Hydro towers through UNESCO World Heritage sites: the editorial view

The Telegram Saturday editorial takes a dim view of NALCO’s proposal to string high voltage transmission lines through Gros Morne.

The problem is that the Gros Morne proposal, on the face of it, is hardly an acceptable option for a national park. Between a rock and a hard place, indeed.

Indeed it is.

One of the comments from a reader suggests that it is preferable to do this than keep a diesel generator running at Holyrood.

Fair enough at least for a proposition.

But the NALCO proposal doesn’t address the current electricity demand and the current utilization at Holyrood to cement the case that this massive transmission project – at least $2.0 billion in added taxpayer debt – is actually the best solution to the Holyrood problem. 

Electricity demand is not exactly skyrocketing on the island.  Two major industrial projects have died since 2005 and the Vale Inco project at Long Harbour will only suck 75 megawatts a year, when it comes on line some time around 2012.  In the meantime, the expropriation bill gifted NALCO with almost 150 megawatts of power that costs virtually nothing to run.

On top of that there are at least six other small hydro projects that have been frozen in place since the late 1990s. According to the province’s energy plan, that moratorium is due to be reviewed in 2009.

Meanwhile, Kruger was looking at a site at Silver Mountain.  NALCO itself completed studies on two others in 2006, one at Island Pont (36 MW) and another at Portland Creek (23 MW).  On top of that, AbitibiBowater had three sites under consideration in 2006:

• Badger Shute (24 MW)
• Red Indian Falls (42 MW), and
• Four Mile Pond (24 MW).

There are others.

One of the problems facing any development of those alternative sources of power is the stranglehold NALCO now holds on development in the province.  The energy plan makes it clear that the government now considered NALCO to have a monopoly within the province even before it expropriated several private sector developments including Star Lake:

We believe this means the Energy Corporation should control the development of all small hydro developments for the benefit of all electricity users and determine whether to do this alone or with private sector partners. However, in the long term, the province, through the Energy Corporation, must maintain full control over any new hydroelectric generation assets. We will do this by adopting a policy that no new water rights for hydroelectric generation will be issued except to the Energy Corporation or another company acting in partnership with the Energy Corporation.

If that weren’t enough, changes to the Electrical Power Control Act – passed in 2007 but only quietly implemented after the expropriation in December 2008 – ensures that NALCO can enforce its control over future developments through the Public Utilities Board. 

NALCO isn’t famous for getting things done expeditiously.  It has taken the company the better part of a decade to implement several small wind power projects.  Efficiency and effectiveness aren’t the usual order of the day at any Crown corporation and as a recent study on Hydro-Quebec shows, taxpayers usually aren’t well-served by the behemoths.

Between a rock and a hard place, as the Telly-torialist put it,  doesn’t even begin to describe what else NALCO will come up with besides stringing power lines through a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Next thing they’ll want to add upwards of $10 billion to the public debt for something or other without any sign of a way of paying for it beyond borrowing.

Oh, wait.

They have already.

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Not quite so way-back machine: September 2006

Konrad Yakabuski wrote on the Romaine project in September 2006 and your humble e-scribbler linked to the story at the time and covered the follow-up stuff.

You can find the full article - “Only the brave gamble with Hydro Quebec” – various ways online.

It’s worth talking the time to go back and read it, worth it that is if you actually are looking for information as opposed to being party to the latest manufactured crisis.

Among other things, the Globe columnist puts the whole Romaine issue in the wider context of the Lower Churchill.

The real kicker, as noted by one commenter on a recent post, is that he draws attention to the local talk radio shows and their conspiracy theories. 

Yes, the local Dominion stores sold out of ALCAN foil in record time this week as new rumours abounded about some giant plot by the latest crowd of Evil [Insert name of this week’s official enemy here] who have supposedly always had it in for people who wear tinfoil hats all the time.

While you are prowling the Bond papers archives for September 2006, you can find a couple of other goodies:

• “he spoke.  and rapidly drank a glass of water.” On the 2004 Old Christmas Eve massacre of a speech on the supposed financial crisis facing the province.
• Danny channelling John Kennedy but getting mixed up in the transmission.  or maybe not.
• A discussion of the Telly-torial at the time which stoked some of the tinfoil paranoia at the time.
• The start of a series at the twice before and now finally defunct Independent on negotiating terms of union with Canada, again.  Some of us miss the Indy for its weekly dose of inadvertent humour.  Sorta like what Night Line has become: the new home of repetitive strained-reality syndrome. Where else could you hear a guy who has pontificated on everything there is to say about the 1969 Churchill Falls deal admit he just finished reading the only serious book on the subject, written by the by in the mid-1970s.  Or talk about “the latest poll” showing Provincial Conservative supported had plummeted.  Said “latest poll” was on a blog, something clearly previously claimed he never read and, in this instance, on a blog written by someone he has smeared personally before.  [Hint:  it’s obvious the night-time host didn’t actually understand whatever it was he read on the blog of the guy he smeared even if he actually read it in the first place.]
• A post on Equalization – wait, it’s only short – noting that the federal Conservatives had plans for Equalization that the most unwillingly “have” province in the country wouldn’t like one bit. “The only question that remains is how long will it be before Danny Williams declares a jihad on Steve Harper?” your humble e-scribbler asked in September.  Turned out to be less than 30 days before the Premier was urinating on the federal wingtips.  Again.

 

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Political Darwinism

How appropriate in this week of celebrating the guy who pointed out natural selection to the rest of us that the federal Conservatives should demonstrate that, in fact, some people are doomed to political extinction.

There should be a special category for political Darwin Awards.

Those would be the people who cooked up a scandal with some guy and his trusty tape recorder and released bogus “transcripts” all in an effort to bring down the government and claw their way one inch at a time toward power.

Then, when caught in a wee political and potential legal problem over a politician on his deathbed and offers of financial help that some think look suspiciously close to being bribes, these scandal-and-tape Neanderthals scream conspiracy when someone turns up with a tape of their boss talking about said dying pol and said cash.

The source of this latest example of antediluvian politics, of course, would have to be Pierre Poilevre.  The Prime Minister’s parliamentary secretary claimed in the Commons last week that it had been proven in court that the tape in question was doctored.

Not so, of course, as anyone who has followed the case would know.

Had that part been proven, as Poilevre claimed,  it is highly unlikely the federal Conservatives would have so quickly rushed to withdraw their law suit against the evil Liberals over the whole Chuck Cadman business in the first place.

Then again, no one ever accused Pierre of being the sharpest Clovis point in the pile.

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Nurses, government do the power dance

First, government tried threatening the nurses with an imposed settlement and back-to-work legislation in hopes of frightening them off their strike vote.

Then, when that didn’t work, they tried to lure them back to the table now with a significant change of position.

Then, when the nurses didn’t cancel their strike vote and return to the bargaining table immediately, the Premier and finance minister said they were disappointed the nurses’ didn’t accept the government’s olive branch. The even tried to bring up the financial scare issue of the looming deficit.

There are a few of things to bear in mind:

1. Nurses accepted the olive branch.  They just are going back to the bargaining table with a strike mandate in their back pocket, not when the Premier and finance minister would like.
2. It’s polling season.  Don’t under-estimate that timing issue as a motivating factor for an administration that spends an inordinate amount of time massaging polls. The provincial government had plenty of time to deal with this issue before now.  Their panic at having the government pollster in the field while the nurses carry on a strike vote isn’t a reason for the nurses to simply stop everything.
3. What happened to the bubble?  Before Christmas everything was rosy according to the Premier, finance minister and the government’s favourite economist.  Bond Papers readers knew better. It seems a little disingenuous for government to be singing the deficit tune now.
4. Back to the table now interrupts the strike vote.  The Premier and finance minister – both experienced lawyers – know that if the nurses interrupt their strike vote now, they’d have to start from scratch later on.  That would give government an additional six weeks or more if talks failed this time. Nurses lose by going back to the table prematurely so they aren’t likely to do it. Claiming they aren’t interested in talks sounds a little precious  - even desperate - at this point.
5. Did you hear the eyelids slamming shut?  Government’s tactics in dealing with the nurses have been clumsy, to put it mildly.  Jerome’s year-end deadline passed as if it was nothing.  His threat to legislate vanished this week.  It’s hard for the nurses to feel any sympathy for the provincial government when it has stuck to its hard line all this time.  It’s harder again for nurses to take government seriously when they first of all make threats and then don’t carry them out.  This week nurses heard Jerome Kennedy’s eyelids slamming shut as he blinked, big time.  That may not have been his intention but that’s what nurses saw. No on is surprised they are carrying on with their strategy;  it seems to be working just as government’s obviously isn’t.
6. Bad jokes don’t help.  Danny Williams didn’t help matters with his widely reported, cheesy joke about not wanting to get sick and have to face the province’s nurses in a hospital. He needs to throw away the guide to public speaking and joke telling Roger Grimes left him.  That’s tongue in cheek, by the way.  Williams lambasted Grimes for telling an off colour joke when Grimes spoke to American bankers a few years ago.   The little jest at nurses expense delivered to an audience at a national conference in St. John’s is every bit as bad or worse.

This might turn out to be the most interesting year in recent memory.  The provincial government may have finally found a group that can’t be bullied or intimidated or even fooled for that matter.

The Premier should call up his predecessor and get some better advice.  Brian Tobin tackled the nurses and didn’t come out of it all that well off.  And Danny Williams and his wannabe replacement Jerome Kennedy should remember:  nurses won’t forget.

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Experience counts: Gerry Byrne

Humber-St. Barbe-Baie Verte member of parliament Gerry Byrne’s letter to the editor of the Western Star appeared today.

In it, Byrne outlines events of the past couple of weeks and states – on behalf of his caucus colleagues presumably– their commitment to the province and the interests of the people it represents. 

Byrne’s political experience shows:

Joined by our leader, my fellow caucus members and I announced our commitment to fight Mr. Harper last Tuesday together.

That commitment is inflexible; it is our tactics that will change. While we are different in many ways, the premier of my province is regarded as an ally in this fight. Our ally was told of our intentions and he has called it reasoned and just. Unlike Mr. Harper, my leader and Mr. Williams have already opened a dialogue with each other as equals under a relationship of mutual respect. Both men, I believe, are smart enough to know that playing into Harper’s hands is to let him win.

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Hydro towers in national parks: first Gros Morne, now Mealy Mountain

The proposed Lower Churchill infeed will also involve stringing an electrode from the main transmission line into the territory of the proposed Mealy Mountain National Park.

Apparently hitting one national park in the province wasn’t enough.

The Mealy Mountain park has been under development for most of the past decade. 

Gros Morne Update: From CBC -

Peter Deering, manager of resource conservation at the park, said it's important the park not be disturbed by transmission lines.

"We do not support the proposal and we are not prepared to accommodate the proposal at this time," Deering told CBC News. "One of the reasons Gros Morne was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site was because of its wilderness values."

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IOC expansion on hold until markets improve

Rio Tinto Group will be cutting its capital expenditure budget from US$9.0 billion to US$4.0 billion in 2009 in an effort to deal with the global economic downturn. The company will fix capex for 2010 at sustaining levels.

As a result it appears that IOC’s expansion in western Labrador will be slowed or deferred beyond 2010. That may change if markets improve in the meantime.

Rio Tinto announced its 2008 results and 2009 plans on 12 February. 

At the same time the company announced a new venture with Chinalco which will see the state-owned Chinese company obtain interest in eight Rio Tinto mines globally. 

IOC is not among them.

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Freedom from Information: Nat Res Two-fer Thursday

The province’s natural resources department had rough day Thursday when it came to answering straight questions with straight answers.

As Dunderdale herself might say, the openness “piece” was missing, “big time.”

First, there was the bizarro refusal by a department spokesperson to discuss anything to do with the expropriation compensation process because there was an expropriation compensation process.

Then the Telegram had more on the recent trip by natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale to Ottawa.  Readers will recall the minister – also the deputy minister – turned up in the gallery of the House of Commons this week.  She got a courtesy acknowledgement from the Speaker.

There’d been no public release that she would be in Ottawa so her sudden appearance raised a few eyebrows.

Dunderdale was attending a meeting of federal and provincial ministers responsible for agriculture. She ducked out of the obligatory team photo at the end claiming she had other meetings.

She did manage to find time to scoot to the Commons though.

Other than that, all her department spokesperson would say is that she “took the opportunity to meet with a number of federal ministers who were available while she was there on issues pertaining to Newfoundland and Labrador and that is the extent of it. She is not commenting further."

No further comment.

It’s becoming the departmental mantra.

Turns out – according to the Telegram’s Rob Antle – that Dunderdale met with federal natural resources minister Lisa Raitt and the province’s representative in the federal cabinet, Peter Mackay.

MacKay's communications director, Dan Dugas, confirmed that MacKay and Dunderdale discussed a variety of issues, including unemployment in central Newfoundland. The AbitibiBowater paper mill in Grand Falls-Windsor is expected to shutter within days, throwing hundreds out of work.

That “shuttering” turned out to be today, incidentally.

As the Telegram notes, Dunderdale’s mission to Ottawa comes shortly after the Premier’s latest Equalization tirade. Maybe they kept her trip quiet in order  to maintain the appearance that things are still tense between the feds and the province.  Maybe they kept their lips zipped at natural resources to avoid building up any expectations that Dunderdale might find some way to ease the tensions or even come up with the missing $400 million from the federal budget Dunderdale’s boss had been banking on.

All in all, the whole thing is a wee bit odd.

At least Dunderdale and her handlers learned a lesson.  When in Ottawa don’t take the minister to hang out in the visitor’s gallery of the Commons. 

Leave that job to the Premier’s personal emissary, a.k.a. Our Man in a Blue Line cab.

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Expropriation bill companies report financial results

Two of the companies affected by the expropriation bill last December reported dramatic financial turn-arounds last year.

Manulife reported a loss of $1.8 billion in the last quarter of 2008. Sun Life Financial reported an earnings drop from $2.2 billion in 2007 to $783 million in 2008.

Both companies either had original interests or acquired interests from other companies in hydroelectric developments, laid out in Schedule E of the expropriation bill:

1. The "Acknowledgement and Consent Agreement (Water Use Authorization)" dated 24 April 1997 between the Star Lake Hydro Partnership, the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada ; and the Crown, and all amendments including the Supplementary Acknowledgement - Crown Water Use Authorization dated 9 May 2001 and assignments of them.

2. The "Acknowledgement and Consent Agreement (Crown Water Power Licence)" dated 24 April 1997 between the Star Lake Hydro Partnership, the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada ; and the Crown, and all amendments including the Supplementary Acknowledgement - Crown Water Power License dated 9 May 2001 and assignments of it.

3. The "Hydro Consent and Acknowledgement Agreement" dated 31 July 2002 between the Exploits River Hydro Partnership, Clarica Life Insurance Company, and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro and assignments of it.

4. The "Agreement for the Purchase and Sale of Power and Energy" dated 18 September 2001 between Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, and all amendments, including the Assignment dated 31 July 2002 between Exploits River Hydro Partnership, Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, and assignments of them.

5. The "Restated Agreement for Non-Utility Generated Power and Energy" dated 24 April 1997 between Abitibi-Price Inc. and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, and all amendments, including the Assignment dated 24 April 1997 between the Star Lake Hydro Partnership, Abitibi-Price Inc. and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, and assignments of them.

6. The "Acknowledgement and Consent Agreement" dated 25 April 1997 between the Star Lake Hydro Partnership, the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada ; and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, and all amendments and assignments of it.

7. The "Acknowledgement - Power Purchase Agreement" dated 24 April 1997 between the Mutual Life Assurance Company of Canada, in its own right and as agents for the Canada Life Assurance Company, the Maritime Life Assurance Company, Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada, the Standard Life Assurance Company and Industrial-Alliance Life Insurance Company, the Star Lake Hydro Partnership; and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, and all amendments and assignments of it.

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Freedom from information: no comment on process because the process exists

On January 8, your humble e-scribbler sent an e-mail to the natural resources department seeking some clarification of issues related to the Abitibi expropriation in December.

One of the questions sought clarification of the expropriated hydro assets:

5.  The legislation is explicit in section 5 in that the water rights, land and assets of both Star Lake and Exploits River partnership are forfeit to the Crown. Section 7 voids all the agreements and licenses associated with those projects.

At the same time, the Premier indicated in the scrum outside the House that Fortis, for instance, would continue to "maintain ownership".

Those two things can't exist in the same space.  If the Crown has expropriated the assets of the projects, the former proponents can't still have ownership of those assets.

Are you able to clarify this for me: Who owns the expropriated assets - dams, generation equipment, transmission facilities etc?  A written statement is fine or if there is someone I could speak with, then I am at your disposal.

The response – received yesterday – was that the department would offer no comment beyond what was in the public domain already since compensation discussions are outstanding.

Nothing.

Zip.

Zilch.

So who is the government in compensation discussions with? went the reply.

No further comment beyond what is the public domain came the response.

Fascinating.

Confusion is preferable to information.

And…

Denying comment because of “outstanding” compensation talks isn’t comment – now we know there are outstanding talks – but actually telling the public if talks are underway, who is party to the talks and all the other stuff that logically flows from the fact that you just confirmed talks exist or are at least “outstanding” is comment…

and is therefore verboten.

Surely the parties to the talks know they are talking or going to talk.

So finding out that they are in talks wouldn’t come as a surprise to them nor would it materially affect the talks to say something even as ambiguous as “the companies subject to the expropriation” when asking who was talking or with whom talks were outstanding.

Surely the parties to the talks – whoever they might be – know the issues well enough such that clarifying the discrepancy noted in question five wouldn’t actually affect the compensation talks.  For instance, if Fortis, Sun Life and others actually still do own stuff supposedly expropriated – as the Premier himself said - then they wouldn’t be party to the compensation talks because there’d be nothing to compensate them for.

And just to give a sense of how straightforward the questions are, here are a couple of others the government won’t comment on because of the outstanding talks:

6.  Bill 75 does allow cabinet to enter into arrangements (permissions and licenses) for the use of the assets.  Has this taken place?  If yes, what are the arrangements, with whom etc, for what term etc?

7.  Under section 10(2), persons affected by the expropriation of Schedule C assets are entitled to compensation in  a manner determined by the LG in Council:

-  Has the provincial government received representation from any parties for compensation under this section?

-  If so, who are the parties?

-  Has the LG in C  determined a manner for compensating parties affected by the hydro expropriations?

Factual questions about the process can’t be answered because the process exists.

And a government that prides itself on being open, transparent and accountable prefers confusion to factual information about a major public issue.

You just can’t make this stuff up.

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The notional national media

Go to the Globe and Mail website.

Try and find a story from the February 11 edition by Rheal Seguin on a supposed border flap between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

You’ll to look a bit.  For some reason a story that was prominent is now buried away on the “Others” page instead of on the national politics section where it was.

The story is bogus.  There is no border dispute.  The matter was settled in 1927 and the Romaine river hydro-electric project isn’t even close to the 1927 boundary.  This is another of those Sasquatch hunter things about the Labrador border:  people keep hunting because they know it’s there but the only “proof” turns out to be fiction.

That’s because the border controversy, like the Sasquatch, is made up.

And the story is one of the problems when you drop into Newfoundland and Labrador every once in a while rather than pay attention to what is going on here on a regular basis.

You wind up hunting Sasquatch instead of looking at the case of a real undefined border – this one in the Gulf of St. Lawrence – which is impeding exploration for and development of oil and gas resources.

Meanwhile over at the National Post, a editorial on the latest federal transfer racket contains an astonishing amount of stuff that is not true.

Now Mr. Williams and his government have calculated that switching to the new formula would be better for the coming fiscal year — netting Newfoundland’s treasury and extra $1.3-billion to $1.6-billion — so they want to switch. However, in January’s budget, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty eliminated that option.

Not so.

The amounts quoted were totals over three years, not one.

More importantly they are estimates.

The only figure that seems to be plausibly correct is about $400 million that won’t flow in 2009 but even that is based on:

1. Estimates. 
2. Projections based on current knowledge instead of the actual financial situation in February 2010 when Newfoundland and Labrador will chose which of two Equalization options it will pick for 2009.
3. A set of choices that wouldn’t have existed at all if the current provincial government in Newfoundland and Labrador had gotten its way at any point in the recent past.

The National Post editorialist didn’t stop with those untruths.  It went farther with other things it actually labelled as true when they aren’t:

It’s true Mr. Flaherty and the Harper government eliminated the switching option without first consulting their colleagues in the Williams government. It is also true that this policy change only affects Newfoundland, even though the province is not singled out by name. And it is true the Harper government is tired of Mr. Williams and the constant bashing they take from him, all of which could lead to the conclusion that this is what Mr. Williams claims — an act of vengeance aimed at him and his province.

1. It’s not really clear that the feds didn’t consult.  The provincial officials knew something was up in November last year.  What happened after that is a bit murky.
2. The policy change affects all provinces receiving Equalization and provinces like Newfoundland and Labrador that are still affected by the program.  Ontario and Quebec aren’t going to draw as much from the federal teat as they would have under the program from 2008.  That’s been covered in other conventional news media.  Heck.  The changes are being made expressly to limit the impact on the program of having Ontario now drawing Equalization.

Now that last part – about being tired of the tirades  - is probably true. It’s quite the stretch though to go from that to suggest that this was a policy designed to screw over one province when the facts – as previously reported – show something else.

The relationship between the current provincial administration and the federal government – irrespective of political stripe – is dysfunctional.  It got that way as the result of a lot of hard work after 2003.  The dysfunction may be deliberate or it may be an accidental by-product of old-fashioned political posturing. That part doesn’t matter.  The fact is the dysfunction exists.

It can only change if the people  - it takes two to tango - who are causing or contributing to the dysfunction change their behaviour.

That change isn’t helped by newspapers that are notionally national printing bogus information as if it were fact.

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The dark side of local media celebrity

“The cost of celebrity” - the first of a four-parter at Geoff Meeker’s media watch blog.

Thank the stars or whatever that bloggers don’t fall into that category.

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Trouble in Harper-ville

Two senior advisors set to leave the Harper PMO is not a good sign for the Conservative leader.

Even Don Martin is talking about it.

Meanwhile, the latest Strategic Counsel poll has the Liberals and Conservatives in a tie nationally. A Harris-Decima survey shows overwhelmingly strong support for the Liberal budget initiative of regular performance updates.

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Brain drain

Eddy Campbell, acting president at Memorial University, is taking up the president’s job at University of New Brunswick.

UNB likes his unique blend of academic and administrative accomplishments.

Meanwhile, Memorial University is reportedly another three months away from starting its search for a new president.

Again.

No word on who will be replacing acting president Campbell as the acting acting president of Memorial University.

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Dunderdale a peace envoy to Ottawa?

Deputy premier Kathy Dunderdale turned up in Ottawa on Monday.  As part of the usual courtesy, the Speaker of the House of Commons drew attention to her presence in the gallery of the Commons.

So what was she doing there?

There’s no news release on her trip.

No mention of it at all locally.

Given the manifest problems in the relations between the current administrations in Ottawa and St. John’s, this would be the perfect opportunity for such a senior minister to try and repair the relationship.

More to the immediate point,  she could try to deal pragmatically with the changes to the federal budget that supposedly will cost the provincial government $400 million in the current fiscal year.

What was Dunderdale up to?

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Ontario Dippers made illegal donation to NL Dipper in 2003

Unless “Ontario NDP” is someone’s really odd name, the New Democratic Party in Ontario made a donation to a Labrador New Democrat’s re-election bid in 2003 in violation of the Ontario Election Finances Act.

The donation is recorded in election finance reports on the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial elections office website.

“Ontario NDP” of Toronto Ontario gave $750 to Randy Collins’ re-election bid in Labrador West.

But under s. 29 of the Ontario election finance law, no political party, riding association, candidate or leadership candidate registered under the act can make a contribution to a political party outside the province. The maximum fine  for a general offence under the act is $5,000.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s antiquated election finance laws permit contributions from outside the province, with no limits on the amounts that can be received.

Collins resigned his seat in 2007 and moved to Ontario after being named in the House of Assembly spending scandal. Collins will appear in a St. John’s court in May for a preliminary inquiry on charges of fraud over $5,000, uttering forged documents, fraud on the government and breach of trust by a public official.

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Words matter: the Mike Duffy version

What Senator Mike Duffy said right before the words for which he was rightly criticised:

Honourable senators, I urge you to ignore the nattering nabobs of negativism on the East Coast, particularly the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, who, I believe, does not do Newfoundlanders and Labradorians any favours by the kind of personal attacks he has made over the last couple of years; nor by his remarks that paint Newfoundlanders, who are the among the most generous, caring and committed Canadians, as greedy and selfish. Those remarks are unworthy of the great people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The price of Senator Duffy’s indiscretion in choosing metaphors is that what he would have wanted people to recall is the stuff they ignored.

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The smear of schmeergelder

When former New Brunswick gas regulator David Nelson couldn’t impugn a think tank report that shows – as drivers know – that gas price regulations costs them more than the unregulated system, the only thing Nelson could offer up is the suggestion the think tank is on the take.

That’s as convincing as the defence offered by local licenses and permits minister of Kevin O’Brien who took issue with the AIMS report that drivers in Newfoundland and Labrador had shelled out $65 million extra due to gas price regulation.

O’Brien said the amount couldn’t be that high because the regulatory office only costs $500K a year and that is paid by the gas retailers. 

Yes.  A cabinet minister responsible in part for looking after consumers doesn’t understand that when they pay more than they should have, that’s a cost.

But anyway…

CBC gives way too much credit to Nelson’s smear. They add their own observations at the end of the piece:

Also, the Calgary petroleum consulting firm MJ Ervin reported in its 60-city national survey that five of the 10 lowest pump prices recorded in 2008 [not including taxes] were in New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. Halifax gas prices ranked fourth lowest in the country.

One tiny problem:

Pump prices include taxes.

Check those on the MJ Ervin study and you find the ten lowest prices are in western Canada and parts of Ontario.

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Government to woods workers: you’re SOL

In December, the provincial government introduced a bill to expropriate Abitibi assets in the province.

The approach would work – said the government – since the legislature is sovereign.

What it says, goes.

But…

When it comes to a couple of hundred workers laid off this week, the government can’t help them get severance pay.

Innovation, Trade and Rural Development Minister Shawn Skinner said it's unfortunate that severance wasn't included in the woods workers' collective agreement, but the government can't force the company to pay beyond what's in the contract.

"From a government perspective, we will do whatever we can to assist them to make sure that they get whatever they are entitled to, to the full benefit of the laws of this province," he said.

Can’t force the company to pay?

Interesting idea that the existing laws on worker issues must stand as they are but seizing stuff government wants is another story.

The innovation added a penetrating insight into the obvious when workers suggested the severance be tied to compensation the government might pay Abitibi and other companies for the expropriation. "Our expropriation really had nothing to do with any contractual arrangements that the mill, and the owners of the mill, had with the employees," Skinner told CBC.

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Innu land claims vote postponed

The Labradorian is reporting that the vote on the Innu land claims agreement originally scheduled for 31 January has been postponed indefinitely.

Innu Grand Chief Mark Nui and other officials of the Innu Nation are reported to be meeting with provincial government officials this week to deal with unspecified “outstanding issues.”

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