That’s one way to stop the bleeding

The House of Assembly pay and compensation commission got its report in on time and out the door very quickly. 

While few people noticed it and normally few people even get it outside of a being defeated in an election, the commission recommended changes to the notion of severance for elected member of the legislature. There’s a whole section on it, in fact, beginning on page 26.

But that  recommendation  and the whole section is odd given that the commission admits right up in the front that:

Public submissions on MHA severance pay, as with pensions, were few. Those who did comment on MHA severance pay felt that it should be one week for each year of service instead of the current one month, to make it more in line with other severance payment provisions in the province.

How few?

Well one, to be exact. (page 27)

An energy warehouse

How can it be that Prince Edward Island is getting 15% of its energy needs met by wind power but all Newfoundland and Labrador has are two small projects pumping 27 megawatts each and a“demonstration project” at Ramea?

And that’s it!

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Privatizing Hydro

1.  A link to a speech on the proposal to turn Newfoundland and Labrador into a private sector energy corporation.  Note the list of specific goals established by cabinet.  Note that cabinet could use those goals to measure any proposal against but – more to the point – note that every Newfoundlanders and Labradorians could use the same list to measure the proposal. 

Now let me compare that to my energy mega-corporation checklist from 2005.

or was it 2007?

Ummm.

Errr.

Just a sec. 

Must be here somewhere.

Anyway, while the hunt continues…

2.  Try this link from last February to a proposal to privatize Hydro-Quebec.  Talk about inefficient!  But even that inefficiency is nothing compared to the mess known as NB Power.

Meanwhile, wait for any of the hysterical anti-sale opponents to give even the vaguest clue as to how NB residents could get lower power rates and pay down the NB Power debt without getting rid of the debt pig company as a Crown corporation?

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Scoping out the wind energy deficit

The current issue of The Scope includes a front page feature on wind energy in the province or – to put it more accurately - the lack of any serious development of wind energy.

Maybe one of the answers is that everyone talks about an island when in fact there is a huge landmass on the mainland potion of the province that is ripe for wind energy development.  Heck it’s even got a connection so people can ship the power to where it is needed on the eastern part of the continent.

There’s just one obstacle.

Care to guess what it is?

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NB Power Collection

Following are links to some stories on the memorandum of understanding to sell  of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec:

1.  There’s strong positive reaction side Quebec to news of the MOU.  La Presse Canadienne from metromontreal.

2.  A 30% drop in electricity rates could save the Edmundston pulp and paper mill.   Bet people in Corner Brook would be looking hard at that right now if they were in the same spot, not to mention what would have happened in Stephenville or Grand falls-Windsor under the same circumstances.

3.  NB Premier Shawn Graham accuses NB Opposition leader …err…Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams of misleading the people of New Brunswick.  From the Gleaner.

4.  A long term rate cap is needed in New Brunswick, according to some analysts.  Considering the province has the highest residential electricity rates in Canada that would seem to be a good point. maybe opponents of the deal – including the gigantic facebook site  - could explain how to keep NB Power and lower public debt and reduce rates simultaneously.

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Whine, moan, bitch and complain

Danny Williams muses on his political past and future in the weekend Telegram. All of it is very much old hat for the locals after six years, but the mainlanders might find it revealing, especially those who are looking for some perspective on NB Power. 

The constant negativity the Premier displays really starts to get wearisome after a while.

Relentless negativity.  There’s hardly anything positive to the guy. And then he accuses others of always harping on the bad stuff.

It’s all vintage Danny:  things were so much better (for him, of course) when he was in the private sector and didn’t have to be accountable to anyone.  If only things could be like that now, with no criticism or complaints from anyone, all following dutifully behind  - unquestioningly - and jumping at his every bleat. 

He doesn’t even seem to take heart that he still has the Fan Klub, as the comments section to the story shows.  Some are so smitten with the aging leader that it seems only a matter of time before they start holding conventions, like Elvis groupies.  There they’ll be, some with their hair in Mullet Danny and others in the Silver Fox Danny of later years, either version – of course - perfectly parted down the middle.

Either version always tanned, as if fresh from yet another vacation.  Of all Canadian premiers, only Richard Hatfield spent more time out of the province he ran during the course of a year than Danny.

Perhaps they’ll hold shoulder twitching contests and if he should deign to make an appearance perhaps the Fan Klubbers will be like Ontario and fall on their knees, on a go forward basis.  Can’t you just see it?  There he is in the director’s chair, a lone spotlight glinting off his cufflinks as he takes questions from the audience about his career as a politician who loathes being a politician.  What was it like in episode one, when you did battle with the evil emperor of Canada that first time? they will ask.

Then they will mouth the lines they have memorized from countless viewings of his previous scrums as he repeats his answer, complete with the quite-franklys at just the right spot.  All designed, it seems,  to send their Fan Klubber hearts a-twitter. 

Sometimes all you can do is chuckle at it all.

Some of his fans no doubt have not heard all his past rants about what he would like do, if only he had the time.

Like no free speech in the legislature.  That’s right.  He once mused about stripping the legislature of the right of members to speak their minds without fear of persecution. A right hard won centuries ago by English parliamentarians and cherished by all elected to such a body ever since.

Well, all but one, so it seems.

It’s hard for Williams to get things done, apparently, when half his time is taken up with pesky things like speaking to reporters  -  or editorial boards too? - or blocked off with nuisances like going to cabinet and caucus meetings.

In the past, he has worried about whistleblowers and what they might get up to if they are not properly controlled.  No mention this time of the headache of trying to keep his speeches from being made public.  You know, speeches that were in public in the first place.  These are the sorts of things that prevent from doing more. 

Uneasy lies the head, he is wont to remind us all constantly.

If only people would focus on the positives instead of the negatives, he complains.  Danny has been on this complaint track quite a bit this year.  Much more so than usual, even for him.  Ranting at Randy Simms seemed like only yesterday.

But thankfully – for the Fan Klub and Tony’s sanity -  he’s going to stick around in a job he evidently despises for some totally incomprehensible, unexplained reason.

Unless, of course…

"I'm definitely going to hang around to see if I can get it [the Lower Churchill]  done," said the premier.

But Williams said he's not going to stick around forever "to beat a dead horse" if a deal cannot be sealed, nor will he sign a bad deal for the sake of getting one done while in office.

Dead horse, eh?

Keep clicking those heels, Tony.

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Bad placement

Separately, they are great ads.

But if someone in layout isn’t paying attention…

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Tough times at National Post

Criminals are now writing columns, presumably from inside their American jail cells.

Yes, Insta-peer Conrad Black has a by-line for a piece on the monarchy.

Quebec and Newfoundland have a string of politicos with criminal records all of whom could do either court or political reporting.  Maybe that would help solve the Post’s financial woes.

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Federal Kremlinology 1: Connie Unease

So, did Jane Taber’s informant actually do air quotes around the word “pollster”, or did she add that for extra effect on her own? 

You know, a creative-reporter-license kinda thing?

That’s a funny thing about something someone is supposed to have said.  There are no quotations marks.

Must be something about Connies  - like Jane’s informant - that make them telegraph their fears.

Meanwhile, in Frenchman’s Cove, Newfoundland, at least one provincial Connie must be clicking his heels together frantically and chanting ‘There’s no place like home”  at the top of his lungs.  

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Fruitloops on parade

So if there really had been a cultural genocide, as the Societe St-Jean Baptiste claims, there wouldn’t be anyone speaking French in Quebec , would there?

Some people just need to portray themselves as victims for some unfathomable reason.

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The Can Opener II

Just in time for Halloween, there’s a remake of an old horrorshow:  the local economist who makes dubious assessments that seem a wee bit tinged by things non-economical.

Used to be Wade Locke was the regime-supportive economist of record.

Now it’s Jim Feehan, a guy with a record of producing dubious bits of research on partisan political subjects.  He also co-wrote a paper on another local partisan favourite, the 1969 Churchill Falls contract.  The article  was titled “The Origins of a Coming Crisis” but at no point in the article is the crisis ever described. That should make you scratch your head just a wee bit in scepticism.  

Anyway…

Jim Feehan told local CBC radio listeners Friday morning that while this New Brunswick power deal looks like a good one in that rates will be stabilised after a series of increases, public debt will be hacked down and pulp and paper mills will benefit from lower rates, this deal isn’t really so good because once it is sold, NB Power can never come back again.

In other words, even though this deal is great from the standpoint of an economist, people should maybe think twice because of things the economist commenting knows nothing about.

Like say law.

You see, as the Fortis expropriation in this province demonstrates, even in the worst possible case in New Brunswick, there is nothing like this that can’t be undone. 

But why would you want to expropriate or buy back a debt pig like NB Power if the new arrangement delivers all the economic benefits the economist noted but downplayed?

Well, there’s a question for us to ponder as we wait for the great news in Labrador Feehan’s predecessor once predicted. In the meantime, don’t hold your breath expect an answer to that one from Feehan.

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Something to look forward to…

When Gushue’s book is finished, make sure you get a copy.

in the meantime, check John’s blog post and leave him some words of encouragement and support.

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No word on Fortis expropriation talks

While other power utilities in Atlantic Canada are up for grabs, there’s no word on the status of compensation talks between the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and Fortis, Inc. resulting from the provincial government’s surprise seizure last winter of hydro-electricity assets in central Newfoundland.

Fortis-owned Newfoundland Properties  was one of three companies – including ENEL and Abitibi – generating capacity in the unexpected, and thus far unexplained, seizure.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams announced the measures.  Williams introduced a bill in the provincial legislature in December 2008 that also quashed active court cases and stripped the companies of any legal recourse to the seizure.

The seizure of assets caused a loan default among other financial consequences.

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Emera silent on NS Power sale

With Hydro-Quebec reportedly casting covetous eyes on Nova Scotia Power, the company’s current owner – Emera – is keeping to a strict “no comment” policy, according to reports.

In related news, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter said his government has not been contacted with respect to any sale of NS Power.  He also said he doubted HQ was even interested in NS Power, despite some media reports.

Dexter also backed away from joining Newfoundland and Labrador Premier cum New Brunswick Opposition Leader Danny Williams in his crusade against the recent deal to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec:

"At this point, it’s certainly not my intention to pick a side in this," Mr. Dexter said.

"Those decisions with respect to what New Brunswick does are New Brunswick’s decisions. We are going to have to deal with the system operator, no matter who it is, and so we respect their right to make those decisions."

Danny Williams reportedly fears being isolated.

Too late to worry about that now.

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And by his actions, he is known

In war, said Napoleon, the moral is to the physical three to one.

In other words, psychological effects are three times greater than physical ones.

The recent by-election loss seems to have had a profound psychological impact on some of the most ardent supporters of the Blue Cause.

 Tony the Tory – he of Open Line fame – was left so profoundly distraught by the loss that he wrote the editor of the province’s largest daily to assure the world that all had not been lost and that his beloved party was not dead.

No one said it was.

But Tony evidently was afraid of such a thought.

Now it’s hardly surprising that Tony’s emotional reaction is so extreme.  The fellow is a fervent believer in The cause.  Tony worships Hisself as fervently as any. 

So it is not surprising Tony is full of fear, disquiet and unease since, you see, his idol attacked the by-election with the same manic intensity out of all proportion to what was actually involved.

As such, the psychological impact of the defeat is equally out of proportion.

labradore, it turns out, has made much the same point.

Tony rattles off a bit of history to bolster his case, but only a bit and he conveniently forgets much.

In 1987, for example, his beloved Blue Cause was so afraid of a by-election  - so petrified of the newly chosen Liberal leader at the time - that they delayed calling it as long as they could.  

Months rolled by. 

In those days there was no law requiring a by-election to be called with a fixed period.  The Liberals introduced such a law setting the maximum delay after a vacancy at 90 days.

Then in 1988, the Tories called a by-election in the old configuration of Waterford- Kenmount but only when they thought they could win it.

They didn’t.

But all of that has no larger meaning just as Tony’s list of by-elections has no such larger meaning.

But Tony’s letter itself does.

It just doesn’t have the meaning he thought it would have.

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Williams fears wheeling partner will bail, too

New Brunswick Tory Opposition leader Danny Williams said today that New Brunswickers should rise up and oppose the plan to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec.

Williams, who is also Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, said that "if [Quebec also] acquires P.E.I. and Nova Scotia [power], we will find ourselves in a situation where one province will have energy control of the entire Maritime provinces. It will be attempting to strand Newfoundland and Labrador. So good, cheap, competitively priced energy, can't be offered to that whole region.”

Williams is worried that HQ might also buy Nova Scotia Power?

Of course, that would be the  Nova Scotia Power that is owned by the same company  - Emera – that Williams is paying to sell electricity from Churchill Falls into New York state. 

Yes that’s right.  While Williams was frothing about the negative impact of the NB Power deal on Lower Churchill power sales to the United States, he is already selling power through Quebec and happily agreed to pay $19 million annually to do so. 

So much for blocking the Lower Churchill, right?

And now Williams is concerned that Emera will bail on him in favour of selling their Nova Scotia subsidiary to HQ.

Things must be getting really bad for Williams if he believes that even his business partners are abandoning him.  That’s on top of reports that have his party organizers blaming Trevor Taylor, the former member of the provincial legislature, for Williams’ loss in the Tuesday by-election.  Talk about clubbing the fans.

Next thing you know he’ll be accusing his campaign donors of screwing him over too.

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Lower Churchill “unviable for the foreseeable future”: analyst

Energy analyst Tom Adams had this to say about the Lower Churchill project in a recent commentary on the NB Power sale:

Premier Williams has attacked Quebec’s interest in NB Power as a threat to Newfoundland’s prospects for developing the Lower Churchill’s hydro‐electric potential. Charged with emotion arising from historic Churchill Falls grievances – a contract that Newfoundland’s then Premier Smallwood sought out and willingly signed and that has been twice confirmed by the Supreme Court – Premier Williams imagines inter‐provincial intrigues to be Quebec’s motivation. This emotionalism blinds some Newfoundlanders to the real commercial challenges to the Lower Churchill’s development. Just as natural gas from the Mackenzie delta is now recognized as uneconomic in light of foreseeable market conditions, the factors that have driven down power prices in Northeastern North America make the economics of Lower Churchill development unviable for the foreseeable future. Newfoundlanders are lucky that Nalcor, their Crown energy company, is not out in the market the trying to sell high cost power right now. [Emphasis added.]

Unfortunately, NALCOR and Danny Williams didn’t get Adams’ memo. Premier Danny Williams revealed yesterday that NALCOR is out there trying to flog high cost power from an economically unviable project.

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The NB Power/Hydro-Quebec Memorandum of Understanding

The Governments of Quebec and New Brunswick unveiled the deal today that will see Hydro-Quebec buy most of the assets of NB Power.

The full text of the memorandum of understanding is available online.

Key points of the deal (quoted from the official news release):

• Under the terms of the MOU, Hydro-Québec would acquire most of the assets of NB Power for an amount equivalent to NB Power's debt, $4.75 billion. The utility's debt would thereby be completely eliminated.
• As a pre-condition to the negotiations, New Brunswick has established a revised rate structure to benefit New Brunswickers. It is estimated by New Brunswick to have a value to ratepayers of about $5 billion. The proposed transaction would have no impact on Hydro-Québec's electricity rates in Quebec.
• NB Power would continue as a separate, New Brunswick entity, headquartered in Fredericton, and would use the existing name and corporate identity. Hydro-Québec would offer employment to all employees of NB Power at the time of closing, and respect the collective agreements in place.
• The nuclear generating facility at Point Lepreau (after completion of the plant's refurbishment), the hydro facilities, the peaking power plants and the transmission and distribution assets of NB Power are part of the proposed transaction. Hydro-Québec would not assume any liabilities with respect to the Point Lepreau refurbishment project.
• Thermal generation facilities at Coleson Cove and Belledune would continue to be owned and operated by the Province of New Brunswick, and would supply electricity to Hydro-Québec under the terms of tolling agreements.

The upside for the New Brunswick provincial government appears to be that it offloads a debt pig while guaranteeing stable rates for residential consumers and lower- and hence more attractive  - rates for industrial consumers.

The one curious part of the MOU is that Hydro-Quebec continues to operate the company as if it were a Crown corporation in that it will pay no taxes of any kind to the provincial government. 

Interestingly, Premier Shawn Graham acknowledged the role played  by his predecessors Frank McKenna and Bernard Lord in laying the ground work for the disposal of NB Power. 

Lord’s successor as Tory party leader has been opposed to the deal since before he knew what it was about. 

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The Fan Club

There has always been this bizarro cult of personality thing to Danny Williams’ supporters.

They worship him as if he was a celebrity.

Some out here in the rest of the world – your humble e-scribbler included – have taken to calling the truly hard core cultists The Fan Club.  They make comments all over the Internet faithfully  pushing whatever line is currently on the go from the Club directors or simply attacking anything that they think undermines the gloriousness of their idol.

They’ve got a language of their own, too, but that’s another story.

Six years in, though, the Fan Club doesn’t have quite the same impact as it once did.

Take the past 24 hours with two examples.

Not so very long ago, the sort of attack on supposed foreign demonios being launched by Hisself and the Fan Club  against Hydro-Quebec (again) would be spreading like wildfire.  For examples of the Fan Club talking points, just check the comments sections at the Telegram, CBC or even here at Bond Papers.

Not so this time.

This is all old hat around these parts and ordinary taxpayers seem to be having a really hard time connecting a theoretical issue in far off New Brunswick to real-world issues in this province and in their lives. 

People have built up an immunity to the same old, same old.

Now that’s really interesting because the immunity is really at the heart of the results in the Straits by-election.  Hisself framed the whole thing around the same old, same old:  look at all the riches I brought you.  $137 million.  Show me how much you appreciate that by voting for me.

Well, they didn’t. 

A couple of thousand people didn’t and likely lots more didn’t who just never bothered to show up at the polls.  A monumental effort worthy of the most grandiose display of the faltering Smallwood empire failed to motivate enough to win the seat as it has every time since 2001 in the Straits and on the overwhelming majority of other similar cases across the province ever since 2001.

That’s not good.

Nor is it good that the Hydro-Quebec attack – another same old, same old – ain’t working either. 

That is intended for two purposes:

First, it lets Hisself vent his frustration that the Lower Churchill just isn’t happening. 

Second – and perhaps most importantly -  it is supposed to help change the channel and get people’s mind off the disaster in the Straits.

But it isn’t doing that second thing.  The ordinary taxpayers seem to have caught on.

Meanwhile, there is another problem for the Fan Club beyond the fact their usual stuff just doesn’t work any more.

As he left, Trevor Taylor provided his membership in the Fan Club by praising Hisself to the highest heights on every level.  Hisself returned the favour in his comments about Trevor.

Until the loss in the Straits.

Now party insiders are spinning the story to local media – see David Cochrane’s report on Wednesday’s Here and Now, for example –  that the whole loss was Trevor’s fault.

That sort of stuff just isn’t going to sit well with a whole bunch of people who haven’t joined the Fan Club but who like the stuff Hisself puts out.  They’ve been buying his CDs for a few years now just like they’ve bought The Other Blue Note CDs before. 

But maybe not so much any more.

Not, that is, if people like Trevor are getting blamed for stuff they really didn’t do.

Fan Club takes on a whole new meaning when it’s the fans getting clubbed.

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Eating his own

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is tearing strips, not off New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham or Hydro-Quebec but his own deal with Hydro-Quebec from last April.

Williams attacked the deal in a letter to Graham:

Despite our expectation of regulatory fairness [ in wheeling electricity across Quebec], Nalcor Energy has encountered obstacles in Quebec. Nalcor has been forced to lodge four complaints with the regulatory authority in Quebec about the tactics being used by Hydro Quebec Transenergie that serve to delay and inhibit our progress.

Under an agreement announced in April 2009, the provincial government’s energy corporation sells power to unidentified customers in New York state.  The power is wheeled along transmissions lines in Quebec under what is known as the open access transmission tariff.   NALCO pays Hydro-Quebec $19 million a year to wheel the power.  The figure was not released by NALCO or the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

While Williams is now slamming the deal – making it sound as if there was no wheeling agreement at all -  back in April, he was positively giddy with excitement at what he termed an “historic” agreement:

“This is truly a historic and momentous occasion for the people of our province, as never before have we been granted access through the province of Quebec with our own power…”.

There is no obvious explanation for Williams sudden attack on his own project nor is there any explanation for his claims that Hydro-Quebec is blocking or trying to block NALCOR’s access to markets.  The April deal proves there is no real obstacle.

What makes the latest tirade all the more bizarre is that in a scrum with reporters two days ago, Williams acknowledged  that there was no obstacle to getting power to markets in the United States.  In the same scrum, he said Hydro-Quebec might be trying to do just that. 

His disdain for the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec is apparently based on losing the race for new markets for hydroelectricity.

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