Another sign of the democratic deficit #nlpoli

If you have a few minutes to spare, flip through the provincial government’s 2012 budget.

Look for the work “donation”.

You won’t find it.  Nor will you find any amount of money set aside in the health department budget that would cover a donation by the provincial government to health care foundations operated in some communities on the west coast earlier this year.

Muskrat needs full review: AIMS #nlpoli

By any reasonable standard, Gordon Weil would count as an expert.

In business.

In the energy business.

An expert.

As much as she said she wants to hear from experts, Weil’s review of the Muskrat Falls project won’t have any impact on Kathy Dunderdale.

That’s because he doesn’t fit her unique definition of what an expert is.

Free-Fall from space

-srbp-

Muskrat, Martin, and Meaning #nlpoli

Note the number of times Ed Martin says “open”  or “transparent” within the first five minutes of his weekend interview for On Point with David Cochrane.

Odds are very high that these words relate to a very sensitive issue for Nalcor, revealed by their extensive polling.

Put the On Point interview together with Martin’s article in the weekend Telegram  - not online - and you can see why these ideas are causing Nalcor such problems.

Dunderdale on track for 100% #nlpoli

Premier Kathy Dunderdale tied the record on Friday for senior executive changes in the provincial public service.

She appointed an acting deputy minister of justice to replace a fellow who has gone off to his reward as a justice of the supreme court.

Dunderdale set the record last year with 39 changes in a group of senior managers numbering about 85 in total.

If she keeps up the same pace of changes in 2012, Dunderdale will make a total of 49 before the New Year arrives.  A quick tally would show that  - if she hits that number – Kathy Dunderdale will have made the equivalent of a complete change in the senior ranks of the public service in about two years.

That’s on top of the heavy number of changes to the senior public service over the past decade.  Of the line departments, natural resources as seen the heaviest number of changes.  There’s been no obvious explanation for the high turn-over any more than there was any explanation of the sudden and mysterious changes at the deputy minister level in the department last month.

The former deputy minister, appointed in 2011 disappeared in September 2012 without explanation or – if you check the release – even a mention of her existence.

She.

Just.

Disappeared.

-srbp-

The Last Refuge #nlpoli

Call them the Dam One Percent.

Call them Dan-Dam Style.

Call them Millionaires for Muskrat.

Call them MFers, with tongue firmly in cheek.

The business people who back Muskrat Falls are now writing letters to the newspapers and forming political action groups to show their support of Muskrat Falls.

Like nobody knew that people like Nalcor directors Cathy Bennett and John Steele, former Nalcor chair Deanny MacDonald, and Labrador businessman Peter Woodward didn’t love the Muskrat Falls project already.

Masters of our debt-ridden domain #nlpoli

Premier Kathy Dunderdale confirmed on Wednesday that companies looking to develop Labrador mines have been getting good results from their inquiries about buying electricity from Hydro-Quebec.

According to Dunderdale, the companies “understand that if Muskrat Falls does not go ahead, what happens in Labrador from that point on lies squarely in the hands of Hydro-Québec and the province of Quebec.”

She added:

Think about that! Does anybody have any confidence that, when mines in this province go to Hydro-Québec looking for energy for development in Labrador, they are going to get the best industrial rates in Atlantic Canada?

The provincial government wouldn’t be worried about the issue unless Quebec had power to sell. 

David Vardy on Muskrat Falls #nlpoli

-srbp-

Kathy Dunderdale’s World #nlpoli

Remember the World the Old Man Lived In?

Apparently, Kathy Dunderdale lives in the same place.

-srbp-

The First Casualty in Dunderdale’s War #nlpoli

As she launched the first salvo in the final battle of the War for Muskrat Falls, Premier Kathy Dunderdale decided to prove the old maxim correct:  she put Truth up against the wall and shot the old girl squarely between the eyes.

“We adhere to established contracts and respectful business practices,” she told the crowd at a Board of Trade luncheon.  No word if the crowd at Fortis shifted uncomfortably in their seats.  The people from ENEL  - had they been there - could certainly attest to the manifest falsehood in the Premier’s comment.

Dunderdale had a few more bullets to pump into Veracity’s lifeless form off before she was done.

Random observations #nlpoli

What Kathy Dunderdale said in 2012 about wanting to be Premier:

“If you live your life more in the moment, the rest of it will work its way out.”

Sounds a lot like what SRBP told you.  Here’s one comment from July 2011:

Kathy Dunderdale took over the job in the first place on the understanding it would be a temporary thing.  The shift in December had more to do with internal party politics than Dunderdale’s sudden discovery she had some goals to accomplish.  [Hint:  she didn’t].

Then out of the blue she gave some of her staff new titles and presumably bigger salaries to go with them.  At least, they will certainly have fatter severance packages now when she leaves the office well before the next election.

-srbp-

GovSpeak Translator #nlpoli

A “forgivable loan” is another way of saying that a private-sector company is getting a free gift of public-sector money.

-srbp-

The Enduring Principle of Newfoundland Mining Development Policy #nlpoli

If you want to understand the provincial government’s mining policy, look no further than Joe Smallwood and a speech he gave to the local chapter of what was then the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy in 1979.

Labrador Mining and Power Rates #nlpoli

In her scrum with reporters last week, Premier Kathy Dunderdale answered questions about possible rates offered to new mining companies in Labrador if the Muskrat Falls project goes ahead.

She mentioned the low electricity rate IOCC and Wabush mines receive from Churchill Falls as an example of how industrial customers get better deals than consumers.

Yeah, well, no.

Muskrat Timelines slide back #nlpoli

Here’s what VOCM reported after Nalcor chief executive Ed Martin delivered a speech to St. John’s Rotary earlier this year:

Ed Martin won’t get into precise dates but says a decision on Muskrat Falls is fast approaching. The Nalcor CEO was the guest speaker at a Rotary luncheon in St. John’s. Martin says a sanction decision one way or the other needs to be made by October at the latest. Anything past that he says will cost the Crown corporation millions per month. Martin says they’re looking at having the decision ready by June/July so they can be presented to MHA’s and debated in the House.

Last weekend, Martin told the Telegram he would hope to get things done by the end of the year:

Kremlinology 42: Dependency and the Loan Guarantee #nlpoli

The cost of the Muskrat Falls project has escalated to the point where the provincial government can’t do it without a federal loan guarantee.

Premier Kathy Dunderdale said as much on Wednesday when she finally got around to meeting with reporters two days after her meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

In her long rambling answer to the first question, she called the loan guarantee “important” at least twice. How far they have come since Danny Williams first started down the entirely political road to build the entirely political project.

Labrador Mining and Muskrat Falls #nlpoli

Premier Kathy Dunderdale is bothered enough by his detailed critical analysis of Muskrat Falls that she has been known to single him out in fundraising speeches in the province and in the House of Assembly.

Journalists like CBC’s David Cochrane are tweeting requests for the guy to get in touch.

Yet so far Nalcor hasn’t challenged any of his commentaries at the Public Utilities Board or previously here at SRBP.

Today, they have another reason to pull at their hair.

The Boyo called Brazil #nlpoli

Obviously, Premier Kathy Dunderdale got squat from her meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday. 

You can tell because all she had to say on the day of the meeting was nothing.  Her office issued a statement that – for some inexplicable reason – hasn’t turned up on the provincial government’s website.

You can also tell because a media scrum she had scheduled for Tuesday got bumped off until noon on Wednesday.

English v. Pike: Game on! #nlpoli

Supreme Court Trial Division, Court Room 7, Duckworth Street.

10:00 AM.

Be there or be squarer than you’d normally be as a lawyer or person interested in lawyer stuff.

William J. English vs Mark D. Pike et al.

Tone, Standards and Political Suicide #nlpoli

The song from MASH was wrong.

Suicide is not painless.

And political suicide is more painful to watch than any other kind.