is that sits offshore (Hint:  it isn’t the Gulf of Mexico), then at the very least, Charlene knows that compared to the crap-load of major policy issues that have been sitting on her desk for years without any serious attention, bottled water in government isn’t actually the most pressing issue.

That is, not the most pressing even if it would be probably the easiest one of that back-log for her to deal with.

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BTDTGTTS Update:  As someone reminded your humble and now increasingly forgetful e-scribbler, Newfoundland and Labrador already had a ministry like Nicola’s with her “fourth sector” initiative.  We still do.

It’s called the minister responsible for Penny Rowe, errr, the volunteer sector, currently run by Dave Denine.  The first minister responsible for liaising with Penny used to rattle on about the fourth sector, which is a term penny used to use all the time.

BOHICA Update:  Meanwhile, the environmentalist minister landed a major gaffe on Tuesday which is likely to do wonders for the ongoing negotiations and legal action over Abitibi.  Things that were TARFU and FUBAR just went to the final stage, BOHICA. 

Charlene, quoted in the Wednesday Telegram which is sadly not online: 

“Our only concern is that the environment be brought back to the state that Abitibi found it in when they came here to use our resources.  We don’t even ask what the cost is.  As long as we’re fine with the way they’re doing it, that cost is really Abitibi’s responsibility.”

Charlene, God love her little socks, likely thinks that the big evil old company got here in 1905. That is the year on those leases which Carlene and the crowd in the House of Assembly voted to tear up a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately, the woman should actually read the backgrounders on the files she has stacked up on her desk. 

If she did, she would know that Abitibi arrived in the province in 1969.

Not 1905.

Two years after the first Summer of Love.

So basically, Charlene just said that it is government policy to restore the only land in the province Abitibi still owns back to the condition in was in 1969.  Would she like the original pollution restored then, in the places where,as the prov gov already acknowledged, the company has cleaned up a bit? Let’s hope not.

So that’s Botwood sorted out back to the year Sesame Street started.

Then there’s Stephenville.

Abitibi didn’t get that land until 1979.

And by that time both the US Air Force and the provincial government had been peeing on it for the better part of three decades.  First there was an air force base and then there was the infamous linerboard mill.  Huge disaster – at least financially – which shut down in 1979 and left both a contaminated site and a gigantic debt load for the taxpayers.

Then Abitibi bought it for a dollar, at the behest of the Peckford administration.  Abitibi, meanwhile, diverted a brand-spanking new Valmet paper making machine from its original destination of Grand Falls and set it up at the old linerboard building. 

Poof:  the long-awaited third mill, made by splitting one of the others in two.

Now since 2005, Abitibi has already levelled the building the linerboard crowd put there.  So strictly speaking, they’ve actually put the site back in the shape it was just after the Americans frigged off - 1967.

That’s even better than Charlene said the government wanted.

And yet Charlene accuses others of not understanding what is going on.

As Ron Stoppable once said, this would be so cool if it wasn’t going to hurt us.

Big Oil has L’il Buddy available for offshore fight #cdnpoli #oilspill

If the oil companies operating offshore don’t like environment minister Jim Prentice’s plans to toughen up environmental and safety rules offshore, they might well be able to count on a very potent ally:  Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams.

As BP told you last May, under section 5.1 of the Hebron fiscal agreement, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is obliged to side with the oil companies in fighting any regulatory change if the industry feels the changes “might adversely affect any Development Project” of the Hebron field.

David Pryce, vice-president of operations for the Canadian Association of Petroleum producers is quoted in the Globe cautioning against what the Globe and Mail described as “potentially punitive regulations”:

“Don’t be too quick to respond, and don’t be too restrictive. That’s a concern for the industry,” said David Pryce, vice-president of operations at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers in Calgary.

“The fact that there is this concern, and there are a lot of people talking about could it happen here, the [concerns] are do we get a response that’s beyond what’s needed here.”

On Monday, Danny Williams told the provincial legislature that offshore production operations here meant that an accident might be less likely to spill oil onshore compared to the incident in the Gulf of Mexico. During Question Period, Williams said:

From our own perspective, as recently as this morning, we have looked at just exactly what the situations are in the North Atlantic. It is a general understanding that because the offshore sites are significantly offshore and well east of the Province that the situation that could arise in Orphan Basin or Jeanne d’Arc or the Flemish Pass is that there is a lower likelihood that oil would actually come ashore in Newfoundland and Labrador. Now, that is not to say that it would not.

As well, we are dealing with a heavy crude oil out there, so from a fishing perspective, there is less likelihood that it would affect the fishery although it would certainly affect the gear. However, having said that, I am not trying to minimize the circumstances under any situation, we will make sure that we monitor this very closely and that we adopt the best practices in the world.

Only the Hebron oil field will produce heavy crude.  The others all produce oil of roughly the same weight relative to water as the oil currently leaking in the Gulf of Mexico (API 34).

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador  - through its wholely owned subsidiary NALCOR - is a direct partner in offshore development with ownership stakes in one of the producing fields and with stakes in two projects under development, including the massive Hebron project.

While Prentice has no direct say in regulating the offshore, he appears to be echoing sentiment in the federal government for strong offshore regulation.

Under the 1985 Atlantic Accord, the Newfoundland Offshore Area is regulated through the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board.  The board is a joint venture between the the Government of Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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AbitibiBowater moves Stephenville and Botwood properties to subsidiary

As part of its re-organization plan, AbitibiBowater sold its two properties in Newfoundland and Labrador (Stephenville and Botwood) to a subsidiary company on April 27, 2010.

The company is in receivership with Ernst & Young acting as receivers.

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador did not object to the arrangements.  The provincial government was represented by Weirfoulds LLP. The arrangements do not alter the environmental orders or the appeal of Judge Clement Gascon’s March 31 decision.

However, the move appears to limit the number of orders affecting AbitibiBowater from ones affecting five sites in the province to only the two that the expropriation act left with the company. 

The cost of clean-up  at Botwood and Stephenville is listed in a report for the court by Ernst & Young as being potentially in the “tens of millions of dollars.” 

The provincial government did not release the cost estimate prepared by its consultants for all five sites, including the Grand Falls mill.  A document filed with the court by Ernst & Young dated February 19 did not establish a clear estimate of the costs involved.  It put the base case estimate as being in the mid to high eight figures and the worst case as being several times that.

The receivers have the power to sell the properties or to make an arrangement to deal with the environmental issues.

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AbitibiBowater files reorg plan

Complete text of AB’s news release [paragraphing changed for legibility;  otherwise, spelling and capitalisation as in original]:

MONTREAL, May 4 /CNW Telbec/ - AbitibiBowater Inc. ("AbitibiBowater" or the "Company") today announced that the Company and certain of its U.S. and Canadian subsidiaries, currently under creditor protection, have filed with courts in Canada and the United States a Debtors' Joint Plan of Reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code and CCAA Plan of Reorganization and Compromise in draft form (together, the "Plan"). These filed documents are available on the Company website, www.abitibibowater.com.  [The Canadian documents can be found here.]

The Plan is a framework for the final forms expected to be filed in the near term and is not being filed for the purpose of soliciting votes and remains subject to finalization. The Company intends to file with the courts an amended Plan containing more detailed economic terms, along with disclosure documents and proxy materials providing information on the Plan and voting procedures.

A classification scheme and resultant forms of recoveries for all Company creditors is proposed in the Plan. It specifies that non-disputed pre-petition secured, administrative, debtor-in-possession and other priority claims would be paid in full in cash, or satisfied as otherwise agreed, at emergence. Unsecured claims would receive a pro rata share of equity in the reorganized company upon emergence, subject to certain conditions. Details on the extent of recovery for unsecured creditors will be outlined in forthcoming disclosures. The Plan also provides that the Company's current common stock will be cancelled and holders will receive no recoveries.

"The filing of these documents is an important step in AbitibiBowater's creditor protection proceedings and a precursor to a key milestone we intend to reach in the near future with the filing of the Plan's disclosure documents and proxy materials," stated David J. Paterson, President and Chief Executive Officer. "While we recognize the consequences this Plan outlines for our current common stockholders, this result was necessary in order to meet our overall obligations to creditors and effectively restructure for the future."

Before emerging from creditor protection, the Company must secure adequate exit financing and complete efforts to address labor [sic] costs and pension issues, as well as satisfy other conditions set forth in the Plan. Prior to emergence, a new Board of Directors will also be designated for the Company. The Plan will ultimately require approval by the creditors and the courts.

More information about AbitibiBowater's restructuring process can be found at www.abitibibowater.com or by calling toll-free 888 266-9280. International callers should dial 503 597-7698.

AbitibiBowater produces a wide range of newsprint, commercial printing papers, market pulp and wood products. It is the eighth largest publicly traded pulp and paper manufacturer in the world. AbitibiBowater owns or operates 22 pulp and paper facilities and 26 wood products facilities located in the United States, Canada and South Korea. Marketing its products in more than 90 countries, the Company is also among the world's largest recyclers of old newspapers and magazines, and has third-party certified 100% of its managed woodlands to sustainable forest management standards. AbitibiBowater's shares trade over-the-counter on the Pink Sheets and on the OTC Bulletin Board under the stock symbol ABWTQ.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENTS REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND USE OF THIRD-PARTY DATA

Statements in this press release that are not reported financial results or other historical information of AbitibiBowater Inc. (with its subsidiaries and affiliates, either individually or collectively, unless otherwise indicated, referred to as "AbitibiBowater," "we," "our," "us" or the "Company") are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. They include, for example, statements relating to our: creditor protection proceedings under chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and the Canadian Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act; debtor in possession financing arrangements and reorganization process; ability to successfully restructure our debt and other obligations; efforts to reduce costs and increase revenues and profitability, including our cost reduction initiatives regarding selling, general and administrative expenses; business outlook; curtailment of production of certain of our products; assessment of market conditions; and ability to sell non-core assets in light of the current global economic conditions and the requirements under the creditor protection proceedings to obtain court approval for certain asset sales; and strategies for achieving our goals generally. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as the words "should," "would," "could," "will," "may," "expect," "believe," "anticipate," "attempt" and other terms with similar meaning indicating possible future events or potential impact on our business or our shareholders.

The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees of future performance. These statements are based on management's current assumptions, beliefs and expectations, all of which involve a number of business risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to the following:

(i) risks and uncertainties relating to our creditor protection proceedings including, among other things:

(a) risks associated with our ability to: continue as a going concern; stabilize the business to maximize the chances of preserving all or a portion of the enterprise; develop a comprehensive restructuring plan in an effective and timely manner; resolve ongoing issues with creditors and other third parties whose interests may differ from ours; obtain court orders or approvals with respect to motions filed from time to time, including court approvals for asset sales; obtain alternative or replacement financing to replace our debtor in possession financing arrangements and restructure our substantial indebtedness and other obligations in a manner that allows us to obtain confirmation of a plan or plans of reorganization by the courts in order to successfully exit our creditor protection proceedings, especially in light of the current decline in the global economy and credit conditions; renew or extend our current debtor in possession financing arrangements and/or accounts receivable securitization program, as the case may be, if the need to do so should arise; successfully implement a comprehensive restructuring plan and a plan or plans of reorganization; generate cash from operations and maintain cash-on-hand; operate within the restrictions and limitations of our current and any future debtor in possession financing arrangements; realize full or fair value for any assets or business we may divest as part of our comprehensive restructuring plan; attract and retain customers; maintain market share as our competitors move to capitalize on customer concerns; maintain current relationships with customers, vendors and trade creditors by actively and adequately communicating on and responding to events, media and rumors associated with the creditor protection proceedings that could adversely affect such relationships; resolve claims made against us in connection with the creditor protection proceedings for amounts not exceeding our recorded liabilities subject to compromise; prevent third parties from obtaining court orders or approvals that are contrary to our interests; and reject, repudiate or terminate certain contracts; and

(b) risks and uncertainties associated with: limitations on actions against any debtor during the creditor protection proceedings and the values, if any, that will be ascribed in our creditor protection proceedings to our various pre-petition liabilities, common stock and other securities; and

(ii) risks and uncertainties relating to our business including: industry conditions generally and further growth in alternative media; our capital intensive operations and the adequacy of our capital resources; the prices and terms under which we would be able to sell assets; the relative volatility of the U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar; the costs of raw materials such as energy, chemicals and fiber [sic]; the success of our implementation of additional measures to enhance our operating efficiency and productivity; our ability to obtain fair compensation for our expropriated assets in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada and the possibility that we could lose any or all of our equity interest in Augusta Newsprint Company ("ANC"). Additional risks that could cause actual results to differ from forward-looking statements are enumerated in Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2009, as amended, "Risk Factors" ("Item 1A"). We filed the Annual Report on Form 10-K with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (the "SEC") on March 30, 2010. All forward-looking statements in this press release are expressly qualified by the cautionary statements contained or referred to in this section and in our other filings with the SEC and the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. We disclaim any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For further information: Investors: Duane Owens, Vice President, Finance, (864) 282-9488; Media and Others: Seth Kursman, Vice President, Public Affairs, Sustainability & Environment, (514) 394-2398, seth.kursman@abitibibowater.com

@DaddyMillions – local humour hits Twitter

Some wag’s joined the legion of humourists using Twitter to parody and comment on prominent figures.

Yes, lads, someone is tweeting as Danny Millions, an ersatz Danny Williams. Not quite the love child of Malcolm Tucker (@MTuckerNo10) and Jim Hacker but you get the idea.

No sign who is behind it, but it is topical:

Don't worry... there's no chance of an #oilspill off NL's shores. Zip. Nada. End of discussion. Any questions? #beijingsortofthing#cdnpoli

Ok.

So maybe it’s an acquired taste.

Maybe some of the other stuff, like a reference to the subject that got Bob Wakeham in crap last February, would be more to your liking.

In any event, start following if you want.  At least you know it’s there now.

-srbp-

Hebron deal may affect future offshore spill response #oilspill

Premier Danny Williams assured the people of the province on Monday that his administration will ensure that “the necessary policies, procedures and processes are put in place…” to deal with an offshore oil spill like the one in the Gulf Of Mexico.

During Question Period in the provincial legislature, Williams also said that “the people of the Province can be assured that we will adopt the best practices in the world. As we come to this process now in the Gulf of Mexico, if there are any new devices or methodologies or technologies that are developed, we will make sure that they are adopted in our offshore.”

Williams said that offshore petroleum board “is responsible primarily for any offshore problems. If it comes to any leakages or seepages that come from tankers or ship transports, then that is the responsibility, of course, of Transport Canada.”

Williams also told the legislature that “we are dealing with a heavy crude oil out there, so from a fishing perspective, there is less likelihood that it would affect the fishery although it would certainly affect the gear.”

But as Bond Papers noted exactly one year ago, under section 5.1 of the Hebron financial agreement, “The Province shall, on the request of the Proponents…support the efforts of the Proponents in responding to any future legislative and regulatory changes that may be proposed by Canada or a municipal government in the Province that might adversely affect any Development Project, provided such action does not negatively impact the Province or require the Province to take any legislative or regulatory action respecting municipalities.”

In other words, should the federal government – Transport Canada, for example – try to beef up offshore regulations, the provincial government would be obliged to oppose such changes if the oil companies felt they would “adversely affect” the Hebron development and asked the provincial government for support.

That intervention might be much easier in a situation involving heavy oil if, as the Premier asserted, “there is less likelihood that it would affect the fishery although it would certainly affect the gear.”

Of the fields in production or under development, only the Hebron field contains heavy oil.  The producing fields – Hebron, Terra Nova and White Rose – all pump light, sweet crude of about the same weight compared to water (API) as the oil currently spilling into the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico (API 34).

While prevailing winds and currents may not bring the oil from any of those fields to shore in Newfoundland and Labrador, there’s no public indication of how far across the Atlantic a spill might go and what impact it might have in Europe. 

Williams also did not discuss an contingencies to deal with an oil disaster on the south coast of the island, the coast of Labrador or in a Gulf of St. Lawrence development such as one potentially at Old Harry.

Williams did say that, as far as the provincial government’s offshore equity stakes go,  “the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador stands behind the environmental liabilities no different than the Abitibi situation. When environmental disasters happen, we go to our primary source of responsibility and then the government, of course, is the backup at the end of the day.”

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Abitibi “intended to go bankrupt”': Williams

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams today said that the expropriation of assets belonging to three companies was a “very deliberate move” and that as a result of the expropriation of assets belonging to three separate companies, the provincial government can now “use the value of these assets to deal with the environmental liability which we would have been responsible for because they [AbitibiBowater] intended to go bankrupt in the first place.”

Williams made the comments in Question Period during an afternoon sitting of the House of Assembly.

He said that AbitibiBowater “would have walked away from their responsibilities”.  Williams said the paper company would have gone bankrupt, sought creditor protection or “done what they were in the process of doing and that was trying to sell off those assets to somebody else.”

That’s the first time Williams has linked the expropriation to a failed bid by the provincial government to buy one of those assets, a hydro project at Star Lake which was not supplying power to the mill at Grand Falls.

In another answer to questions from opposition leader Yvonne Jones, Williams described the mill at Grand Falls and the two houses associated with it as “the most valuable piece of real estate in Grand Falls”.  He did not explain why the provincial government intended to expropriate all the other assets and leave  AbitibiBowater with the most valuable piece of real estate in Grand Falls when he had earlier described the expropriation as seizing the valuable assets to forestall their being sold off.

Those assets would have been lost to an irresponsible company that did not give a darn about the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, the people of Central Newfoundland and Labrador. They would not - they would have walked away from their responsibilities. They either would have gone into consumer protection, they would have gone bankrupt or they would have done what they were in the process of doing, and that was trying to sell off those assets to somebody else.

While Williams has been careful in previous statements and made no comments during debate on the expropriation bill, his most recent remarks could weigh heavily against the province’s efforts to fight off a NAFTA challenge and to push the environmental liabilities onto AbitibiBowater.

Williams comments raise the prospect that the expropriation was not done  - as he originally suggested  - because AbitibiBowater breached a 1905 lease.  In a statement to the legislature before his natural resources minister introduced the expropriation bill, Williams said:

Abitibi has reneged on the bargain struck between it and the Province over the industrial development of the Province’s timber and water resources for the benefit of the residents of the Province.

Mr. Speaker, having said that, we cannot as a government allow a company that no longer operates in this Province to maintain ownership of our resources.

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NALCOR takes on Fortis loan payments

NALCOR, the provincial government’s energy corporation, is paying a loan on behalf of the Exploits Partnership, one of the entities affected by the expropriation fiasco in December 2008.

In its 2010 first quarter financial statements (2010 Q1) released on Friday, Fortis, one of the partners in Exploits River Hydro Partnership, said that NALCOR  is making the “scheduled repayments” under the terms of the loan. 

As of March 31, 2010, $59 million remained outstanding on the loan. The statement reads in part:

As the hydroelectric assets and water rights of the Exploits Partnership had been provided as security for the Exploits Partnership term loan, the expropriation of such assets and rights by the Government of
Newfoundland and Labrador constituted an event of default under the loan. The term loan is without recourse to Fortis and was approximately $59 million as at March 31, 2010 (December 31, 2009 - $59 million). The lenders of the term loan have not demanded accelerated repayment. The scheduled repayments
under the term loan are being made by Nalcor, a Crown corporation, acting as agent for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador with respect to the expropriation matters. [Emphasis added]

Newfoundland and Labrador-based Fortis noted in 2009 first quarter financial statements that the unidentified lender had not sought “accelerated repayment” following government’s expropriation.  The Exploits Partnership (51% Fortis/49% Abitibi) made the scheduled term loan payment in 2009.

The expropriation bill passed by the House of Assembly in December 2008 seized all the generating assets and transmission assets of the partnership and cancelled all leases and contracts related to it.  The assets were used to secure the loan. 

Under a contract with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, the Exploits partnership sold surplus power not needed for the Grand Falls mill to Hydro for sale to its other commercial and residential clients.  The 30 year power purchase agreement would have expired in 2033.

There is no indication in the 2010 Q1 statement that NALCOR and Exploits Partnership reached an agreement on all issues related to the expropriation.

The loss of income from the the Exploits Partnership as well as the expiration of a water rights contract in Ontario on another project combined to reduce gross revenue for Fortis Generation 73% from $19 million in 2008 Q1 to $5.0 million in 2010 Q1.  Fortis Generation is the subsidiary through which Fortis partnered in the Exploits project with Abitibi.

Contacted by Bond Papers in early 2009 to clear up confusion created by comments by the Premier and the text of the expropriation bill on the Fortis aspects of the expropriation, a spokesperson for the province’s natural resources department refused any comment on the process as there was a process in place to discuss the expropriation and any compensation.

In answer to questions in the House of Assembly last month about negotiations with Fortis and ENEL - another company affected by the expropriation - natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale said only that talks were continuing and that “a number of arrangements had been made” in the meantime.

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Stat Porn: April’s Hits

The top 10 Bond posts for April [with links fixed]  as determined by the statporn machines at  feedburner.com:

1. Colbert doesn’t RATE (Municipal politics)
2. Rosy with a chance of goofballs (Economic forecasting)
3. Epic Fail of the Week:  prov gov loses to Abitibi…again (The Fubar File)
4. Crisis at Tammany (Municipal Politics)
5. Western Star raises issue of Danny Williams resignation (Provincial Politics)
6. The Abitibi Expropriation:  TARFU (The Fubar File)
7. Dunderdale on Abitibi/Fortis/ENEL Expropriation:  Oops! (The Fubar File) 
8. The Fragile Economy…two steps back (Economic policy)
9. Just shoot me (humour)
10. Labour Force and Employment, March 2007-March 2010  (Economic analysis)

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How our system doesn’t work

Supposedly the Western Star – the province’s west coast daily – has never liked or supported Danny Williams.

Now before anyone starts clacking a comment just remember that is the official crackberry statement from the Premier’s publicity machine in response to a recent editorial in the Star that suggested the Old Man is getting a bit cranky and might want to consider retiring.

It’s a load of dung but that’s another story.

The Star editors this week could have decided to write an editorial on the revelation that the provincial government had royally screwed themselves and taxpayers with a botched expropriation of assets that used to belong to Fortis, Enel and Abitibi.

Sounds like a logical topic especially for a paper the crowd with crackberries would like you to think keeps a voodoo doll of Hisself that they stick pins into every day during the morning story meeting.  After all, what better story is there for the bunch of Danny-haters at the Star than this.

So what did the Star do with it?

Try this assessment on for size:

The ruling PCs stood in the House of Assembly this week and said the botched the expropriation of the AbitibiBowater properties in this province when they included properties that will likely require millions of dollars in environmental cleanup.

That aside, at least the Tories, to their credit, were up front about the blunder, and said so straight out without trying to couch it in some political song and dance.

Then they turn their attention to what the Star editorialists see as the real villain in this piece,  the five people on the opposition benches:

It’s time they admitted their shortcomings in the process.

It’s the duty of the opposition to challenge the government on legislation it brings before the house, and make sure these kinds of potentially expensive hiccups don’t make it into law.

They were asleep at the switch in this matter — there’s now way around it.
They dozed in their seats, didn’t ask enough questions ... and let the bad legislation become the law of the land.

It should be a lesson for all concerned.

Our system works best when the tough questions are asked ... not when  government gets a free pass.

That last sentence is absolutely true.

We also know our system is not working in this case because the crowd at the Western Star can’t even get a simple fact right.  When they say that the provincial government was “upfront” about the blunder and didn’t couch their news in political rhetoric, well, nothing could be further from the truth.

A good 10 months elapsed between the time the crowd on the Hill discovered the shag-up and the first time they mentioned it publicly in this province.

That’s right 10 months.

But that’s just for this province. 

In Quebec, people there knew of the monumental blunder back in October.  That’s when a Quebec court handling the Abitibi bankruptcy protection listened to arguments in a case involving the provincial government and its ongoing war with Abitibi.

And when the provincial government finally did publicly mention they owned the mill, the news release made it sound like Abitibi had simply abandoned its property and that as a result, the provincial government was doing the noble thing and taking custody to protect the public interest.

None of the government narrative on this issue since May 2009 has been even vaguely close to the credit-worthy actions the Star editorialists invented.  In fact, so great a work of fiction is the premise of this editorial that its writers would be better off handing their resumes to the show driver on Doyle than wasting their time out there in the second city.

As if that hum were not enough for the Humber crew, though, the Star then decided to blame the Liberals and New Democrats. Apparently the whole thing while a government measure could have been avoided if only they had done their jobs.

Well, here’s a simple test:  look around and try to find anyone - any one person – in December 2008 who publicly doubted the wisdom of the expropriation and/or the haste with which it was done.

Go on and look.  We’ll wait until you are done.

No luck?

That’s hardly surprising.  The Western Star,  for example, thought that the expropriation was the right thing to do and praised the legislature – the full legislature, no less – for acting.  Not a peep about the possibility of mistakes or the need to slow down and let the opposition do its job. Not a word about how our system requires a bit of sober second thought, a bit of careful scrutiny lest someone make a colossal mistake of any kind.

If there were two people in the entire province publicly criticising the haste of it, let alone the expropriation itself, then that’s all there was.  We were summarily dismissed by all those, the opposition included, who shared the view that Abitibi, the friggers,  ought to lose all its stuff in the province.  We were discounted by those who trusted the provincial government to be careful and to make sure everything was done properly.  After all, they have never been wrong before.

Your humble e-scribbler singled out the NDP leader in December 2008 to illustrate how little thought had gone into the expropriation bill, but, in fairness Lorraine Michael is nothing more than an example of the views and attitudes of almost everyone in the province at the time.

And in the end, that post concluded, somewhat prophetically, that:

In the future  - perhaps a few months or even a few years - someone will look back on this time and wonder how such steps could be taken.  They wonder how the Churchill Falls deal could have be done, with the concurrence of all members of the legislature.

In the energy bill and now the expropriation bill – as exemplified by Lorraine Michael’s comments - they have a very simple answer. No one bothered to think.

And there it is, dear friends, the simple truth of the matter.  No one bothered, no one took the time to think. no one felt thinking might be even needed.  Let Hisself and the crew look after that.

No government ought to get such a free pass.

But in this case, the government got its free pass, handed to them gleefully by the legislature and everyone else.

The expropriation debacle is the result.

And if the Star editorialists want someone to blame for this fiasco they can look in the mirror.  They needn’t waste much time doing that, though.  There’s enough guilt to go around when it comes to people who let the government have a free pass on this issue.

Then again, for the past seven years that’s what this government has had:  a free pass. They are popular because they are right and right because they are popular as the sock puppets, Fan Clubbers and pitcher plants will tell you. Things worked out when it appeared the provincial government won.  After all, our system can’t be broken if everything turns out right.  Trust in the saviour of the moment and all will be well.  Anyone saying otherwise just hates Danny.

Such ideas seem so foolish now.

The reality is that just as it was in 1969, so it was 40-odd years later.  Back then the three opposition members – Gerry Ottenheimer, Tom Hickey and Ank Murphy – sided with the government.  So too did the province’s editorialists. Fast forward to 2008 and see the same thing playing out all over again.

Our system of government works when tough questions are asked and  when thorough, prompt and complete answers are demanded.  There must be consequences  - even if only in the form of criticism - when the answers aren’t received. 

All the members of the legislature have a responsibility to ask those questions but so too do editorialists and ordinary citizens have an obligation to pose questions and demand answers.

It is the government’s duty to answer them.

Our system of government in this province is not working;  it has not been working since 2003.  The Abitibi expropriation mess serves only to highlight just exactly how great is the risk that people in this province are taking as a result.

And until people  - ordinary citizens and Western Star editorialists alike - start to acknowledge that, the risk that more Abitibi fiascos will take place – or have already - will only increase.

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Underwater duster

ConocoPhillips’ first well in the Laurentian sub-basin turned out to be a dry hole, according to The Telegram.

The company will continue with its exploration program using seismic surveys but there is no word on future drilling plans.

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The King and the Qatar Confusion

According to education minister Darin King, employees at College of the North Atlantic in Qatar will see their contracts honoured, as it would appear, with the mistaken salary numbers in them.

"It's not their issue or their fault as to why the college made an error and entered into an agreement that they ought not to have. So we'll honour the contracts," King said.

But reports from Qatar quote the College president there - Enid Strickland -  as saying:

She said new contracts with the correct salaries were signed at a meeting with the staff yesterday.

“This only affects a limited number of faculty members and some support staff,” said Strickland, adding “and now we have discussed the situation with them and signed their new contracts, everyone is fine.”

So when King said that contracts would be honoured, did he mean the old contracts or the new ones signed apparently on Wednesday, two days after King said what sure looks like the old contracts that existed at the time would be honoured?

To anyone else it sure looks like a case of two completely different stories.

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h/t to comments by One Woman on another post in the ongoing Qatar story.