NL posts part-time employment gains in July

After a couple of months of big changes – up and down – in employment, Statistics Canada is reporting the number of people working in the province grew by one half of one percent in July compared to June 2010 and 3.3% compared to July 2009.

The biggest gain came in part-time employment. That’s up 8.9 percent month-to-month and 14 percent year over year.  Full-time employment dropped one percent compared to June but is up one and a half percent year over year.

Total employment grew by 1,000 jobs from 218,800 in June 2010 to 219,800 in July 2010.

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Privatize NALCOR?

The head of the Newfoundland and Labrador First Party wants to turn Marine Atlantic over to the private sector:

“I say privatize it because it’s a government organization and it smacks of being government-run,” he said. “I think a lot of the problems they’re having sometimes deal with unions. ... Maybe a private operator will come in, get rid of the unions and get things back on an even keel. I think it’s a drastic step, but sometimes drastic measures are what’s needed.”

Makes you wonder how he’d feel about NALCOR, another Crown corporation that can’t seem to deliver on its commitments. The latest one is a 2007 commitment to clean up emissions from its thermal plant at Holyrood. 

According to NALCOR chief executive Ed Martin, he and his team are “aligned” on the issue  - shades of 2012 - but will take as much time as necessary to make a “quality decision”.

Someone should ask the people of Holyrood if they agree with Wayne Bennett.

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Jerome! if you want to

So the Premiers are getting together and one of the Premiers can’t go.  Let’s say he has a bad back.

The meeting is about the economy.  Who does he send to stand in for Hisself in all his premierifficness?

Three guesses.

Hand-picked usual stand in, d.b.a. deputy premier Calamity Kathy Dunderdale.

Nope.

Intergovernmental affairs minister Dave Denine.  Seems logical.  It’s a meeting among governments and that’s pretty much the definition of what an intergovernmental affairs minister should be doing.

Nope again. Dave Denine may have the title but he is really just building up pensionable time.

Hmmm.

Economy, right?

Finance minister Tom Marshall.

Nope for a third time. The Old Man sent the province’s health minister to an economic meeting.

Sure the guy was finance minister for a few months, but there are other people with nominal responsibilities that cover the meeting agenda topics long before you get to Jerome! Kennedy.

Curious.

Among other things, what you have here is a clear sign that Jerome! is one of the trusted handful who actually run the province.  Despite his griping, Danny does run the place just like he used to run the private businesses.  He handles things with a few trusted chums and that’s it.  Jerome!, Tom and Kathy are the latter day version of Steve, Ken and Dean. If something needs doing, Danny will turn to one of those three to get it done.

And let’s face it when the Old Man bitches about pesky things like internal party politics – let alone politics generally – what he is really saying is that he wished the world would frig off and let him rule his fiefdom as if it were a law firm or cable television company. 

The only thing he has ever asked is that people regard his voice as if it were the voice of God Himself. The only reason the Old Man has a caucus, a cabinet of more than three in the first place and a legislature of 48 is that he can’t easily get rid of the constitution.

Understand that and you understand everything.

Understand as well, that when the Old Man finally does pack it in, Jerome! is likely the guy to replace him.  Kathy and Tom are heading for the door likely before the next election.  Joan Burke may have a war chest but odds are that we’ll be talking about Premier Kennedy once Danny flips to Florida permanently.

Some of you may be wondering about the talk at the meeting about the economy and what role the federal government should play in continued stimulus spending.  You may be pondering what impact any of this will have on Newfoundland and Labrador. Premiers are agreed that the federal government should continue to spend.  They are only divided on the question of how much. Quel surprise.

Newfoundland and Labrador would be in an embarrassing spot on this issue and it will be interesting to see what, if anything, Jerome! has to say. 

He could not easily side with the other “have” provinces who now want the private sector to drive the recovery.  After all, Jerome! and his friends have presided over an unmistakeable – and presumably deliberate -  weakening of the private sector in the province.  Never mind Danny Williams’ claims about leading a Reform-based Conservative Party; his actions don’t match his words. 

Rather, the “have” province of Newfoundland and Labrador would have to side with the “have not” provinces like Ontario that want the federal government to keep pouring cash from its bank account to keep the place going. Williams, Kennedy are forecasting yet another record cash deficit for 2010. More are on the way in a province where public spending is the only thing keeping some parts going at all. Danny Williams, the leader of a Reform-based Conservative Party would have to wind up in the same position as Jack Layton, begging for Stephen Harper’s help.

It’s a good thing Danny’s back went out.  Jerome! can sneak in and sneak out without anybody really expecting him to say much.  If Williams had shown up then all his contradictory positions would be laid bare. His piss poor relationship with his fellows would be on display for all the world to see. He’d have a pain, alright, but a bit lower than his back.

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Kremlinology 24: The Whine List

The Old Man likes to bitch about stuff.

After 61 years, he’s gotten good at it.

For the past seven years he has liked to bitch about his current job, the one he campaigned for.  People aren’t grateful enough.  He has to deal with too many “distractions”, stuff like a request from someone who wants a copies of all his public speeches.

For some reason that was a problem.

For some reason that was such a problem the Old Man’s staff originally slapped a $10,000 bill on the guy to try and discourage him.

Whine, moan, bitch and complain.

Blah, blah, blah.

In the National Post fluff piece on Wednesday, the Old Man couldn’t resist a little bitching about politics.  This is not unusual.  The Old Man likes to bitch about his chosen profession. Apparently politics distracts the province’s most successful politician from running the province:

That would be my preference, I’ll be honest with you, if I could just roll up my sleeves … and spend 99% of my time running the place.

Now, to be frank, this sounds a bit like an excuse.  Whenever the Old Man gripes about the time he doesn’t spend running the province, it sounds like he is trying to explain why something or other hasn’t happened. Like he is trying to tell why he failed or shagged up.

Mind you, none of this fits with his other claim that everything these days is spiffy and perfect, especially compared to the past  - thanks entirely to him.

But that’s another issue.  For now, just let that gripe cum excuse settle into your brain for some time later on.

Instead, for this post, just notice the list of complaints the Old Man trotted out this time.  Number One on the Old Man’s Whine List is this:

In politics, you have to deal with the internal politics of your own party.

Whatever does that mean?.

There are problems inside the provincial Conservative Party?  People are unhappy with something. 

Are they surprised to find they are part of a Reform-based Conservative Party, rather than the Progressive Conservative party of a short while ago?

Heaven forbid it could be with the Old Man’s leadership.  Most observers likely thought that the troubles that beset other parties – stuff like overblown egos and frustrated leadership aspirations – just don’t happen in The Party the Old Man Created By Himself from whole cloth, without help from anyone and where nothing existed before.

So what sorts of internal politics could be occupying so much of Danny Williams’ time that he can’t give proper attention to the province?

Well, maybe it has something to do with when the Old Man finally decides to leave and who will replace him.  Not like we haven’t seen the odd sign or two about that before. You can tell this is a sensitive issue inside the The Party The Old Man Made because it attracts the usual collection of sock puppets and fanboys.

Or maybe it is something a bit more mundane.

Like the stuff you do just because you have to do it.

Or two cabinet ministers deciding to pack it in suddenly and unexpected only adding to the string of miseries that added up to be 2009 for the Old Man.

Yes, there’s plenty to gripe about if you are prone to negativity.

It’s just odd sometimes what those people chose to complain about first.

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Coming or going?

Calamity Kathy Dunderdale, Danny Williams’ hand-picked choice for deputy premier, thinks the future of Corner Brook is built on manufacturing:

The minister said Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, despite its challenges, is a fundamental piece of the economy, thus has the support of the provincial government to help the company through these difficult times. She said both government and Kruger share a positive outlook of the mill’s future. Combined with that, the provincial government has created a new strategy to revitalize and diversify the forestry industry, particularly the integrated sawmill industry.

Quoted in the same article, finance minister Tom Marshall has another thought:

Marshall said it is important to create a knowledge-based economy in this area of the province to replace a declining manufacturing-based industry, something he contributed mainly to the competition of low cost producers around the world. He said the plan is to create an energy warehouse, utilizing the Labrador hydro and alternate sources such as wind, to offset that impact of lower labour costs of those competing manufacturers.

Now not only are these two ministers saying completely contradictory things at the same time, the finance minister is also proposing another nonsense.  Not only is Marshall’s future based on things that don’t exist – and likely won’t – but he is proposing to use cheap power as an offset to cheap labour costs overseas.

The Labrador hydro project is basically a fiction.

Wind power, and other forms of alternate energy, are basically a non-starter thanks to current government policy and the obsession with the Great White Whale.

As for giving away power, the last time that was tried, the people of the province wound up with Churchill Falls and the phosphorous plant at Long Harbour.  Given that the finance minister is advocating the use of public money for such a hare-brained scheme should cause a great many people to lose sleep.

Not the least of the bleary-eyed and stressed-out crew would be the people who believe the current administration is a Reform-based Conservative Party that wanted to “get our fiscal situation under control.”

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Quebec’s possible new role as an energy player

If exploration turns up a significant amount of oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, expect a ton of political weight to shift toward the province at the same time.

Rob Silver went down that road recently in his blog at the Globe and Mail. Silver posed a hypothetical situation in the federal government tried to introduce a carbon offset scheme at a time when Quebec is in the same boat as “Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia”. Quebec’s interest may well shift as does its economic situation, according to Silver.

On the surface that’s a penetrating insight into the obvious. Newfoundland and Labrador, for example, shifted its environmental policy based on nothing more profound than electing what Danny Williams described as a Reform-based Conservative Party.

Now most voters in the province – including a great many Progressive Conservatives - likely didn’t think that’s what they were getting into back in 2001 or 2003, but that’s what they got. No need to wonder any more why the sustainable development act never got farther than it did in 2007. The whole thing was nothing more than a political ploy for an election year.

In any event, Silver’s idea of a provincial government shifting its policy based on a shift in economic interests isn’t an amazing thought.

On another level though, Rob Silver’s comments provoke another thought related to Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Your humble e-scribbler tossed out the idea a couple of years ago that a “few years from now, the poorest province of the country will join the select group of provinces that do not receive Equalization. That will have a major effect on the balance of the forces in the country which is always maintained in the Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal triangle.”

The idea was that a normally outward-looking province and its people could alter the balance of power in the country, especially at the national level, once the province was no longer perceived as an economic basket case. Now part of that idea was premised on a new administration and a new policy beyond the current one and its isolationism and wastefulness.

Admittedly it turned out to be a bit of a stretch. Newfoundland and Labrador today is more isolated than it has been for most of the past century.  Its influence at the national level in Canada has never been lower. The decline is a direct result of reckless provincial policies since 2003.

One can only imagine what might occur in a world where Quebec has significant oil and/or gas resources in addition to its other sources of influence.

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Ah, that explains everything…

The Old Man, quoted in the National Post, describes his own political party’s philosophy:

We have a Reform-based Conservative Party which is probably ideologically more right-wing.

More right wing than what he doesn’t say, but that’s not the key bit.

But here’s a question:  how many Progressive Conservatives in the province, the ones that like to put weight on the progressive side of the ledger, knew that in 2001  they started supporting a “Reform-based” Conservative Party?

And on what the Old Man calls the “other side”, he just talks about how much money he spends:  “We’ve doubled our health-care budget. We’ve put a lot of money into education.”

There it is, though, straight from the horse’s mouth: Newfoundland and Labrador is currently run by a  “Reform-based Conservative Party.”

That explains a lot of things.

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Poll Goose, Day Two: 10 of 12

You’d swear someone was polling.

Of the dozen announcements made on Tuesday [August 3], 10 of them either announced public money or warned news media to stand by for an announcement of public cash for something.

Of the two odd-ball releases, one was a release about participation in a national basketball tournament while the other was about health care consultations.

Wednesday should be quiet as it is a civic holiday.

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As pure as the driven snow…

But besides the scientific reasons, Gilkinson said there is a political reason for the trip as well.

He said under United Nations rules, coastal states are obligated to “identify and characterize” VME’s adjacent to them.

“It’s important these areas be identified and mapped,” said Gilkinson.

Curious how a news story can include more than a little bit of editorialising.

That quote is from an August 2 story in the Telegram on the recently completed exploration of areas offshore Newfoundland and Labrador. Notice that following the obligation of coastal states to conduct oceanic research is considered by the Telegram to be a “political reason”.

The project turned up a couple of dozen new species, and generally added significantly to our collective knowledge of the east coast offshore. But that is “political”, as if international obligations – United Nations rules – put some kind of tarnish on things.

Notice as well that while the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had a leading role in this expedition, the Telly story didn’t do much beyond mention that the guy they quoted worked for the federal fisheries ministry. He was – in the words the Telly writer chose – merely “on the trip” that was “out of” the Bedford oceanographic institute.

Incidentally, Bond Papers told you about this expedition back on July 21, while the ship doing the work was still offshore Newfoundland.

Now by contrast in early July, the Telly nearly blew a collective blood vessel endorsing the Premier’s decision to drop millions of provincial taxpayers dollars on studying how many fish are in the ocean.  The research is supposed to help “us” make better fisheries decisions.

At no point did anyone at the Telly suggest that this little expenditure might be political.  No one bothered to point out in the Telegram, that the “us” spending the money only has to decide how many fish plants to license. That doesn’t require a detailed knowledge of capelin populations near the southeast shoal.

The announcement came based in no small measure on the unfounded claim that the federal fisheries department had basically given up on research altogether.  Nothing at all political in those false claims, apparently, at least as far as the Telly was concerned then or is concerned now.

And of course, this recent expedition in no way proved the inherent bullshit in the earlier claims about DFO and and its supposed lack of fish science.

Nope.

According to the Telly, only the federal program had any hint of politics in it.

The provincial government’s news, by contrast, was apparently as pure as the driven snow and in no way looked like a pile of snow on Duckworth Street at the end of a long hard winter…well at least as far as any possible hint of political motivation might be concerned.

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Polling month starts in earnest: five of six announcements detail public spending

August is polling month for the provincial government’s pollster.  You can tell because on the first working day of the money, cash announcements and announcements of announcements flowed like water:

• a “celebration” of the first anniversary of interest free student loans;
• $22,000 for culture and heritage groups in the finance minister’s district (called a region so they can claim they don’t hand out cash based on political districts);
• $15,675 in money for sports in the Port au Port district;
• $10,000 for something called “regional games”, this time in the “central” region;
• More than $116,000 in job creation money for St. George’s-Stephenville East district;
• Notice that there’ll be a health funding announcement on Tuesday; and,

There were 12 announcements made on August second.  Two were public advisories and another four were media advisories, including warning of a media availability later on Monday and a funding announcement on Tuesday.  One of the dozen announcements covered the closure of the school for the deaf.

In other words, outside of the media and public routine announcements, the provincial government issued six news releases on Monday.

Five of them were about spending.

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The politics of financing post-secondary education in Newfoundland and Labrador

Nottawa lays it out very neatly:

It's a political masterstroke. Having already taken all the political credit for the revenue generated by his predecessors, Williams is now doing the same with expenditures of his successors. It's brilliant. Whether or not it's sustainable is another thing.

That would pretty much put post-secondary education financing in line with the rest of the current administration’s management of public money:  unsustainable.

Then again, nottawa sets out that sort of thing as well when he notes the costs in the policy re-announced today by the province’s education minister:

What is the point is that this announcement, at the time of its making, and on its one year anniversary is really not an "investment" of the "Williams Government" in any way shape or form. It's a commitment made on behalf of Williams' successor, the person who'll one day have to account for the cost of borrowing money at 4, 7, 8 or even 10% in order to lend it out to post-secondary students interest-free.

Evidently financial management and economics were not included in the curriculum at Darin King’s alma mater.

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Holyrood pollution and the Great White Whale

According to the Telegram, Holyrood town council is expected to vote this week to ask the provincial energy company and the provincial government to follow through on commitments to reduce emissions from the thermal generating plant at Holyrood.

The problem both for the town is that it is stuck accepting NALCOR’s own contradictory statements on Holyrood.

On the one hand you have the statement contained in the provincial energy plan.  Under that version, the company would either install scrubbers and precipitators to deal with emissions or  - as a NALCOR spokesperson told the Telegram - “displace existing fossil fuel generation at the Holyrood generating station.”

But as Bond Papers readers know, Holyrood will be a crucial part of the NALCOR system no matter what.  This is not an either/or proposition.  The scrubbers and precipitators will have to be installed.  Even if the heavens open, miracles happen and NALCOR builds the Lower Churchill anytime in the next two decades, NALCOR plans to keep Holyrood on stream.

You don’t just have to believe your old e-scribbler.  Here’s exactly how NALCOR described it:

It is important to consider that whichever expansion scenario occurs, an isolated Island electrical system or interconnected to the Lower Churchill via HVDC link, Holyrood will be an integral and vital component of the electrical system for decades to come. In the isolated case Holyrood will continue to be a generating station; in the interconnected scenario its three generating units will operate as synchronous condensers, providing system stability, inertia and voltage control.

Things don’t get any better, by the by, if you try and follow Calamity Kathy Dunderdale’s version of things.

What seems to be going on here is pretty simple.  NALCOR and the Premier are obsessed with a hydro megaproject that they just can’t build.  Everything else is being held hostage by that obsession.

For example, power from central Newfoundland can’t be used to replace Holyrood since the connection to the Avalon can’t bear the added load NALCOR won’t upgrade that transmission capacity unless the LC goes ahead.  At the same time, NALCOR won’t pursue alternative generation – like say wind power – because it is fixated on the Lower Churchill.  This sort of stuff is well laid out in the LC environmental review documents. 

And if that weren’t bad enough a decades old moratorium on small hydro projects remains in place. The 2007 energy plan committed government to lift it or keep it in place in 2009, the year they were supposed to start the Lower Churchill.

Guess what?

That decision is held up, as well, because the Great White Whale remains just out of Ahab’s grasp.

So if the Holyrood town council wants to get their local air improved, the first thing they need to do is toss aside the bumpf coming from the provincial government and NALCOR about the Lower Churchill.

Instead, they need to hold NALCOR to the statements in its 20 year capital plan.

And that means they need to come up with a timetable to install emission reduction equipment on the facility that NALCOR says will be a vital part of its system for decades to come.

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The July Drivers

Maybe you were one of the 11,472 visitors who hit 15,026 pages at Bond Papers during July.  If you were, odds are you enjoyed these, the 10 most popular pages from July, 2010:

1. General and master corporal face charges over relationship (so far out in front, it was in another month)
2. Five years of secret talks on the Lower Churchill:  the Dunderdale audio.  (The mainstream continues to ignore the big story but the public won’t)
3. Bristol collapses owing more than $6.0 million
4. And no fish swam (helped no doubt by a mention on the Fisheries Broadcast)
5. When will she get the flick?
6. HQ and NALCOR on same side in US transmission line play
7. Court docket now online
8. Scientists find new sea creatures near deepwater exploration sites
9. Telly web design sucks, kills RSS feed to popular content
10. There is a green hill (not so far away)

The number one story was a national story and involved illicit sex.  That’s two massive boosts for it right there.

Bur the surprise second is the story the mainstream media have completely ignored since it broke last September. They haven’t even mentioned it once, yet it is absolutely true and no one has even tried to refute it. Well, they may have ignored it but people are clearly very interested in finding out that Danny Williams spent five years secretly trying to sell Hydro-Quebec an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill, without any redress on the Churchill Falls contract.

In the end it was no sale and not for any other reason than they just weren’t that into him. They had other things to do. And everything else Danny’s uttered since last July on the Lower Churchill and Quebec is just plain ole bullshit.

Anyone who thinks fisheries policy isn’t interesting to people might want to take note of Number 4 on July’s hit parade. It’s all about fisheries policy. What’s even more remarkable is that it doesn’t endorse the bullshit – there’s that word again – that infests the Gus and Ryan show on commercial radio.

The court docket post remains popular, not to mention testimony to the number of lawyers who drop by Bond’s corner for a read and a larf.

The last post worth a special mention is the one about the Telegram’s site redesign.  There’s another post in the works on this but it’s on hold until the Telly crew manage to sort themselves out. Hint: a week is way too long to leave the blogs totally shagged up;  the positives on the new design are fast being overshadowed by the cock-ups.

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Quebec and Vermont to keep talking power

Quebec and Vermont have extended the July 31 deadline to reach a long-term power purchase agreement but officials quoted by Bloomberg are optimistic the two sides will reach a deal shortly.

The deal would see Vermont purchase 225 megawatts from Quebec from 2012 to 2038. When the two sides announced a tentative deal in March, they set 31 July as the deadline for the deal.

Vermont’s major electricity producer is looking at a long-term purchase to replace an existing one with Hydro-Quebec.  The state may also be in the market for additional power to replace generation at the 38 year old Yankee nuclear generator.

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Traffic Drivers, July 26- Jul 30

1. Bristol collapses owing more than $6.0 million.
2. Three on a match and then some: another failure of taxpayer cash give-away  policy.
3. Did he expense that?
4. The past in our digital present.
5. Game on! Feds and Quebec start talks on Gulf Accord.
6. Kremlinology 23:  a little something for everyone.
7. Court docket now online.
8. A view into the Afghan war.
9. Telly web design sucks, kills RRS feed to popular content. (A re-tweet really drove this one)
10. Drill baby, drill:  Dunderdale rebuffs Quebec concerns on border, oil spill response.

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iPhone mania (with picture)

A determined gaggle of iPhone devotees lined up in several places across Canada on Friday to get their latest fix.

This shot is outside the Apple store on Ste-Catherine in Montreal. They were there all day, lined up around the corner as well as at cell phone company outlets.

Did these phones come with the design flaw fixed for free?

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Sins of omission

“Five key bridges in the western portion of the T’Railway Provincial Park that closed in 2008 are now re-opened to park users. … [The five bridges are being ] replaced as a result of a $3.6 million allocation in Budget 2010: The Right Investments – For Our Children and Our Future.”

That’s part of the first paragraph of a happy-news release from the province’s environment.  It’s one of dozens issued every week in July as part of the happy-news offensive mounted by the provincial government in the run up to August’s scheduled polling by the provincial government pollster.

The release leaves out much relevant detail.

Not surprisingly, that detail is embarrassing to the provincial government and especially to the ever-embarrassing minister, Charlene Johnson.

For starters, the bridges in questions were all former railway bridges inherited by the provincial government in 1988 when the railway closed.  The provincial government took responsibility for the bridges but until 2008 – apparently  - did nothing with them.

No maintenance.

No repairs.

No inspections either, apparently.

At all.

That is until the federal government inspected a few that crossed over federally-monitored waterways.  They found a raft of them in what appeared to be perilous states of disrepair. 

In one case, one of the bridges had vanished entirely.  When inspectors showed up to take a lookee-look, they couldn’t find anything except the footings on either shore.

So basically this splendiferous investment of more than three and a half millions could have been avoided or at least spread out over time if someone – anyone – at any point along the way had decided to do some regular maintenance on the bridges.

Or even taken a peek at them once in a while.

Even an auditor general’s report in 2003 on inadequate inspection of road bridges seems to have prompted any action on the former railway bridges, the ones now used by pedestrians, snowmobilers and ATV operators.

None of this, by the by, stopped Johnson from claiming that her department prized public safety. As your humble e-scribbler noted at the time:

We understand the inconvenience of the closure of these structures; however, public safety has to be our number one priority," said Minister Johnson.

But...

Environment Minister Charlene Johnson said today the province does not conduct routine safety assessments of structures on the T’Railway, which is a provincial park.

“There’s no regular inspections, no,” Johnson said in response to questions from reporters.

That sort of bumbling is why some people find it odd that Charlene has adopted a tone of haughty arrogance when dealing with issues like the Abitibi expropriation fiasco or offshore oil.

That sort of bumbling is also likely why Charlene’s publicists decided to torque this release without any reference  whatsoever - an omission in other words - to the mess that started it all.

But all of it doesn’t explain the real sin of omission here:  namely the explanation of why the Premier keeps this minister in a job for which she is clearly unqualified and at which she has clearly been a disaster of BP proportions.

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Game on! Feds and Quebec start talks on Gulf Accord

The Government of Quebec and the federal government started talks recently aimed at achieving an agreement on revenue sharing for any oil and gas in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canadian Press reported.

Details about what the deal would entail, and when it would be implemented, remain vague. But [federal natural resources minister Christian] Paradis described the broad outlines while standing next to [Quebec natural resources minister Nathalie] Normandeau at an event earlier this week.

"We're talking about an administrative deal," he said.

"The goal is to create an office of hydrocarbons, as is the case in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland."

At the heart of the move is a potentially lucrative field known as Old Harry.  Believed to contain significant natural gas or oil reserves, the field lies across a boundary between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador proposed in 1964 but never accepted. 

Both Quebec and the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board have issued permits to Corridor Resources to explore Old Harry.

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Related:

• Jurisdiction dispute holding up oil exploration (January 2009)
• Corridor hits big gas (May 2010)
• There are gulfs and then there are oilspill gulfs (June 2010)
• Drill baby, drill: Dunderdale rebuffs Quebec concerns about border, offshore oil spills (July 2010)

Did he expense that?

Right on the heels of a new appointment for something called a “legislative assistant” comes a news release that tells us that Ed Buckingham  - member of the House of Assembly for St. John’s East - filled in for Charlene Johnson at an announcement in Burgeo.

This raises some interesting questions, not the least of which is who paid Ed’s costs.

You see they weren’t ministerial expenses so they don’t turn up on the periodic disclosure of expenses by cabinet ministers.

And they weren’t expenses in the House of Assembly because this is a government job.  Ed shouldn’t be expensing them in the legislature.

The department should be covering the bill.

But interestingly enough, they don’t have to disclose any of the costs for travel by this odd bird called the legislative assistant or even confirm what if any pay goes with the title unless someone goes through the exercise of submitting an access to information request.

Of course, you wouldn’t even think to do that because until the Paul Davis announcement, these little jobs flew under the radar screen.  Sort of like “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Funny idea for a government that supposedly wants to be open, transparent and accountable.

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Kremlinology 23: a little something for everyone

Newbie member of the House of Assembly Paul Davis picked up a rather conspicuous new job on Tuesday.

He is the new legislative assistant for the municipal affairs department. 

Now this stands out for a bunch of reasons. 

First of all, this job doesn’t really exist, as such.  It’s one of those made-up jobs.  There are parliamentary secretaries as set down by the Parliamentary Secretaries Act. These people help ministers of large departments in what are effectively training positions for future cabinet ministers.

But legislative assistants?  They aren’t really mentioned.

That’s the second thing that makes this noticeable.  This appointment got a news release praising Davis to the hilt.  There’s no reference at all to what the job entails.

You might be surprised to find that Tracy Perry is the legislative assistant in InTRD.  She’s actually on the departmental website.  But there doesn’t seem to be a news release on her.

But what about Ed Buckingham, the guy representing St. John’s East?  Well, there is a single passing reference to him – by district, not name – as the legislative assistant for environment. Maybe he got punted from the job:  he isn’t on the departmental website any more.

Thirdly, this one stands out because of all the departments needing help, municipal affairs ain’t it. The department doesn’t generate much in the way of legislation so it’s pretty hard to imagine what Davis is going to be doing. Charlene could use Ed Buckingham to help her find where the boundary on her responsibilities are.  And if Ed had his turn at the assistant’s gig, then Davis’ police experience in finding things could come in handy for Charlene.

Fourthly, Davis’ appointment stands out because it is in a department where the minister is on the mend from a rather serious illness. Might that be the reason he is on the job now? If Whalen is still on the mend, then Davis might be able to take on some extra duties as a proto-minister without actually forcing a cabinet shuffle.

After all, a cabinet shuffle would be rather noticeable at this point.  Someone already pointed out that we are overdue for a Williams cabinet shuffle. Is this an effort to skate by?

Fifthly, Davis is rather junior to be getting a nice little plum.  He’s the last man in. Others – like say, political rainbow man Steve Kent -  have been around the House since 2007 doing little more than nursing their frustrated ambition.

Sixthly and perhaps most tellingly, Davis’ appointment draws attention to the number of people in Danny Williams’ caucus who are drawing extra pay.

There are 19 people in cabinet, four parliamentary secretaries (the maximum under the statute), one parliamentary assistant and at least two and maybe three of these strange birds called legislative assistants.*

Then there is the speaker, deputy speaker, chair of committees, deputy chair of committees, whip, caucus chair and the vice chair of the public accounts committee.

Altogether, that’s 33 people out of a 44 member caucus in a 48 seat legislature. In any normal legislature, that would be just about all the Tory caucus.  That’s about the same number of people drawing extras as we saw in the last days of Roger Grimes’ crowd and in the late 1980s as first Brian Peckford and then Tom Rideout staggered toward the end of the 1985 mandate.

In both instances, the parties had been in power for more than a decade. The extra pay helps to placate people who might never get a shot at cabinet in a caucus that might not get re-elected to government again.

In other cases, the extra pay is a way of keeping the peace among a restless and ambitious crew.  Politicians without much to do – and that would be most of the Tory caucus these days – have a disquieting tendency to spend their time brooding and plotting.  A few bucks can go a long way to distracting the potential revolutionaries from their course or co-opting a perceived rival.

But does any of that fit?

Maybe yes. 

Maybe no.

There’s more to the Davis announcement than the couple of paragraphs in the release. Sometimes with these things it takes a while for the story to emerge.

 

- srbp -

*  There could be another one, by the by.  There’s also a passing reference to one for Joan Burke.  It's hard to tell if this is an elected member or – as would normally be the case – a reference to a political staffer called the legislative assistant.  The staffer is the one who helps the minister or house leader manage the administrative aspects of the House.