The Premier’s daughter tweeted this comment last Wednesday night.
Few people consider the impact that political life has on the families of politicians and political staffers. Steve Paikin’s book The Dark Side deals with it, as SRBP noted in 2006.
That tweet is a reminder of that.
Here’s some advice for the Premier’s daughter from an old political hand.
As if the week hasn’t been going badly enough for her, Premier Kathy Dunderdale decided to make it all the worse on Thursday with her scrum about her Twitter account.
Here’s what we have learned:
What was the tragedy of the orchestrated political lynching of an innocent member of the House of Assembly by the provincial Conservatives has now turned to farce.
On Tuesday, Premier Kathy Dunderdale was on her high horse: Conservative members of the House of Assembly "understand very well how Facebook works," Dunderdale told reporters outside the House of Assembly, “and as an MHA, when you're on Facebook, when you're engaged in Twitter, then you have to have an obligation to pay attention."
Neither Dunderdale nor several of her colleagues apparently were paying attention.
The Conservatives in Newfoundland and Labrador are politically deaf. They only hear themselves.
Former fisheries minister Trevor Taylor used his Telegram column on Monday to issue a few hypocritical tut tuts about the state of public discussion in the province.
Too negative he whined, sounding for all the world like someone was holding a small dog turd under his nose as he typed. His political pals on da Twitter chimed in as they are programmed to do.
Shortly after 1:30, government house leader Darin King rose in the House on a point of order. He wanted the Speaker to suspend Gerry Rogers from the House of Assembly not for something Rogers said or even endorsed but merely because her name appeared on a group critical of government on which some moron had posted threats against the Premier.
The Tories sealed the triple play when Speaker Ross Wiseman ruled that while there was no evidence on the face of it that Rogers was guilty of endorsing the threats, he would invent a reason to condemn her anyway.
They are blind, too.
The provincial Conservatives could haul in up to $7.7 million through a new tax on telephones to be introduced ostensibly to pay for province-wide 911 emergency service, municipal affairs minister Kevin “Fairity” O’Brien announced on Tuesday.
According to the official backgrounder, the provincial government will introduce a new tax of “less than one dollar per month” on every landline and cellular telephone in the province. At a news conference, O’Brien and fire and emergency services boss Mike Samson estimated there were upwards of 650,000 phones in the province.
Although the release describes the approach as a “cost-recovery” model, neither O’Brien nor Samson would estimate the annual cost of operating the system.
Other provinces use the same approach. PEI charges 70 cents per telephone or working line while Nova Scotia charges less than 50 cents. Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and New Brunswick also tax telephones to pay for 911 service.
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Cleaning out the home office has turned up a few forgotten gems.
One of them related to the political impact of open line shows in the province. Last week, your humble e-scribbler moderated a lunch-time talk by Professor Alex Marland and Randy Simms on just that topic. The pile of papers included a Canadian Press story that appeared some time in early May, 2008.
Headlined “Williams lashes out against accusations of tight message control”, the story was Danny Williams’; reactions to comments during the Cameron Inquiry by John Abbott, the former deputy minister of health and community services.
Newfoundland [sic] Premier Danny Williams says a former public servant made "offensive and stupid" remarks when he told a public inquiry that radio call-in shows influenced the government's handling of an emerging scandal involving flawed breast-cancer testing.
Even at the worst of their leadership feuding Jean Chretien and Paul Martin never frigged each other over the way Kathy Dunderdale and Jerome Kennedy did last week.
What is a “compelling argument”, you might ask?
No one knows.
We already knew that the provincial cabinet had abandoned their budget before the document had been debated in the House. That happened last week when the Premier ordered the justice minister and the attorney general to abandon the cabinet-approved cuts in the justice department.
Less than 12 hours after meeting with the same officials justice minister Darin King consulted before cabinet approved the cuts, King and attorney general Tom Marshall (right, not exactly as illustrated) told reporters that whatever those officials had said would now be the policy.
The change of policy is breathtaking enough. Not only will some of the laid-off court security officers be rehired, but cabinet has also lifted the hiring freeze to allow the High Sheriff to immediately hire more staff. Someone will also be appointed to conduct operational reviews of the three departments – High Sheriff, legal aid and Crown prosecution service – involved in the cabinet flip flop.
But that’s not the truly striking aspect of this abrupt change.
International Association of Business Communicators (Newfoundland and Labrador) presents a professional development luncheon:
According to Statistics Canada (2007), Newfoundlanders and Labradorians listen to more talk radio than any other provincial group of Canadians.
Is it a useful communications tool for community engagement and the sharing of local information or is it just bantering?
Join IABC NL for lunch and an interesting and interactive open panel discussion on Talk Radio in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Randy Simms, retired Open Line host, Dr. Alex Marland, Associate Professor (Political Science) Memorial University, and moderator Ed Hollett discuss the pros and cons of Talk Radio.
When: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 12:00 - 2:00 p.m.
Where: Capital Hotel, 208 Kenmount Rd., St John’sRegister: Online – http://iabcapril.eventbrite.com/
Email – eventsiabcnl@gmail.com$50.00 – IABC Members
$75.00 – non-members.
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Over at cbc.ca/nl, John Gushue has an excellent column on the recent prosperity, in particular the apparent contradiction between a supposedly booming economy and the government cuts or the sense some people have that they aren’t part of the boom.
Take some time and go read John’s observations, if you haven’t already. You will always be rewarded by John’s accessible style that reveals some very sharp insights.
For all that, though, there’s a sense that there’s something missing from Gushue’s column. The piece gets right up to the edge and then just doesn’t bring the thing to a satisfying conclusion.
Never fear.
The relentless labradore fills in the bit John missed.
Only a few days ago, natural resources minister Tom Marshall was telling us that the Premier was an Iron Lady. A compassionate one, mind you, but an Iron Lady, nonetheless.
Firm in her decisions.
Unyielding under pressure.
Tom was telling us that Kathy Dunderdale and Margaret Thatcher were made of the same stuff.
What?
No.
Tom was not drunk.
No. He was not stoned, either.
And it was not April Fool’s.
Knock it off and keep reading.
Twice last week, provincial Conservative politicians offered unprompted endorsements of Kathy Dunderdale’s leadership.
Natural resources minister Tom Marshall praised her as a compassionate Iron Lady who had his full support. Here’s the story VOCM ran:
Natural Resources Minister Tom Marshall says the premier has his full and complete support. Kathy Dunderdale has come under fire for a tough, cost-cutting budget that includes widespread layoffs and funding cuts. On VOCM Open Line with Bill Rowe, Marshall used a label which came into prominence during the term of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher came into power in the UK in 1970s and developed a reputation of being tough and uncompromising during a time of economic recession, earning the title "Iron Lady". Marshall says Dunderdale is also an Iron Lady, but one with compassion.
Meanwhile, Steve Kent – noteworthy in the past for his lack of Dunderlove – had this to say [via CBC and labradore]:
"Premier Dunderdale is a compassionate and principle-centered leader. I remain inspired by her vision and strength," Kent wrote.
…
Kent added that Dunderdale enjoys the full support of the PC caucus.
The SIDI simulation of government spending that we’ve run this past week might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but these sort of thought exercises are always useful.
The most striking thing is the amount of money from oil and mining that the provincial government has spent in the past seven years: $15.6 billion. That’s enough to wipe out the entire public debt plus the unfunded pension liability and have a couple of billion left over for an unprecedented capital works program.
It’s a staggering amount of money and the only thing more amazing than how much money there was is how easy it was to do something far more productive than just spending all the money, as the current provincial government has done.
The SIDI simulation included:
The only thing needed to make the simulation a reality was a political desire to do it. Had the provincial government done any one of the elements of the SIDI approach, then the provincial government could have either avoided the current crisis altogether or significantly altered the profile of the crisis and the prospects for coping with it.
The long-run target is to bring the province’s net per capita debt gradually down to the all-province level within ten years.Locke made it clear in another part of his March 25 memo to finance minister Jerome Kennedy that the purpose of any surpluses the provincial government achieves within the next decade will be to fund Muskrat Falls.
You don’t need drugs or alcohol to get the feeling of dizziness or stupor like you smacked your head with a hammer. Hard. Repeatedly.
Just listen to a representative of one of the special interest groups talking about the provincial budget and public spending. It doesn’t matter which one. As your humble e-scribbler was finishing off this post on Tuesday, a representative of the appropriately named St. John’s BOT was on television talking about how government had to cut public sector jobs and tear into public sector pension benefits because of the hideous unfunded pension liability.
Corporate lawyer Denis Mahoney even quoted the distorted, misleading government claim about the unfunded liability as a share of only a fraction of the public debt to bolster his position. He never mentioned the billions going to subsidize his members, of course.
In the process, Mahoney looked about as convincing as the labour mouthpieces like the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives who said in 2004 that the government wasn’t spending too much. It just didn’t have enough money. Of course, they never mentioned that the government was outspending just about every other province on a per capita basis.
Listen to this sort of mindless crap long enough and you don’t have to wonder why people wander around in a daze.
To clear your head, take a look at a chart showing the actual government spending from 2005 to 2012 (in blue) compared to the income from sources other than oil and minerals (in red).
The number is a hard one to wrap your mind around.
$15.6 billion.
That’s the amount of oil royalties and mining royalties the provincial government collected from 2005 to 2012.
Once you think you have that figure in your mind and understand what it means, think about this: with the exception of about $1.4 billion, the money is apparently gone.
Spent.
Never to come again.
If you want to understand how the provincial government got itself into the mess, just think about all that money. Newfoundland and Labrador is a “have” province with a government that is laying people off and cutting programs. Then realize that for all that cutting the government is still planning to spend upwards of a half a billion dollars a year more than it is taking in.
The idea is staggering.
Well, be prepared to be floored completely.
One of the greatest political frauds committed by the current administration and its supporters is the idea that they have lowered the public debt.
All the politicians say it.
Wade Locke, their tireless economist, talks about the same thing – net debt – in his soon-to-be-infamous memo to Jerome Kennedy.
Talk of the net debt, reducing net debt, and having a net debt reduction strategy is nothing but a monstrous deception of the public.
From the current issue of Canadian Business comes this little ad that is not an April Fool’s joke from energy company currently running the provincial government:
People following the sorry recent history of energy development in the province will instantly recognize the vicious, cruel joke inherent in Nalcor promoting itself as a company interested in developing wind energy.
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April 1, 2013 marks the 64th anniversary of Newfoundland’s confederation with Canada.
Here are a few older posts on the subject that stand the test of time:
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Earlier this year, our government projected a deficit for 2013-14 of $1.6 billion.
We are now forecasting that the deficit has been significantly reduced to $563.8 million – a billion-dollar improvement to our bottom line.That’s the way finance minister Jerome Kennedy started the 2013 budget speech in the House of Assembly on Tuesday. He said the dramatic change to two factors: more money coming in and “deliberate actions” by government to “rein in spending.”
Just over $301 million of the billion-dollar boost over recent projections is attributed to government cuts. Another $696 million came from improved expected revenues for the coming year.Take away the money the Telegram tallied up and you get about $440 million. The CBC story said that came from “…royalties or corporate taxes from oil and mining.” Another news report added in a windfall in HST money from Ottawa.
[Note – see below]
The throne speech promised that the same Conservative financial management that produced the current financial mess would continue and they delivered in Tuesday’s budget.
The strategic problem remains unchanged
The Conservatives will continue to spend billions in one-time cash from oil and minerals. That’s the structural deficit people have been talking about and the Conservatives have done nothing to change that.
Tuesday’s budget gave us the year-end cash figures for 2012 and the forecast for 2013. Here’s the chart from Monday’s post on deficits and surpluses that shows spending and the non-oil revenue. We’ve updated it to include the cash figures for 2012 (actual) and 2013 forecast from the 2013 Estimates. Remember that the Estimates are presented on a cash basis.
Monday’s throne speech was so bad that people started making fun of it almost immediately. On Twitter a few of us tried changing lines from famous John Kennedy speeches and giving them a local twist
You could find a variation on the moon speech: we will go into debt, not because it is hard but because it is easy. Another tried German: “Ich bin ein Bauliner!”
Or this one from the inaugural:
The debt has been passed to new generation, born in oil riches, untempered by profligacy, undisciplined by debt.
None could top the corrupted Kennedyism an actual speech by the Old Man, Hisself in 2006:
I say to Newfoundlanders and Labradorians: "Ask not what we can do for our country, because we have done enough. Let's ask our country what they can do for us."
The Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour hired the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives to issue a report on the upcoming provincial budget that basically says all the things that labour federation boss Lana Payne has been tweeting for weeks.
Here’s what the report’s author said in a news release from CCPA:
“The province’s economic fundamentals are strong. The task for the government is to ensure it doesn’t rock the boat and damage the province’s economy and social fabric with spending cuts.”
Things are looking pretty good, in other words. The government has to be very careful because any big cuts would damage the economy.
As much as some people might think this is a challenge to the governing Conservatives, that’s not really the case.
Continued from Part A
Terry Lynn Karl is the author of The paradox of plenty: oil booms and petro-states., one of the best known books on the resource curse or rentierism. Karl described the essence of rentierism in an article she originally wrote in 2007 and revised in 2009:
Oil wealth produces greater spending on patronage that, in turn, weakens existing pressures for representation and accountability. In effect, popular acquiescence is achieved through the political distribution of rents. Oil states can buy political consensus, and their access to rents facilitates the cooptation of potential opponents or dissident voices. With basic needs met by an often generous welfare state, with the absence of taxation, and with little more than demands for quiescence and loyalty in return, populations tend to be politically inactive, relatively obedient and loyal and levels of protest remain low -- at least as long as the oil state can deliver.
In the extreme, oil wealth can disconnect a state from its population. By the same token, oil can disconnect politicians from the population, transforming them from representatives who must satisfy voters in order to get re-elected to bosses controlling subordinates.
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This is the third in a four part series on the current financial crisis the provincial government is facing. The first instalment – “The origins of rentierism in Newfoundland and Labrador” – appeared on Tuesday and the second – “Other People’s Money” - appeared on Wednesday. The third instalment – “Rentierism at the national and sub-national level” - appeared on Thursday.
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Finance minister Jerome Kennedy told the Telegram’s James McLeod on Wednesday that the provincial government had a structural deficit problem.
His proof was that government spent 60% or so of its total outlay each year on the social sector. That includes health, social services, justice, and education. If that’s what Jerome is worried about then he and his cabinet colleagues should know that in 2005, they spent 67% of their budget on the social sector. In 2003, the last year the Liberals ran the place, they spent about 64% of the budget on the social sector.
Before he goes all Grim Reaper, Jerome should know spending that kind of percentage on the social sector isn’t unusual for governments across Canada. That’s been pretty much the norm since the late 1960s when governments introduce publicly-funded health care. In Ontario in 2012, for example, all but about $30 billion of the government’s $126 billion budget went to social program spending.
That doesn’t mean the provincial government doesn’t have a huge financial problem. They do. It just means that Jerome is looking in the wrong place to find a sign of it.
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This is the third in a four part series on the current financial crisis the provincial government is facing. The first instalment – “The origins of rentierism in Newfoundland and Labrador” – appeared on Tuesday and the second – “Other People’s Money” - appeared on Wednesday.
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A rentier is a person who lives off the income from property and investments. That distinguishes a rentier from a person who earns income through labour.
For the past 40 years or so some political scientists and economists have studied something called a rentier state. In simplest terms, a rentier state is one that derives a significant portion of its national government income from the money they get from oil and other high-value, but volatile commodities. [FN 1]
For our purposes, we’ll rely on a definition of “significant portion” as being 40% or more of government income. [FN 2] We’ll also focus the discussion on states that derive most of their income from oil.
What we are talking about here goes by several names including the Dutch Disease or even the resource curse. Jeffrey Frankel of the Kennedy School of Government put it this way:
It has been observed for some decades that the possession of oil, natural gas, or other valuable mineral deposits or natural resources does not necessarily confer economic success. Many African countries such as Angola, Nigeria, Sudan, and the Congo are rich in oil, diamonds, or other minerals, and yet their peoples continue to experience low per capita income and low quality of life. Meanwhile, the East Asian economies Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong have achieved western-level standards of living despite being rocky islands (or peninsulas) with virtually no exportable natural resources. Auty (1993, 2001) is apparently the one who coined the phrase “natural resource curse” to describe this puzzling phenomenon. …
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This is the second in a four part series that offers an interpretation of the current financial crisis the provincial government is facing. The first instalment – “The origins of rentierism in Newfoundland and Labrador” – appeared on Tuesday.
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As much as people imagine a great difference between the Confederate and anti-Confederate forces during the National Convention, the two agreed on one thing: someone else would have to pay for Newfoundland’s return to responsible government.
The London delegation asked the British government to provide the erstwhile country with money. The British balked, pleading their own financial hardship after a long and costly war. That refusal is largely what prompted Peter Cashin to claim that the British were trying to sell the country the Canadians. As many words that have been spilled and as many books sold trying to prove the conspiracy existed, there’s never been a shred of proof that such a plot ever existed outside Cashin’s frustration.
The Ottawa delegation found wealthy Canada more receptive to the Newfoundlanders expectations and after a first referendum and a run-off vote, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians voted to become part of Canada. For Labradorians the moment was especially sweet. The National Convention and the referenda were the first time any residents of the mainland part of the country had ever been allowed to vote.
Is the government facing a structural or cyclical deficit?
Good question. Their economist says it is a structural problem but his comments to the Telegram on March 13 suggest he is approaching the problem as if it would sort itself out.
The whole structural versus cyclical question hinges in part on the question of government revenue when the economy is working at full output versus when it isn;t. Well, in Newfoundland and Labrador, that is a bit hard to figure, especially when the government claims that locally everything is great but that it doesn’t have any money.
People get confused.
Well, one way to start getting a handle on this is to look at the 2011 and 2012 budgets and the related income and spending.
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Over the next four days, SRBP will offer an interpretation of the political underpinnings of the current financial crisis. This series goes beyond the immediate to place recent events in both historical and comparative, international perspective.
The first two instalments briefly describe some characteristics of the political system and Newfoundland political history before 1934 and from 1949 to about 1990. The third post will look at the concept of the rentier state and the relationship between dependence on primary resource extraction and politics at the subnational level (states and provinces). The fourth post will place recent developments in Newfoundland and Labrador in the larger context.
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Before 1949, the Newfoundland government’s main source of income was taxation of imports and exports. The Amulree Commission reported, for example, that the government brought in around $8.0 million dollars in the fiscal year ending in 1933. Of that, 71% - $5.7 million - came from customs and excise duties. The next largest amount was $700,000 (about 9% of total) that came from income tax while the third largest source of income was postal and telegraph charges totalling slightly more than $587,000.
Newfoundland also had almost no experience of local government before the Commission Government in 1934. St. John’s was the only incorporated municipality and the city council was quasi-independent of the national government.
Beyond the capital city, the national government “managed a highly centralized system through the stipendiary magistrates stationed in each electoral district, “in the words of historian James Hiller in his recent note on the Trinity Bay controverted election trial in 1895(FN 1). The central government also appointed the members of some local boards to manage education and roads. The money for all of it came from accounts controlled by St. John’s.
The members of the House of Assembly had enormous control over government and that public money.
The provincial Conservatives love to spend public money.
That doesn’t sound very conservative and it isn’t. Politically, the provincial Conservatives in Newfoundland and Labrador are more like Republicans than the Progressive Conservatives who used to run the province in the 1980s. American Republicans like to cut federal taxes and jack up federal spending and then blame the resulting financial meltdown on the Democrats.
Around these parts, the Reform-based Conservative Party, as the Old Man used to call them, blames everything on the Liberals. That is the Liberals who, in case you missed it, haven’t been in power in a decade.
About two thirds of the people in the province who file tax returns earn less than $35,000 a year before taxes.
It’s the kind of detail that you cannot banish from your mind when you read about the politically popular economist Wade Locke. The guy who directly and indirectly helped the provincial government create the current financial mess is on a leave from his university job to help with the new budget.
As the Telegram reported on Wednesday, Locke’s “contract with the government stipulates that he'll be paid $250 per hour for his consulting work to a maximum of $75,000.” That would be on top of the 80% or more of his university salary that he is entitled to for being on what the faculty contract calls a “sabbatical” leave.
The Telegram also reported that Locke said he would only bill taxpayers one dollar at the end of his contract. Let’s take him at his word.
Still, you have to wonder why he would sign a contract in the first place for more than twice what most people in the province make in a year. Don’t misunderstand. A consultant should get what he can earn and if Locke can get someone to pay $250 an hour for his services, then more power to him. Given the context, though, the contract is still rather distasteful.
Locke’s supporters will defend any amount of money because they value his advice. And that’s really where we can peel back the cover on this little can and see what is inside.
Mr. Speaker, I again have to implore the members opposite to stop pretending that you do not understand the fiscal structure of the Province. The $600 million that was earmarked in the Department of Natural Resources was not contained in the current budget, Mr. Speaker. That was contained in investment. There is a difference between a capital budget, the investment budget, and the current budget.
Muskrat Falls has nothing to do with the deficit we are experiencing this year…Let’s break it down.
The provincial cabinet has been burning the midnight oil the past couple of nights.
Literally.
Late night sessions that ended God-knows-when, night after night.
Apparently, they are trying to figure out what to do in order to get out of the massive financial and political hole they have dug for themselves over the past decade.
As bizarre as that might seem to some people, the politicians who created the mess have no idea yet what they are going to do. All that Premier Kathy Dunderdale and finance minister Jerome Kennedy have been able to offer lately are lots of vague comments about when the budget might be or how many lay-offs there might be. Dunderdale put a number of 500 lay-offs out there a few days ago but frankly, that’s about as reliable as her forecasts from last year.
And when Jerome told David Cochrane that they were still working out the Sustainability Plan, he was not bullshitting. He meant it, even though he claimed they had already started implementing the plan last year.
If you are familiar with government budgets and how these things normally get sorted, then odds are you are reading this now that someone has been able to revive your unconscious form.
It seems like only yesterday that the young man from the Pearl was the mayor of the cozy city.
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By now you’d be living in a cave if you hadn’t heard any news of the latest Corporate Research Associates poll.
The NDP are slightly ahead of the Tories and both are about 10 percentage points ahead of the Liberals. More people want Lorraine Michael as Premier than want Kathy Dunderdale. And a majority are unsatisfied with the government.
Now this is an historic set of poll results as Don Martin tweeted to tease people about the release on Monday morning. The release doesn’t make any reference to that, preferring instead just reporting the results blandly. By contrast, Mills hyped the living crap out of poll results a few years ago that hit historic highs.
Finance minister Jerome Kennedy is supposed to know about the economy and stuff.
During an interview with CBC provincial affairs reporter David Cochrane for On Point, Kennedy said that in the 1990s the government was the main employer in the province. The implication was that the public sector wasn’t what it used to be. People laid off from the public service could find work much more easily in the private sector as a result.
Well…
Err…..
No.
The north side of the site of the future Muskrat Falls dam has a problem. The soil is made up of clay that has a tendency to sheer away in landslides when it gets too wet. The North Spur, as it is known, is a key part of the reservoir.
Cabot Martin has documented the whole thing in a slide presentation based on documents released during the environmental reviews of the project.
According to Martin, Nalcor won’t have a potential solution to the problem or know the cost until sometime this year.
Breakdown by department: 10 Advanced education/skills. 6 CYFS. 13 Environment. 4 Finance. 6 Fisheries. 23 Health. …7 Exec Council. 2 IBRT. 10 Justice. 9 Natural Res. 2 Tourism. 6 Transportation. 62 of 98 jobs cut were union jobs.That’s the way it has been for the province’s political reporters since the end of February. Cochrane, NTV’s Mike Connors, and the Telegram’s James McLeod tweet on how many layoffs happened on that day, the number in each department, how many belonged to which union and how many were non-unionised.
On the front page of Wednesday’s Telegram was another instalment in James McLeod’s blockbuster on the provincial government’s policy of censoring public documents.
This one focused on the claim by a spokesperson for the public engagement office that orders in council were not covered by a section of the province’s access to information law that prohibits disclosure of cabinet decisions even though the orders are essentially cabinet decisions.
At the same time, the spokesperson said the orders were subject to other sections of the act that allowed government officials to censor them selectively.
Yes, that is exactly as screwed-up as it sounds.
In Nova Scotia, the provincial government has to beat prospective woods companies with a stick to keep them in line in the rush to take control of lands from the former Bowater mill in that province.
Seven groups want to get some part of the 220,000 hectares, a power plant, a mill site and all the timber that used to go into the paper plant.
In May 2011, the provincial public works department issued a call for proposals to replace the lift bridge in Placentia.
In August 2011, the department scrapped the project and went back for a re-think. They got only one proposal for $43.25 million, which upset them given that they had figured it would only cost $24 million.
In March 2013, they accepted a tender for $40.6 million to replace the bridge. The release noted that the new tender was $2.5 million less than the one they’d cancelled.
Nice thought, that, but it actually isn’t a true reflection of the situation, is it?
Shortly after the 2003 general election, the newly elected Conservative politicians accepted a proposal to cut down the number of health boards and education boards across the province.
Save money, they said.
Save money, the politicians repeated.
And so it happened.
As it turned out, the consolidation didn’t save any money. It certainly didn’t reduce the public service payroll, a goal the Conservatives set out in their election platform.
Labour federation boss Lana Payne made an interesting comment on Twitter over the weekend: “there is never a time for austerity.”
Never.
Ever.
You can hear all those Newfoundland politicians from the 1920s applauding her from the grave. Those were the same politicians who spent the government into bankruptcy in about a decade.
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As we approach the umpteenth anniversary of the internationally-accessible Internet, a website is about as far from news as anyone can get.
That’s why it was so laughable last week to see the junior fart-catcher apprenticed to the province’s minister of secrecy and obfuscation issuing a news release and holding a news conference to herald a completely trivial event like the launch of a new front page (!) to a website..
The only thing left for Steve Kent to do is invite the representatives of the province’s news media to gather ‘round as he opens an envelope. Even the Voice of the Cabinet Minister might not attend that sort of snore-fest or the subsequent events in the series: Kent to check e-mail and Kent posts Twitter message.
Not only does the provincial government now censor public documents called orders in council, they can’t get their own scheme right.
Public engagement minister Keith Hutchings published a letter to the editor claiming that government had always censored orders in council. The Telegram dutifully went back and asked for some of the same documents they’d received before with censored sections blacked out.
A front-page story in this Saturday’s edition (March 2) lays out the details.
Over the past decade, the provincial Conservatives have consistently outspent the other parties in the province on polling and similar research in both election and off years, according to figures filed with the province’s elections office.
The table below shows the amounts each party reported as spending on research and polling. In general election years, the figures are the reported figures for the general election periods. Parties also may have spent money outside the election period. That isn’t included here.
Last fall, we looked at cost per vote for provincial general elections. At the time, Election NL hadn’t released the 2011 general election figures but with those numbers now available, it’s time to update the earlier comparison.
Two things to note:
A few years ago, some people believed that comments left on news stories and in online discussion groups could influence public opinion.
As it turns out, no one took any advice about anything from some person called newfiesexgod27.
Who knew?
Public opinion changes.
Individuals don’t hold exactly the same attitudes about things throughout their entire lives.
That’s true of how the typical man or woman feels about clothing styles, cars, movies, books, politics, or just about anything else.
Not surprisingly in a society like ours, there are people who want to try and change opinions and attitudes. They want to persuade people to buy a product, support a political decision or stop doing something like smoking.
Also not surprisingly, we have some basic ideas about how people should do that.
At any rate, renovations planned long in advance — to keep the legislature from falling apart — are hardly a fair target for criticism.This conclusions assume one thing not actually disclosed in media reports on the need to relocate three floors of the Confederation Building tower and another thing that’s actually preposterous.
It’s fair to say if the Opposition’s roof was leaking, they’d be singing a different tune.
With a tip of the hat to Gerry Rogers and Andrew Parsons, here are some posts from the SRBP archive that all bear on the current political mess in which the provincial Conservatives find themselves.
“Playing the Numbers” (August 2006) One element of the program involves aggressively pushing out their own message, especially when their pollster is in the field. The first of the original three-part series that described the Conservative media strategy. There’s a lot more to it than just online polls. Follow the links for the other two.
Freedom from Information (Various) Bill 29 was just the latest in a long string of efforts by the Conservatives to restrict what the public knows. Controlling information is another key element of the government program.
“Mark Griffin: traitor” (February 2009) A third element of the program involved efforts to suppress dissent. Mark Griffin was an especially glaring example. There have been lots of others, reported and presumably unreported. Write a letter? Get a call.
“Everything else is advertising” (December 2009) News is everything they want to keep you from seeing. There’s no story here.
“Deep Throat” (February 2010) Someone inside the provincial Conservative crew leaked the messages about poll goosing. Earlier, someone (else?) dropped a quarter and ratted Danny’s secret heart surgery out to NTV.
“The Screaming of the Banshees” (February 2010) NTV broke the story. The Conservatives mount an organized attack on CBC. Some people still think that the who horde of people saying exactly the same thing arose spontaneously. Sure it did.
“Planted Calls and Personal Threats Against Talk Show Host Revealed” (August 2010) Randy Simms, interviewed by Geoff Meeker, included a text-book definition of a planted caller.
“Enough of the Political Day-Care” (March 2012) As soon as you read it, you will remember the episode. What might leap out more for someone of you now than before is the idea that calling Open Line was a threat that struck fear into Tory hearts.
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Newfoundlanders and Labradorians got a vivid example on Thursday of the Orchestra Pit Theory of Political reporting.
For those who don’t know the story, the Orchestra Pit theory goes like this: two politicians are on the stage. One announces a cure for cancer. The other falls into the orchestra pit. The media will cover the guy in the pit.
Well, the guy in the pit on Thursday was Brad Cabana.
If you want to see a politician under significant stress, take a look at Kathy Dunderdale talking to reporters about her party’s heavily organized effort to goose unscientific, online polls.
Her voice is high pitched.
She’s moving around.
And she’s got Marty Feldman Eyes.
CBC’s David Cochrane contacted the public works department* Premier’s Office and asked about rumours he’d heard of renovations to the Premier’s Office.
As Cochrane reported on Twitter, the public works department Premier’s Office told him that there were no renovations currently happening.
Not exactly true, as it turned out.
Seems that finance minister Jerome Kennedy isn’t the only fellow out there conducting the annual budget “consultation” farce this year.
According to the Southern Gazette, justice minister Darin King “acknowledged, as part of a small cabinet committee appointed by Premier Kathy Dunderdale to bring budget recommendations back to government, he was asked to split the pre-budget consultations with Mr. Kennedy.”
Apparently, the idea is to have a bunch of ministers fan out across the province so they can come back with ideas on how to get through a “couple of years” when oil production will be down and things will be tough.
A couple of years.
Only two years?
That’s an interesting way to put it.
What’s more interesting is the way the Southern Gazette led into their story on the Marystown session:
It was largely more ‘doom and gloom’ from Justice Minister Darin King, as he conducted a provincial pre-budget consultation in Marystown Friday afternoon.
Yuck.
King had company at his session. Education minister Clyde Jackman tagged along.
And that small group King mentioned? It includes Nick McGrath, the province’s government services minister.
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The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council thinks the provincial government should do something about its spending, what with declining revenues.
Well, you know.
Sort of.
Maybe.
Finance minister Jerome Kennedy took his budget “consultation” roadshow to Corner Brook the other day. Former finance minister Tom Marshall showed up to help. Tom has run more than a few of these farces so he could lend a hand if things got tough.
Well, all that was one thing.
The other thing is the way the video freezes in the online CBC story on the “consultation” in Corner Brook.
The justice department is the lead department enforcing the provincial access to public information law.
As such, it’s a pretty serious indictment of the government’s commitment to public access when the justice department violates the access law.
From the access commissioner’s summary of his report into the latest complaint against the justice department:
The Applicant submitted two access to information requests to the Department of Justice dated June 15, 2012. … The Applicant received no response to his request for information regarding psychiatric services until November 9, 2012, when the Department responded to both this Office and the Applicant as a result of his Request for Review submitted to this Office in October. This four and half month delay occurred despite the fact that the majority of information was in the custody or control of the Department and required little redaction. The request with respect to payment information was responded to on August 24, 2012, when the Department notified the Applicant that no records existed. There was no communication with the Applicant to explain the reasons for the delay in either case. The Commissioner found that in both cases there was a breach of both sections 9 and 11 of the ATIPPA. …
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[Almost Immediate Update at the bottom]
Why do they do it?
People keep asking why the provincial Conservatives spend so much time and tons of public money goosing the VOCM question of the day in the way that supports whatever the Tories are supporting at the moment.
It is a mystery, gentle readers.
It is inscrutable.
Like the ways of the Lord, it passeth all understanding by those of us who have not touched the hem of Hisself’s garment or who don’t hang around churches chowing down on breakfast, lunch or dinner, like current poll goosing ring-master Paul Lane apparently does.
The provincial “mid-year” financial update included a familiar claim about the Muskrat Falls project:
We estimate that the province will see revenues in excess of $20 billion over 50 years beginning in 2017, with average annual revenues of $450 million over this period.
But a new analysis of the project cash flows by JM shows that it will be 2031 before the provincial government will realise any genuine dividends from the project. What’s more, it will be sometime around 2048 before the dividends would reach as much as $200 million.
That’s not all. The provincial government will have to inject upwards of $100 million over and above any amounts described to date in order to maintain the debt-service coverage ratio (DSCR) of 1.4 during the first five years of the project as required by the federal loan guarantee.
When you consider the equity repayment, the required debt service ratio, and include the potential upside from power exports, Muskrat Falls will be in operation for nearly two decades before the net returns to the Government of Newfoundland will match that presently provided by the Upper Churchill. This statement is one which is not fully understood by even the most buoyant supporters or sharpest critics of the Muskrat Falls project. [page 2]
Jerome Kennedy told reporters on Wednesday that he and his officials are forecasting that the provincial government will rack up almost $4.0 billion in deficits over the next three years.
That consists of about $725 million this year, followed by two years in which the government will spend $1.6 billion each year than it will take in.
None of that should come as a surprise to any regular SRBP readers. This corner has been warning about the current administration’s spending practices since 2006.
So now what?
12 & 13 Geo. VI, c. 22 (U.K.)
An Act to confirm and give effect to Terms of Union agreed between Canada and Newfoundland.
[23rd March 1949.]
Whereas by means of a referendum the people of Newfoundland have by a majority signified their wish to enter into confederation with Canada;
And whereas the Agreement containing Terms of Union between Canada and Newfoundland set out in the Schedule to this Act has been duly approved by the Parliament of Canada and by the Government of Newfoundland;
And whereas Canada has requested, and consented to, the enactment of an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to confirm and give effect to the said Agreement, and the Senate and House of Commons of Canada in Parliament assembled have submitted an address to His Majesty praying that His Majesty may graciously be pleased to cause a Bill to be laid before the Parliament of the United Kingdom for that purpose;
Be it therefore enacted by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:--
1. The Agreement containing Terms of Union between Canada and Newfoundland set out in the Schedule to this Act is hereby confirmed and shall have the force of law notwithstanding anything in the Constitution Acts, 1867 to 1940.
2. In accordance with the preceding section the provisions of the Newfoundland Act, 1933, other than section three thereof (which relates to guarantee of certain securities of Newfoundland) shall be repealed as from the coming into force of the said Terms of Union.
3.This Act may be cited as the Newfoundland Act.
Passed under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, constituting the Office of Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Island of Newfoundland and its Dependencies.
[Dated January 30th, 1934]
GEORGE THE FIFTH, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India: To all to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting:
WHEREAS, by certain Letters Patent under the Great Seal bearing date at Westminster the Twenty-eight day of March, 1876, Her Majesty Queen Victoria did constitute the Office of Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over Our Island of Newfoundland and its Dependencies;
And Whereas, by further Letters Patent bearing date at Westminster the Seventeenth day of July, 1905, His Late Majesty King Edward the Seventh did amend the aforesaid Letters Patent;
And Whereas We have received an Address from the Legislative Council and House of Assembly of the said Island praying that We may be graciously pleased to suspend the aforesaid Letters Patent and to issue new Letters Patent which would provide for the administration of the said Island, until such time as it may become self-supporting again, on the basis of the recommendations which are contained in the Report of the Royal Commission appointed by Us on the Seventeenth day of February, 1933, and of which a summary is set out in the annex to the said Address;
And Whereas by an Act of the Parliament of Our United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland entitled the Newfoundland Act, 1933, it was provided that it should be lawful for Us by any Letters Patent under the Great Seal to make provision for the suspension of the operation of the aforesaid Letters Patent of the Twenty-eight March, 1876, and the Seventeenth July, 1905, and to make provision for the administration of Newfoundland during the period whilst the operation of the aforesaid Letters Patent is suspended;
Now know ye that We do hereby declare Our will and pleasure to be that as from the coming into effect of these Our Letters Patent, the operation of the aforesaid Letters Patent of the Twenty-eight March, 1876,, and the Seventeenth July, 1905, shall be suspended pending the further declaration of Our pleasure, without prejudice to anything lawfully done thereunder: and We do further ordain that during the period whilst the operation of the aforesaid Letters Patent is suspended, the following provisions shall be made for the administration of Our Island of Newfoundland and its Dependencies:--
I. We do by these presents order and declare that there shall be a Governor and Commander in Chief (hereinafter called Our said Governor) in and over Our Island of Newfoundland; and the Islands adjacent; and all the Coast of Labrador from a line drawn due North from the eastern boundary of the bay or harbour of Anse Sablon on the said Coast to the Fifty-second Degree of North Latitude, and from thence westward along that parallel until it reaches the Romaine River and then northward along the left or east bank of that river and its headwaters to their source and from thence due north to the crest of the watershed or height of land there and from thence westward and northward along the crest of the watershed of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean until it reaches Cape Chidley; and all the islands adjacent to that said part of the Coast of Labrador; and also of all Forts and Garrisons erected and established, or which shall be erected or established; within or on the Islands and Coast aforesaid (which said Islands and Coast, together with the Island of Newfoundland, are hereinafter referred to as Our said Island), and that the person who shall fill the said Office of Governor shall be, from time to time, appointed by Commission under Our Sign Manual and Signet. And We do hereby authorise and command Our said Governor to do and execute in due manner all things that shall belong to his said Command, and to the trust We have reposed in him, according to the several Powers and Authorities granted or appointed by virtue of these Present Letters Patent, or any Letters Patent amending the same, and of such Commission as may be or may have been issued to him under Our Sign Manual and Signet, and according to such Instructions as may from time to time be given to him under Our Sign Manual and Signet, or by Us through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State, and according to such Laws and Ordinances as are or shall hereafter be in force in Our Said Island.
II. And We do hereby declare Our pleasure to be that there shall be a Commission of Government for Our said Island (hereinafter called the said Commission) and that the said Commission shall consist of six persons ordinarily resident in Our said Island and three shall be persons ordinarily resident without Our said Island. Every such person shall hold his place in the Commission during Our pleasure.
III. Whenever any Member of the said Commission shall by writing under his hand resign his place in the said Commission or shall die or be suspended from the exercise of his functions as a Member of the said Commission or be absent from Our said Island or be declared by the Governor to be incapable of exercising his functions as a Member of the said Commission, the Governor may, by an Instrument under the Public Seal, appoint some person to be provisionally a Member of the said Commission, in the place of the Member so resigning or dying or being suspended or being absent or declared incapable. Such person shall forthwith cease to be a Member of the said Commission if his appointment if disallowed by Us or if the Member in whose place he was appointed shall be release from suspension or, as the case may be, shall return to Our said Island or shall be declared by the Governor capable of again discharging his functions in the said Commission. The Governor shall without delay report to Us, for Our confirmation or disallowance, through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State, every provisional appointment of any person as a Member of the said Commission during Our pleasure and the Governor may, by an Instrument under the Public Seal, revoke any such appointment.
IV. And We do hereby direct and enjoin that the said Commission of Government shall not proceed to the despatch of business unless duly summoned by authority of Our said Governor, and unless three Members at the least (exclusive of himself or the Member presiding) be present and assisting throughout the whole of the meetings at which any such business shall be despatched.
V. And We do further direct and enjoin that Our said Governor do attend and preside at the meetings of the said Commission of Government, unless when prevented by some necessary or reasonable cause; and that in his absence such Member as may be elected to be Vice-Chairman by the said Commission from among the Members of the said Commission who are persons ordinarily resident in Our said Island shall preside at all such meetings.
VI. And We do further direct and enjoin that a full and exact Journal or Minutes be kept of all the deliberations, acts, proceedings, votes and resolutions of the said Commission and that at each meeting of the said Commission the Minutes of the last meeting be read over, confirmed, or amended, as the case may require, before proceeding to the despatch of any other business. And We do further direct that twice in each year a full transcript of all the Minutes of the said Commission for the preceding half year be transmitted to Us through one of Our Principal Secretaries of State.
VII. And We do further authorize and empower Our said Governor, with the advice and consent of the said Commission, to make laws for the peace, welfare and good government of Our said Island, and any such Law may amend, add to, alter or repeal any law passed by the Legislature heretofore subsisting in Our said Island.
VIII. And We do further direct and enjoin that the style of such laws shall be by "the Governor, by and with the advice of the Commission of Government" and no other.
IX. And We do further direct and enjoin that no Bill. Vote, Resolution or Address for the appropriation of any part of the public revenue or for imposing any tax or impost shall be passed or adopted by the said Commission unless such Bill, Vote, Resolution or Address have first been recommended by Our said Governor.
X. And We do further direct and enjoin that all laws shall be enacted and all other matters coming before the said Commission shall be decided by unanimity or, if on any matter there be not unanimity, by a majority of the votes given, and in the latter event Our said Governor and each Member of the Commission actually present shall each exercise one vote.
XI. And We do further direct and enjoin that no law made by Our said Governor with the advice and consent of the said Commission shall take effect until Our said Governor shall have assented thereto in Our name and shall have signed the same in token of such assent.
XII. It shall be lawful for Us, Our heirs and successors, by Order of Our or Their Privy Council laws to disallow any law within one year from the date of the Governor's assent thereto and such disallowance, on being made known by the Governor by Proclamation in the Gazette, shall annul the law from the day when the disallowance is so made known.
XIII. And We do further authorize and empower Our said Governor to keep and use the Public Seal of Our said Island for sealing all things whatsoever that shall pass the said Public Seal.
XIV. And We do further authorize and empower Our said Governor, in Our name and on Our behalf, to make and execute, under the said Seal, grants and dispositions of any lands which may be lawfully granted or disposed of by Us within Our said Island.
XV. And We do further authorize and empower Our said Governor to constitute and appoint all such Judges, Justices of the Peace, and other necessary Officers in Our said Island as may be lawfully constituted or appointed by Us.
XVI. And We do further authorize and empower Our said Governor, as he shall see occasion in Our name and on Our behalf, when any crime has been committed within Our said Island, or for which the offender may be tried therein, to grant a pardon to any accomplice, not being the actual perpetrator of such crime, who shall give such information and evidence as shall lead to the apprehension and conviction of the principal offender; and further, to grant to any offender convicted of any crime in any Court, or before any Judge, Justice, or Magistrate, within Our said Island, a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions, or any respite of the execution of the sentence of any such offender, for such period as to Our said Governor may seem fit, and to remit any fines, penalties, or forfeitures, which may become due and payable to Us. Provided always that Our said Governor shall in no case make it a condition of any pardon or remission of sentence that the offender shall be banished from, or absent himself from Our said Island.
XVII. And We do further authorize and empower Our said Governor, so far as We lawfully may, to remove from his office, or to suspend from the exercise of the same, any person exercising any such office of place within Our said Island, under or by virtue of any Commission or Warrant granted, or which may be granted, by Us in Our name, or under Our authority.
XVIII. If the Governor shall be unable to administer the Government of Our said Island by reason of any of the following causes, namely, death, incapacity, removal or departure from the Island, Our Lieutenant-Governor or if there shall be no such Officer in Our said Island or if such Officer shall be unable to administer the Government of the Island by reason of any of the causes aforesaid, then such person or persons as We may appoint, under Our Sign Manual and Signet, shall, during Our pleasure, administer the Government of the Island, with all the powers and authorities vested in Our said Governor by these Our Letters Patent according to the tenour of these Our Letters Patent and according to Our Instructions as aforesaid and the laws of Our said Island.
XIX. In the event of Our said Governor having occasion to be temporarily absent for a short period from the seat of Government, or from Our said Island for the purpose of visiting Our Dominion of Canada on public business, he may in every such case by an Instrument under the Public Seal of Our said Island, constitute and appoint Our Lieutenant-Governor, or if there be no such Officer, or if such Officer be absent or unable to act, then any other person, to be his Deputy during such temporary absence, and in that capacity to exercise, perform, and execute for and on his behalf during such absence, but no longer, all such powers and authorities vested in Our said Governor, by these Our Letters Patent, as shall in and by such Instrument be specified and limited, but no others.
Every such Deputy shall conform to and observe all such instructions as Our said Governor shall from time to time address to him for his guidance.
Provided, nevertheless, that by the appointment of a Deputy as aforesaid, the power and authority of Our said Governor shall not be abridged, altered, or in any way affected, otherwise than We may at any time hereafter think proper to direct.
Provided further that if any such Deputy shall have been duly appointed it shall not be necessary during the continuance in office of such Deputy for any person to assume the Government of Our said Island as Administrator thereof.
XX. And We do hereby require and command all Our Officers, Civil and Military, and all other inhabitants of Our said Island, to be obedient, aiding, and assisting unto Our said Governor, or in the event of his death, incapacity, or absence, to such person or persons as may from time to time, under the provisions of these Our Letters Patent, administer the Government of Our said Island.
XXI. In the construction of these Our Letters Patent the term "Governor" shall, unless inconsistent with the context, include every person for the time being administering the Government of Our said Island.
XXII. And We do hereby reserve to Ourselves, Our heirs and successors, full power and authority from time to time to revoke, alter, or amend these Our Letters Patent as to Us or Them shall seem meet.
XXIII. And We do further direct and enjoin that these Our Letters Patent shall be read and proclaimed at such place or places as Our said Governor shall think fit within Our said Island of Newfoundland, and shall come into operation on a day fixed by Our said Governor by Proclamation in the Official Gazette.
In Witness whereof We have caused these Our Letters to be made Patent. Witness Ourself at Westminster, the Thirtieth day of January in the Twenty-fourth year of Our Reign.
By Warrant under the King's Sign Manual.
SCHUSTER.
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Word that the Town of Badger is having problems with flooding – again – is a reminder of a couple of small hydro projects at Badger Chute and Red Indian Falls that would have helped relieve the flooding threat.
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CBC news reported last week that Scott Simms won;t be pursuing the provincial Liberal leadership.
That’s no surprise because the federal member of parliament was never really thinking about becoming a candidate.
If you look at the story in late January and now you cans ee something else.
