Here’s an old chestnut used to teach people about clear communication. Your humble e-scribbler first came across it about a decade ago in an army staff officers’ course and it has turned up in several places since then.
Your challenge, should you chose to take it up, is to translate the scribbles.
What does the message say?
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Teletech, a controversial American call centre operator, is pulling up stakes and leaving the province after only four years of its five year agreement.
Back when she was innovation minister, Kathy Dunderdale offered the company $1.1 million annually in wage subsidies for five years in order set up shop in Mount Pearl. Controversy erupted when it turned out that the company had a string of labour relations lawsuits but Dunderdale’s department hadn’t noticed even though the suits are well documented on line.
Due diligence for dummies, Jack Harris called it at the time. He meant “google”. Harris was playing on Dunderdale’s love of meaningless phrases which came out in force as the minister faced pointed questions about her departments fairly obvious incompetence:
In another interview, the minister said that the outside companies hired to carry out the "due diligence piece" would not necessarily pick up these sorts of issues. So what were they looking for? Lint?
She also said this information turned up by reporters wouldn't have "negatively impacted" on government's decision, had it been known.
Observers will note that Dunderdale loves those meaningless phrases when she’s under pressure – as in this and countless other cases – and when she isn’t. It seems, as we suspected back then, that Dunderdale thinks this blather makes it sound like she knows what she is talking about when she likely doesn’t.
Interesting that the company never had to operate a single day in the province without a cash infusion from government.
Wonder where they are going next?
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The premier’s excuses for not participating in talks on a European trade deal just get more bizarre as time goes by.
First there was the whole idea that Stephen Harper can’t be trusted to look after Newfoundland and Labrador’s interests so the best solution – according to Danny Williams’ logic – is to let Stephen Harper look after Newfoundland and Labrador’s interests.
Then there was the whole idea of a side deal which, of course is impossible constitutionally, not to mention practically. As a European Union spokesperson put it:
"The Government of Canada is the only government with the authority to conclude international treaties under the Canadian constitution, so our interlocutor and negotiating partner will be the government of Canada,"…
The spokesperson indicated she’d apparently met with Our man in a Blue Line Cab to talk about seals.
But apparently, nothing else.
Then there was the whole go-it-alone thing, which consisted of nothing more grand than sending Tom Hedderson off to talk to a few ambassadors in a hastily arranged series of meetings on seals.
Now there’s this little gem, from Question period in the House of Assembly on Monday:
So there are other bigger issues. There is also the whole issue of the Atlantic Accord and what is going to happen when European countries do business in Newfoundland and Labrador.
What issue is he talking about?
Or more accurately, which Atlantic Accord?
The 2005 one – the only one he usually talks about – doesn’t have anything to do with Europeans or trade.
The 1985 one – the real one – establishes a local preference policy for Newfoundland and Labrador companies doing business offshore. The only way to get rid of that would be for the federal and provincial governments to agree to eliminate it. That’s because the deal can’t be amended unilaterally.
Well, it isn’t supposed to be amended unilaterally.
Under section 60 of the 1985 Accord, neither party could amend the enabling legislation unilaterally. Until 2007, no one thought they might. Then Stephen Harper amended the offset provisions in a rather sneaky way.
But the really odd thing is that the provincial government did not raise a single objection - beyond some generalised gum-flapping about Equalization - to the amendment of the 1985 deal.
Not a one.
No letters of protest.
Nada.
To the contrary, when they opted for O’Brien 50 this past winter – and pocketed Equalization cash in the process – they accepted the federal Conservative’s 2007 amendment as part of the deal. In fact, as the premier has indicated recently, the provincial government decided at least as long ago as early 2008 to flip to O’Brien/50 in early 2009 in hopes of pocketing Equalization cash. Heck, they might have even signalled that privately at the time to the federal government.
So maybe the real reason the Premier is in a snit is because he’s worried that through all of this he’ll just be hoist by his own clever Equalization petard. Rather than see the local preference rules of the 1985 deal preserved to the benefit of local companies, we’ll see them disappear.
That would go a long way to explaining the sudden about face the provincial government did on this deal back in February. Maybe the feds made it clear that the local preference provisions of the 1985 deal were up for consideration and one of the things the feds could throw back in the Premier’s face was his own acceptance of the unilateral changes to the 1985 Atlantic Accord. You can almost imagine the conversation: “Danny, it doesn’t matter if you show up or not. We can change the thing by ourselves if we have to – you just told us we could when you accepted the changes from 2007.”
Still, though, it doesn’t explain why he would sit on the sidelines rather than become personally involved. After all, as he told the legislature: :[w]e are going to do what we have to do here to protect the interests of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, and I could not care less what the rest of them do, I have to be quite honest with you.”
Well, to be quite honest with you, if the provincial government was really hell-bent on protecting Newfoundland and Labrador interests, the place to do that is at the table, inside the Canadian negotiating team.
Seal-bashing just doesn’t seem like a reason enough to turn down the invitation to sit on the team. And like we’ve said before, if custodial management and shrimp tariffs are so important – and they are – the place to deal with those is at the negotiating table.
And look, if you really want to get a sense of how much is at stake for the province just look at what the Premier said himself in the legislature:
There are also a lot of very big, multinational, European companies that want to do business in Newfoundland and Labrador, because of our minerals, because of our oil and gas, because of our fishery, and we have to take the abuse from these hypocrites basically saying that we act in an inhumane and a barbarian manner, when they chase bulls through the streets in Spain, and matadors pierce bulls in a Roman type atmosphere, and we are out trying to earn a living.
So - if we try and follow the Premier’s own logic – a vote by the European parliament that affects maybe a few million dollars that comes to the province from seal-bashing is way more important than billions in new economic development throughout Newfoundland and Labrador that would come from participating in the trade deal negotiations.
Okay.
That makes sense.
Not.
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From the House of Assembly and a discussion of the recent vote taken among the province’s nurses on a contract offer from the provincial government:
PREMIER WILLIAMS: Mr. Speaker, quite simply, a strike can be avoided if the nurses decide not to go on strike. It is my understanding that 80 per cent voted and that 63 per cent of those who voted, voted to have a strike. The math on that is 50.4 per cent, so one out of two nurses wants a strike and one out of two nurses do not want a strike.
He’s right.
That’s the way the numbers break out if you look at the total number of eligible voters.
Of course, that isn’t the way, the Premier and his supporters like to look at the results of the last provincial election. They’ll talk about things like the nearly 70% of the popular vote for the Provincial Conservatives.
Of course, as some people conveniently forget, only 60% of the electorate turned out to vote.
The math on that is 41.76%.
So…
you can fill in the rest.
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The lack of a deal with the federal government is holding up approval of projects eligible for the federal government’s economic stimulus spending.
The provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Manitoba, as well as the three territories, have yet to reach agreements with Ottawa on the program, although some contacted last week said agreements were imminent.
However, one official told The Globe and Mail that the deal with Alberta was delayed because the government in that province wants some of the previous money it allocated to infrastructure spending to count toward its one-third share of the program. Alberta feels it has spent substantially more on infrastructure than any other province and that their actions should be recognized. A federal official said Friday that the two governments have since reached an agreement in principle.
Maybe the provincial government has sorted that out in the meantime. There’s not much else that could prompt a joint federal-provincial newser.
Lots o’ cash and cuddles update: Turns out that there was a deal and that the federal government was quite happy to hold a giant news conference with both federal and provincial Conservatives attending.
But the cuddles didn’t stop with the newser. Provincial Conservative public works minister Trevor Taylor even issued a ministerial statement on the cash, this being polling season and all.
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For those who enjoyed the video of paratroops exiting an aircraft in a less than proficient manner, here is another one to lighten up your day.
This one is “Airdrop mishaps” which – as the title suggests – is a string of things that went wrong in dropping equipment and supplies to soldiers.
There are flipped-over trucks, a LAPESed pallet that breaks open, spilling its load all over hells half acre, a parachute deployment problem (it didn’t deploy until it was way too late) and - a personal favourite – the vehicle that broke free of its restraining straps and started off down range on its own.
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In the past year, Newfoundland and Labrador has shed 8,800 jobs.
That’s right.
There are almost 9,000 fewer people working this time in 2009 than there were at the same time in 2008.
CBC News is focusing only on the 2,800 dropped in one month – that is last month.
Fair enough, but that other number is staggering what with all the talk from the provincial government the past few months about the province being supposedly well positioned to weather the economic crisis and then emerge unscathed on the other side.
8,800 jobs shed in a year.
If you look at the figures from Statistics Canada you see that the figure is made up of almost equal numbers of full-time and part-time jobs. But, look a little harder and you’ll notice that in the part-time employment segment, the job loss amounts to 12.5% in a single 12 month period.
Those people didn’t switch to full-time employment status nor did they leave the province, necessarily.
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A bunch of politicians accused of living high on the public hog and getting into an argument about what the rules permit.
From Guido Fawkes:
Guido has been shouting about the Green Book Rule changes which came into force on April Fools Day - and politicians really do take us for fools. To stop all the rule breaking by MPs they came up with a clever solution. Scrap the rules!
Meanwhile, there is a hunt on for the person who leaked information on the story to the papers.
The Mother of Parliaments might wind up following the path taken in the Bow-Wow Parliament once the whole thing explodes.
We could loan them a Chief Justice who could sort the mess out quite nicely.
In the meantime, it might be interesting to find out if any of their cash from their spending scandal had been directed to paying party campaign expenses as has been the case here, albeit something the ruling party isn’t at all interested to see investigated with the same judicial vigour.
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Chevron announced two milestones this week.
The Tahiti production platform, left, is located 305 kilometres south of New Orleans and sits in 1250 metres of water.
On Friday, Chevron announced it had struck oil in a well drilled offshore Congo.
Moho Nord Marine-4 was drilled to a total depth of 13,907 feet (4,239 meters) and proved a 535 foot (163 meter) column of high-quality oil flowing at 8,100 barrels per day.
The discovery follows two previous successful exploration wells, Moho Nord Marine-1 and 2, drilled in the permit area in 2007, and the positive appraisal well Moho Nord Marine-3 in 2008.
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Given the origins of and the scope of the trade talks starting between Canada and the European Union, Danny Williams’ refusal to participate is even more bizarre than it first appeared.
Whatever is going on with the government party and its supporters – including voice of the cabinet minister crowd who seem obsessed with clubbing seals these days - it ain’t really about seals.
The provincial government seems intent on ignoring both the reality of the province’s dependence on trade with the United States and the growing concerns about American trade protectionism. Of the $13-plus billion in exports to the top 10 trading partners for the province, the United States consumed $10 billion or 77%. The U.S. accounts for 70% of all Newfoundland and Labrador international exports.
This, from the Economist, says much:
You can see why Canada would want to lessen its dependence on America, which bought 75.5% of its exported goods last year and provided 63.4% of its imported ones. Yanked into recession by America, Canada worries that trade will suffer from protectionism (in the form of new Buy American provisions and country-of-origin labelling requirements on farm products) and Washington’s moves to toughen up border security.
The deal could open new markets for Canadian exports of agricultural, fish and forestry products in addition to fish, aerospace, automotive and other exports.
The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is refusing to participate in the talks as part of the Canadian delegation. The Premier claims it is because he doesn’t trust the Prime Minister to look after the province’s concerns about European opposition to the seal hunt, the push for custodial management of fisheries outside the 200 mile Canadian exclusive economic zone and impact of a EU shrimp tariff on Newfoundland and Labrador shrimp exports.
Since all those things are on the table plus a great deal more directly affecting the future of the provincial economy, it’s bizarre that the provincial government would leave all those issues entirely in the hands of someone they supposedly don’t trust.
Bizarre indeed.
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When you are a political leader and your comments show you to be so far out of touch with the best interest of your province such that Stephen Harper looks sensible in comparison, then you know something is wrong.
Seriously wrong.
Like there’s a giant fireball in the sky above the place you’re heading and you can’t understand why all these cars are going the other way wrong.
Like you and a bunch of your drunken teenage friends go camping at Crystal Lake and you start making out with your girlfriend alone in a tent in the middle of the night and wonder where that machete came from sticking through the tent top wrong.
Topic: the annual seal hunt, also known as March Madness (in this case in May) or as it has become, the platform by which every “C” list celebrity or celebrity wannabe seeks the public spotlight once again.
Issue: The European Union voted to ban imports of seal products.
The Stephen Harper Comment: "If we were to make our trade relations with the European Union about only the sealing issue, we will never have any trading relations with the European Union because as we know this is a disagreement of long-standing," [Prime Minister Stephen] Harper said at a news conference.
The Danny Williams Comment: "You know he's prepared to sacrifice Newfoundland and Labrador's interest in the interests of other issues for Canadians. And I think that's just dead wrong and it shows what this guy is all about," [Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams said].
Okay.
According to the provincial government’s own fact sheet, “the sealing industry is worth $55 million” to the provincial economy. That was a figure for 2006.
In that same year, Newfoundland and Labrador did more than 10 times as much business with Germany and the United Kingdom combined as the total value of the seal fishery.
In 2006, exporters from Newfoundland and Labrador sold a heckuva lot more than seal pelts to European Union countries. At that value, they shipped a heckuva lot more to European countries than the seal products they may have shipped through them.
In 2008, Germany alone accounted for $1.02 billion of Newfoundland and Labrador’s exports. According to CBC, total Canadian seal exports to the EU last year amounted to a measly $5.5 million. That’s all Canada, not just Newfoundland and Labrador.
Get the idea?
Now just think – for one teensy second – about the implication of Danny Williams’ comment. Apparently, the only issue of any consequence here for Danny Williams is the seal hunt and 10 times as much trade between our province and Europe and the chance to sort out some of the grievances doesn’t matter one jot or tittle.
Lest you think this remark is out of context consider that the provincial government earlier this year turned down the chance to work with an international trade mission aimed at increasing trade with European countries.
Why?
Because of the seal hunt, among a couple of other issues which would have been better addressed at the table rather than far away from it .Actually, if you follow the links you’ll see another classic Williams administration constantly-shifting-position, but let’s just go with the “No seal hunt, no play” position.
If there’s logic in the provincial government’s argument – as enunciated by Danny Williams - it sure isn’t obvious. Apparently, the economic benefit to the provincial economy of increased trade with the Europeans isn’t something the provincial ministry could be bothered with.
At this point, it’s hard to see how the provincial government is protecting provincial interests by launching into another tirade with anyone over seals when seals are only a tiny fraction of the overall provincial economic picture involved.
But seriously:
How can you tell your political position is crap?
When Stephen Harper sounds reasonable in comparison.
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Updated – added sentences giving value of seal exports to EU last year, according to CBC story.
Apparently, it has nothing to do with anything other than the trends in the market.
People don’t read newspapers evidently, especially ones that are following a fairly conventional advertising revenue approach. As we know from the local experience even getting a massive weekly infusion of government cash doesn’t help.
Before the newspaper types get all incensed, your humble e-scribbler doesn’t think that newspapers are really going to die. There’s a place for them in the news world of the future.
What needs to change is the information delivery model and the revenue model.
People just aren’t reading the conventional papers like they used to do, and as a consequence, the revenue is drying up from advertisers.
Take a look across the United States and you will see bastions of the newspaper world from Boston to San Francisco struggling to keep alive.
That’s a clue.
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"You see what's happening in countries like Denmark with the whale slaughters. We see other parts of the world where kangaroos are being culled by the hundreds of thousands, and yet they're after the seal harvest here in Newfoundland and Labrador," [Premier Danny Williams] said.
"So Europeans should have a good, hard look at themselves."
Europe = Denmark.
Okay.
Europe = Kangaroos.
Huh?
Evidently Williams didn’t read geography at Oxford.
Not the same thing.
Kangaroos are found only in Australia. There are no kangaroos in Europe, except in zoos but people aren’t allowed to bash them.
Your humble e-scribbler did not attend Oxford.
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What natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale said in March 2007 about the offshore regulatory board’s regulations for research and development spending:
“The board is only requiring these operators to spend in this province in accordance with what has been the average and accepted norms in the industry elsewhere.”
What she signed in August 2008:
5.9 (D)
The Proponents shall seek Board approval of its plan to invest a fixed amount of one hundred twenty million dollars ($120,000,000) in Research and Development during the life of the Hebron Project, and the Province shall advise the Board of its full support for such Research and Development plan as described in (A), (B) and (C) above as the entire amount of the Proponents’ Research and Development obligations in respect of the Hebron Project.
What she said in February 2009, when the oil companies lost their last bid to appeal the offshore board’s research and development rules:
“The Provincial Government has taken major steps to strengthen R&D planning and capacity in the province through initiatives outlined in our Energy Plan as well as through the creation of the Newfoundland and Labrador Research and Development Council,” said the Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural Resources. “The R&D guidelines complement these major initiatives.”
Maybe Kathy hadn’t read that thing she signed in 2008 since the fixed amount she agreed to back, is less than the offshore board’s r&d regulations would require.
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From an international news story on the European Union seal ban, comes this curious phrase from provincial fish minister Tom Hedderson:
“This certainly is a serious kick-back,…”.
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to a bad start in Nova Scotia.
Well, bad start if you are Premier Rodney MacDonald trying to explain that a budget which is in the red is supposedly in the black but only if a piece of legislation was changed to allow the government to divert cash from debt reduction to program spending.
How much the budget is out of whack depends on who is doing the math, apparently, but there’s no doubt the government budget bill brought in spending higher than revenues.
That alls sounds rather odd in a province where the government has flatly rejected any balanced budget commitments, let alone mandating it in law. They’ve even rejected investing massive gobs of cash flowing from offshore oil prices, preferring instead to save them up – temporarily – to cover deficits in at least the next two fiscal years.
How much cash?
$1.8 billion, apparently, of which $1.3 billion will cover the overspending in the current fiscal year.
Nova Scotians, meanwhile, will head to the polls June 9 to elect a new government. The opposition teamed up to defeat MacDonald’s minority Tory government on a confidence vote on the budget measures.
The opposition parties can’t promise they wouldn’t also bring in a deficit budget if they win the election.
The stakes are high, though with all three parties apparently polling around the same numbers. As some astute Nova Scotian observers have pointed out in the past, the New Democrats may have a tougher time of things than it appears since their votes appear clustered in several areas and are therefore considered “less efficient” when it comes to winning seats across the province.
Sign of the high stakes came early with the release in early April by an unnamed Liberal campaign worker of a photograph of New Democrat candidate, actress Lenore Zann. The photo shows Zann topless and comes from her appearance on the cable show The L Word.
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Related: Issues, via Canadian Press
Anyone interested in the trial of Ottawa mayor Larry O’Brien on charges he conspired to keep an opponent out of the last mayoral race can follow the thing via twitter, e-mail, text message or someone’s live-blogging, thanks to a court ruling.
Judge J. Douglas Cunningham accepted an application by the Ottawa Citizen, but -oddly enough - rejected an application by CBC that would have allowed streaming of live audio and video.
The broadcaster offered no explanation of why it waited until the last moment to bring a motion in a trial it has known about for 14 months and did not even meet the minimum of 15 days notice for such motions.
The ruling is the first in the country, apparently. Cunningham also warned that his ruling applied only to this trial. He said other concerns might be raised in a jury trial about such open communication.
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A curious extract from the financial agreement that was part of the Hebron development deal:
5.1 Support of Province.
The Province shall, on the request of the Proponents:
(A) assist and support each of the Proponents in seeking modifications for federal fiscal enhancements to the extent that such enhancements do not, in the opinion of the Province, have a negative financial impact on the Province, or where such enhancements do have a negative financial impact, they have been offset to the satisfaction of the Province by the Proponents;
(B) use all reasonable efforts to assist the Proponents in securing commitments from Canada and municipal governments in the Province regarding the legal and regulatory framework applicable to a Development Project; and
(C) support the efforts of the Proponents in responding to any future legislative and regulatory changes that may be proposed by Canada or a municipal government in the Province that might adversely affect any Development Project, provided such action does not negatively impact the Province or require the Province to take any legislative or regulatory action respecting municipalities.
Talk about your little gem of a concession to the oil companies.
This section commits the provincial to support any or all of the proponents on any action taken by the Government of Canada that “might adversely affect any” development project on any of the lands covered by the agreement.
What might we be talking about here?
Well, it’s pretty wide open. If you look up the definition of “Development Project” in the agreement you’ll see it’s broad enough to cover every aspect of the project from start to finish, including environmental considerations. If the proponents think the idea is bad, then the province is obliged to help out. It doesn’t have an option; if the proponents ask, the “Province shall.”
And before you note the little provisos there about the Province and the conditions under which it doesn’t have to lend support, bear in mind that the definition of the Province in the agreement is also pretty tight and tidy:
“Province" means the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Her Majesty the Queen in Right of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, or the geographical territory of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, as the context may require.
Now this gets even more squirrely when you consider that the provincial government co-manages the offshore with the federal government through the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board. The sort of regulatory changes we are talking here are ones that are most likely to come through the offshore board.
Environmental regulations, shipping regulations, changes to safety requirements, that sort of thing: all covered through federal legislation since the offshore is legally in federal jurisdiction.
Even fallow field is covered by this provision. If a future federal government wanted to change land tenure in such a way that it would affect lands covered by Hebron, the provincial government would likely be obliged to toe Big Oil’s line. If the proposed federal regulatory “enhancements” actually worked out well for the provincial government, the Proponents can cut a side deal under this clause to secure their support to fight the “enhancements”.
Not a bad little clause.
Well, not bad for the oil companies, anyway.
This provision is even more squirrely because the provincial government – through the minister of natural resources (Kathy Dunderdale) and the provincial representatives on the offshore regulatory board – will not only carry on all this lobbying at the behest of and on behalf of Big Oil in the first place, they can do it from behind closed doors.
There isn’t a single clause there that would oblige the provincial government to disclose its lobbying on behalf of the oil companies; no disclosure to the public and indeed no disclosure to anyone.
Seems like a pretty big conflict of interest, but not one that should come as any surprise given that government’s policy is to be both a regulator and an operator simultaneously.
That’s pretty much the definition of conflict of interest as we’ve discussed here before, particularly when the talks broke off in 2006. We also raised the issue given the Premier’s curious claim after the recent helicopter crash that – despite the fairly obvious – the provincial government didn’t have a regulatory role in the offshore.
It also shouldn’t come as a surprise given that the Hebron deal sets the local research and development below the levels set by the offshore regulator. Government accepted that low amount - and the pledge to back Big Oil - after the offshore board won a court case against Big Oil over just those sorts of levies set retroactively by the offshore board. Next time out, Kathy Dunderdale or her successor will be working to make sure the regulatory changes don’t get out of the board in the first place.
All of that pales in comparison to the clause in a fiscal deal that obliges the provincial government to back the oil companies whenever the companies ask.
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Originally from da Goulds, now making a living in California writing music for movies, video games and television.
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