Sticks and stones: NAFTA edition

Danny Chavez?

Danny Arafat?

How about the Cuckoo of Corner Brook?

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Bashing your own guys over the head is soooo strategic

An article in the current issue of Embassy magazine examines the European Union’s seal ban and how it is that Canada found itself outmanoeuvred by the anti-hunt movement.

University of Calgary political science professor Donald Barry told Embassy that two things gave the otherwise moribund seal crowd a new lease on life.

One was a hike in quotas that brought the number close enough to a million to give it some propaganda value again.

The other was…

Mr. Barry says another key development was the fierce exchange between Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams and former Beatle Paul McCartney and his then-wife Heather Mills McCartney on CNN's Larry King Live in March 2006. During the show, Mr. Williams alleged, among other things, that the FBI was investigating the International Federation for Animal Welfare and other animal-rights groups for terrorism, and that the McCartneys were being used by the groups.

"The publicity propelled [IFAW] right back into the forefront of the opposition," Mr. Barry says. With IFAW's ability to mobilize support and the Humane Society's strong public relations machine, "you have a series of groups whose strengths complement each other and they're practiced at what they do."

So basically that whole Larry King foolishness turned out to be a gigantic help to the other guys.

And that one trip to Europe did exactly diddly-squat.

Like, no one saw that coming.

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Lower Churchill costing: recap

How does $15.5 billion grab you?

Feel any better about $12 billion?

Maybe $11 billion?

Since the subject is back in the public eye yet again, here are some figures  - yet again -  related to the estimated costs for the Lower Churchill project.

1.     Danny Williams’ estimate of costs to build two dams, line to St. John’s and line to Quebec (House of Assembly, May 2010):  $12 billion. Note:  Williams gave a range of $6.0 to $12 billion. 

Based on other information in the public domain, Williams’ estimate of $6.0 billion would be for the dams alone without any transmission infrastructure or for the highly unlikely scenario of one dam and limited transmission infrastructure.  The project description used for these comments is the one contained in NALCOR’s environmental assessment submissions.  It consists of two dams, a line to St. John’s and a tie to Churchill falls and out to Quebec.  There is no plan in public for any connection to Nova Scotia or any other part of the Maritimes.

2.     Cost for two dams, line to St. John’s and connection to Quebec (1998):  $10.5 billion.

3.     NALCOR estimated cost for two dams and line to Quebec (Telegram, August 2010):  $9.5 billion.  Consists of $6.5 billion for two dams and $3.0 billion of transmission facilities.

4.     2009 value of the 1998 project cost estimate, accounting for inflation:  $13.75 billion.

If you accept NALCOR’s current cost estimate for the project – in the Telegram story linked above - you would have to believe that they have been able to negate over a decade of inflation and at the same time further reduce construction costs in a province where government capital works projects routinely go over budget, some by as much as 70%.

Inflation alone would put the 1998 project (that is, essentially the same one NALCOR is proposing) at something around $14 billion.  A line to Nova Scotia would add a minimum of another $1.5 billion to that for a cost of more than $15.5 billion.

5.     Estimated cost of tie to Nova Scotia (Chronicle Herald, Jan 2010 not on line):  $800 million to $1.2 billion.

6.     Estimated cost of tie to Nova Scotia (CBC Here and Now, 24 Aug 2010, not on line):  $1.5 billion.

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AbitibiBowater reaches expropriation settlement

The Government of Canada and AbitibiBowater announced a settlement today of AbitibiBowater’s NAFTA challenge of the 2008 seizure of its property and assets by the House of Assembly.

There is no word on any settlement with other companies also affected by the seizure. Government seized hydroelectric assets belonging to Fortis and Enel.  Other companies affected by the seizure included Clarica, Sun Life Assurance, Mutual Life Assurance, Standard Life Assurance, and Industrial Life Assurance.

AbitibiBowater initially sought much higher damages in its claim under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The expropriation will still hit provincial taxpayers in their collective bank accounts. Premier Danny Williams confirmed that in May.

A gigantic legal error in the wording of the expropriation legislation means that the provincial government seized not only assets but also most of AbitibiBowater’s substantial environmental liabilities.

On top of that, the expropriation bill for taxpayers also includes millions spent on futile legal arguments.

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Government of Canada news release:

“The Government of Canada and AbitibiBowater have reached an agreement regarding the expropriation of assets in Newfoundland and Labrador.

“The Government of Canada has agreed to make a payment of $130 million to AbitibiBowater upon the company’s restructuring. This payment represents the fair market value of the company’s expropriated assets.

“AbitibiBowater has agreed to irrevocably and permanently withdraw its claim against Canada.

“The Government of Canada has resolved this dispute for the benefit of Canada’s long-term economic interests. In reaching this agreement, we are avoiding potentially long and costly legal proceedings.

“This approach reaffirms the Government of Canada’s commitment to maintaining a rules-based business environment that facilitates free trade and encourages investment.

“The Government of Canada is moving forward on an ambitious free trade and investment agenda—a cornerstone of Canada’s strong economic position and future growth. We will continue to stand up for Canadian businesses at home and abroad by securing greater access to the North American marketplace.”

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Trade Media Relations Office
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
613-996-2000

AbitibiBowater news release:

AbitibiBowater Announces Intention to Withdraw NAFTA Notice of Arbitration - Settlement Agreement Reached with the Government of Canada for C$130 Million

MONTREAL, Aug 24, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ --

ABWTQ (OTC)

AbitibiBowater today announced a formal settlement agreement with the Government of Canada with regards to its assets and rights in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, expropriated by the provincial government under Bill 75 in December 2008. The Government of Canada will pay AbitibiBowater C$130 million, representing not more than the fair market value of those rights and assets, following the Company's emergence from creditor protection.

As part of the settlement agreement AbitibiBowater will waive its legal actions and claims against the Government of Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

"We believe this is an acceptable settlement for our Company, stakeholders and creditors, given the set of circumstances faced by the Company at this particular time as well as the inherent uncertainty of any judicial process," stated David J. Paterson, President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are now able to move forward and focus on finalizing our restructuring process and plans to emerge from creditor protection in the fall 2010."

"AbitibiBowater would like to thank the Government of Canada for its efforts to reach this settlement and avoid a protracted and expensive NAFTA case. We look forward to continuing our strong working relationships with Canada and contributing to the country's economic, social and sustainable development," concluded Paterson.

The settlement agreement is conditional upon AbitibiBowater obtaining the approval of its terms by the Superior Court of Quebec in the CCAA proceedings and by the U.S. court in the chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings as well as court approvals in the U.S. and Canada of AbitibiBowater's restructuring plans. Following emergence, the settlement payment will be paid to the new Canadian entity.

AbitibiBowater produces a wide range of newsprint, commercial printing and packaging papers, market pulp and wood products. It is the eighth largest publicly traded pulp and paper manufacturer in the world. AbitibiBowater owns or operates 19 pulp and paper facilities and 24 wood products facilities located in the United States, Canada and South Korea. Marketing its products in more than 70 countries, the Company is also among the world's largest recyclers of old newspapers and magazines, and has third-party certified 100% of its managed woodlands to sustainable forest management standards. AbitibiBowater's shares trade over-the-counter on the Pink Sheets and on the OTC Bulletin Board under the stock symbol ABWTQ.

SOURCE ABITIBIBOWATER INC. - ENGLISH

Mr. Premier, what are you trying to hide?

Opposition leader Danny Williams would have a field day with the Old Man he’s become as Premier.

The younger Danny would be kicking the Old Man’s ass all over the political map.

Take, for instance, the billion dollar secret deal with Nova Scotia he decided not to tell anyone about and that both provincial governments are still not talking about.

The Chronicle Herald managed to find out from NALCOR that the application to a federal funding program is for $375 million. But…

The Dexter government declined to release the amount last week, but Nalcor Energy, Newfoundland’s Crown power utility, did disclose it.

Nancy Watson, spokeswoman for the Energy Department here, confirmed the figure. She said the province wasn’t going to release it because it’s preliminary and the project would eventually be subject to private bids.

She said officials here thought it "more sensible to not talk about things before we had the details in place."

Maybe what they are trying to hide is that this line to Nova Scotia is a lot less than the Old Man tried to make it sound like.

Details not in place.

“Preliminary” cost estimates.

Maybe the whole thing is just a ploy.

Maybe it’s Danny just setting up a pre-emptive excuse when the feds turn down this half-baked, incomplete “preliminary” application.

No matter how you slice it, the whole thing just makes you want to scream at Dex and Danny:

“Mr. Premier, what are you trying to hide?”

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The truth of fiction: may I have the envelope please?

Back of the envelope calculations that don’t add up.

Cabinet ministers who get to make stuff up during interviews and their comments go unchallenged by simple facts and figures in the newspaper story.

All just par for the “news” course in Newfoundland and Labrador these days, apparently, and for the second time in a week, nottawa has laid out some pretty sharp observations on local reporting and the bogus political claims they contain.

In the latest post, nottawa takes apart comments made by finance minister Tom Marshall in a Telegram story on provincial government profits from video lottery terminals:

First, while disposable incomes in Newfoundland & Labrador [sic] rose sharply in 2006, they've declined every year since.* The first year that VLT numbers rose, disposable incomes in this province were actually declining, not increasing. That tends to happen in a recession. Thus if higher disposable incomes were to account for the rise in VLT revenue, surely that rise would have occurred in the very years that Marshall himself reported that VLT revenues were declining. It's completely contradictory.

As for an increase in population, while the province did report a minor population increase in 2009, Newfoundland & Labrador's population has 6,000 fewer souls than it did in 2004-05, the baseline comparator year given by the great numerologist himself in the Telegram story.

The asterisk just directs you to the Statistics Canada data series that show the declines he mentions.

There are a couple of details that nottawa left out.

For starters, the Telegram story refers to a cut in the number of terminals and other changes to game play:

In 2006, the government launched a strategy to reduce the number of VLTs in the province by 15 per cent over five years.

That target has been exceeded. The number is closer to 25 per cent.

In 2007, the province brought in other measures to reduce VLT play.

VLT operating hours were cut to a 12-hour window between noon and midnight. Previously, the hours were 9 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.

The machines were reprogrammed to slow play by 30 per cent. And the stop-button feature was removed from VLTs, further slowing play.

Now on the surface that looks like some kind of anti-gambling move.  Yay, government! That rosy interpretation would be easy if you also heard the news stories about the Premier’s remarks on online gambling and didn’t get anything else but the superficial version of things.

But that conclusion would also be a wee bit off base once you consider the second element.

Take a look at an aspect of the Telegram story that isn’t right there in your face.  Look at the number of machines and the profit and figure out how much each machine that is in service generates for the province’s finance department in profit.  Don’t forget along the way that, as nottawa pointed out, that the lottery corporation knows in intimate detail what action each machine gets.

When you compare the profit and the number of machines, you discover that each machine made an average of $32, 266 in 2004-05.  The profit dipped to $27.761 per machine the next year but then four years later - 2008-09 - the per-machine take is back up to $34,216.  That’s roughly where it was four years earlier.

Fewer machines.

Same profitability.

And from nottawa’s observation about population, you could logically conclude the actual cash take on the machines might well have been the same in 2008 as it was in 2004. Heck, the haul might have even gone down somewhat. 

Fewer machines, same profitability and all in the absence of a huge jump in revenue.

Could it be that the lottery corporation very sensibility reduced its costs in order to improve its profit margins? On the face of it, the cut in machines could do just that.  By getting rid of unprofitable machines or ones with low profitability the lottery corporation would do two things.

First, it would reduce the cost from payments to bar owners, cash payouts on low revenue generators and maintenance.

Second, it would redirect the cash from the less profitable machines to other machines, often in what was essentially the same business establishment.

Poof!  Lower costs would mean increased profitability even if you had exactly the same gross revenue. 

When more people start playing the smaller number of machines or start spending more cash, the profitability climbs even higher.  This might seem like magic to some people, including, apparently, the province’s finance minister.  Remember:  Marshall was taking about factors that would increase revenue, but the figures he gave the telegram were profits.  The two are connected but they aren’t the same thing.  

But really, the lottery corporation apparently just took a sensible business decision when it started to cut back on the number of machines.  The fact that it looked to some like an anti-gambling initiative was a bonus. Two birds.  One stone.  Ya gotta like them apples, or in this case cherries and lemons or whatever it is that VLTs show on their screens.

Now the lottery corporation isn’t likely to give you its gross revenue numbers for the province because that’s a competitive issue.  You can find out what the total profit was for this province in 2008, but when the corporation reports profits in the thousands of millions of dollars – instead of billions – you know that obscuring details are important to the corporation.

Even the 35% of the province’s adult population with adequate numeracy skills would have to think twice about the figure of $1,637 million to figure out how much it is.  They could just as easily have said $1,637 thousand thousand. Still the same number but not exactly the conventional way of saying $1.637 billion, is it?

All that said, though, if you follow the logic, it is compelling.

But it sure isn’t what Tom Marshall was blathering on about or what the Telegram reported.

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VOCM “news” has no source

News outlets usually give a source for the information they provide, so when the province’s largest commercial radio station gives a glowing story without a single source, one tends to get a wee bit suspicious.

And when the information contradicts reliable sources, you have to wonder what sort of shenanigans are going on over at the radio network known derisively at this time of the year as voice of the cabinet minister.

Here’s the entire “story” VOCM posted to its website under the headline “Construction Booming in Capital City”.

The audio file attached to the story demonstrates the text is just the script for the report.  And if you can’t make out the print in that picture, here’s what it says:

If you're of the opinon [sic] there's more construction activity than usual going on in the capital city, you're right. Virtually all elements of the construction industry are up in St.John's. The only area which is experiencing a decrease for the year to date is residential, which is about $5 million off last year's pace. The number of units being built has dropped from 422 to 365. Commercial is going at nearly double last year's rate, industrial has gone from next to nothing to $300 million, and government or institutional type activity has soared from $20 million to $90 million. Overall, building and reno permits are worth about 60 per cent more this year than last August.

So where did all this information come from?

That’s a good question because there isn’t any clue anywhere in the audio version or in the text file as to where they got the information.

If you go to an authoritative source, like say Statistics Canada, the most recent figures don’t show anything vaguely like the VOCM claim. 

Here’s a chart of SC’s tally of non-residential building construction in the province as a whole and in St. John’s (the blue line with diamond-shaped bullets). The numbers on the vertical axis are millions of dollars. Your humble e-scribbler ran it in late July, so some of you will be familiar with it.

For the second quarter of 2010, the value of non-residential building construction  - that’s institutional (government), commercial and industrial for St. John’s was $40 million.

Not the $300 million claimed for the industrial component alone.

$40 million.

Total.

Even if you added up the two quarters, you still would be less than one third of the number VOCM claims without any sourcing for just one category and only in St. John’s.

Hey, VOCM.

Ed Murrow called.

He wants those awards back.

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The value of education

Talk about putting the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

The provincial government thinks innovation is about how much money it spends on something. Take this quote from Danny Williams as being just one of many:

That is an area [innovation] we are now moving in. It is a very, very important area that we have to address and this government is committed to putting that money into that research. That is why the experience that I had yesterday was an incredible experience, but it goes to show the importance of using those monies in the proper areas so that we can prepare for the future at a time when the oil and gas is gone.

That event, incidentally happened actually two days before he made those remarks.  The province’s new research and development corporation announced $775,000 in funding for different research projects.

This emphasis on cash is not surprising. The crowd currently running the place seem to think that everything can be reduced to how much money government spends. 

But as good as it is to fund research and development, when it comes to innovation, education is the key.
When you look at education in the province, though, you don’t get a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Reading and writing is a challenge.

Almost half the adult population of Newfoundland and Labrador doesn’t have a literacy level that would allow them to “function well in Canadian society.”

Basic math skills are an even bigger problem.

Almost two out of every three adult Newfoundlanders and Labradorians don’t have the skill with numbers and mathematics – they call it numeracy – to function well in Canadian society.

Numeracy is actually a far greater problem because it involves not just an ability to add, subtract, multiple and divide.  Numeracy also involves logic and reasoning, probability, and statistics.  That's basically the ability to solve problems using  - for example - an }if this, then that" way of thinking.

The only place worse off than this one?  Nunavut.  New Brunswick is tied with Newfoundland and Labrador with low numeracy and literacy levels among adults.

Just think about it for a second:  half the workforce of the province lacks the ability to function adequately in modern society. It’s not their fault, mind you, and it certainly doesn’t mean they are stupid.  These figures tell you that the province’s education system failed them, not just in the past but in the present day.

The problem, you see, isn’t confined to adults. Student literacy is about the same as the adult scores, while student numeracy is nothing to write home about either. 

Now on the other hand, the drop-out rate has plummeted in the past 20 years. But as CBC Radio noted late last December, high school graduates in the eastern part of the province are more likely to graduate with a general pass than with the results needed to carry on to university or trades training.

You can see the consequences in the completion and participation rates. University participation is among the best in the country even if the completion rate is one of the worst. College and trade school education has a relatively low participation rate but a decent completion level.

It’s not like the connection between education and prosperity isn’t well known.  The 1992 Strategic Economic Plan included a section specifically on education reform. The premise was simple enough:

Education is the key to economic development. Studies have shown conclusively that skills, qualifications, innovation and the adaptability of individuals are critical determinants of economic performance and the success of enterprises.

The 1995 Strategic Social Plan, while never implemented, included significant reforms in our education system.

The answer to the education problem in the province is not merely about spending money, as much as the Premier likes to talk about how much cash winds up going out the door.  Nor is the answer found in issuing nonsensical news releases that claim the education department scored a goal when it didn’t.

The first step is to realise there is a problem.

And with half the work force unable to function adequately in modern society, there’s a pretty big problem going unrecognized.

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The old trading federal cash for a deal with Quebec trick

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

That was Danny Williams in April 2009. 

Williams was describing a deal by NALCOR Energy to wheel power from Churchill Falls through Quebec to American markets.

These days you’d hardly know the event happened.

But it did.

The April 2009 deal is the single episode which refutes all the claims Williams has made since then about not being able to run Labrador power through Quebec.

Williams told reporters at the time that the deal

“… shows that our power [in Labrador] is not stranded power," he said.

"We're not forced to just sell it at the border to Quebec at whatever price Quebec wants to pay for it."

Not surprisingly, given its position on a line from Labrador to Ontario, the Government of Quebec preferred this option to a line subsidised by Ottawa.  CBC quoted Quebec natural resources minister Claude Bechard on the April 2009 deal:

"We don't want to have a new transmission grid that will be subsidized by the federal government," Béchard said.

"That's the way that we have to work for the future. That's the way we have to work if we want to keep our capacity in our place."

All in all, Williams most recent attack on Quebec is very odd indeed.

Neither he nor the Nova Scotians should have been surprised by Quebec’s objection to federal subsidies for a new line to Nova Scotia, even if – as in the Nova Scotia line – it has nothing whatsoever to do with the Lower Churchill.

Oh yes, Danny Williams mentioned this might be a way to run power from the Great White Whale to the Maritimes, but NALCOR isn’t really too interested in that very long and very expensive route.

You can tell this because the route it is highlighting to the never-ending environmental review process, the route described connects the two new dams back to Churchill Falls and then to the border with Quebec.  The most recent local media report confirm NALCOR is still using exactly the same development scenario described in the original submissions, which are the same as the project outlines used by Roger Grimes’ crew in 2002, Brian Tobin’s gang in 1998 and every provincial administration back to Joe Smallwood.

And it’s not like Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter doesn’t realise this whole transmission connect to Newfoundland isn’t really about the Lower Churchill either. As Dex put it last January:

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.

If you want to know what this Nova Scotia line is really all about, you have to look nor farther back than April 2009.

That Ontario line and its subsidies went “poof” pretty quickly, didn’t it?

This whole Anglo-Saxon route is nothing more than a bargaining ploy the Old Man is using in his ongoing efforts to get a deal with Hydro-Quebec.

And besides, it’s not like a Newfoundland and Labrador Premier didn’t use Nova Scotia to try and leverage a deal with Quebec for Labrador power before.

Would you believe 1964?

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The Shortest-Timers

At an average of a mere 43 days, the Reform-based Conservative Party led by Danny Williams holds the post-Confederation record in Newfoundland and Labrador for lowest average number of sitting days in the legislature by an elected Premier.

The only Premiers whose administrations met the House of Assembly less frequently than Danny Williams were three people who got the job as a result of internal party politics, not as a result of winning a general election. 

Roger Grimes’ administration sat an average of 42 days, but Grimes got the job as the result of a party leadership convention.

The same goes for Tom Rideout, who won a leadership contest in 1989 to replace Brian Peckford.  Rideout served as Premier for a total of 43 days but never sat in the legislature as Premier. During the 1989 campaign, Rideout did make a public commitment that he would do so within two weeks of polling day if voters re-elected his party with a majority.

Nor did Beaton Tulk, who served for a handful of weeks between Brian Tobin’s resignation in October 2000 and Roger Grimes election as party leader in February 2001. 

At the 43 day average, Williams beats the previous record, set between 1949 and 1972, by Joe Smallwood.  He met the legislature, on average, for 53 days a year.   Brian Peckford’s third administration tied the same record after the 1985 general election.

Between 1979 and 1985, though, Peckford set what is still the record for highest average number of sitting days.  Peckford’s administration introduced scheduled fall sittings and, as a result, sat an average of 80 days annually for those six years.

That’s only slightly ahead of Clyde Wells’ administrations, which met the legislature on average 79.4 days from 1989 to 1995. 

Discounting the 1989 and 1993 election years, Wells faced the House an average of 88 days per year.  Discounting the 2007 election year, Williams has faced the House only 45.6 days per year.

In 2009, the House of Assembly sat on 32 days.

Williams himself makes no bones about his attitude toward the House of Assembly.  As Macleans related it in 2004:

He still bristles at the "wasted time" in the House, and the daily distractions that take him away from the real work of governing.

His record of attendance and his record of sitting days apparently confirms his negative attitude.

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Sources:  Parliament of Canada website and Susan McCorquodale, “Newfoundland; personality, party and politics” in Gary levy and Graham White, editors, Provincial and territorial legislatures of Canada, (Toronto:  University of Toronto Press, 1989)

Traffic Drivers, August 16-20

1. Orcas and minke whales off Newfoundland:  video
2. When it sucks to be you (link to GovSpeak translator)
3. Williams, Dexter ink secret energy deal…but with whom?
4. No surprise in Quebec’s position on federal cash
5. One Big Election
6. The Tory Tao of Political Pork
7. Housing bubble bursts – Conference Board
8. The Expropriation Fiasco drags on
9. The truth of fiction
10. Insights into the Premier’s mindset (Henley v. Cable Atlantic)

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The truth of fiction

nottawa does a fine job of laying out the completely ridiculous media coverage this week of a few words the Old Man had with Randy Simms on Open Line about online gambling.

There’s also a Telegram story that apparently took two people to pull together. it appears to be nothing more than the same rehash of Danny Williams’ call to Open Line just like all the others.

There are a couple of aspects to this that nottawa missed. 

First of all, Williams’ call came simply because we are in polling season.  Williams wanted to generate exactly this sort of coverage and the local media are all too happy to oblige him.

When cabinet finally gets around to dealing with this issue, it really won’t matter what Williams said publicly on this occasion. This won’t be the first time he or someone from his cabinet said one thing and did another.
That sort of thing is old hat.

Nor will the people of the province know until – potentially - two years from now that he said one thing and did another.  Ontario, for example, is getting a piece of the action.  The Ontario lottery commission will take 18 months to launch their project.  Even if the provincial cabinet here met as they used to on Thursday morning and blessed this proposal, there’d be no sign of it, necessarily, until well after the next election.

By then, any personal opposition Williams really has to the idea will be completely irrelevant.  Heck, even he won’t care what he said just this past week.  Williams will take a whole new position and never have to worry someone will point out that he used to say something else.  It’s like being a have province:  Good thing in November 2008;  bad thing, two months later.  Same reporters wrote both stories like the one didn’t contradict the other.

And that’s the second aspect to the online gambling unstory.

Online gambling is a serious enough issue but Williams’ statement that he opposes it is not news, especially when he says it is a cabinet decision.

His comments are certainly not news in comparison to the story last week when  he revealed a billion dollar secret energy deal.  To date not a single local media outlet has covered that aspect of the Nova Scotia transmission line story. Odds are that not a single reporter has asked Williams about it and if they have, we are unlikely to see a story saying that the administration is hiding information or is stonewalling.

The local newsrooms will oblige the Premier in what everyone now knows is a quarterly farce and yet they are ignoring a gigantic hard news story.  They are turning away from it – apparently – just like they ignored the Dunderdale story from around the same time last year. Oddly enough, she made her remarks to Randy Simms as well.

On the same show this morning, one regular caller repeated the same [old] myths, half-truths, distortions and fabrications on the same old subjects – all aligning with the frame the Premier set last week - as if any of his claims were real.

And the host agreed with it all.   In fact, Simms led off his show on Thursday with the Premier’s frame on the transmission line. He [even] added a few gems of his own.

As it seems, Newfoundland and Labrador is a place where not a single public figure is concerned with facts. 

None of them is concerned with reality.  Politics and the the news media is about fiction.

Sixty years ago, Walter Lippmann wrote that even in their lifetime the people he called great men are known to the ordinary citizen only through “a fictitious personality.”

Well, these days, the entire scope of public life in Newfoundland and Labrador is fiction.

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Updated 1920 hrs to fix capitalisation, add words to correct flow in two sentences and delete the word “province” where it occurred in the wrong spot.

The Expropriation Fiasco drags on

Danny Williams hasty, ill-considered and thus far unexplained expropriation of AbitibiBowater assets may well end up costing the people of Newfoundland and Labrador untold millions of dollars.

A healthy chunk of their loss will go to a raft of expensive Montreal lawyers Danny Williams is using to pursue legal action in Quebec courts.

Now that the Quebec appeal court refused to hear the government’s appeal of lower court decisions, the only place left is the Supreme Court of Canada.  Odds are against that court hearing the case simply because the provincial legal arguments are week and they have already been thoroughly demolished at the lower court level.

One must wonder why Williams persists.  His track record in court isn’t good.  Take Henley v. Cable Atlantic or Ruelokke v. Newfoundland and Labrador and the preposterous privative clause argument as good cases in point. 

You can then add the AbitibiBowater cases to the list. Anyone who takes the time to read the record of government’s actions in the whole bankruptcy can only shake their heads in disbelief at the amateurish actions.

Many of its actions has been as astonishingly lame as the government’s performance in that other Quebec legal action, the Regie appeals. One would scarcely believe that government’s lawyers did not call a single expert witness to support its case or refute Hydro-Quebec’s assertions but that is exactly what happened.

According to the Globe and Mail, [link above] the provincial government contends there are three issues that need the attention of the nine wise old owls in Ottawa.

Newfoundland said the case raises three specific issues: – ensuring consistency across the country by resolving a conflict between provincial environmental law and federal bankruptcy and insolvency law; – who should bear the cleanup costs when a company is attempting to restructure; – does the CCAA give a court power to remove all hurdles under provincial law that impair a company's ability to restructure.

Now your humble e-scribbler isn’t a lawyer but the answers to these questions seem fairly obvious.  They are obvious because AB is still on the hook.

The answers are in the Quebec court decisions: at no point has the company been relieved of any of its liabilities for clean-up of its properties in this province.  When AbitibiBowater set up the remaining properties in a holding company, the provincial government’s lawyers did not raise a single objection in court.  AB is still on the hook.  The liabilities have not been extinguished.

The Quebec court decisions are there in black and white.  The language is not complicated. One can only wonder why Williams persists in pursuing what is essentially a lost cause.

Perhaps, he carries on because of the intense embarrassment, the ignominy of such a massive mistake as the expropriation turned out to be.  As the Globe out it:

The province wants to force Abitibi to clean up five sites it ran between 1905 and 2008.

Unfortunately for Williams, he and his lawyers screwed up the expropriation. The provincial government now owns some of the most contaminated of the sites. His clever little scheme – seize the assets and leave the company with all the liabilities – blew up in his face.

And what must be especially galling is that Williams knows  the law is absolutely clear on this as well:  the liability flows to the new owners.  When Williams seized the property, he seized the pollution and the responsibility for cleaning it up.

If things go as they are likely to go, the SCC won’t waste time hearing the appeal. Unfortunately for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, though, a quick end to the legal action only limits a small portion of the costs that will flow from Williams’ monumental shag-up. The final tally for that mess has yet to be calculated

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Orcas and Minke whales off Newfoundland: video

Video from Trinity Eco-Tours of an orca pod attacking a minke whale in Trinity Bay Newfoundland:

Last week, CBCNL posted video of a similar attack off Tors Cove on the Avalon Peninsula.

Trinity Eco-Tours has other video on its website including this one of a humpback in relatively shallow water.

From the company website:

Robert Bartlett is your skipper. A native Newfoundlander, his love of the sea and of Newfoundland history drew him to the Trinity area where he has chosen to live.  He has over 25 years of sea experience and is fully certified in boat and tour operations.  

Robert is an avid SCUBA diver.  Newfoundland has many shipwrecks spanning many periods of history.  In the Trinity harbour alone, there are three separate known wrecks that can be visited including the wreck of the HMS Spedwell, an English frigate that sank in 1750. Robert does offer SCUBA tours to these wrecks for interested and experienced SCUBA divers only.  He also offers dives to see the various sea life in the bay.  If interested in knowing more about a diving adventure please call and let us know. 

"One thing that I love to share is my love of the ocean, its secrets and its occupants. Yours will be a day trip experience that will be treasured as the highlight of your travels here."  - Robert Bartlett 2009.

Pictures and videos on the website highlight whales, icebergs, wrecks and the awesome rugged beauty of the ocean, cliffs and majestic nature of the bay. Most of the pictures were taken by Robert Bartlett above and below the water. All pictures were taken on our tours and used with express permission of the photographer. Their experiences were unique, so will yours.

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Housing bubble bursts – Conference Board

The hyperactive St. John’s housing market will be slipping back toward demographic requirements in the second half of 2010, according to the Conference Board of Canada.

“We had that little bubble in the first few months of this year, which means that moving forward, we’re going to move back more toward the demographic requirements,”

according to the board’s senior economist Jane McIntyre.

Meanwhile, Deer Lake is experiencing a mini boom of its own, according to the Western Star. The town council issued 30 building permits in May.  On top of that there’s a new 31 unit apartment building going up.

But it gets interesting if you look at the source of the growth in town:

With new homes come new residents, and local real estate agent Carol Anstey of Remax Realty Professionals Ltd., said the clients she deals with cover a broad spectrum.

“There’s a certain percentage of people whose husbands are flying back and forth to Fort McMurray who live on the Northern Peninsula.  We’ve had a few of those families relocate here because the airport is here and they don’t have to do the drive up the coast,” she said.

Anstey said some customers are moving from other parts of the country to Deer Lake to retire, while other younger families are growing out of their starter homes and looking for newer and bigger.

People from the Great Northern Peninsula are relocating to Deer Lake because someone in the family is actually a migrant labourer working in Alberta. It’s easier to live In Deer Lake because that’s where the airport is.  Meanwhile another bunch of people are actually retired from working somewhere else – not in the province either – who have decided, quite rightly, that Deer Lake is a beautiful place to retire.

Nowhere in there did anyone mention that the town is growing because the local economy is booming with new manufacturing or service businesses.

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The Tory Tao of Political Pork

For members of the Reform-based Conservative Party in Newfoundland and Labrador, road paving is done in an electoral district.  Sometimes, the release refers to an “area” but the name for the area is curiously the same as the electoral district. 

Take this one for example, even if the headline makes it sound like the program in Torngat Mountains gave the money instead of got the cash.

Torngat Mountains Recreation Programs Provided $15,565

The media release will include a quote from the local representative of the Reform-based Conservative Party. In the one cited, the member turned out to be a cabinet minister.

In another release, the reference is to the Southern Shore, but the district of Ferryland covers pretty much the whole thing.  The locals would understand the two things are synonymous.  There is the obligatory thankful quote from the local Conservative Party member.

But if the cash is going to a district represented by an opposition member, any references to the district or anything that might be construed as the district get obliterated.

Take, for example, this release about money for the district of Cartwright-L'Anse au Claire.  It’s represented by Opposition Leader Yvonne Jones. Money for that district is going to the area around Pinware.

The only quote is from the transportation minister.

All government spending is partisan pork for Tories.

That is their eternal, unchanging rule.

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One Big Election

Back after a brief absence, nottawa poses the provocative suggestion that we might see simultaneous federal and provincial elections across the country in the fall of 2011.

The implications both locally and nationally are bigger than you might think.

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Should I stay or should I go?

Something for everyone.

1. Political humour version – featuring Tony Blair:

2.  The original version - The Clash:

3.  Ukulele mania!

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When it sucks to be you

What else do you need but a website that takes trendy, hideous business jargon and translates it into plain English?

You know the garbage-words and crap phrases.

Things like “on a go-forward basis”. 

Pure drivel.

So run it through the grinder at unsuck-it.com and this is what you get:

On a Go-Forward Basis

We will be leveraging core competencies across the enterprise on a go-forward basis.

Unsucked: In the future.

Some of you might be surprised to find out that “on a go-forward basis” means nothing more grandiose than “in the future” or “from now on.”

Others of you are no doubt wondering why some people use jargon quite so much or why it is that politicians like to use gobbledy-gook when there are perfect simple words available in English that everyone can understand.

And then there are the people who work for those politicians who will be thankful there is a website that spits out this shite so they don’t have to do the miserable job any more.

Don’t say your humble e-scribbler didn’t try and help you all out.

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No surprise in Quebec’s position on federal cash

No one should be surprised that the Government of Quebec is objecting to federal funding of an electricity line between Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.

Since talk started up again about an East-West electricity grid in Canada, Quebec has objected to federal funding.

A cyberpresse.ca article on August 9, 2007 gives Quebec’s succinct position, straight from the lips of Premier Jean Charest:

« Est-ce que le gouvernement fédéral devrait intervenir pour financer la construction de lignes ? C’est là-dessus où le Québec dit non », a-t-il déclaré.

This particular statement is interesting for two reasons.  First of all, it came at a news conference during a Council of the Federation meeting on energy.  Second, the issue at the time was a potential line from Labrador to Ontario.

Hardly surprising, therefore, that Quebec continues to object to federal involvement in funding electricity lines.
And, as labradore pointed out last week, Quebec’s intergovernmental affairs minister repeated the government’s position that electricity infrastructure ought to be paid for by provincial governments but not the federal one:

«N'importe qui peut vendre de l'énergie aux Américains, a réagi mercredi le ministre provincial. Ce qui compte, c'est que les gens suivent les règles. Et la règle, pour nous, c'est que quand on construit une ligne, ce sont les sociétés d'État qui paient. Pas le gouvernement fédéral.»

The context of those comments was announcement of the interconnection upgrade between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

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