No charges for Hickey; defamation suit possible

According to news reports, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary will not be laying charges against transportation minister John Hickey [Right. Photo: cbc.ca] following an investigation of his double-billing for legislature expenses.

Hickey did double-bill the legislature for everything from donations to community groups to an apparently exorbitant monthly rental fee for a laptop computer.

If the computer had been purchased outright, the cost to the Crown would have been considerably less than a year's worth of payments at the rate indicated in the duplicate claims.

Hickey was initially relieved of cabinet duties but restored to cabinet by Premier Danny Williams shortly afterward in a move virtually unprecedented in parliamentary history.

It is customary to preserve the integrity of government by removing from cabinet any minister under criminal ivnestigation.

Hickey [Left. Double Photo: cbc.ca] told reporters: "I am completely vindicated."

Well, yes, there is vindication, at least to the extent that there was no criminal wrong-doing.

But Hickey most definitely did double-bill, and he has admitted to unspecified "mistakes". presumably that includes a situation in which two, and in one instance three claims, were filed for the same expense.

Like all newbie government members deployed as part of the government's communications strategy on the legislature scandal, Hickey lays the blame for the double-billing on the legislature's financial staff...presumably for not noticing that Hickey had in fact submitted duplicate claims for service not once, not twice, but 20 separate times. The duplicate claims were submitted in Fiscal Years 2003, 2004 and 2005. Hickey was first elected to the legislature in October 2003.

Hickey is also demanding an unqualified apology from former Premier Roger Grimes who stated publicly at the time, and as he repeated for news media today that he would "repeat every word that I've said publicly about how incompetent and dumb and stupid and sloppy that somebody like Mr. Hickey [Right. Hat-trick Photo: cbc.ca] would have to be to double-bill the government some 30-odd times and then pay the money back...".

Details of Hickey's double-billing can found in Auditor general John Noseworthy's report.

Among the billings were claims submitted twice for a chamber of commerce luncheon in November 2003. The first claim, along with the original invoice for $50.00 was submitted with a payment date of December 4, 2003. The claim was submitted a second time with a copy of the original invoice. Payment for the second claim was made in February 2004.

One of the most curious claims was a triplicate submission for an ad in the souvenir booklet for the 2004 Labrador Canoe Regatta. The first claim for $125, supported by an invoice apparently dated 22 July 04, was paid by the legislature on August 25, 2004. The second claim for the same ad was submitted with an invoice apparently dated in September 2004, was paid on October 6. A third claim - for the same ad - was submitted with a copy of a cancelled cheque apparently dated Aug 4. It was paid on February 4, 2005. None of the Auditor General's reports contains the actual date on which each claim was submitted.

Rather than sue Grimes, it would be far cheaper - not to mention genuinely open, transparent and accountable - for Hickey to hold a news conference, bring along his claims and explain what happened.

Otherwise, the public purse could be burdened completely needlessly by Hickey's legal fees.

Of course, if he had just kept track of what he was submitting, the whole thing would never have happened in the first place.

Then again, if Hickey [Left. Not exactly as illustrated] hadn't claimed to have a signed road construction contract on his desk last fall, he never would have been caught in an embarrassing fact malfunction under questioning in the legislature.

Lorne Calvert to Harper: you shoulda let income trusts suck my treasury dry

While the federal government's decision on income trusts may have violated an election promise, failing to act in the way it did would have caused phenomenal revenue loss for both the federal and provincial governments.

That's the sort of simple background that makes Lorne Calvert's comments in St. John's on Friday undeniably bizarre.

Calvert told a local business luncheon:

"Whether you agree or disagree with the income trust decision - and it was clearly walking away from a promised commitment - he's at high jeopardy if he does that anymore," Calvert said after delivering a speech to the St. John's Board of Trade.

That sounds like Calvert would have been happy if the feds had left income trusts alone, just for the sake of keeping a promise. If Calvert was merely saying that Harper couldn't afford to break another promise, one must wonder at Calvert's logic.

If keeping the original promise would have produced financial problems for both orders of government, then it was sensible to break the promise. By the same token, then, if the second promise on resources and Equalization would cause as many problems as it fixes, then it's only sensible to trash the second promise as well.

On another point, the Canadian Press story linked above contains a glaring factual error:

Newfoundland's offshore oil revenues are protected by the Atlantic Accord, but Williams has expressed fears that Harper is leaning towards including them in a new formula.

Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore revenues are included entirely in the current Equalization formula. They are included for the purposes of determining the province's fiscal capacity and therefore, its entitlement to the Equalization top-up.

The O'Brien expert panel recommended excluding 50% of all resource revenues from the calculation. Premier Danny Williams originally proposed including all revenues in the calculation of Equalization entitlements. He now seeks their total inclusion, apparently.

Under no circumstances are the revenues in some form of jeopardy that requires them to be protected. This is a totally false presentation, the lie of which is confirmed by the admission in the Atlantic Accord (2005) that the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador sets, collects and retains 100% of provincial government revenues from offshore oil production.

A day late...again

On January 17, Consolidated Thompson chief executive Brian Tobin - yes, that Brian Tobin - said that his company would no longer be pursuing plans to purchase Wabush Mines.

No surprise there, since Bond Papers covered the issue when it happened. Never content to accept things at face value, your humble e-scribbler went so far as to speculate that maybe Premier Danny Williams' attitude to power costs for the two mines in Labrador West may have been a factor in the decision by CT to abandon the Wabush deal. Incidentally, CT cited unspecified liabilities as the reason for dropping the project.

On top of that, about 10 days after the original story, reference to the Bond Papers column turned up in The Aurora, Transcons' weekly in Labrador West.

How very strange then, that this news release flew out of Confederation Building at mid-day on Friday stating that the provincial government was encouraging CT to take another look at Wabush.

Two weeks after the company abandons the project and makes an announcement to investors to that effect, Danny Williams apparently decided to give his old pal Brian a call and "encourage" him to take another look.

The cynic would point out that the Premier is just trying to do some damage control in Labrador West in advance of what will be the fifth by-election in 2007.

Then again, regular readers of Bond Papers would recognize the pattern here. Long after an issue has been decided, Danny Williams issues a news release all for naught.

Think about the long series of releases and delays over the Voisey's Bay smelter location. INCO decided against the Argentia site since it carried way too many liabilities. Williams asked the federal government to accept unlimited liability for the site. He kept it up for months, until the feds politely declined the opportunity. Heck, Danny Williams was still talking about Argentia as INCO filed applications to approve the Long Harbour site.

Completely pointless, mind you, but Danny is persistent.

Then there was the release last summer taking issue with someone's remarks about the province's offshore policy. The only problem was the Premier's comments were about something that had happened three weeks previously. By the time he got around to clenching his jaw again for the cameras, most reporters - let alone most people on the planet - had long since forgotten what had been said at the NOIA conference on the local oil and gas industry. Nonetheless, Williams fired out the release, called reporters together and had at the windmill.

In this latest instance, there are one of three possible outcomes:

1. Since the company has skedaddled away from the purchase based on certain liabilities and maybe because of Danny Williams' position on power rates, Danny will find himself talking to himself...yet again. Consolidated Thompson will move on to other things. In the meantime, western Labrador will see some benefits from the Bloom Lake development, once it is up and operating.

2. Consolidated Thompson will gladly come back to the table expecting that Danny Williams will now be willing to talk some sense on power rates. They might even expect - since he is chasing after them - that he will pony up cash and take care of those pesky environmental liabilities.

Yes, the Great Negotiator will meet the Great Communicator.

But since the Great Negotiator is entering the talks from a position of some weakness, I'd put my money on the guy who parted ways from Frank Stronach after a handful of months and pocketed more cash than you could shake an unread financial report at.

3. While Danny is busily talking to shadows, or figuring out how to get his watch on the right date, Brian Tobin will make a pitch to Iron Ore Company of Canada, buy up their facility and extend the life of that operation.

That's only possible, of course, if Williams changes his tune on what rates IOC can buy power from its own company.

Either way you look at it though, this latest news release shows just exactly how heavily micromanaged and how badly out of touch this government is.

The Equalization Phoney War

Before he was hired away from Atlantic Institute for Market Studies to work for the Harper Conservatives, Brian Lee Crowley wrote a brief commentary that might serve as a clue to the federal government's Equalization plans.

Crowley argues - among other things - that removing non-renewable natural resources is possible provided that provincial governments commit to use the revenue for debt reduction. The other features of Crowley's proposal are similar to the O'Brien expert panel recommendations and produce approximately the same cuts to outlays the federal government is seeking.

The federal budget will likely feature a revamped Equalization program that excludes 50% of resource revenues for all provinces. For provinces that wish to take up the option, the federal government will offer removal of the other 50% of non-renewable resource revenues provided the province agrees to commit the cash to debt reduction or infrastructure development.

Crowley's analysis shows that over a 10 year period, Newfoundland and Labrador could reduce its debt by $2.4 billion or 26.7% of Crowley's total debt of $9.1 billion. That's based on including only 50% of revenues from non-renewable resources in the Equalization formula.

That figure is suspiciously close to Premier Danny Williams' recent comment that the provincial budget will include a $2.0 billion for a new capital works program.

The Crowley option may already have been discussed at the finance ministers' meeting before Christmas. Any possible arrangement along those lines would have been communicated to Premiers - including Danny Williams - before Williams ramped up his anti-Ottawa tirade. In other words, he may already know the likely outcome. Williams can run a political crusade largely designed to divert public attention from substantial problems in the province knowing that the "war" is - in effect - a sham.

According to Crowley's analysis, the Equalization entitlement for Newfoundland and Labrador under the O'Brien scenario, and under his version that completely excludes non-renewables, would come out to the same figure: slightly more than $900 per capita.

If asked about it by news media on Friday, Williams' response is predictable:

1. Williams will insist on the original Harper promise that is "in writing six times."

2. Williams will criticize AIMS as a right-wing thinktank and dismiss Crowley out of hand. He can do this reliably since most people won't take the time to read Crowley's report and there is little likelihood news media will report it.

Once the federal government announces the Crowley option, the Williams reaction is also predictable:

1. Williams will claim complete victory since the federal government has lived up to its commitment to remove 100% of non-renewable resources from the Equalization formula and trashed the O'Brien mess that would have resulted if the "Goodale-inspired" plan was put in place. [No media in Newfoundland and Labrador will report that Crowley's plan is a modified version of the O'Brien one.]

2. The Premier will not discuss the commitment on revenues, and the feds will likely keep that under wraps as well. Danny Williams will emphasise the removal of 100% of resource revenues and declare yet another victory over the federal government with a "We got it!" as dramatic as the declaration of victory in January 2005.

All the public will see is cash flowing everywhere less than six months before a provincial election and in the same year as a federal election.

3. Danny Williams will openly campaign for Stephen Harper in the next federal election in an effort to repair the relationship with Ottawa.

Pay heed to the silent majority

Political science professors often get quoted in media stories.

They are considered experts on politics.

Fair enough assumption.

Too often though, what comes out is nothing more than garden-variety opinion without much analysis.

Like this comment featured in a Canadian Press story on Thursday's by-election sweep by the ruling Progressive Conservatives under Danny Williams:

"Byelections are typically opportunities to send a message to government," [MUN political science prof Michael Temelini] he said in an interview. "There's no message here, other than, 'Keep on going, Danny!' "

By-elections are about a lot of things. It all depends on context, so a comment like the one above doesn't offer any insight.

What Temelini didn't apparently notice was that the turn-out in these by-elections was strikingly low. Canadian Press did and included references to fall-out from the legislature spending scandal.

None of the turn-outs are anything to crow about. The high was Port au Port where 51% of eligible voters showed up at the polls. In Kilbride, a traditional Conservative stronghold, only 33% of voters turned out to cast ballots. That continues a low turn-out trend set in Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi where, as in Port au Port, Danny Williams personally campaigned extensively on behalf of his candidate.

Look closer at the winning side and you see something as well. In Port au Port, Progressive Conservative candidate Tony Cornect took 31% of the eligible vote. That's in a district where the Premier and his entire caucus campaigned hard to convince voters they had to deliver a message to Ottawa and Big Oil with their votes.

In Ferryland and Kilbride, where voters didn't see the same Danny campaign machine in action and didn't get the same messages, the winners got respectively 34% and 26% of the eligible vote.

That hardly sounds like "Go Danny Go!"

The simple fact is that most voters sat on their hands.

In Port au Port where the Danny message was clearly a call to send an unmistakable sign to the foreign demons, more opted to sit quietly on the sidelines than voted for the Danny-boy candidate.

The question to answer is why they did that. Temelini clearly didn't know. Odds are good most of the commentary in the next few days will miss it too.

Perhaps the non-voters just supported Danny so much they didn't feel the need to vote. Highly unlikely. If there had been an election in January 2005, Danny Williams would have found more members on his side than there are seats in the legislature.

Perhaps some felt there was no point in voting since the outcomes was pre-ordained in a race where the Premier is apparently overwhelmingly popular. That's a possibility.

Perhaps some sat on their hands because they are simply disaffected from the political process as a direct result of the ongoing scandal. That's much more likely.

Other factors were also at work as well and taken together with that last likelihood, one can come up with a plausible explanation of the by-election result.

In the two Avalon peninsula ridings, the Liberal campaigns were vigorous on a local level but little was done to launch major attacks on the government as a way of hamstringing cabinet ministers and capitalizing on public discontent.

Neither party took the chance to attack cabinet ministers - like Kathy Dunderdale, for example - whose performance overall has been abysmal and who, shortly before Christmas, was caught in an embarrassing case of misleading the province on a public tendering scandal.

Ditto for transportation minister John Hickey, who sits in cabinet despite being the subject of a criminal investigation over alleged double-billing on his legislature allowances.

In each riding, the candidates fought very local battles. True, sitting members of the House campaigned door-to-door, but the province-wide political messages simply didn't exist.

For voters, especially voters intent on sending Danny Williams a rocket, there wasn't a clear alternative to Williams that they could stand behind. Neither the Liberals nor New Democrats look like a renewed and credible alternative devil to the one they already know. That reaction is all too common in Newfoundland and Labrador, the 1.5 party state.

In past cases where the Opposition has picked up seats, voters wanted to send a message to government. But that's usually been when the incumbents are in trouble and the major opposition party - Liberal or Conservative - looks like a pretty solid alternative. Otherwise, voters stay home and wash their hair or make sure all the spaghetti is lined up straight in the cupboard rather than vote. It's the equivalent of telling a public opinion pollster that they are "undecided"; there's no way to miss the meaning if you pay attention.

What's left on Thursday, then, is a situation where the highly organized, well-funded and aggressive political party - bolstered by incumbency - could identify its hard core supporters and get them to the polls. It isn't rocket science.

The only bright spot for the Liberals now remains Humber Valley where the capable and popular candidate will face mounting pressure over the weekend. As he goes door-to-door, Dwight Ball can simply tell people that Danny doesn't need one more seat to send a message. That job was done. They can instead make their choice based on something else.

Danny Williams did a curious thing in putting a label on the by-election results before they were known. He is already claiming a massive endorsement, of course, but in truth, both Stephen Harper and Big Oil are looking at Williams' victories with a more sophisticated eye than any of the commentary from news media and at least one poli sci prof would bring to bear.

For Harper, Williams' victories are largely irrelevant. Harper likely knows that there is a simple solution to the Equalization battle at hand. That makes Williams' Equalization battle a distraction intended primarily for domestic audiences. The reaction in the Langevin Block will likely be the common one to news from Dannystan: big freakin' deal.

Of course, Williams doesn't matter politically to Stephen Harper anyway since Williams' political influence west of Corner Brook is all but non-existant.

For the oil companies, knowing that Williams couldn't generate a massive groundswell of support is telling. If the by-elections mattered to them at all - and there is no reason to believe any of them pay any serious attention to that sort of thing - the public affairs analysts would tell them that Williams faces difficult times ahead and there is a mood of discontent that affects all current politicians.

Their conclusion would be the same one they already reached: Hebron is dead for at least five years. Hibernia South is on life-support. An emboldened Danny Williams is highly unlikely to come to any deal at all, no matter how sweet the pot gets. They will continue to wait on the energy plan - if it ever comes - or the gas royalty regime. Their interest in these documents has been largely academic since last April. Medium- to long-term spending commitments are already made. By the time they might have an interest in Hebron or Hibernia again, or if there is a significant discovery somewhere else offshore, Danny will be gone and the economic and political environment will be changed.

Danny Williams can claim there are discussions and negotiations with Big Oil.

People who know what's really going on understand that the fibreoptic phone lines from the Confederation Building to the oil companies are blacker than crude.

Danny sweeps three

The Tories took all three by-elections.

No surprise in Kilbride which is a staunchly Tory seat, for for that matter in Ferryland which was last represented by a Liberal in the 1950s.

In Port au Port, the race was reportedly close, however a heavy press put on by the Tories seems to have pulled more Tories to the polls.

Overall though, the voter turnout is down dramatically. It follows a trend that has been running since the race to replace Fabian Manning where the turnout exceeded the general turnout by a small margin.

Stelmach and Williams at odds on fed hand-outs?

During his trip to Alberta with the three Maritime premiers, Premier Danny Williams claimed he had support from Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach in Williams' battle with Ottawa on Equalization.

Seems that might not be exactly the case.

Stelmach told reporters in Alberta that he and his provincial colleagues have adopted a "wait-and-see" approach. That is, they'll wait and see what Ottawa does before discussing Equalization any further.

CHED Edmonton is reporting that Stelmach "says if more revenue is put into the pool, it puts additional pressures on so-called 'have provinces' to maintain those levels in the future."

Williams wants to make changes to Equalization that would see more money flow to his province and keep Newfoundland and Labrador in a "have-not" position for the foreseeable future.

Stelmach apparently prefers lower Equalization demands while seeing additional federal cash flowing to all provinces through transfers on health and education.

Premiers disagree on Equalization

Demonstrating once again that the Council of the Federation is a vital tool of inter-provincial co-operation, premiers agreed yesterday to abandon any efforts to achieve a consensus on Equalization and instead move on to other topics, like energy and internal trade.

Danny Williams told reporters: "There wasn't any arguing, there was enough of that in other meetings. There was a real appetite to work together."

So much for any posturing by Danny Williams that more Premiers than Lorne Calvert were staunchly behind Williams' got-it-alone approach to inter-provincial relations. After all, one of the things Bond Papers has maintained consistently is that Williams' unilateral blustering goes over like the proverbial flatulent emission in a house of worship.

That would be the plenty of arguing thing.

So now Premiers will go on to other issues, having successfully achieved a consensus on Equalization: "No matter what happens we must be able to beat up on Ottawa."

Yep, like you haven't heard that before.

Natural gas terminal on track: Turner

Mark Turner, president and chief executive of Newfoundland LNG Ltd, is optimistic construction will start this spring on the company's proposed liquid natural gas terminal near Arnold's Cove.

Newfoundland LNG's environmental application to the provincial government received conditional approval around the same time the provincial government denied conditional approval to Hibernia South.

Hibernia production slowed down

Operators of the Hibernia production platform are doing a scheduled maintenance now, instead of seven months from now when it was originally the planned.

Industry insiders have known for some time that the operators moved up the planned maintenance in the wake of a generator malfunction in January. The decision pre-dates the province's rejection of an application to develop Hibernia South.

Production is expected to be 110,000 barrels per day, down from the 220,000 barrels per day at peak.

A family of talent

Mike Herriott's back in town to play a gig.

He truly is a talented trumpet player who has made a name for himself internationally. Your humble e-scribbler played in a band with Mike more than a few years ago. Mike was one of several talented trumpet guys - talented to the point of being intimidating; talented to the point of generating a bunch of ongoing "mine is bigger" kinda healthy competition - so it's no surprise that each them has gone on to acclaim in the musical realm.

Mike comes from a talented family, too. His brother Richard is an accomplished pianist.

Another brother - Chuck - is an exceptionally creative local actor.

Lower Churchill timelines slide back

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams announced on Tuesday that the province's hydro corporation had filed applications to transmit electricity through New Brunswick to unspecified markets.

In a media scrum, Williams said there were currently no talks under way on power purchase agreements since negotiations couldn't occur until costs were known. Tuesday's announcement was part of the process of gathering information on costs.

Williams also told reporters the provincial government would consider deferring revenue on the so-called Maritime route (Labrador via Newfoundland to Prince Edward Island). Deferring revenue is code for selling power at a loss.

The feisty Premier claimed the New Brunswick application is part of a plan to deal with a situation in which Quebec would supposedly try to keep Lower Churchill power from markets by loading its grid with energy generated by Hydro Quebec.

Williams knows this argument is a complete fiction since the joint Quebec/Ontario proposal on the Lower Churchill - flatly rejected by Williams - included upgrades to the Quebec grid and to the Quebec-Ontario interconnection. The limitations of Quebec's existing grid are well known and Hydro Quebec is already working on upgrades to the system's capacity.

The go-it-alone option now being pursued by Williams means that Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro may now have to eat the costs of grid upgrades in Quebec and will certainly bear the cost of the underwater cabling to use the Maritime route. The cheapest estimate for the Maritime route would add an additional $1.5 to $2.0 billion to the project cost.

Taken altogether, Williams announcement on Tuesday would likely slide the project time lines back by upwards of two years. Project sanction - which some assumed meant construction startup - might be achieved in 2009 but that would simply mean approval to start negotiating power purchase agreements. Construction would start - if it started at all - only after those deals were closed and financing arranged.

Plans to sell Upper Churchill power to New York fell apart in the 1960s since the costs of transmission from Labrador could never be brought in line with market prices.

The Lower Churchill project is currently estimated to cost upwards of $9.0 billion, or 75% of the total provincial debt load. An additional $9.0 billion of public debt - especially if power is sold at a loss - would bring the provincial debt to almost $20 billion.

That figure may be tough for financial markets to bear given the current gross domestic product is running at less than $25 billion. Newfoundland and Labrador's debt to GDP ratio at that point would be one of the worst in the developed world. Cancellation of major oil projects, like Hebron and Hibernia South, will prevent anticipated growth in the provincial economy that might have otherwise offset the financial problems or given cash that would have covered some of the Lower Churchill's costs.

Energy plan delayed...again

Premier Danny Williams told a VOCM audience this evening the energy plan - 10 years in the making - will be delayed until spring, at the earliest.

He said the gas royalty regime will likely be split off from the plan and announced separately.

In the wake of the Hebron failure, Premier Danny Williams said the gas royalty regime - which at that time had to be included in the energy plan would be released, along with the energy plan, in late 2006.

Times change.

The energy plan - dating from the late 1990s when Brian Tobin was Premier - has languished inside the energy department ever since.

Plunkin' it at City Hall

Danny Williams says he doesn't take a salary.

He does, of course.

Williams donates the whole thing to his family charity.

Since the mid-1990s, members of the House of Assembly [right: Not exactly as illustrated] have quietly adopted the same practice. They take a portion of the allowances established to cover the costs of operating a constituency office and of representing their districts and hand them out to a variety of groups and individuals.

There is something fundamentally - ethically - wrong with elected officials using public money, directly or indirectly, in this way.

It doesn't take a rule book or a judge to let you know it is...wrong.

Should we be surprised in the current political climate that at least one councilor at St. John's Tammany City Hall [left] does the same thing with his annual salary of about $35,000?

As cbc.ca notes in a story on a recent racket about budget cuts,

[Ron]Ellsworth, a successful businessman, said most of his salary winds up in community groups.

"My salary goes back into my ward," Ellsworth said.

Ah yes.

The ward.

Money goes back to the ward.

Looks like Bond Papers had it right in 2005.

DW missile hits target!

Danny Williams said Friday he wanted to send a missile to the oil industry.

It hit.

bloomberg.com - one of the most widely read business news services included this paragraph in its coverage of Husky Energy's financial reports:

Husky's plan to boost output at White Rose may be slowed after a provincial government ruling rejected the proposed expansion of Hibernia, a nearby field, the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board said Feb. 1.

The missile message got through: Newfoundland and Labrador might not be a good place to invest.

Lower Churchill costs increase; must be polling season

This announcement on filing an application to build transmission lines in New Brunswick for Lower Churchill electrical power means three things:

1. The costs of the project will escalate;

2. Corporate Research Associates is in the field again; and,

3. There are by-elections on the go.

Service interruption

A minor technical glitch kept the updates down for a couple of days.

Bond is back!

We now return you to regularly scheduled programming.

McLellan joins LabMag

Former deputy prime minister Anne McLellan has joined New Millenium Corp as a strategic advisor.

New Millennium holds an 80% interest in the LabMag Iron Ore Project, the world's largest known undeveloped magnetite reserve that is currently at an advanced stage of exploration. The project is located in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador ("NL") about 220 km north of Labrador City and 30 km northwest of Schefferville, Quebec. The development envisions the construction and operation of a mine, crusher, concentrator, slurry pipeline, pellet plant, shiploading facilities and related infrastructure. Subject to positive feasibility studies and project financing, it is expected that pellet production from LabMag would constitute a significant new source of global pellet supply and would be shipped by ocean vessels to markets in Canada, the United States, Western Europe and Asia.

Williams acts...long after the fact (Updated)(Updated 2)

[Originally posted 02 February 2007]

Danny Williams wants members of the legislature repay a $2800 bonus granted in May 2004 for the previous fiscal year.

Yesterday - after the story broke - Williams was defending the legislators as supposed victims of incompetent administration or an Internal Economy Commission that ran its own private, unquestioned fiefdom.

With such heavy public criticism, the Premier has apparently changed his mind.

Well, sort of.

First there's this little admission : "I became aware of the decision some time after the fact, and I don’t think there is any disagreement that it was a poor decision that did not reflect the values and guiding principles of our government at that time."

How long is "some time"? A day? A few hours? A few years?

If it was so obviously wrong - as the Premier now acknowledges - why did it take the public furor to have the Premier act?

________________________

Update: 02 February 2007 Premier Danny Williams scrummed with reporters today on his news release. Under questioning from David Cochrane (if the voice on the CBC Radio broadcast was right), the Premier equivocated on when he first learned of the added allowance for members of the House of Assembly.

Cochrane persisted to his credit.

Williams persisted in his evasion, to his detriment.

Then he switched to excuses: he was a new Premier with huge responsibilities and lots of stuff going on; when he heard about it he never put it in the wage freeze context; he didn't pay attention because it was about compensation and allowances and since he doesn't take a salary, then he didn't feel it right to have input on these things.

A bad story for the Premier just got immensely worse.

The Premier's evasion is done for the same reason as the vague wording in the original minutes of the Internal Economy Commission approving the allowance increase.

The Premier seeks to evade responsibility for his own actions, or in this case his inaction.

His excuses are more revealing of his mindset in seeking to escape responsibility.

The Premier's job is a tough one. It carries weighty responsibilities, not the least of which is to watch over the spending of public money. He has helpers in his task, if he lets them help. But those helpers must receive clear and unmistakable direction. Having worked in the office, your humble e-scribbler can attest to the demands of the office. Having spoken over the years with several premiers, your scribbler is also witness to the weight that sits on the shoulders of each Premier.

None would have offered excuses. The exercise of offering excuses is bad enough; it is the antithesis of leadership and fundamentally, the Premier must be a leader in good times and bad.

Not putting the allowance hike in the context of the freeze is a excuse which - by the Premier's own implication - suggests his judgment is exceedingly poor. How could he not see what everyone else apparently saw at the time and the public knows now? The allowance increase was unnecessary. It was wrong. He should have stopped it when he learned of it. He is the Premier after all.

The third is excuse is perhaps even more serious by implication than the others since it contains a serious misstatement of fact.

Danny Williams, member of the House of Assembly and Premier, collects a salary and draws down on his constituency entitlements and other allowances just like every other member of the House of Assembly and member of cabinet.

It's a matter of fact.

Nothing wrong with it.

He lives entirely within his means and there is no sign of any impropriety on his part.

Danny Williams donates his salary to his own family charity.

That too is a matter of fact.

Nothing wrong with it.

Who better - as Premier, and given his example - than to put a stop to an inappropriate public hand-out done in a sneaky way?

For the Premier to say he turned a blind eye to this allowance since he doesn't collect a salary is to mislead the public on a key aspect of an important issue. One can only believe the Premier does so deliberately since he repeats the same false comment each time he mentions his salary.

The House of Assembly story today took on a much more ominous cast for Danny Williams and it did so as a consequence of the Premier's own comments.

Danny Williams enjoys almost unprecedented public confidence in his forthrightness and integrity. People believe that above all else, Danny Williams will be accountable. That is his reputation.

The essence of accountability is responsibility.

In evading responsibility for not putting a halt to the allowance when it occurred or as soon as he learned of it, in equivocating so miserably on even when he knew, Danny Williams attacked the heart of his credibility and hence his reputation.

Danny Williams forgot the most important lesson of scandal: it is not the action or the inaction - not matter how minor - that causes a downfall.

It is the evasion that kills you in the long run.
__________________________________

Update 2: When did Danny know about the extra cash? Likely May 2004, when it was approved, according to the Telegram front page story in its 03 February edition.

That little morsel wasn't reported by other media.

So the guy who had enough power to order the Internal Economy Commission to let the Auditor General back into the House of Assembly in April 2004 couldn't or wouldn't deal with a bonus stipend right after he froze public sector wages for two years.

Hmmm.

The secretive bonus was effectively hidden from view by a vaguely worded set of minutes from the meeting that approved the retroactive payment.

As for the total overspending by members of the House of Assembly allowances and assistance budget during the two years of the freeze - 2004 and 2005 - well that was hidden by misreporting - deliberately (?) - the spending in the annual budget estimates.

For FY 2004, the government estimates showed spending as dead-on budget even though the entire cabinet knew at the time the account was overspent by $479,000. The next year they misreported the spending, knowing full-well the account was overspent by $557,000

The Auditor General's reports to date have only identified 20% of the overspending for those two years. AG John Noseworthy says his work on overspending is done.

NL subsidiary posts higher profits in Alberta

FortisAlberta, subsidiary of Newfoundland and Labrador-based Fortis Inc announced Friday its profit for 2006 was Cdn$41.1 million, up from $31 million the year before.