Convenient Craftiness?

Tory backbencher Wade Verge is pissed because he wasn’t told health services in his district were on the chopping block.

The Premier is dismissing Verge’s claim with a snort and a sneer.

But Premier Danny Williams said Verge needs to check his facts since he was briefed "some time ago" by the premier's chief of staff.

"I think now his explanation to us this morning is that he didn't understand that that's what it meant. Pfff. Anyway, for what it's worth, he's entitled to his opinion. … Obviously he has to act on the behalf on what he thinks are the best interests of his district," he said.

The chief of staff would be Brian Crawley.

So, that means the Premier is trusting the recollections of a guy who told Madam Justice Cameron that he was beset by a form of C.R.A.F.T  disease:  he can’t recall a friggin’ thing.

Interesting.

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Meanwhile, down the other rabbit hole…

The Dippers  - who only a few days ago were sending around publicly-funded propaganda about the number of times Liberals have backed Stephen Harper over the past year – are about to announce their plans to back Stephen Harper.

What could possibly happen next?

Some candidate leaving a job to spend more time with his kids and then announcing he wants to be a member of parliament?

Oh.

That already happened.

Okaaaaaaaaaaaay.

Like things are just going to get weirder and dangerouser.

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It’s still fire truck month

With Labour Day falling late this year, the government’s official pollster is likely still in the field.

That likely explains the flurry of news today, including a new fire truck.

We already told you about this special time of year back in August.

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A world of his own

“If I had a world of my own,” said Alice, “everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary-wise; what it is it wouldn't be, and what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?”

And in such a world, there is to be no more talk of running steel erections through a UNESCO World Heritage site.

He has decided to go around the park.  According to the voice of the cabinet minister, He said He was only kidding on that one.

Quite the yuck it was too.

Not once, but twice and the second time with sprinkles: better to wreck the park than risk Granny’s heart surgery or some such.

There are only two possible real reasons for this change of direction.

Either the federal government told the province officially to get stuffed or the Premier has a poll that shows the public are adamantly and persistently opposed to his plan to run power lines through Gros Morne to bring Labrador power to the townies.

The last time the Premier shifted directions this abruptly and unexpectedly – the flag thing – he had a poll that showed the strategy was far less brilliant than thought by the ones who thunk it up in the first place. 

In this case, the feds might have also told him to forget any plans to try and run the lines through the park, easement or no easement.  You can see a clue to that possibility in the number of times the Premier made reference to needing federal cash for what was supposed to be a go-it-alone option. He keeps talking about federal money like you’d expect him to say if they’d turned him down flat.  They said no, so now they have to compensate me for the inconvenience;  that sort of thing.

But instead he is claiming credit for making the momentous and correct decision and trying to pretend he didn’t make the incorrect one the first time.

And then persistently, stubbornly, unreasonably stick to it for half a year.

The federal government is under no obligation to pay a nickel for running the power to the townies.  That’s all the line on the island will do, you see. There’s nothing in it about running run power to the Yanks.  no matter how many times Danny Williams has tried to claim federal political commitments, there’s not a shred of evidence any ever existed.

Whoever decided, at least the right decision was made in the end.  It’s just that in this world where nothing is as it appears, the people who fell down the rabbit hole in 2003 will likely never know.

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Confusion reigns in election story

So which is it?

Are election campaigns too expensive or is “at large” candidate Sheilagh O’Leary having trouble raising money because none of her prospective donors can get a tax receipt?

A cbc.ca/nl story seems to be all confuddled.

The headline is about the cost of running campaigns. m That’s also the premise on which they spoke to mayoral wannabe Ron Ellsworth.  Good call, too ‘cause Ellsworth evidently believes campaigns are about how much money you can throw into things.

But the quote from O’Leary on which the whole piece hangs isn’t about that at all.

Sheilagh O'Leary, who is running for councillor at large, said candidates should get tax deductions for some of their election expenses, a change she wants to see in time for the next municipal election.

"I would certainly like to see that changed because certainly in provincial and federal elections you get a tax deductible receipt, and that is very enticing for people, no kidding, when it comes to tax time," she said. "I think there are a lot of people who are daunted about the financial cost."

Maybe the CBC reporter misunderstood what O’Leary was talking about.

Maybe O’Leary misunderstood.

But there’s no doubt that the tax break O’Leary is looking for isn’t the one aimed at candidates.

So what’s the real story here?

Someone at CBC needs to go back and find it because the whole point is lost in there somewhere.

Meanwhile, unless she is another one of those candidates who finances their own campaign, O’Leary looks confused.  meanwhile, the story prompted a range of comments from people interested in banning campaign signs to a couple of Ron and Sheighlagh supporters who evidently have no idea what is on the go and don’t care.

Talking about anything but the issue at hand or what city council actually does.

Gee, how appropriate for a townie municipal election.

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Campaign College: Sign Design 101

There is a difference between political communications and advertising.

Here’s a simple, graphic example. 

One of the signs in these pictures was designed from the start to convey essential information simply, succinctly and at long distances.

It uses bright colours and a font that is easy to read, even at a distance.

It was not designed by an ad agency.

A by-product of the design is that it is also visible – and legible – when travelling at the speeds one normally encounters in city driving.

The other two weren’t.

Obviously.

The pictures were taken at the intersection of Westerland Road and the parkway, from the corner opposite the signs and without any zoom.

The sign legible in this shot was also plainly legible to the unaided eye at twice and three times this distance.

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Curiouser and curiouser!

Even in the Land Through the Looking Glass that is Newfoundland and Labrador these days, a news release about an emergency session of the House of Assembly to deal with an amendment to  a single piece of legislation is very odd, indeed.

As the official version puts it:

In the course of negotiating a water management agreement for the Churchill River, CF(L)Co advised Nalcor that it felt aspects of the Energy Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador Water Rights Act infringed upon its water rights lease for the Churchill Falls development. This was not the intent of the act, and government has agreed to amend it so as to avoid any ambiguity.

First of all, one must realise, of course, that NALCOR is the parent of Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation or CFLCo.  It holds 65% of the shares, in fact, and the two companies are not completely separate entities.  They are rather closely and intimately connected, in fact.

Second of all, one must also note that the section of the Electrical Power Control Act 1994 requiring a water management agreement came into effect this past January. 

In 2007, the current administration introduced this amendment in the legislature requiring two companies trying to generate hydro from the same river to come to some agreement on water sharing have one imposed by the public utilities board.   For whatever reason the current administration did not give it force of law until early 2009.

Third of all, the original lease that CF(L)Co holds has been around since 1961.  its provisions are well known to a host people inside and outside the provincial government.   in fact, given the history of the lease, it’s probably one of the most well studied and well-understood pieces of legal documentation existing anywhere in Canada.

And that’s the really odd thing.

Well, aside from the oddity of the company effectively negotiating with Itself, and then notifying Itself in the course of negotiations that Itself had a problem with something Itself had been party to previously because that infringed on something else Itself had also been party to much earlier.

You see, there is nothing that would have been noticed during the negotiation of a water management agreement for the Churchill River since January 2009  involving NALCOR, Energy Corporation, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro or CF(L)Co or whatever name the Crown version of Sybil is using at the moment that wasn’t painfully obvious to NALCOR,  Energy Corporation Hydro or CF(L)Co or Sybil, as she then was, when the provincial government introduced the changes to the EPCA, 1994 in 2007 and then introduced the Energy Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador Water Rights Act in early 2008.

What seems to be up for discussion here is something  your humble e-scribbler pointed out back in February. 

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.

If one takes the implication from a set of Hydro Quebec questions about the Lower Churchill environmental assessment, the proposed water management regime appears to require that Churchill Falls be run in such a way as to maximize the generation at the Gull Island and Muskrat Falls dams under all contingencies. 

This might adversely affect CF(L)Co and some of its contractual arrangements to supply power.  It would also seem to go against several sections of the original lease.

If the government news release is clear – and that is by no means obvious – then the emergency session of the legislature is likely to be about passing an amendment that removes the last clause of the water rights act.  That’s the one that requires a water management agreement be reached or that one be imposed by the public utilities board.

What’s so interesting – if that’s the case – is that this is coming in an emergency session and not simply held for the fall sitting.  An amendment to the legislation could have been made later on with the requirement to produce the amendment being made a condition of any water management agreement.

There must be some sort of threat at work here, something much more significant than the prospect of an agreement between  “Nalcor Energy or its subsidiary and CF(L)Co”.  Incidentally, CF(L)Co is a subsidiary of NALCOR. 

Rather, there might not be much hope of a deal at all in the near term.  Instead,  CF(L)Co  - perhaps at the insistence of one of its shareholders – is protecting its interests and ensuring that the legal problems inherent in the EPCA amendment and the water rights act be eliminated now, without question or condition.

And if it was anything else, like say a repeat of the old water rights reversion act, then the thing would have been trumpeted in news conference held by the Premier.  Something says he just wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to grandstand against any slight. 

Nope.  This is something government is trying to downplay, somewhat.

But rest assured:  emergency sessions like this one don’t happen every day and they sure as heck don’t come for a routine amendment, even if it is one intended merely to avoid “ambiguity”.

There’s something big behind this.

And it may not be pretty for the Lower Churchill project.

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Municipal election reality reminder

There are three weeks left in the municipal election in St. John’s.

Ballot kits go out in the mail on Friday, September 11 and they will start arriving in mailboxes on September 14.

The first ballots will start arriving back at City hall on September 15 and over the next week and a bit roughly 50% of the ballots that will come in will either be safely at Tammany on Gower or will be on the way via Canada Post.

About half the eligible voters in St. John’s will not bother to vote. 

Incumbents are more likely to get re-elected in any election but in St. John’s with the mail-in ballot system, the bonus that comes from incumbency is exaggerated even more than usual.

In other words, unless you have the misfortune of being an incumbent with some issues associated with your term on council – as in one ward in 2005 -  odds are heavily in your favour that you’ll go back to Tammany on Gower.  

Familiarity counts for a lot in St. John’s politics and in this election the dominant view seems to be that as long as you haven’t shagged anyone over, there’s no reason to change.  Bland is good, for the most part.  It’s a conservative town, at least on the outside, and sameness counts for much. What that means is that with the exception of a couple of spots, the incumbents are going back.

Over the next couple of days, your humble e-scribbler will take a look at the four spots where there is anything like a race:  Ward Three, At Large, Deputy Mayor and Mayor.

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Big poll goose but less money for forestry than claimed

Throughout 2008 and 2009, the provincial government claimed it created a forest sector diversification program in 2008 worth $14 million, but there’s no sign in publicly available documents that the money was actually budgeted and spent until 2009.

And the amounts mentioned in different government documents, including the 2009 budget, show there was less money involved than the $14 million referred to constantly.

A news release issued in April 2008 referred to a total of $14 million in diversification funds.  That included $11 million  “to establish a diversification program that will provide for infrastructure required by industry to produce new forest products and gain access to new markets.” Another $500,000 was supposed to go to promoting the wood pellet industry.

A November 2008 news release on the wood pellet promotion also refers to $14 million and a name;  Forest Industry Diversification Program

A description on the federal government’s website claims a $14 million program was created in 2008.

But Budget 2008 Highlights don’t mention the diversification project at all.  instead there’s a reference to 

“Allocating $10 million in provincial funding to add to the $4 million in federal funding under the Community Development Trust for forest industry initiatives.”

And there’s  no such program or amount anywhere in the 2008 budget for the department responsible for the forest industry that covers the federal and provincial cash totalling $14 million or anything close to it.

That didn’t become become plain until early 2009 and the new provincial budget.

The 2009 Estimates (right)show that the government didn’t spend a nickel on the program before the end of March 2009. The “revised” column is blank.

Instead, the provincial government carried over the federal cash received but not spent in 2008 and added to it the rest of the original federal contribution for a total of $4.0 million in cash from Ottawa.

What’s more, the provincial government didn’t add either $10 million or $11 million of its own money in 2009 as it had suggested in previous news releases.   Nor did it add a second year’s provincial contribution to the first to make a program worth upwards of $25 million.

Instead, the provincial government included the extra federal cash and reduced the provincial cash to a produce a program in 2009 that had less money than earlier news releases claimed.

The tomfoolery didn’t stop there.

The 2009 budget highlight document uses a while new set of numbers that don’t match any of the others and which certainly don’t match the figures included in the 2009 budget.

Here’s what it said:

Further investment of $6 million in the Forestry Industry Diversification Fund to assist the industry in identifying new products and markets. This is in addition to the $8.5 million carried forward from 2008.

There was no new investment, of course, as the budget documents clearly show.

As it is, two sawmills gobbled up 83% of the interest-free money in the form of  loans that don’t have to be repaid for 15 years and as grants that never have to be repaid.  One received a total of $10 million while a second scarfed down $2.25 million in free government cash.  The same cash was announced several times over the course of a week during August polling season 2009.

The other money appears to have gone the wood pellet program and to hiring a marketing consultant for a project that supposedly cost – you guessed it - $14 million. 

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The story that won’t go away, banner version

Some smart bunny or bunnies is buying advertising in the Grand Falls-Windsor weekly to remind locals how much money is being made from hydro assets the provincial government seized last December.

Run bi-weekly in the local Grand Falls-Windsor Advertiser under a banner that reads "Expropriation by the Numbers," the sparsely worded ads suggest the province has so far earned $28 million from the hydro facilities.

The ads say that's $1,100 for every citizen in the Exploits Valley, and question why more of that money isn't being spent in the region.

There’s a move afoot in central Newfoundland to get the money from the hydro assets to offset the loss of the Abitibi paper mill.

Thus far, the requests have fallen on deaf ears.

But the expropriation story just won’t stop bleeding all over the political landscape.  Not only are the crowd in central looking for cash but there’s a good chance the provincial government will wind up paying big time for the expropriation itself. 

This central story has got to be causing some hard political damage to the careers of people like Susan Sullivan, one of the local members of the provincial legislature.  Even a quickie elevation to cabinet hasn’t silenced the cries for government cash.

Then again, it’s not like the provincial government doesn’t have bags and bags of cash it doesn’t want to talk about, either. 

Odd then that they are resisting any kind of substantive move in central Newfoundland to deal with the ongoing political damage done by the hasty and evidently ill considered seizure back in December. The way this whole mess is unfolding, you’d almost think the whole expropriation was done at the spur of the moment without even a hint of a plan, let alone a second thought for any of the consequences.

N’ah.  Couldn’t be.

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Chiep basturds

If Quentin Tarantino wanted to shoot an homage to the political sign oeuvres of local municipal candidates, that’s what he’d call it.

So like how many city council incumbents are reusing campaign signs from at least one election ago?

Pretty well all of them.

Got pictures?

Send ‘em in and your humble e-scribbler will post ‘em.  bondpapers at hotmail dot com.

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Much at 25

Those were the days, back when JD was JD and not a newscaster named John.

Some are still out there. Others have gone on to different things or bigger things.

MuchMusic turns 25 today.

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Freedom from Information: Whose briefing book is it anyway?

Health minister Paul Oram claimed he didn’t have any briefing notes when he took over the department.

Aural is moral, as the saying went.

Some local media outlets, like the Telegram, went looking for briefing notes and were told by officials they didn’t exist. 

Now, of course it’s not unusual for government officials to be less than truthful in answering media requests for documents.  Back then, the officials said one thing (no documents) but the politician involved – namely no less a personage than the Premier Hisself – said something different (sure we got ‘em).

But in this case, it is way freakin’ spooky that Oram told the Gander Beacon he had a couple of feet of files -  including briefing notes -  to go through  after the officials and Oram had said there was nada in the space marked briefing notes. 

The story now gets off into a whole new realm of bizarre:   Oram is now claiming there were briefing notes but that they weren’t prepared or him. 

And in Oram’s whack-o world, he has time to read through two feet of material prepared “for someone else” but if he had briefing notes with his name on him, he’d never have time to do anything but read briefing notes.

Huh?

Exactly the reaction one would expect for such an obvious bullshit claim:

There are a bunch of files, and there are a bunch of different issues that sit on my desk every single day. They may not be in the form of a briefing note, but everything is filed and documented - there' a paper trail for everything."

Briefing notes are sent through his department on a constant basis, but Minister Oram said they are not prepared for him.

"I didn't ask for somebody to give me a load of briefing notes so I would start going through them," he said. "If I had to do that, that's all I'd do - read. I just don't have the time to go read every single formal briefing note that there is. But I do have the time to sit and have someone explain to me what we have on right now, and then I go through the files we have there."

All of this is in aid of defending efforts by the Oral Majority – i.e. the cabinet – that appear to be designed to circumvent laws in the province aimed at making government information available to the public.  Oram’s been at this a while:  recall that he earlier denied that not putting things in writing was not a way of not putting things in writing.

And again, your heads are clearly twisting trying to make sense of the ministerial confusion over such a simple thing as whether or not there are briefing notes Oram is reading in order to get up to speed on his new responsibilities.

It’s not like we asked him to recount recent history or anything.

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Carry over

One of the great budgetary practices of the current administration is something called carry over.

Projects are budgeted and announced in one year and then they don’t get started, let alone finished.

Government gets multiple good news hits out the practice. 

First, they get the warm fuzzy media coverage from announcing the spending in the first place.  Sometimes they keep announcing the spending even though it hasn’t happened.  Second, if by some chance work does start, they can announce that and keep it up until the thing is finished.  it’s not unusual to see things started four years continue to appear  in releases as if it was part of current spending.

Like say a hospital in Corner Brook that was tossed into the “stimulus” counter-measure even though it was begun and should have been finished long before anyone even thought of a recession.

Now when the project doesn’t happen, there is never an announcement of the bad news.  Not likely.  The money budgeted but not spent becomes “surplus” and is part of the announcement of the record “surplus” in the spring.

Then the project is carried over into the new budget and re-announced.

If the delay has caused increased costs, this is not something to be chagrined about.  Not on your life.  Any politician worth his or her salt will trumpet the fact the same project will now cost even more because of the delay.  If any one of us mere mortals missed the chance for a good deal and had to pay 30% more for the same thing, we’d be kicking ourselves for being so stunned.  When politicians drop the ball; and it costs you 30% more for the same thing, that is a great investment in the local community.

And if it jumps 71%, as in the St. Alban’s aquaculture centre?  Well, that is just “stimulus”.

Carry over is very big in the current provincial government administration.  They carry over lots of things. 

Like in Labrador West, where a new hospital was promised just in time for a by-election in late 2006/early 2007 and the thing is still in the planning stages the better part of three years later.

Or a new campus for the College of the North Atlantic.  Tender went out on May 4 with a closing date of June 17.  (Well, the initial news release in early May said the thing was going to tender.  A “stimulus” announcement in June said the thing would be tendered in June.)

The tender was awarded three weeks ago – i.e. about a month or more after the tender closed – and as we slide easily into Labour Day, Jim Baker, the local MHA has no idea when the thing will get started. But Baker can assure residents of the area that the project costs have climbed from $18 million to $22 million and that no steel framework will be done this year.

None.

But they might get the site prepared and concrete poured.

Maybe.

So the campus project will be carried over until next year.

Just like the hospital.

or the aquaculture centre.

When was they supposed to be finished again?

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Unaccelerated

Remember that news release claiming that work on the Trans-Labrador Highway was being “accelerated” when it actually wasn’t.

Well, it wasn’t and now there is the excuse to go with it, courtesy of Jim Baker the Tory MHA for Labrador West:

"Given the time it got started, the preparation work that needed to be done and the time it took to get mobilized, I'm pleasantly surprised by how much has been done," he stated. "Next year obviously, when they get started, everything will be ready to move. All the crushing will be done, so all they'll have to do is lay out the blacktop."

And that blacktop will be laid next year as originally planned back in June when they let the first tender go.  Had they waited on the second tender until next year, the work would have been done…

wait for it…

next year.

As planned.

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All things to all people, NDP version

You gotta love the New Democrats. 

They want to get elected soooo badly that they are willing to saying anything to anyone if it means a chance of a vote.

The Sternest Daughter of the Voice of God, the quintessentially Canadian pile of self-righteousness is now the Whore of the North.

And right there at the top of a panel on a little brochure in your mailbox is the Dipper’s slogan for all this: 

New Democrats: Your only partner in Ottawa

Only partner, that is, unless you happen to be an Anglophone in Quebec or a Francophone anywhere else in Canada.

Then, you are on your own.

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Freedom from information: Talk about low-balling

Oil production in the first four months of fiscal 2009 is down about 23.5%  - on average - compared to the same period in 2008.

But Hibernia payout and current oil prices mean that the offshore oil patch is on track to deliver about the same revenue to the provincial coffers in 2009 as it did last year.

That’s $2.5 billion for those who are keeping score.

Compare that to the $1.2 billion in oil revenues forecast in Budget 2009.

That also means the provincial budget will be on balance overall.

Of course,  that also means the provincial government still has a couple of billion sitting in the bank doing nothing but collecting modest interest.

So why exactly is the provincial government still opposed to a setting up a sovereign wealth fund  - like Norway or Alberta - to ensure the people of the province get the maximum benefit from their resources?

When you think about it, that makes it hysterically funny  to see the federal Dippers trying to buy votes in the province by talking about “fairer” Equalization.  Are they promising Alberta Equalization hand-outs too?

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Must be in the water or something

Not one, but two messages from different people suggesting your humble e-scribbler become Facebook fans of candidates in the next federal election.

One was the incumbent. 

Another the challenger.

Must be an election coming or something.

Like all those Dipper free mailers that show up every week.  The last one promised Newfoundland and Labrador something called “fairer” Equalization along with a raft of other things.

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It’s not just a tall tale

The Great Sheaves Cove Chainsaw Massacre is all too real.

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Jabberwocky

Get a load of this little bit of ministerial bafflegab. It’s Ross Wiseman, lately the business minister talking about the issue of air service to the southeast coast of Labrador:

We were working on this overall strategy piece. Work has been pretty well advanced. What we do in Labrador is a response to the unique circumstance in Labrador, yes, but at the same time we do it in the context of a provincial strategy. It’s difficult sometimes to go into one region of our province and develop a policy framework, or develop a strategy, or provide a response, without giving some consideration to what impact that might have on an entire province, and how that might fit into a broader strategy, so we’re cognizant of what we’re trying to do in the bigger piece.

There’s something even stranger about this.

Wiseman is not the minister responsible for transportation, in whose lap this issue falls.

That would be Trevor Taylor.

Nor is he the minister of Labrador affairs.

That would be John “The Shoveller” Hickey.

Nor is Wiseman likely the alternative minister for any of those portfolios. Not only has Ross had no experience with them, there is no connection - logical or otherwise – among them.

Wiseman used to be the health minister. Now he is the minister responsible for figuring out how much money he should take from the most indebted taxpayers in Canada in order to give it to give some rich foreigner in order to get them to come here and make work.

So on the whole, Wiseman’s face on this story of a domestic company – Air Labrador – is peculiar.

It’s not even odd that the airline in question has let slip this little story long before they actually intend to cut the service.

And it’s not the least bit peculiar that the local member of the provincial legislature - Liberal leader Yvonne Jones - wants government to think about funnelling cash into this local private sector company. That’s what local MHAs do in Newfoundland and Labrador, regardless of any political affiliations involved.

Nor is it odd that Jones has no problem with pouring public cash into a local airline but doesn’t like pouring public cash into the oil and gas exploration business.

And it’s not odd that Jones wants to make sure there is good air medical service in the large Labrador, one of the services the airline provides. In fact, Air Labrador made $3.4 million in 2007-2008 flying medical patients around the nearby health region along the north shore of the St. Lawrence.

That would be the health region in Quebec, for those whose Labrador geography is a bit dodgy.

But that cash came for providing an essential service, not just for having planes flying into and out of a community carrying passengers or – as the company decision suggests not carrying passengers - just for the sake of saying there is a plane coming into the local airport.

That idea is as wacky as the utterings by the jabberwock about the whole issue in the first place.

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