If the Brothers Grimm were alive today in Newfoundland and Labrador, they’d be politicians.
That’s because so much of politics these days is about fairy tales.
To be fair this isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s just that since 2003, the chief purveyors of fairy tales – the nationalists – have predominated. Danny Williams, the former Premier, used to say lots of things that just weren’t true and some of his biggest fans believed stuff that just never happened.
There is something truly frigged up in a world where the Premier who has admitted to fiscal mismanagement by she and her colleagues for years and hasn’t done anything to correct the problem can be named the best fiscal manager among provincial Premier’s in Canada.
In her current budget, Kathy Dunderdale calls for a billion dollar cash shortfall.
And the Fraser Institute wasn’t being sarcastic when they issued a news release that began with these word’s:
Premier Kathy Dunderdale of Newfoundland and Labrador has governed with the best fiscal policy among 10 provincial premiers, according to a new report released today by the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading public policy think-tank.
Clearly, Canada’s leading public policy think-tank has some serious thinking to do.
Gabriella Sabau is an economics professor at Memorial University's Grenfell campus out in Corner Brook.
Sabau thinks Muskrat Falls is wonderful idea for three reasons.
For one thing, it’s green. For another thing, the electricity rates for consumers are supposedly low.
And for a third thing, "there will eventually be affordable power that will help attract business and investment."
Sabau noted the overall cost, though:
“The initial cost of the infrastructure is really high and those initial costs need to be paid up front,” she said.
Hmmm.
Paid up front.
And "eventually" the power will be affordable for consumers.
As it seems, Professor Sabau doesn't know much about Muskrat Falls. If she did, the economics professor would know that the project costs won't be paid up front. In fact, the project financing is deliberately set up to push the costs off to the distant future.
And it is consumers in the province who will be passing those costs later rather than sooner. “Eventually” will be a long time for consumers.
On the affordability thing, Sabau will evidently be quite happy. Business will find the power eminently affordable up front. Because consumers are paying all the costs plus profit, business and export customers get a gigantic deal right at the beginning.
"Eventually" comes quickly for them. In fact you could say that businesses and export customers will get the huge benefit immediately.
And those consumers for whom “eventually” really means eventually? Well, they won’t likely see profit from their considerable investment during the current century.
"Eventually" for the people paying the bills really will be "eventually" as in some undefined point in the far distant, almost incomprehensibly far away future.
You really have to love economists who pay attention before they offer opinions.
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David Brazil, member for Conception Bay East-Bell Island, on how he and his political colleagues approach the task of governing:
Mr. Speaker, we do not govern by polls. We want to know what the people really think.
Someone forgot to tell Brazil that public opinion polls do exactly that: they tell you what people really think.
Maybe Brazil just doesn’t like what the polls have been saying lately.
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During the 2007 general election, the provincial Conservatives announced a policy under which they would pay $1000 to any woman in the province who gave birth to a live baby or or adopted one.
SRBP called it the bootie call. Danny Williams tried to claim the idea was similar to an idea Hilary Clinton announced in the United States while she was trying to get the Democratic Party presidential nomination. It wasn’t and SRBP explained the difference between the two and why the Bootie Call was unlikely to work. It wouldn’t work because it hadn’t really worked in any of the other xenophobic places where they’d tried it.
Williams famously told reporters at the announcement in Corner Brook that “we can’t be a dying race.”
You don’t hear much about the Bootie Call from the Conservatives these days, but a look at the birth statistics will tell you what happened after the the provincial government started handing out the breeding bucks in 2008.
Another part of the Premier’s Office assault on reality Monday was a puff piece by Paul McLeod in the Chronicle Herald on Kathy Dunderdale. In some respects, the timing is a coincidence but the thing has been in the works since last month, at least.
“She won’t make Joey’s mistake” was the title, with a subhead that Kathy Dunderdale “is leading the charge” of a Newfoundland and Labrador that is now in a power position in the country.
The focus, as you can gather from the title is a presentation of recent history in Newfoundland and Labrador centred on the 1969 Churchill Falls power contract.
History holds powerful political totems in Newfoundland and Labrador and none is more potent than the contract between Churchill Falls (Labrador) Corporation and Hydro-Quebec signed in 1969.
The Chronicle Herald piece is a fascinating bit of insight into the mindset behind Muskrat Falls. it shows the extent to which the Churchill Falls totem is based more on fiction than fact.
Last week, some people wondered if Premier Kathy Dunderdale was out of the loop on negotiations over a federal loan guarantee when she seemed to say she did not know anything about an announcement in Labrador.
Some other people wondered if perhaps she knew about the talks but for some reason opted to claim she didn’t know what the Prime Minister would be announcing. If you want an example of the media reaction, take a look at the first story on the Here and Now broadcast on Thursday.
Reporters found her comments on Thursday afternoon so odd that one of them raised the issue with Prime Minister Stephen Harper during his news conference after the announcement. Harper replied that he did not believe the Premier was unaware of the talks and the announcement but that she was being a wily politician.
That was just part of the confusion. Later on Thursday, the announcement seemed to be off. But almost as quickly, things were back on. A story in the Chronicle Herald on Friday credited Nalcor boss Ed Martin with salvaging the deal.
How interesting, then, on Monday morning that a an entirely different story appeared, apparently from the Premier’s Office.
Given that the local media missed the single major story of the 2011 provincial general election until after it was over, the editors and journalists in the province might want to think about how they can better cover the next provincial election.
While lots of people were busily cheering Friday’s announcement of a federal loan guarantee for Muskrat Falls, they probably noticed a small but very significant detail.
The loan guarantee doesn’t exist until Emera decides to sanction the Maritime Link. Under the agreements announced earlier this year, Emera has until July 2014 to opt in to the Maritime Link. Until that happens, there is no loan guarantee for anyone.
That doesn’t mean that Newfoundland and Labrador will will put everything on hold until then. Nosirreee.
From the Group’s new release issued December 2:
Muskrat Falls Term Sheet Must Be Released For Public Scrutiny
“The term sheet for the federal loan guarantee for Muskrat Falls must be released for public scrutiny," say lawyers for 2041 Group.
Prime Minister Harper made it clear that the term sheet he signed is not a loan guarantee. No such guarantee yet exists for the Muskrat Falls project.
Prime Minister Harper also said that if Emera decides not to build the Maritime Link there will be no federal loan guarantee. Emera has until July 2014 to decide whether it will do so.
Group 2041 says: “Premier Dunderdale has said her government will not sanction the project without a federal loan guarantee. There is now plenty of time for the Dunderdale Government to finally commit to due diligence and a full regulatory review."
Group 2041 concludes: "It is clear that: 'No Nova Scotia' means 'No federal loan guarantee.' The November 30th term sheet must be made public immediately.”
Let’s see if the governments release anything.
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Now that Muskrat Falls is sanctioned, it is only a matter of time before Kathy Dunderdale quits politics.
How long will we wait?
“We are potentially paying 6.4 Billion for 170 MW of firm power, which will just be enough to meet the Emera commitment,” notes JM in discussing one scenario in his latest commentary The Water Management Agreement and Peak Load Delivery to the Island.
The scenario JM is referring to involves irregular production by Churchill Falls of 20 days at full capacity and 11 days at a minimum level. Nalcor laid it out in one of its presentations to the PUB:
This adds a significant new technical dimension to the ongoing water management agreement controversy.
