Tom Hedderson, Time Lord

Ever the eagle eye, labradore has noted that Tom Hedderson is the latest provincial cabinet minister to have problems with time.

Tom Rideout thought tomorrow was a day months in the future.

Tom Marshall thinks that half a day of cursory mentions of a bill in the legislature in 2007  is widely debating something.

Now Tom Hedderson’s make-work project for fishermen announced just within the past few days has an application deadline last July:

  

And Tom issued a news release just yesterday claiming this was the best make work project in the province’s history.

Sure.

It could be.

If people can travel backwards in time to get the application in.

You just cannot make this stuff up.

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The Deader Sea Scrolls

A mere six years ago this month, the Provincial Conservatives were on the campaign trail promising to bring a new approach to the province’s affairs.

In light of recent events, it’s useful to recall what they promised way back then if only to see just exactly how much they haven’t accomplished. For the record, here are the Tory fishery commitments, found stuffed in a bunch of old Kraft Cheez-Whiz jars in a cave somewhere along the coast. Contrary to rumour it wasn’t in Tors Cove.

This is the batch of Tory promises on the fishery from 2003, word for word as they appeared in the Blue Book.  The notes in Italics are comments by your humble e-scribbler.  In some cases, it’s pretty clear what happened but in others there may well be things that slipped by unnoticed.

If someone can update or correct the information, by all means do so.  Credit should go where it is due, if it is due.

FISHERIES

A healthy fishing industry must play a leading role in Newfoundland and Labrador's long-term economic well-being. It is the Province's largest private-sector employer. Entire regional economies are based on the sustainable harvesting and processing of fisheries resources, and transportation, fuel, technology and service industries rely on the business the fishing industry generates.

Sound and Scientific Fisheries Management

The industry must be restructured and managed to avoid the disasters of the past and adapt to the opportunities of the future. In particular, a shared fisheries management structure should be developed that will merge federal-provincial policy and management responsibilities into a complementary process for better conservation and management of the resource. It also requires fisheries policies based on the best available scientific evidence, enforcement of Canadian conservation measures, and monitoring by Canada of all fishing activity on the continental shelf.

A Progressive Conservative government will pursue a Canada - Newfoundland and Labrador Fisheries Agreement for a decision-making process in which the federal and provincial governments work in partnership for the sustainable management of the fisheries.

[BP Note:  Did they even try for that one?  Bitching doesn’t count since they also promised a better relationship with the feds based on rationality not  and name-calling.]

Research and Development

The fishery is undergoing dramatic changes. Cod and other ground fish have collapsed. Stocks of snow crab and shrimp have expanded dramatically. Changes of such magnitude require precise, up-to-date scientific information on the marine ecosystem, the sustainable harvesting of fish stocks, and efforts to restore naturally reproducing populations.

Scientists and economists also play a leading role in establishing new directions for fisheries management through research into underutilized species and new value-added marine products, innovative harvesting and processing technology, successful marketing strategies, aquaculture, and the use of marine genetic resources for pharmaceutical and commercial applications.

A Progressive Conservative government will establish a Fisheries Science and Management Research Institute at Memorial University that will provide scientific, technical, and economic support for the sustainable development of Newfoundland and Labrador marine fisheries and aquaculture. The multi-disciplinary Institute will:

• Undertake research and establish links with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, other federal and provincial agencies, fish harvesters, and experts around the world to provide decision-makers with the research-based information they need to develop sound fishery management policy.
• Supply the industry with product, technology, market and economic research and information needed to diversify and improve value-added production.
• Find out how resource management decisions affect people and communities.

[BP Note:  This was such a great idea they made essentially the same commitment again in 2007, albeit in a much more modest form:

• provide $6 million for fishing industry research and developmental work over the next three years, which will include work associated with the development of new species, new products, new markets and new techniques to harvest, handle, process and market our marine fish resources. [Emphasis in the original]

Foreign Fishing on the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks

For the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, the fish stocks on our continental shelf could be fished indefinitely with proper management, while foreigners see them as stocks to be harvested intensively until they are no longer economically profitable, or are fished to extinction. These conflicting values underscore the need for Canada to extend its management over the entire continental shelf and to regulate both the domestic and international fishery for sustainable development.

• A Progressive Conservative government will carry out nation-wide public information campaigns aimed at persuading Ottawa to take custodial management over the Nose and Tail of the Grand Banks, and to undertake whatever regulatory and enforcement activities are necessary to manage sustainable fisheries on the entire continental shelf.

[BP Note:  nation-wide information campaigns?  Anyone recall seeing anything that looked like that?]

A Sustainable Seafood Processing Sector

Seafood processors have to deal with resource scarcity, different species, and markets that are more oriented to value-added products than ever before. Consumers clearly prefer a variety of products that require a minimum of time and effort to prepare and retain as much of their original appearance and taste as possible.

For today's consumers, value-added not only means further processing of raw materials but also consistent quality standards in handling, packing and transporting seafood products. Added to these trends are new applications for marine products in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, and many other new and useful biochemical commodities.

Workers in our processing plants are plagued with low incomes and inconsistent employment. Part of the solution to this chronic problem is in doing more with what we have and finding new uses for that which we have not utilized in the past. A Progressive Conservative government will implement a comprehensive strategy to improve the viability of our industry and increase employment levels in the Province by:

• Requiring value-added processing where it is economically feasible and putting greater emphasis on retail packs where possible. [BP Note:  This look familiar to anyone?]
• Promoting utilization of a variety of marine species in food processing, as well as new industrial uses of marine products in pharmaceuticals, biomedicines, and other chemical products.
• Forming partnerships with industry to implement an international procurement program to secure primary seafood products for local seafood processing plants. [BP Note: How about this one? Finding raw materials overseas to push through local plants.  Did they even try that?]
• Encouraging local investment in fishing enterprises and related industries, and requiring fishing enterprises to register and maintain their head offices in the Province.  [BP Note:  Does breaking up FPI count as the complete opposite of this?]
• Restructuring the harvesting and processing sectors of the industry around the principles of resources sustainability, adjacency, quality assurance and economic viability. [BP Note:  Just going out on a limb that this never got out the door.]

Quality Assurance and Marketing

Quality control is important for the fish processing industry, which is heavily export-oriented. Maintaining high standards of food quality and food safety is necessary to retaining access to international markets, and adds millions of dollars to the value of our annual seafood production.

A Progressive Conservative government will upgrade the Quality Assurance Program to include a mandatory quality control system for handling fish and seafood products intended for export that meets the highest international standards for food quality and safety.

As international markets become increasingly competitive, we must ensure that Newfoundland and Labrador seafood is at the forefront of the global marketplace.

A Progressive Conservative government will work with industry to develop and implement a comprehensive, long-term marketing strategy aimed at promoting the Province's seafood industry with a goal of increasing sales in world markets. Promoting the quality of our seafood product is key to successful marketing, and must play a pivotal role in the strategic plan. The strategy would also include the following:

• Providing processors with the marketing expertise required to successfully promote and market products.
• Developing effective techniques for promoting the quality of seafood products in national and international markets through trade missions, product promotions and trade shows.
• Facilitating the sharing of ideas and experiences in the interest of enhancing the marketing of Newfoundland and Labrador seafood products. [BP Note: Again, just thinking here that the destruction of FPI and the sale of the marketing arm to a Nova Scotia company, along with all the well-established and recognised international brands would be pretty much the opposite of this policy plank.]

The Province will also acquire the necessary expertise to participate in Canadian trade negotiations through NAFTA, the European Common Market, and Asian countries to ensure that Newfoundland and Labrador seafood products have fair access to markets in the United States, Europe and Asia.  [BP Note:  Seeing this commitment in 2003 just makes the whole thing about European trade all the more whack-o.]

Aquaculture

Many of the Province's wild fisheries are either fully- or over-exploited, and those remaining have to be harvested on an ecologically sustainable basis, which means the volume of wild fish landed around the world will be well below the market demand for seafood products.

Aquaculture offers the main prospect of filling this gap, and will be a significant contributor to the economy of coastal regions in the future. Farmed products are rapidly replacing declining wild species on the international seafood market. Since 1990, values have doubled to over $75 billion.

Although this Province is an important player in the wild fisheries, it accounts for only a tiny fraction of world aquaculture production. Considerable development will be required over the coming years to establish Newfoundland and Labrador farmed fish and shellfish as a viable addition to wild fishery supplies in domestic and international markets.

Aquaculture can be a financially viable industry in this Province and operate within environmentally sound parameters. We have the site capacity to become the largest producer of aquaculture products in Canada, which would bring related economic activity and thousands of jobs to dozens of communities along our coasts.

A Progressive Conservative government will facilitate the expansion of profitable and sustainable aquaculture enterprises in the Province through:

• Support for scientific research to identify potential new locations, develop technologies, investigate potential environmental problems, and cultivate robust stocks of existing and new species, so that the industry can produce better quality products and receive better prices.
• Incentives to promote long-term venture capital investments in aquaculture enterprises.
• Development of high levels of skill and knowledge in the technical, business and marketing aspects of the industry.
• Working with the industry to raise standards and improve efficiency so as to secure a profitable and sustainable future for aquaculture enterprises.

[BP Note: Here’s the one place where the current administration has done fairly well.  They’ve dropped large chunks of cash into aquaculture and managed to lure a major player into the local scene.  Then again, this was the easiest thing to accomplish.  It only required throwing money into it and that’s pretty much the one thing they had plenty of.

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Vacuous, 2009 edition

Political media commentary in Canada is usually funny.

Lately, commentary on federal politics is even funnier.

Example The First:   Winston Smith makes several cogent observations which should  - among other things - put to death that always laughable Connie excuse that the news media are biased in favour of the Liberals.  Read Winston.  He’s always sharp as a tack. he’s not the funny stuff;  the people he’s writing about are funny, albeit not meaning to be laughable.

Example The Second:  the bevy of comment in many quarters prompted by the Prime Minister’s recent tickling of the ivories at the National Arts Centre.  Again, unintentionally risible.

You got your American bloggers of the conservative variety.

You got your locals of the something variety, including the line “I am growing more and more impressed with Stephen Harper.”   Now just note that for what it’s worth.  If that comment is coming from that source, be sure that there will be no ABC campaign in the next federal election.

But anyway…

There are news stories and columns all over the place.

Only one journalist so far has nailed the point about the whole NAC thing and she did so this morning with a pithy line to the effect that the piano is the latest version of the sweater vest.

In other words, it’s a contrivance.  Sure the guy plays the piano but the entire episode was designed to create exactly the commentary it is generating.

As great as that is, it is a sure sign of just how vacuous is the political landscape that the biggest national story is that the PM can bash out a Beatles tune on the nearest Yamaha.

It’s as irrelevant to the universe as the claim the Liberals are on a campaign to bring the government down or any protest that Jack Layton and his Dippers propped up Stephen Harper just recently because they could score some dough for their peeps.

All three federal political parties are suffering from a gross leadership problem the proof of which is the fact that the big news out of Ottawa is about Denis Coderre, a non-election scare and a guy who took music lessons.

In the meantime, just think about the stuff that none of them are actually talking about.

Anyone been following economic news lately, for example?

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Oh, how far the mighty have fallen

In 2003:  a bevy of promises designed to restructure and rebuild the fishing industry.  Heady days were those:  “The industry must be restructured and managed to avoid the disasters of the past and adapt to the opportunities of the future.”

In 2009, the provincial fisheries minister can only defend his government’s policy by saying they have come up with the best make-work scheme ever:

This is the first time that the province has provided a CEEP program for harvesters and it is the best program the province has ever provided for plant workers. [Emphasis added]

Could there be any more astonishing an admission of the abject failure of the provincial government to deal with the fishery?

Well, that would be the laundry list of subsidies, money and other spending on the fishery in lieu of that restructuring and management promised in 2003.

Hand-outs are – by their nature – evidence of a government that has run out of ideas and/or political ability.

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R’uh R’oh, the people version

it took a bit but labradore has laid waste to the latest bit of silliness coming from some quarters about the Glorious Growth of In-Migration.

There’s even a nice little graph that shows that since 1961 upticks in in-migration coincide with recessions.  Not surprisingly, the most recent uptick is the biggest and coincides with what the late lamented Tory Trevor Taylor described as the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

The diaspora returneth not to the homeland after all, it seems.

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An admission of abject failure

A quarter of a century ago, Doug House and the Royal Commission on Employment and Unemployment heard time and again of the the need to get rid of make-work programs. 

Qualifying people for federal employment insurance benefits promoted a culture of dependence and destroyed innovation and self-reliance.

Some 17 years ago, the province’s Strategic Economic Plan introduced a bold, new approach in order to bring about fundamental changes within Newfoundland and Labrador.  There’d be no more make work and government free gifts to businesses.  Neither one worked to produce sustainable jobs.

Less than a decade after the Royal Commission – with the change of administration in 1996, in fact -  things were heading back to the old ways of megaprojects and make-work schemes.

In 2003, there was a new crowd, who supposedly had a plan called the New Approach.  Some of it seemed familiar.  Doug House came back and then left again.

Nothing changed.

It’s still megaprojects,  make-work and more make-work and handouts to business, hand-outs to business, hand-outs to business, hand-outs to business and hand-outs to business.

Oh, and let’s not forget hand-outs to business.

And hand-outs to business.

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The race is on in the Straits

We can all know for sure because not only did the leader of the provincial Tory party announce it, the former president of the party “confirmed” it.

Did Paul Reynolds think we didn't trust Danny or something?

This should be an interesting race.

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Innovation?

A 10 minute video from the provincial government’s energy monopoly corporation is titled “Innovation in Renewable Energy”.

So what’s so innovative about damming off a river to generate electricity and running transmission lines to market?

Why nothing at all, of course, and in the case of the Lower Churchill project, the ideas from transmission line running around Quebec to the entire project itself have all been around for about 45 years.

There’s even the highly unimaginative and incorrect claim that running a power line down to Soldier’s Pond will “displace” the diesel generators at Holyrood.

And the project is a heckuva long way from starting if the current trends continue.

The only real innovation mentioned is in the discussion of the Ramea wind-hydrogen-diesel test project. 

But that’s one project, it’s a small project and it’s more than five years away from anything significant.  Meanwhile, the rest of the world is much farther along in developing alternative energy technologies.

Maybe what the provincial government should be doing is figuring out a way to turn bullshit into energy.  If that was the case, videos like this show they’ve already got a powerhouse that could displace the entire global output of greenhouse gases until the end of time.

At least when it comes to the Lower Churchill, the current administration has shown it is highly adept at recycling  even if it’s complete lack of planning beyond what was done 20 years ago is painfully obvious.

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When all they can offer is an E.A.…

There’s something about the life of provincial political parties that gets to be a bit predictable.

Like you can tell how healthy the party in government is by how successfully it attracts high quality, high profile candidates into its ranks after the first general election when it takes power.

You see one of the jobs the leader of a party gets to do is find candidates.  They get to pick the people or approve of the people who run for the party.  Leaders of parties in power usually have an easier time, but the leader still has some work to do in spotting talent and bringing it forward. 

Now some people like to think otherwise.

You’ll see comments in the local media lately that Hisself would not work with some of the current governing crop if this were his own private business.  But the thing is that Hisself actually did pick ‘em all.  And even if there were a couple he didn’t recruit to run or approve to run and work to get elected, he certainly picks the people who serve in his cabinet.

And it’s not just the health of parties in power that shows up in candidate selection.  Take a party like the provincial New Democrats during the leadership of the fellow now in Ottawa helping  Jack Layton keep Harper and the Connies in power.  Every by-election and general election seemed to come like a total surprise to them. The party never seemed to grow and never seemed able to capitalise on a couple of noteworthy successes in the 1980s.

Ditto the Liberals in the aftermath of 2003 or for that matter in Trinity North before the fellow changed teams.

Take a look at the pending by-election in the Straits and White Bay North. Just ignore the fact that the seat is vacated with unseemly haste by a fellow Danny Williams has come to rely on as a bit of an attack crackie alongside John Hickey.

Just notice that even though the seat used to be held by a Tory big-wing and even though said big-wig was looking to bail about six months ago and even though he made a firm decision a month ago, the best the Tories could come up with to replace Trevor was the guy who was Trevor’s constituency assistant.

You won’t see much mention of that in media stories on Rick Pelley but that’s who he was until today.

Now some executive assistants can wind up being superlative politicians in their own right.  But there’s something about a guy bailing out and his EA being the  one to get the nomination that makes you scratch your head.  Maybe what’s really so noticeable here is that Pelley is running a mere six years after these guys got to power.

Maybe it’s because the first Tory EA to run and get elected was in 2007, a mere four years after the party took power.  back in the 1990s, the Liberals got through two terms before the first executive assistants started turning up as candidates.  Before that there were fresh faces.

Now maybe there’s nothing to this at all beyond the original questions raised by the way Golden Boy Trevor Taylor bailed in the first place.

But still, maybe you only have to look at the stark contrast between what Taylor said back in 2001 and how things turned out to find out why the Tories got the candidate they got in this case:

I want to ensure The Straits & White Bay North is poised to ride the wave that's about to wash over this province. This is no time for backroom silence and backbencher obedience. Now is the time for the district to take a bold step in a new direction. It's a time for someone who will speak up loudly and effectively for this district, and people know that's exactly what they'll get in electing me.

Electing Trevor’s EA hardly would seem like a bold step in a new direction.

And as for that bit about backbencher obedience, well, these days everyone pretty well knows how much of a joke Trevor’s words turned out be.

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And you think Hisself has it bad

As much as some people like to moan about The Racket, there were a couple of things this past week to show that that self-serving load-of-crap bit of whinging for what it is.

First, Arnold told an audience at the Governors’ climate conference in California that it was worth putting up with all the shit he takes as governor because he wants to give something back to the state that has given him everything. 

Yes, there are people looking for more government money and people complaining about him and people poking into his life, but darn it, everything he has – from his success as an actor to his family – are attributable to California.

Yes people, real leaders don’t bitch about a job they volunteered for six years ago.

Second, not a single person during the entire period since 2001 has dared ask Hisself a question even vaguely as outrageous as the one faced by Gordo Brown earlier the week:

Heck they have a hard time putting a real question to Ole Twitchy sometimes let alone getting an answer.

Even people asking simple stuff like how many people went with him on the swan to California and how much it cost taxpayers get told to file an Access to Information request.

At least the crowd that surround Hisself have a sense of humour.

And trucks keep on rolling

Fire truck month is turning into a regular occurrence.

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A modern method of deciding

For all those people who find it a little silly to be picking a winner out of a hat, labradore notes that the current municipal elections law passed the House of Assembly at high speed in May 2001.

As to the charge of antiquity... the Act was shepherded through the Bow-Wow Parliament as Bill 7 in 2001. It received First, Second, and Third Reading, Committee Stage, and Royal Assent, in the present, 21st, century.
So, what did the Members have to say about the tie provisions when it came before them for their measured and serious examination?

Hansard records the eloquent and passionate debate for posterity; reproduced here in its entirety:

“On motion, clauses 55 through 96 carried.”

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Of course he’s unbiased and non-partisan

From the 2003 Progressive Conservative Party news release launching their blueprint campaign platform:

The plan has also been vigorously studied by Wade Locke, an independent economist and Memorial University professor, who endorses the plan as a positive step for the province.

In a letter to Williams, Mr. Locke stated, "I find the ideas contained in the Blue Book 2003 to be progressive and encompass a vision that holds great promise for the economic future of Newfoundland and Labrador. I find the balance between the business/economic initiatives and the social/cultural approaches to be encouraging.... Should you be successful in implementing your vision, current and future Newfoundlanders and Labradorians stand to gain significantly."

Musta been a smelter in there or a can opener?

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Americans look to home-grown hydro

The United States can generate an additional 70,000 megawatts of electricity by upgrading existing hydro facilities according to U.S. energy secretary Steven Chu.

The juice would come from newer, more efficient turbines and other technologies that would goose more energy without having to undertake megaprojects and risk additional environmental damage.

This further dims the prospects for the Lower Churchill as the Americans are looking at a wide range of ways to meet future energy needs. 

It also reinforces the idea that megaprojects like the Lower Churchill just aren’t considered to be green anymore.

The Americans are developing real energy plans.  That is they are developing ways of meeting their energy needs in environmentally friendly ways and by encouraging ingenuity. 

By contrast what is called an energy plan locally is nothing more than justifying a bunch of decisions already made to produce a megaproject called the Lower Churchill and create ways of stymieing any development that isn’t controlled by a large, ponderous government monopoly.

h/t RenewNewEngland.

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Dear Ralph: resign

Ralph Wiseman was screwed either way.

On election night, the veteran politician lost his seat as mayor of Paradise to a 19 year old up-start.  he lost by a mere three votes.

So Ralph asked for a recount.

If the recount affirmed his loss, he was out of a job.

If the recount put him on top, then Ralph could only stay in office dogged by the knowledge he had pissed off enough of his residents that they would rather see a kid run the place before him.

He’d be the lamest of lame ducks for four years.

But now Ralph Wiseman has found a way to screw himself in a whole new and even more politically painful way.

After today’s recount, Wiseman and challenger Kurtis Coombs were tied.

So someone drew a name - no shit; that’s what they did  - and Wiseman is back.

Holy Dead Duck, Wise-man.

Ralph is foolish to be grinning and claiming he won fair and square.

Maybe he did, but there’s no mistaking the fact that right now Wiseman does not have the comfortable support of a majority of the people of  the town called Paradise. His election lacks legitimacy.

Wiseman got the job because someone pulled his name out of a hat.  What’s next, election at the local amusement arcade?  Break the balloon with this blunt dart and you could win a cheap stuffed toy or be mayor of the fastest growing town in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The only thing for Wiseman to do if he wants to govern is  resign.  Resign and cause a by-election to take place for the mayor’s seat.  Call it a run off.  Maybe someone else will come forward.  Maybe no one will.

But at least at the end of the contest Wiseman can say the choice was unmistakeable and democratic.  In a healthy  democracy, only the voters get to make the choice. 

As it stands right now, Wiseman stands to have nothing but political trouble for the next four years.  At the very least he’ll be a laughing stock across town and across the province.

And frankly, having  accepted this ridiculous way of settling the tie, Wiseman deserves every ounce of grief, every snicker he gets.

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Lahey on the lam

A Roman Catholic bishop accused of possessing and importing child pornography is still at large.

Raymond Lahey resigned abruptly last week as the bishop of Antigonish. Turns out child porn had turned up on his laptop when it was examined by border services agents when Lahey returned to Canada via Ottawa.

There’s a Canada-wide warrant for Lahey.

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Anderson cops to 90K; Walsh files for bankruptcy

Another spending scandal player has copped a plea.

Wally Anderson, the former Liberal member for Torngat Mountains admitted to fraudulently receiving about $90,000.  That’s a fraction of the total he was accused of obtaining and there is no admission he engaged in bribery like former Tory cabinet minister Ed Byrne.

There’s another difference.  Anderson claims he never pocketed any of the cash himself.  Byrne funded his party with the illegal gains in addition to funnelling the money to his own benefit.

Anderson will be sentenced on Friday.  The Crown is seeking up to two years less a day, a sentence on par with the Byrne plea agreement.  The Crown’s rationale for sentencing is interesting:

"Mr. Andersen is clearly a respected individual in the area he represented," said lawyer Frances Knickle. "But that's what makes this so troubling. We are not talking about a crime of impulse but something that was done deliberately over many years."

That’s interesting because in Byrne’s case, he was the leader of the party and leader of the opposition at the time of the crimes. Some of his activity involved illegally funded his party, and the scope of Byrne’s illegal activity isn’t known.  How much money was directed to his party simply hasn’t been revealed and may never be known.

Meanwhile, former Liberal cabinet minister Jim Walsh  - another one of the spending  scandal accused - has filed for bankruptcy in an Alberta court.  Walsh apparently now resides in Alberta.  Bankruptcy would frustrate efforts to recover any of the money in the event Walsh is found guilty.

During his trial, Walsh has acknowledged receiving thousands more than permitted by his allowance limits but is claiming he isn’t responsible.

His trial continues in November.

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You know them as sooks, Ma’am.

In Corner Brook, they are apparently called penders, after the big sooky former mayor of the great city of the west.

Rather than be gracious in defeat, Charles Pender decided to moan and whine a bit:

“It wasn’t a one-on-one campaign,” Pender said. “I had other forces I had to deal with ... Mr. Greeley had a definite strategy with the support of Gerry Byrne’s campaign team, which is a formidable opponent, and Eddie Joyce bringing people to the polls all day in Curling.”

Pender must get the sooks from some of the company he’s been keeping since 2001.

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Population and the economy

labradore may do more of his own with this, but in the meantime, it’s useful to steal his observations on the most recent quarterly population statistics.

He left them at Townie Bastard’s corner. Some people, including local media, took the wrong perspective which is not surprising since the StatsCan release wasn’t very clear on what’s been happening in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Anyway, here’s Wally’s take on things. Bear in mind he accurately predicted a recession in 2008 by noting the sudden change in in-migration and hence in population that took place in mid-2007:

The population bump from in-migration happens during every recession.

Out-migration hasn't really slowed down. Actually, it hasn't slowed down at all. International migration is stable at best; the last two quarters have been slightly worse for international immigration than the same time last year.
And the imbalance of deaths over births is trending in death's favour. This was the third consecutive quarter of natural population decline (more deaths than births). Six of the last seven, and eight of the past eleven quarters have seen negative natural population change. One more quarter, and there'll have been a full year of it - the first time for any province, I believe.

The only thing that's causing population growth is net in-migration, largely driven by people moving in from Alberta and Ontario.

Two guesses as to what's driving that. First doesn't count.

Now anyone who looks at the release and stopped for a second might have noticed that the increase was only about one quarter of one percent. And if that person had clicked back to the release before, he or she might have noticed the previous quarter where population declined in Newfoundland and Labrador.

But those wider points – about persistent out-migration and the deaths/births ratio – require a level of analysis that reporters just don’t have time to do.

Sadly for the reporting world, that’s where the real story sits.

You can find it over at labradore.

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Predictable Update: You won't find the real story in a provincial government news release, as Jerome!'s effort Wednesday morning confirms.

Micromanaging health care = vague direction and uncertain authority

Back then, the Tories wanted to get out of the business of deciding how and where health care was delivered.  They wanted to get the department out of operational decisions.

From Our blueprint for Newfoundland and Labrador (2003):

Effectively Managing Health Care Services

The Department of Health and Community Services spends too much time micro-managing the health system, and too little time articulating policy. As a result, health care suffers from vague direction and uncertain authority, and managers continue to apply patchwork solutions to a system that is becoming more unmanageable every day.

In 2009, the cabinet decides what communities will have laboratory and x-ray service and the minister responsible tries to claim that the health regions made the choices when – quite obviously – they didn’t.

Odd that the people who had the right answer, consistently pick the wrong answer.

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