His Greatest Hit seems to have missed

Hard across the province on CBC Radio, Tuesday afternoon, a woman in Plum Point reminding the host of CBC radio’s On the Go that many parts of the province still live in what host Ted Blades had referred to as the Dark Ages of the Internet or some such.

Dial-up.

Not broadband.

There is no modern, high-speed access in said community because of the costs of bringing such tools to sparsely populated areas of the province.  The woman interviewed talked of a federal government initiative to help expand coverage of the information superhighway to places like Plum Point.

The lovely town of Plum Point is interesting because it is in the same neck of the woods once represented in the House of Assembly by Trevor Taylor.  Trev represent the Straits and White Bay North and across the highway, his buddy Wally young still represents the district of St. Barbe in which Plum Point is located.  The boys were touted back in January 2001 as the start of a Tory wave sweeping the province.

Odd the number of people scurrying to claim that the opposite is not true now, but that’s another issue.

The only thing Trevor listed as an accomplishment as he hastily ran from cabinet and local politics a month ago was a provincial government plan to give a bunch of private sector companies a wad of public cash so they could stretch broadband access across the island to places that sounded suspiciously like Plum Point.

Now Plum Point is also no ordinary town as these things go for many more reasons than the fact that it is near where Trevor used to rule.

Plum Point is also home to the local member of the House of Assembly, one Wallace Young.  He owns the local motel.  His official biography also reminds us that his wife is a teacher who “has seen first-hand the effects of teacher cuts and larger classrooms”.  Old news or foreshadowing?

Anyway, perhaps Wally’s good lady wife knows, as well, the value of Internet access for local schools. 

Maybe someone should ask Wally and his wife about that.

And while they’re at it wonder how it is that this glorious fibreoptic deal Trevor was so proud of could benefit Greenland but not the lovely community of Plum Point.

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Class act

A few years ago Roger Grimes took a royal roasting for telling an off-colour joke at a small, private gathering of business people in New York. 

It was inappropriate, to put it mildly.

That’s why it so nice to see the decorum Grimes’ successor has brought to the office as he welcomed the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall yesterday in St. John’s.

This came shortly after a plug  - completely out of place - for the Danny Dam, by the by:

Hopefully your experience will be contrary to the experience of Sir Winston Churchill who when asked if he had any complaints after his tour of the United States in the 1930s said, and I quote him, “the toilet paper was too thin and the newspapers were too fat.”

Yes, there is nothing like a Royal Visit to make a joke about the ‘loo.  And if the thing is broadcast live on national television, so much the better.

Don’t even bother with the fact that the quote is only attributed to Sir Winston.

The rest of the speech is about Hisself, of course.  His time at Oxford.  Miniskirts.  Popular music from the mid 1960s.  And his staff, fish and chips and Coronation Street. 

Incidentally, the applause at the front end of the speech might have to do with the fact that the relatively small crowd in the venue (600 out of a seating capacity 10 times that) was crammed full of the governing party’s caucus and staffers.

His capper for the crapper speech – of course – was a half-story about the naming of the stadium, something Hisself said he had done.  Mile One was the half of the tale he told.  What Hisself didn’t say is the name he wanted but everyone else rejected.

The applause was restrained, even for such a loyal and faithful audience.

It all makes you wonder who is writing speeches for Hisself these days.    This one was about as cliche-laden, stereotyped and – as the quote shows – as grossly inappropriate as can be imagined.  He’s been known to deliver the odd clunker or six, including one in Toronto where his flat tone must have had his security detail making sure to keep an eye on the sharp objects and the high ledges.  Then there was the mess from the now legendary January 5, 2004 speech.  

But this one?  Makes you wonder what the Governor General and HRH, the Prince of Wales tittered over immediately after the Churchill “joke”. 

At least if Hisself didn’t write it they can correct the problem by finding someone who can write speeches for the next one.  You see,  speech-writing is like a lot of things:  you are usually better off not doing it yourself.  Experience counts.

The speech also stood in stark contrast to the other two, one by the Prime Minister and the other by the Prince of Wales which were light in tone and charming in content.  And lookit, if Stephen Harper – one of the worst speech readers even to live at 24 Sussex Drive  - comes off sounding better than you do, you know you are doing something wrong.

Again.

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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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