Rumpole and The Way through the Woods

Great howls came from the clerk’s room at Number 3 Iniquity Court this morning.

Over steaming mugs of Red Rose and a few cream crackers, the b’ys were having a laugh at the goings on over at the Provincial Court in Gander.

It is, for those who haven’t been following such things, the story of a court which has been one judge short since December 2008.  That’s when one of the two judges flew up to the Supreme Court leaving his benchmate, one Judge Short – Bruce, by name – to handle the unending tide of misbehaviour from Suburbia in the Woods and its environs. 

The matter should have been settled with a few appointments to the Christmas Honours List but something appears to have gone off the rails.

A lawyer in Gander, one Juan O’Quinn, turned up in a CBC News story on Friday bemoaning the problems with getting cases heard in a timely way under the circumstances.  The CBC story is still not correct on the whole picture since it links Don Singleton to the goings on.  That, as local Rumpole followers know, is a horse of an entirely other colour.

To return to the matter at bar, the clerks were quick to point out that O’Quinn is a former law partner of the health minister and the chairman of the Memorial University board of regents.  His talking publicly is not to be taken lightly especially when it is to complain about stuff not being done by cabinet appointment:

"If you have a situation where you want to get access to your children and your spouse is not permitting that and you need to get in front of a court, if the court is busy then obviously that's problematic," said defence lawyer Juan O'Quinn.

The problems in Gander are an old old story.  A year ago, the town council raised the issue with the local member of the House of Assembly for the district Gander is in.  As the Beacon put it in a story on the ongoing court problems:

The Town of Gander received a letter dated Feb. 17, 2009, from government services minister Kevin O'Brien, MHA for Gander. In it, the minister said the interview process for the provincial court judge position was underway and the it would be filled in the not too distant future.

O’Brien’s logic on the delay is  - characteristically - incomprehensible:

Minister O'Brien said he is not surprised the matter has taken this long, given the amount of interest in the position and the prominence of the provincial court.

In any event, the CBC story confirms what your humble e-scribbler had heard early, namely that Provincial Court Chief Judge Mark Pike sent a list of nominees along to the justice minister last November.  Normally that would be plenty of time to select as many qualified appointees as might be needed and to let the chosen few celebrate their good fortune over the holidays.

Not this year, as it turned out.

The clerks offered two versions of why not.

In the first version, the Chief Judge had been heard talking about appointing his team and setting things on the course he had chosen for the court.   The list went from Pike to justice minister Felix Collins who dutifully passed it along to He who Must be Obeyed.

He was not amused at all by the Chief Judge’s confusion over who actually makes the appointments and sent the list back to be re-worked.

In the second version, the list went up with only the list of people recommended by the judicial council to fill the vacancies.  There were no other names of those interviewed, as used to be the custom, broken down into categories of highly recommended, recommended (meaning they met the requirements set out in the Act but lacked some qualities the council sought) and not recommended.

There was not even a list of the type demanded for the mess that became l’affair Singleton, namely putting everyone into one of two categories:  Recommended -  which jumbled together in one undifferentiated mess the highly qualified and experienced as well as those who met barely met the minimums set down in law - and Not Recommended, which was all those who didn’t even meet the minimum requirements.

The November list apparently left off some names of individuals reputedly known to the political powers to have applied.

The list was sent back to be re-worked.

The two versions are not incompatible, it should be noted, and regardless of the precise reasons the end result is the same:  the bench in Gander as well as three other spots remain short of judges.

The cabinet is working its way through the woods and may eventually find someone to sit in Suburbia alongside Judge Short.

But in the meantime,  Bruce is on his own.

If Juan applied, he can cancel plans to lay up his shingle.

And there should be no question in any one’s mind about who appoints judges in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Well, at least that’s what the clerks said as they drained the last drop of Carnation from the tin and got back to their work, mugs full of a fresh brew.

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Rick Astley is God’s messenger

Apparently, the Lord moves in such mysterious ways He sometimes manages to channel himself through a one-hit wonder from the 1980s.

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Twitterpating

1.  For those of you interested in social media trends, consider a post by Gerald Baron at Crisisblogger on the future of Twitter. Baron links to two different points of view:  one that Twitter will die, the other that it won’t.  Both offer food for thought and Baron gives his own perspective.  He thinks Twitter itself may fade but the concept will continue in other forms and through other software.

As Baron puts it:

What Twitter brought was the integration of various forms of instant communication including micro-blogging, text messaging, seamless distribution via web, email, text, etc. It has proven to be a highly effective means of instant communication with groups of people with whom you wish to communicate, or to audiences who have an intense desire to know what you have to say or track your every move (ala Ashton Kutcher). But, as I predicted, that functionality of exceptionally easy and fast distribution of messages to “friends” or people who connect via a network is rapidly be adopted in a variety of ways.

2.   In the same spirit, consider this New York Times article from last August – linked here previously – that indicated twitter is actually popular among an older demographic than the under-25s most people might assume are heavily into sending messages of no more than 140 characters.

3.   One of the reasons you’ll find Twitter feeds on the Haiti crisis linked in the right-hand nav bar is that it does give the opportunity to get some near real-time information from Haiti via reporters on the ground. There are tons of ways of getting that information, but here is just one more for you to chose among. if you look at the ones chosen, you can also see the radically different styles of the individuals writing. That adds a flavour to the coverage that doesn’t necessarily come across another way.

4.  You of the characteristics you can also see in the feed that these individuals are also having conversations with folks who may or may not be readers/viewers. Some are offering feedback on the coverage. Others are asking questions about what is going on in Haiti. Some of this stuff wouldn’t get reported otherwise.

5.  In the larger sense what you are seeing in near-real time feeds is a whole new form of information gathering and dissemination. Conventional news media are letting their people on the ground do much more than bang out copy and file it.  They are offering a way for the audience to become more directly connected with the news event.  In another sense, the audience is becoming connected not just to the event but to the news organization and the reporter in a way that simply wasn’t possible previously.  There are a raft of implications and there could be a whole blog/conversation devoted just to the many permutations of what this may do to the face of reporting. For now let’s just take it in as the whole thing unfolds.

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Samsung signs energy deal with Ontario

Under a deal announced Thursday, Samsung Group of South Korea will develop 2500 megawatts of wind and solar energy in Ontario at a cost of $7.0 billion.

Samsung will also create 16,000 manufacturing jobs in Ontario.

Meanwhile, in Newfoundland and Labrador, the energy warehouse…

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Nfld reservist to command Atlantic area soldiers

Brigadier-General Tony Stack, left,  will assume command of Land Force Atlantic Area in a  ceremony in Halifax this evening.  He replaces Brigadier-General David Neasmith.

Stack is currently the area deputy commander.

Land Force Atlantic Area is responsible for all army regular and reserve units in the four Atlantic provinces, with the exception of the Combat Training Centre at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown.  Currently there are approximately 7,000 soldiers in Atlantic Canada serving in four regular and 23 reserve units.

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Stack’s bio:

Brigadier-General Anthony Stack was born in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador in 1961. At Memorial University of Newfoundland, he earned Bachelor of Education (Secondary) and Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) degrees in 1985 and obtained a Master of Education (Leadership Studies) in 2001.

Brigadier-General Stack began his military adventure in high school with 2415 Gonzaga Royal Canadian Army Cadet Corps. He joined the Canadian Forces army reserve in 1978.  He completed two terms as the commanding officer of 56 Field Engineer Squadron and a term as G3 Newfoundland District responsible for operations and training for  army reserve units in the province. He has also served as a company commander and Chief Instructor at the Atlantic Area Rank and Trade School in Gagetown, New Brunswick.

He is a graduate of the army command and staff college,  Kingston Ontario and the Joint Reserve Command and Staff Program at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, Ontario.

In 2001, Brigadier-General Stack was the first Commanding Officer of the Land Force Atlantic Area civil military cooperation (CIMIC) unit.

In January 2004, he deployed with OPERATION ATHENA to Afghanistan where he served as the Chief of CIMIC Operations for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Kabul.

Upon return from theatre, he was appointed deputy commander of 37 Canadian Brigade Group in September 2004 and assumed command of the brigade in June 2006.

In December 2009, he was promoted to his present rank and assigned the position of deputy commander, Land Force Atlantic Area.

Brigadier-General Stack resides in St. John’s NL with his wife Wanda and son Shane. In civilian life, he is the principal of St. Peter’s Junior High School in Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador.

Brigadier-General Stack enjoys running, reading, and watching his son compete in basketball and volleyball.

Republic of Doyle: the modern way

For those who can’t catch the show on Wednesday night when it airs, consider that CBC does actually offer viewers the opportunity to watch the show the 21st century way.

Yes, complete episodes are available online at the CBC website.  You can get there through the Republic of Doyle page on the cbc.ca website.  Or you can bookmark the actual RoD video space on the same website.

You can even find this trailer there, although this copy of it came via a non-cbc account at youtube. 

Hint.

Hint.

Make it easy for people to promote the show using the technology its viewers are likely very familiar with.

Hint.

Hint.

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Leading the nation…

in a lamentable trend.

Via nottawa, here’s a link to Jim Travers’ excellent column on the decline of democratic institutions in Canada.

Regular readers of these humble e-scribbles will know that the local legislature and the government which has taken complete control of it in every respect is way ahead of the crowd in eroding the function of democratic institutions.

Everything Jim says about Ottawa applies equally in St. John’s.

The phenomenon is not a partisan one.  The current Conservative crowds in Ottawa and St. John’s have merely taken to the whole trend started under respectively – Chretien and Tobin - with an unnatural lust.

The root of the problem is easy to identify.

The cure, as Jim lays it out, is the same thing:

If war is too serious to leave to generals, then surely democracy is too important to delegate to politicians.

We – the voters – let the politicians carry on the way they do.

We - the voters – can change things.

You just gotta wanna.

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Massive cost overruns, delays now normal for provincial government?

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, you really didn’t hear very often about a provincial government construction project in Newfoundland and Labrador going for almost double the original cost estimate.

You’d hear stuff about other places, like say one involving a nuclear power plant in New Brunswick. Or there might be one involving transportation – always a rat’s nest of problems – like say the streetcar line in Toronto or another light rail one in Ottawa.

That was then, as they say.

This is now, where the provincial government in Newfoundland and Labrador seems to have a huge problem with construction projects of all kinds.

The latest is the health centre in western Labrador.

Promised originally as a juicy bit of pork for the January 2007 by-election, the project seems stuck like an excavator in winter snow. Other than that, not much has happened.

Not much except watching the cost estimates balloon like an embolism.  According to The Aurora, what was once estimated to cost about $56 million is now estimated to be in the range of $90 million.

That number will get bigger almost certainly.  And at some point, as in Lewisporte and Flower’s Cove, there will have to be an intervention to reduce the sorts of health stuff that happens in the health care centre so that the construction costs don’t go completely off the charts.  

The Aurora report says provincial government officials put the cost spiral down to a construction boom in briefing notes prepared for health minister Jerome Kennedy last fall.

Okay.

Theoretically, that could be the case. There’s just so much construction going on in the province right now that everything is at a premium.  Boom times and all that.  At least, so the idea goes.

There are a couple of problems with that notion. 

First of all, this is a recession and Newfoundland and Labrador hasn’t escaped the recession at all.  Far from it.  Even the provincial government is forecast a huge drop in the value of goods and service sin the province.  Everything is down from oil to newsprint to minerals. 

And if you look around, like say in Alberta, you can see what happens in a recession.  Like most places in the developed world, and even in an Alberta which is still chugging along well ahead of other provinces in economic activity,  a recession in Alberta means costs are dropping. Businesses – like Total SA and Conoco  - are actually increasing their spending on oil sands development because of costs that are as much as 40% less than they were in 2008.

That Labrador health centre is already estimated to cost 40% more than first forecast, incidentally. That’s pretty much on par with what happened to the one in Lewisporte.

So it doesn’t really make a lot of sense – at first blush – that Newfoundland and Labrador in a recession would see costs go up while everywhere else – like Alberta – costs are dropping.

Second, the sort of delays and cost over-runs for the Labrador west hospital is typical of the pattern of delays on provincial government construction projects – upwards of three and four years in some cases – and massive cost over-runs (40% is the half of it) people in this province have seen for the past five or six years. It didn’t just start.  And it isn’t confined to hospitals.

On delays, we have things like a 2004 court security law that still isn’t in effect. There’s a 2006 law creating a health research ethics board that still isn’t in place.  From 2007, there’s a major piece of legal work and a centrepiece – supposedly – of the Tory big blue plan called the sustainable development act.  Three years and not so much as a peep.

Let us not forget three years on Grenfell to deliver nothing that couldn’t have been done without all the fuss and the promises when the idea was first announced.

Nor can we ignore the land claims deal with the Innu on the Lower Churchill that happened and then unhappened.  Now it roams the Earth periodically cropping up in some news story in which it claims to be alive.  The reality is that it is undead, trapped by internal political wrangles within the Innu community in a world between life and death.

In the background, there is the program review, a response to a supposed budget crisis in 2004 the premier gave to Ross Reid.  No one knows what happened to it.   similar initiative – a 2006 economic program review – likewise disappeared.  The guy looking after it went back to Memorial in 2008.  What is Doug House doing these days?

On the construction front, there are cases like the sports centre slash conference hall in St. Anthony that doubled in price before the provincial government cut the whole thing down to a size that would fit inside the ballooned budget.  Two years after it was first announced, there was much less for way more.

We also can’t forget the aquaculture centre in St. Alban’s.  Two years later the thing is just starting to get underway  - we were originally told it would actually be finished by now - for 71% more than the original estimate.

Ferries. Schools. Hospitals.  Roads. You name it and the thing has been announced - in some cases many, many times - the costs have skyrocketed and there’s not a sign of anything tangible.  As noted here last winter, about half the economic stimulus projects the provincial government announced consisted of projects that had been announced, some of them as long ago as 2005.

Massive cost overruns and inordinate delays seem to be the norm in the provincial government these days.

The interesting question is why that is so.

We can be pretty sure it doesn’t have anything to do with just the normal cost of doing business. The pattern started before costs really skyrocketed and it affects things besides construction work.

And it really doesn’t have anything to do with outdated ceremonies and rules.  One of the things Tory supporters in this province should point out is that all the time the current administration doesn’t spend in the legislature gives it more time to get things done.  These guys are much more efficient than other administrations, so the talking point would go. 

Notice that they don’t say that sort of thing, though.  Despite having a legislature that sits about half the number of days it sat two decades ago, the usual complaint lately is about all the distractions. 

Nor can there be any complaint about requirements to have the legislature approve things.  The Fishery Products Act amendments a couple of years ago gave cabinet the right to make decisions on its own without reference to the legislature ever again. That follows a pattern in other bills where the decision on when laws come into force is left entirely to cabinet. 

Call it a sort of low-rent rule by decree, the idea behind this approach is that things can be done more quickly if all it takes for is a cabinet conference call and then a quick printing of The Gazette. No messy debates in public.  No question period.  Just a nice clean agreement behind closed doors.  Job done.

Except it hasn’t seemed to work that way.

Now this is the sort of thing we old political science types call “interesting” or “curious”.  It goes to the heart of what we love:  how government works in practice. 

The theory is fine.  All the bumpf from the departmental bumpf factories keeps the news media full.  And some people think they can change the budget by going to a consultation session.  People who are genuinely interested in this sort of thing, though, love trying to figure out how things actually get done.

In the case of the current provincial administration, those types have got their work cut out for them.  The current crowd should be performing much more efficiently and effectively than they actually are.  Put another way, they should be accomplishing things on par with what - as their polls show -  people think they are doing.

So how come they aren’t?

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Goose and Gander, Quebec and Labrador

Let’s just imagine, dear friends, what might happen if another provincial government acted like the one in this province.

labradore does and the result would not be pretty.

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Kremlinology 15: as warm and fuzzy as your old blankie

Last fall was rough on the provincial Conservatives.

Back to back resignations followed by the by-election loss in the Straits and the strong Liberal vote in Terra Nova.  That’s old news to Bond Papers readers.

Things are rough for the Conservatives in Corner Brook as well.

Between the push-back over the Grenfell mess and the possibility that the Kruger mill may shut its doors permanently, there are plenty of reasons for provincial Conservatives to be sweating the possibility of a strong anti-Tory hum on the Humber.

You can tell things are rough because the Premier took the time to head to Corner Brook last week for a party fundraiser – a point the conventional media neglected to point out - encouraged the Kruger unions to give the company whatever it needs to save the mill and pick a fight with people who had pissed him off:  He took a shot at Grenfell principal Holly Pike and others. 

The local paper – The Western Star – warned him about the problems before the speech and then spanked him publicly for his attack on Pike after the speech.

That last bit is a sure sign of how bad things are for the Tories.  What they said was nothing strong at all, but in a province where  - since 2003 - the conventional media like to serve warm milk and cookies editorially, a couple of simple declaratory sentences can come across like  a cross between the 95 Theses and the Declaration of the Rights of Man.

The real sign of the troubled times in Tory circles is the remarkable change in tone.  Suddenly ‘stachless health minister Jerome Kennedy took the trouble to call an open line show this week when it isn’t polling season and nothing is exploding.

He talked at length about the changes he wants to bring after the budget is over.  Kennedy wants to start travelling around the province, talking to the great unwashed masses in their own native habitat. He wants to get real opinions from real people on things the government could be and should be doing.  

We are not talking complete farce here.  Kennedy spoke in calm tones and used language about including people.  A lesson he learned in the by-elections, so Kennedy said.

That’s right in line with another sign, namely a recent tour by several cabinet ministers of towns along the coast of Labrador.  Even Tommy Hedderson took the time to get out of St. John’s and visit real people in real towns.  Hedderson you may recall was the guy who – during the Straits by-election – talked about how wonderful it was to get back into that part of the province for the first time since 2001.  Yes, the fisheries minister hadn’t been able to visit a district with fish troubles until his Leader dragged him along to go save the Leader from political embarrassment.

And let’s not forget the funding announcements.  Before Christmas it was the new hospital for Corner Brook which – we now learn – may well be a tertiary care centre to rival the one in Sin Jawns.  There is money for Grenfell, the bags of which was something the Premier duly noted as he pointed how some people were insufficiently grateful for his generosity.

One of the Labrador ferries will be relocating to Corner Brook, at least for the winter at least for now.

Now there’s Terry French heading to Corner Brook to make an announcement on funding for the provincial government’s arts centres. That’s on top of the money French already announced for the local stadium.  This was not, the finance minister would assure us, a sign that budget allocations have already been made for 2010.

These sorts of things may be old hat everywhere else in the civilised world but in this province since 2003, they are almost unheard of.  Until now, the whole business of keeping in tune consisted of letting cabinet ministers work from an office set up wherever in the province they happened to live.  And even then, the main duty of the ministers-at-home was to keep an eye on dissent and make sure everyone stayed in line. Think hard hat and shovel and road paving in Labrador if you want a classic example of the cabinet minister without a real portfolio.

Now undoubtedly some wag will point out that Jerome! is just angling to replace The Boss.  Shave the ‘stache, they will say and they are right.

But that doesn’t mean that the cabinet as a whole might not also be working along with Jerome to change their collective political fortunes.  While The Boss is busy tilting at hydro towers in New Brunswick, the guys who actually will be running for re-election in 2011 might be noticing they don’t have much time to shift the whole tone and approach of the administration.

Angry just doesn’t work all the time in politics, as any experienced politician and political scientist will tell you. People grow weary. And when the anger is directed inward, when people get smashed in the head for just having an opinion, it doesn’t take too long before people start to look for an alternative to the anger ball.

That’s one of the big lessons from last fall, if you really are clued in about provincial politics. Things started to shift.

And when the shift started, the local Tories seem to have decided to make a shift of their own.

Coming on like a warm, fuzzy blankie seems to be aimed at making sure that whatever alternative people move toward, it will still be blue.

Just a blue without all the anger in it.

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Every name in for the senator pool

A couple of e-mails in ye olde inbox on Monday and just about every conceivable name cropped up in the great game of trying to figure out who will be the new Conservative senator from Newfoundland and Labrador.

For the record, here’s the list:

• Loyola Hearn

• Loyola Sullivan

• Liam O'Brien

• Beth Marshall

• Rex Barnes

• Tim Powers

• Merv Wiseman

• Graham Letto

• Rick Hillier

• Lynn Verge

• Tom Rideout

• Vic Young

• Leo Power

Most of the spec seems to favour one of the Two Loyolas – that’s Sullivan on the right -  but those fellows already have or had their bit of pork.

That’s former fish minister Loyola Hearn on the left, there, for those who don’t know him.

Put them in the “Definitely Not” pile right next to Rick Hillier.

Liam O’Brien would be a long shot.  He surely won’t take offence at the suggestion.

Ditto Merv Wiseman, although he might take offence. Sucks to be him, then. Rex Barnes looks like he got on the list for the same reason Merv did:  someone listed former Tory candidates. Another “nope”.

Beth Marshall would be too obvious just because all the spec puts her name up right next to the two Loyolas.  She’s at the point now where her name is on everyone’s list of nominees for everything. Watch out if the Pope drops dead tomorrow.  Local spec will have Beth in the running right behind the two Loyolas;  it’s gotten to be that much of a cliche.

Graham Letto or someone else from Labrador would be a shot to replace Bill Rompkey when he retires within the next year or two. 

Leo Power is a suggestion if someone was digging way inside the party and maybe way back into the mists of time to boot.

He’s a former exec to John Crosbie and former principal secretary to Tom Rideout for 43 Days but has Leo got anything else to qualify him for a seat in the Antechamber to the Kingdom of Heaven before Tom Rideout?

And speaking of Tom, there’s just something about that appointment that wouldn’t fit the reformist theme supposedly being set by this round of appointments. Any Tories in the National Capital Region with a room to rent might find Tom a willing tenant.

So who’s left on that list?

Tim Powers  - he of the Globe blog and Ottawa lobbyist fame - is an interesting choice.  The guy has strong ties both provincial and federally so he could act a go-between in the Great Rapprochement between the federal Connies and the provincial cousins.

Lynn Verge is a possibility.  She’s a former provincial Tory leader with a strong background in public life.

 

Then there’s Vic Young. Frankly it’s a bit strange to see him there.  The former public servant and business exec has kept a pretty low profile since retiring.  Well, low with the exception of the Blame Canada Commission in 2002.

He’d be a good choice but that hasn’t stopped prime ministers – including this one – from looking right past a good choice in favour of a complete waste of time. 

Like say Mike Duffy.

Odds are that none of the names on that list will wind up getting the nod whenever the choice is made. The federal Conservatives have shown themselves adept at coming up with some – shall we say – unusual choices when it comes to federal appointments. 

One that stands out in the local legal community is a judge whose appointment prompted tongue-in-cheek concern in some quarters that she might not know where the court house was.  Seems the only time she’d darkened its doors – as the local legal wags put it – was when she’d shown up to see her old man sworn in as a supreme court judge years before.

So with all those names from the current speculation out of the way, maybe someone can come up with a novel idea.

The comments are open.  Toss your suggestions on the table.

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Budget consultation farce: more evidence

Normally, budget decisions wouldn’t be announced until after the provincial government budget for the upcoming fiscal year is formally presented in the legislature.

Since 2007 – at least - that convention had gone out the window in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The fact that cabinet ministers announce spending priorities for the coming year starting in January also proves that the entire series of meetings the finance minister calls budget consultations are pretty much a joke and a half.

They are a complete farce, a cruel joke on the ordinary unsuspecting members of the public because – as the finance minister well knows – the decisions on spending are pretty much already made.

If the spending decisions weren’t made already, a cabinet minister could not announce on January 18 – some three months ahead of the budget being tabled in the House of Assembly - that a program would be funded for three more fiscal years.

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NB Power deal: it’ll all be over soon

First there was talk about reworking the deal.

And now a cabinet minister says publicly he won’t be backing it.

Oh yeah and the schlemeil talks about cabinet confidentiality as he blabs about what went on in a caucus meeting.

Consider the deal to sell NB Power to be on life support, with a strong chance the provincial election will deliver the coup de grace.

The only thing to wonder now is what the New Brunswick provincial Conservatives will do with the whole NB Power mess once they take power after the next election.

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Push back on Grenfell

Things are not good in Corner Brook if the local daily the Western Star is making this strong a statement about the Premier’s recent  - and just the latest -  public attack on someone within the province:

The premier’s comments are unprofessional, misleading and irresponsible. He owes the residents of Western Newfoundland and Labrador, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College and especially Holly Pike an apology.

You’d have to be living here for the past seven years to realise just exactly how strong these words really are.

The fact they come from the newspaper serving the Premier’s district makes them stand out even more.

And the fact that they are in public, in print, just makes the old chin hit the old floor all the harder.

Alex Marland take note.

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Lower Churchill, Nova Scotia and NB Power: “The sheer economics of it…”

And it is not like people haven’t said this before:

Premier Darrell Dexter said he’s not surprised Newfoundland and Labrador is looking for a cheaper option than an underwater cable connection to Nova Scotia for moving energy from Lower Churchill to market.

"The sheer economics of it are undeniable in terms of a transportation corridor for that energy," the premier said after a cabinet meeting Thursday.

Read down a wee bit further in the Chronicle-herald story and you get this:

An SNC-Lavalin transmission system study for the Nova Scotia government estimates the cost of connecting Newfoundland and Nova Scotia at $800 million to $1.2 billion. The estimate of connecting Nova Scotia to New England is $2 billion to $3 billion.

Yes, stringing underwater power cables from some point in Newfoundland and Labrador to Nova Scotia would cost at least $1.2 billion.  Initial cost estimates are always low on megaprojects like this. 

But to get to that bit, you’d have to string the long from Gull Island, down to the coast of Labrador, across to the island of Newfoundland down to some point on the southwest coast of the island to get to the bit that costs at least $1.2 billion.

The cost of that plus the line out to Soldier’s Pond near St. John’s would be $2.0 billion or more.

You can tell the Nova Scotia option was never being seriously considered.  There isn’t any plan to do it currently under environmental review.

Now all this too has to make you wonder why Darrell joined in attacking Shawn Graham in New Brunswick. His whole position on this just didn’t make any sense before. And it really doesn’t make any sense now that he admits he knows the whole power line to Nova Scotia is just so much crap.

In fact, Dexter acknowledges the whole thing is crap because he adamantly insists that there’s no way Nova Scotia taxpayers would be on the hook to help build it.

“We’re not going to build it,” he said.

 

Not surprisingly, NALCOR Energy boss Ed Martin is talking about the cost of land transmission through Quebec. Hearings into NALCOR’s application/objections on that front are due to start this week. Land transmission is pretty much the only economically viable way of getting Labrador power out to any market.

The current estimate for building a new set of power lines across Quebec is $3.0 billion.  That’s not bad considering the estimates for the line Soldier’s Pond for a mere 800 megawatts.

You can tell the crowd at NALCOR understand the whole game currently being played.  Look at the way it wound up in the Telegram over the weekend:

Regardless of what happens, officials say the regulator's decisions will provide certainty for Newfoundland and Labrador's energy corporation as it tries to get the Lower Churchill hydro project off the ground.

"We've collected all the information we need," Nalcor Energy president Ed Martin said in an interview.

"This is one of the key pieces left. I'm going to have enough information (after) this to be able to complete my discussions with potential customers."

When people start talking about certainty, then you know they’ve comes to terms with reality.  “At least we’ll know for sure…” should be one of the stages of grief.

For the record and just for all those people who are still over the shock that the line through Gros Morne was a political racket for nothing, let’s get this straight as well.  The provincial government isn’t concerned that Hydro-Quebec is blocking the precious Legacy Project.

At least one person in the government is pissed off that the whole thing just can’t get off the ground for one simple thing:

the sheer economics of it.

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The Recession in pictures

Via John Gushue who got it from Business Insider who got it from Calculated Risk, a chart comparing job loss as a share of peak employment in every American recession since the end of the Second World War.

Yes Virginia, this is still the worst recession bar none. And as John Gushue points out in different words, those in the province who deal with the United States marketplace have got to be hurting.

There is more detail at Calculated Risk on this chart which is derived from the most recent employment numbers coming from the US federal government.

When you are finished digesting that bit of information take a look at this related chart which shows the percentage of American workers who have been out of a job for 27 weeks or more.  More people are out of work and they’ve been out of work longer than  in any previous recession.

Again you’ll find more on this at CR.

Three things to take away from all this:

1.  Two days left: If you haven’t voted for John Gushue over at the NL Blogroll yet, go do it now.  No fooling around.  You can come back in a minute when you’ve finished voting AND leaving a comment.  That gets him three votes in total.  Oh yes and tell your friends. And make sure you vote tomorrow too for John – you can do that under the rules of this contest. You already click out to John more than any other link at SRBP so the least you can do is vote for him.

2. The American recession is having an effect on this province and will continue to do so.  Anyone who tells you otherwise deserves a sharp jab to the throat to get them to stop fibbing.

3.  Stand by for some additional work along these lines on the local economy.  What’s actually been going on is more than a little at odds with what you’ve been told elsewhere.

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Text “HAITI” to 45678

From the Salvation Army:

Toronto, ON January 14, 2010 – The Salvation Army has activated its Text to Donate program in support of the Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund. Canadians can make a $5.00 donation to The Salvation Army’s efforts in Haiti by texting the word HAITI to 45678 from any Rogers Wireless or Bell Mobility phone. Donors will then receive a message asking them to confirm their donation with a YES reply. The proceeds of each text donation will support the ongoing efforts to serve the victims of the recent horrific earthquake that has left thousands dead and many more without adequate food, clean water or shelter.

“Our immediate focus is the safety and welfare of those affected by this terrible tragedy,” said Graham Moore, Territorial Secretary for Public Relations and Development for The Salvation Army in Canada. “The mobile giving program is another way to raise funds in support of this vital relief effort.”

In addition to the text message donation program, Canadians can support The Salvation Army’s relief effort in Haiti by calling 1-800-SAL-ARMY (725-2769), by visiting our website, www.SalvationArmy.ca, by mailing donations to The Salvation Army Territorial Headquarters, Canada and Bermuda, 2 Overlea Blvd., Toronto, Ontario M4H 1P4, or dropping off financial donations at the closest Salvation Army unit in your area. Donors should specify their gift to the Haiti Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund. The call centre (1-800-SAL-ARMY) and SalvationArmy.ca are accepting donations

According to Moore, when texting HAITI to 45678 via a mobile phone, a micro-donation of $5 will be made to aid the millions of people affected by this tragedy. One-hundred percent of each donation will go to The Salvation Army to serve this vital need. The donation will appear as a charge on a donor’s carrier bill, and standard rates may apply. Service is available on most carriers. Donors can unsubscribe at any time by replying to the message or texting the word ‘STOP’ to 45678.

Mobile technology company Zipstripe partnered with The Salvation Army to provide this service. The Mobile Giving Foundation (MGF), a non-profit organization dedicated to helping other non-profits raise funds through mobile, enabled the transactions between donors and their carriers.

About The Salvation Army:

The Salvation Army is an international Christian organization that began its work in Canada in 1882 and has grown to become the largest non-governmental direct provider of social services in the country. The Salvation Army gives hope and support to vulnerable people today and everyday in 400 communities across Canada and 119 countries around the world. The Salvation Army offers practical assistance for children and families, often tending to the basic necessities of life, providing shelter for homeless people and rehabilitation for people who have lost control of their lives to an addiction.

When you give to The Salvation Army, you are investing in the future of marginalized and overlooked people in your community.

About The Mobile Giving Foundation:

The Mobile Giving Foundation (MGF) was founded in 2007 to create a “mobile giving channel” that empowers non-profit organizations and donors. Working with North America’s top mobile carriers, the MGF enables the mobile channel for charitable giving by providing the organizational layer, operational guidelines and technical infrastructure for non‑profit organizations and donors to use the incredible power and convenience of mobile technology. The “Mobile Giving Channel” gives wireless users a simple and immediate way to receive and respond to appeals from worthy causes with the donation charged back to the carrier bill and 100% of the donation going to the designated charity. For further information, please refer to the MGF Web site at www.mobilegiving.org.

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Pat and Rush in perspective

Nothing more need be said than Keith Olbermann’s 1:48 summary of Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh on Haiti.

Even this is more attention than they deserve:

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Op Hestia: Canadian Forces Combat Camera

An unidentified member of 2 Air Movements Squadron (8 Wing, Trenton, Ontario) helps load a pallet of medical supplies onboard a Canadian Forces C-177 Globemaster bound for Haiti as part of Operation Hestia.

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Twitter feeds on Haiti

On the right, at the top.

1. Joanna Smith (smithjoanna) from Toronto Star.  Thanks to John Gushue for blogging her stuff over at his  as-usual superlative dot dot dot.

2.  Dr. Sanjay Gupta (sanjayguptaCNN) from CNN’s crew in Haiti.

More added as they turn up.

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