Backupable Tom: floundering fish minister likely to be gutted, head on

Fisheries minister Backupable Tom Rideout (left) issued a news release Friday in which he continues to point out that Fishery Products International (FPI) didn't have permission from either Rideout or his predecessor to ship fish outside the province for processing.

Ok.

Just for a moment let's assume that's true.

That means that Trevor Taylor, Rideout's predecessor, is either incompetent or he's a liar. Taylor told reporters repeatedly that he gave FPI permission to ship fish in 2004 and 2005.

Ditto Rideout.

Until relatively recently he told reporters - and hence everyone else - that FPI had permission to ship fish. And that's part of the problem with Rideout's latest crusade against nothing. Until be stuck a funny hat on his head and mounted the back of a truck, Rideout was insisting FPI had permission to send undersized fish outside the province for processing.

Rideout hasn't disputed, either, that FPI has said that shipping the undersized fish outside the province actually saved FPI money that was used to subsidize it's expensive processing operations in the province.

Rideout also hasn't told anyone what would have happened to the undersize fish if it hadn't been shipped outside the province.

So basically Rideout is launching an attack...on himself and his own administration.

Smooth.

Real Smooth.

Sorta reminds one of this picture from the 1989 campaign (right) in which Rideout appears to be holding up a pistol.

Look closely, though, at which way the barrel appears to be pointing.

But through it all, no matter how many releases Rideout issues, he just can't duck the substantive questions about the FPI issue and about his less-than-sterling performance:

1. The most-obvious one: If what he is now saying is true, why did Rideout and his predecessor lie repeatedly about FPI's shipments of fish outside the province.

2. The next-most-obvious one: Why is Rideout hammering at this issue of whether or not FPI had permission to export undersize fish instead of dealing with the real problem - people are running out of Employment Insurance benefits and Rideout and his boss need to get an early retirement package in place for FPI workers?

3. The maybe-not-so-obvious-but-still-relevant one: What would have happened to the fish if Taylor hadn't approved its export? [Clue: It wouldn't be processed in the province, except by worms.]

4. The not-really-obvious-but-still-good one: Was there any kind of industry group - either organized by Rideout's department or existing with the full knowledge of his department - looking at the issue of how to process undersize fish profitably?

For the other questions, go back and read the posts here and here, at the Bond Papers.

Around here, we understand that some of these questions have been tossed at Rideout but he and his comms director have been ducking them.

Here's a little free advice for Backupable Tom and his comms director: a funny hat and reissuing the same release over again don't constitute a strategy.

Try following Tom's own wise words: Be the truth.

Bonus advice: Everyone can see that the export thing is a diversion. Once the real story hits in a couple of weeks time, the only difference between Backupable Tom and the small yellowtail flounder is that Tom will be filleted in the province...free of charge...and served up on the nightly news again and again and again.

Oh yeah.

One more thing.

Rest assured that the media will have permission - Danny's permission - to gut Rideout and serve him up head-on.

That's backupable.

Another "beggar" will soon come forward

Andrew Coyne picked up on an aspect of the looming clash between Ottawa and the provinces over the fiscal imbalance and wrote about it on Friday, saying the federal Connies' love affair with the provinces may soon be at an end.

Three provinces just turned in budgets so fat with cash the local treasurer had a hard time spending it all.

On Thursday next - that's March 30 - add Newfoundland and Labrador to the pile.

So lush is the harvest of the offshore that Danny Williams will poke his finance minister Loyola "Rain Man" Sullivan and bring down the largest budget in Newfoundland and Labrador history. An interim supply bill current before the House seeks approval of $1.5 billion in spending.

But that's just for one fiscal quarter.

As outgoing provincial New Democrat boss Jack Harris said during the debate on Tuesday, that means were are likely to see a full budget in excess of $6.0 billion dollars.

Every nickel will be spent and there will be a budget balance if not a lovely little surplus.

The budget for the current fiscal year will likely be in a hefty surplus as well...that is, if Danny and the rain man haven't followed their usual practice and engaged in a flurry of last-minute and sometimes unreported spending to make the budget look less rosey..

Meanwhile, Danny Williams will be the first premier at the trough lining up for his share of federal largesse, all the while claiming he is broke.

But Newfoundland and Labrador is on the verge of phenomenal wealth thanks - solely (?) - to his phantasmagorically splendiferously solid gold leadership style.

Williams' amazing financial picture is due entirely to offshore oil and gas prices.

He can claim no credit for that.

Unless he delivers a Hebron deal next week as well, to meet the deadline he and the Hebron partners imposed on themselves.

Did she clear her remarks with Steve first?

On Thursday, federal environment minister Rona Ambrose had this to say about dumping raw sewerage into Canadian harbours:

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose says municipalities that dump raw sewage in the ocean are placing public health at risk.

Interviewed by telephone yesterday from Mexico City, where she is attending the World Water Forum, Ms. Ambrose said 19 Canadian municipalities continue to dump raw sewage into the sea.

They include Halifax, St. John's, Saint John, and Victoria.

She acknowledged that the federal government has limited ability to intervene since water falls under provincial jurisdiction, but suggested that something needs to be done.

On Friday - the day after Rona's comments - her boss flew to New Brunswick to dole out millions in federal pork. and prop up a faltering local Conservative premier.

Included in the cash Steve threw from the door of his Challenger jet?

$3.0 million to help Saint John stop polluting the harbour.

_______________________

h/t to Mark over at nottawa.

Wanna understand Canadians in Afghanistan?

Read Christie Blatchford in Saturday's Grope and Flail.

I have a friend who, in regarding the modern urban male, frequently wonders: "How is it they got to be the hunters and gatherers?"

In the lads of the 1-3, in all the Patricias, I found the answer, or an answer anyway: Men weren't always quite the way they are now.

Left to their own devices, largely untouched by the most effete of modern cultural conventions and contemptuous of those few that veer near, and trained to a razor's edge, this lot are by turns ruthlessly and broadly so competent (from making a decent meal out of the good-for-five-years "individual meal packs," or IMPs, to keeping their primitive quarters at Gombad as pristine as a mud hut can be, to clambering over hill and dale and ultimately to soldiering), shockingly cheerful and patient, generous to one another, funny, outrageously tender and, given the times, so patriotic as to appear almost quaint.

This is the sort of stuff you get when reporters live with their subjects. It is straight-up - it describes the people I know from my short time in the military and long time around the Canadian Forces.

or get this:

That was my first brush with the regard, widespread among the dozens of Canadians I talked to, for both Afghan soldiers and civilians. Only once did I hear a soldier make a disparaging remark (young and stupid, he referred to the undernourished locals as "the skinnies").

Honest stories, honestly told.

Makes the rhetoric of the "peace" movement sound as hollow when used on Afghanistan and the Canadian men and women working there today as it was tinny 20 years ago when Soviet soldiers were napalming those Afghan villages where today people want nothing more grandiose than cooking oil.

And the "peace" movement never batted an eyelid.

Plan Eh! for FPI

Deputy Premier Tom Rideout today met with senior officials of Resoh Corp on possible alternative industrial uses for Fishery Products International (FPI) fishplants scheduled to be closed as part of the company's efforts to deal with its financial problems.

Plan Eh! would see Resoh convert at least two former FPI plants to recycling beer bottles.

Bob McKenzie (left, with chief executive officer Doug Mckenzie) is Chief financial officer for Resoh. Meeting with reporters after the Rideout meeting, McKenzie said: "Gooday, eh. Like, Newfoundlanders drink a lot of beer, eh. So, like we thought this would be a good place for a new plant."

Following a television, music and movie career in Canada and the United States, the McKenzie brothers created Resoh as a way of giving back to communities across Canada. "We also have a company that puts mice into the bottles, eh, so like if you have mice or shrews, we could even do secondary processing," said Doug McKenzie.

Rideout, who is provincial fisheries minister and a former premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, said he will be taking the proposal to his cabinet colleagues for further discussion.

Friday chuckle: more talks on Fishery Products?

Left: Fisheries minister Tom Rideout and senior officials of the provincial fisheries department arrive for meetings on the future of Fishery Products International.






Later that afternoon, Rideout addressed news media on the results of the meeting. (Right)

Rideout and Williams knew FPI plan in December

Provincial fisheries minister Tom Rideout and Premier Danny Williams were fully briefed on the seriousness of Fishery Product's International's (FPI) situation, and - at the very least - the outline of how the company intended to proceed to right its financial ship, as early as mid-December last year.

That information is contained in a news release issued today by FPI in response to comments by Rideout that the company was facing charges for exporting fish to China for processing.

FPI formally briefed the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador on the magnitude of the challenges in the groundfish sector and their impact on the future operations on December 13, 2005.

That's the first time anyone has acknowledged the provincial government received what appears to be a full briefing in mid-December on FPI's plans to deal with the fish company's financial troubles.

The story coming from Rideout to date has been different.

In January, 2006, The Independent reported in an unattributed comment that "FPI met with the province in mid December when the company informed Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout and Premier Danny Williams the company's internal review wouldn't be complete by the end of the year, a deadline the company itself had imposed."

Rideout himself told CBC that he would like to know what the company was proposing. A January 6, 2006 CBC news report contains the following statement:

Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout met with FPI officials last month. He said he would also like to know what the company plans to do.

"In terms of final decisions, we have not be apprised of any final decisions at this point in time," Rideout said.

Danny Williams letter to the three federal party leaders during last winter's federal election also suggest the provincial government had a good idea of what FPI was planning.

William's very first question focused on the need to be proactive in dealing problems in the fishing industry:

Significant changes are facing our fishing industry, such as resource declines, exchange rate pressures and increasing global competition.There is an urgent need for the Provincial and Federal Governments [sic] to take a proactive and cooperative approach to assist the industry and individuals in facing these challenges and capturing new opportunities. The alternative - waiting for a crisis to develop and reacting to it - is unacceptable. [Emphasis added]

This is strikingly similar to the content of a news release issued by FPI in early November 2005 in which the company announced the departure of Derrick Rowe from the chief executive officer's job and the establishment of an internal operational review.

Significant factors with respect to the availability of the natural resource, the stability of the U.S. dollar, Pound Sterling and Euro, the rising cost of fuel and the impact of low cost producers on the world marketplace, on an individual basis and in combination, have negatively impacted the Primary Group's business and will continue to negatively impact this business for the rest of the year. [Emphasis added]

Questions have already been raised about Rideout and his management of the fisheries department by the minister's own comments a few days ago that FPI was to be charged with illegally shipping fish outside the province.

Now there are other questions from the same incident and FPI's news release:

1. If the provincial government knew of FPI's problems and plans in December, why has it taken over four months for the issue to come to a head in public yet with no solution in sight?

2. Has the provincial government made any efforts to achieve a deal with the new Harper administration about either the early retirement option proposed by Danny Williams last November or the retraining option floated by Stephen Harper in his reply to Williams?

3. Why did FPI wait so long to announce its plans publicly when it appears the provincial government had working knowledge of the FPI plans in late 2005?

4. Why did Tom Rideout launch an audit of FPI fish exports in February- even though his office ought to have the information readily available and even though the provincial government was fully aware of both the problems FPI was facing and, presumably the necessity of shipping at least some of its products overseas for processing?

5. Why did Rideout announce at a union-organized rally that FPI had broken the law and would be charged over its fish exports?

6. Does the Williams administration actually have a plan to deal with FPI other than to threaten the company in public with charges about its export practices or with raising the spectre of further legislating restrictions on the company's ability to operate as a private sector company?

Left: Without a beard and moustache, fisheries minister Tom Rideout didn't stand a chance in the garden gnome look-alike contest. [Photo: CBC]

FPI responds to Rideout's allegations - the news release

ST. JOHN'S, March 23 /CNW/ - FPI Limited ("FPI" or "the Company") today responded to remarks by the Hon. Tom Rideout, provincial Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture ("the Minister").

The extraordinary and inflammatory statements, which were made by the Minister on Tuesday during his participation in a demonstration in front of the Company's head office, included the offensive allegation that FPI had deliberately contravened the Fish Inspection Act by exporting unprocessed fish. This is not true.

FPI states emphatically that its exports of non-commercial fish were carried out properly and in a manner completely consistent with the past practices of the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture ("the Department") and the directives of its senior staff. Department officials were consulted specifically and repeatedly on this practice. Furthermore, any insinuation that the Company concealed or attempted to conceal any shipments is completely false. In addition to the consultation with Department officials, every pound of fish in every shipment was approved for export, duly documented, signed and sealed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).

Also on Tuesday, the Minister further alleged in a news release that FPI has been less than cooperative with the second phase of the provincial government's independent accounting review. This is simply wrong. FPI has cooperated fully throughout the process, and will continue to do so.

FPI formally briefed the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador on the magnitude of the challenges in the groundfish sector and their impact on the future operations on December 13, 2005. Since that time, related discussions have been held with both the Province and the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union (FFAW/CAW). The goal of these discussions has been to arrive at a solution, with the participation of all stakeholders, that can re-establish economic viability in FPI's Burin peninsula operations while minimizing negative impacts on the workforce. FPI reiterates that it cannot and will not deliberately run operations that create losses averaging approximately $1 million per month.

Seemingly lost in the recent focus on public spectacle have been the objective facts of the current situation and the importance of a rational approach to external challenges that will not be diminished by being ignored.

It is simply not productive to attempt to vilify a company for dealing realistically and responsibly with a soaring Canadian dollar, high production costs, cheap foreign competition and inadequate raw material supply. These facts are real, they apply throughout the industry, and they must be addressed head on. FPI has been and remains prepared to show leadership to meet these challenges in its business. The goal cannot be achieved without constructive
government and union participation. The Company calls on the other stakeholders to refocus their energies on more constructive efforts on behalf of those who will be most dramatically affected if economic viability cannot be restored to operations on the Burin peninsula.

-30-

About FPI: FPI Limited is a Newfoundland and Labrador-based seafood company engaged in harvesting, processing, global sourcing, and marketing a wide selection of high quality seafood products.

FPI's core business is its Primary Group, which holds substantial rights to access a variety of quotas in Eastern Canada and operates its own fleet and processing plants. These plants are supplied by FPI's own vessels and from other harvesters.

Ocean Cuisine International, an operating division of FPI Limited, is headquartered in Danvers, Massachusetts and services foodservice, retail, and industrial customers throughout North America. Ocean Cuisine International is a leading source for seafood throughout North America, with solid processing and global seafood sourcing operations. It markets a wide range of finfish and shellfish products.

FPI Limited trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol FPL.

Innovation: at last

From Wednesday's Throne Speech, the Williams administration announced that it will shortly release something called Innovation Newfoundland and Labrador: A Blueprint for Prosperity.

This is a much-welcome and long-overdue initiative.

The central premise of the 1992 Strategic Economic Plan (SEP)was the need to diverse the provincial economy and to build on our collective strengths. The SEP has lasted as government policy to the present day because it represents a genuinely strategic approach to long-range economic development.

The new Williams document will fit nicely within the overall framework of the SEP's economic diversification by focusing on areas where entrepreneurs in this province have already shown their ability to compete successfully around the globe. The new plan will apparently focus on marine-related technology, health sciences and information technology.

Interestingly enough all the examples cited in today's Throne Speech have developed since 1992, several with assistance from the programs developed under the SEP. Missing from the list was Northern Radar which continues to develop a commercially viable offshore surveillance radar system out of a concept that was originally intended to detect surface ocean currents.

This innovation policy is something to look at more closely once it is released.

A Throne Speech by Gold-Member

Following are some choice excerpts from the latest provincial Throne Speech, delivered today:

1. Public masturbation should be illegal:

My First Minister is to be commended for taking the lead in fighting relentlessly for fairness in the allocation of offshore revenues and returning home in triumph many arduous months later with a monumental new agreement on the Atlantic Accord. Newfoundland and Labrador is today celebrating the black-gold victory that has provided to our province a fairer share of the return on the oil and gas that saturates the caverns of our continental shelf. My First Minister has also been successful in bringing home new agreements to strengthen our health care sector, the equalization program and our province'’s Aboriginal communities and in many other initiatives that have made Newfoundland and Labrador stronger than it was. [Emphasis added]

2. Then there's piggybacking on someone else's glory:

Count the number of times where the speech mentions the recent Olympic gold-medal win by Brad Gushue's curling rink. One would almost think Brad or someone else on the team had once dated a member of the Williams clan.

Nowhere has this new attitude manifested itself with more fire than on the icy rinks of Pinerolo, where our province'’s Olympians have spun granite rocks into gold. The passion that lived there at the Torino Games was born and nurtured right here in Newfoundland and Labrador, and in that international arena, it burned with searing intensity in the gold medal performances of Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Russ Howard, Jamie Korab and Mike Adam. Newfoundland and Labrador salutes the first Newfoundland and Labrador based team to stand atop the Winter Olympics podium. These are the torchbearers of a new generation of heroes whose sights are now set on Vancouver and Beijing and a thousand other arenas of endeavour: athletic, academic, artistic, technological, commercial. Newfoundland and Labrador is not intimidated by any competition because we are confident in our capacity to shine like gold among the very best.

My Government entered office in 2003 facing challenges of Olympic proportions:...

...Newfoundland and Labrador is today celebrating the black-gold victory...(Translation: Celebrate Danny and last year's new federal cash transfer deal)

No Newfoundlanders and Labradorians were more enthused and inspired by our curling team'’s Olympic performance than the young people who cheered on their heroes from homes and arenas in communities throughout our province....

...The bold new attitude that is driving our citizens and My Government to take on Olympic-size challenges with confidence can also enable individuals to face personal challenges and achieve personal triumphs....

...Success may not come without an Olympic-size effort, but when we really understand what we are truly capable of achieving and helping others to achieve, we no longer see that effort as an exercise in futility. We see clearly the possibility of victory. We catch a vision of triumph. We glimpse the glitter of the gold, and we know the dream that drives us is worth the effort....

Murphy starts gas and oil blog

George Murphy, the local guy who has gained quite a reputation for tracking and predicting retail gasoline prices has stared his own blog.

You can find it at gasandoil.blogspot.com, or by clicking here.

Hopefully he'll start posting his price analyses there and a wider audience can benefit from his considerable analytical abilities.

Was Rideout asleep in the wheelhouse?

Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries minister Tom Rideout told a crowd of Fishery Products International (FPI) workers protesting at the company's headquarters today that FPI will be charged with violations under the province's Fish Inspection Act.

Rideout said the company shipped fish out of the province for processing last year, in violation of the law. The province gave FPI permission in 2004 to ship small yellowtail flounder to China, but today he appeared to say that any shipments in 2005 were illegal.

"Not only did they ship... but they shipped, and they shipped, and they broke the law," Rideout told the crowd.

"Today they're under investigation and they'll be charged. We're not going to put up with it...they'll be charged like anybody else who breaks the law and they will pay the price."

Left: Provincial fisheries minister Tom Rideout addresses a crowd of FPI workers during a protest at the company's St. John's headquarters. Rideout proves some people shouldn't wear toques. [Photo: vocm.com]

Rideout started an audit of fish exports in February this year during discussions with FPI over the company's plans to get out of its current financial troubles. At the time, Rideout told CBC News that FPI did have permission to ship upwards of one million pounds.

At the very least Fish Inspection Act requires that processors submit annual reports to the provincial fisheries department, so Rideout's claim that FPI violated its license raises a number of questions:

1. Did FPI submit the annual reports as required by the Act?

2. Did the fisheries department conduct any inspections of FPI facilities or its records during the past two years to ensure the company was complying with provincial laws?

3. In lieu of or in addition to inspections, did the provincial government require FPI to submit reports on a more frequent basis than annually - for example, quarterly - on the amount of fish it was shipping outside Newfoundland and Labrador for processing?

As much as Rideout may claim that he is getting tough with FPI, there is a good possibility that Rideout's department missed something. The provincial fisheries department is responsible for overseeing the province's processing sector. It's hard to imagine how FPI could ship fish illegally in 2005, as Rideout now seems to be claiming, or that it exceeded its allowable exports by over four million pounds, as others are reporting today, unless the provincial fisheries officials - including Rideout and his predecessor Trevor Taylor - were asleep in the wheelhouse.

The other March madness, or, the Bow Wow Parliament returns

Today, marks the start of the other March Madness.

The House of Assembly re-opens today to allow the government to jam through an interim supply bill to hold them over until the main budget motion can pass next month. Tomorrow, the Lieutenant Governor will read the Throne Speech, presumably one as miserable as the last insult to our collective comprehension of the English language. Then next week there will be the budget speech, although pretty much the whole thing has already been announced in one news conference or another by the Premier.

In itself, that little piece of news - a planned, one day supply bill debate - is a sign of both the decline of the House of Assembly and the Premier's attitude to it. Danny Williams' contempt for the legislature is well known and displayed almost every day, particularly the last few weeks as he sets about announcing budget measures for the next fiscal year that normally would never be breathed in public before the finance minister reads his budget speech...in the legislature.

The silence of the Opposition on this interim supply process merely adds to the decline of the legislature as part of our democracy. Supply is the fundamental measure the legislature can grant a government. Without money the government cannot function. Since everything in government involves spending money, a supply bill allows for the full discussion of every action government is taking. It is the chance to hold the government accountable.

But it is hard to care about parliamentary democracy - about the proper examination by the voters' representatives of government measures - when the current administration goes about insulting the members almost daily and those members sit dumb.

Just cast back to last spring when fishermen, angry over a government measure, took control of the legislature day after day and not a single member of the House of Assembly from the incompetent Mr. Speaker to the most ordinary of ordinary members voiced a single word of objection. One could easily imagine a member of the legislature saying that the protests didn't matter since there was nothing much to do in the House anyway.

We are set for just the same tawdry display this year.

We have had a taste of it already in the actions of newbie Liberal leader Jim Bennett. So unconcerned is Bennett for the legislature that he feels he can seek election in a year and half's time without having once set foot on its floor while the Mace sat in its cradle. What difference is there between Bennett and the current Premier who joked to a national audience, shortly after taking election, that if he had his way the legislature would be abolished?¹

Before now, none of his predecessors - not a single Prime Minister of Newfoundland and Labrador - back to Philip Francis Little would have dared make such a contemptuous remark. The only Opposition leaders to have sat outside the legislature were those who could not get a seat in it, either by losing elections or, as in the case of some, because the incumbent administration dared not call the necessary by-election.

The only significant difference in this year's March Madness is that it won't be crab fishermen taking the House on their backs. Instead, starting today, we may well see disgruntled Fishery Products International employees disrupting the House day after day after day. That is a purely cosmetic difference. Underneath it all will be a decline of our democracy and with it our province.

The loss here is not merely one of process or of symbols.

Rather the loss to be felt is one of genuine accountability.

It is a long-established democratic principle that the government cannot undertake any measure without the approval of the elected delegates of the people of our province.

Magna Carta.

Charles 1 and The Civil War.

The Boston Tea Party.

All are part of our democratic heritage and all had to do - on some level - with holding the government responsible to its citizens not only on voting day but each and every day. The premier and his cabinet must answer questions. They must explain themselves publicly and, for any measure, the government must have the approval of the elected representatives of the people they presume to govern.

When the House is not in session the government has a duty to present its program for review. We have seen the growth in sham announcements or the repeat announcements from government in the last 10 years. All the while, substantive issues such as our offshore oil and gas policy or, in the upcoming budget, our long range financial plans will slip by the wayside.

In their place, we will be consumed day-in and day-out with such pressing questions as whether or not the latest gaggle of the disgruntled will force the closure of the legislature or whether the Premier will tear down the flags over his latest irk.

How ironic that at a time when half a world away so many of our fellow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are risking their lives, working with local citizens to build a democracy, so many at home ignore the relentless slip of our own democracy into little more than a sham.

How ironic too that when this place was first granted self government - in 1832 - the very notion was ridiculed as the Bow Wow Parliament in the infamous cartoon, at left.


When others mock us, we grow angry.

Yet, when we mock ourselves - as surely we will beginning again today - we seem unable to see the insult, although the self-inflicted wound is more grievous.

As Mr. Speaker found in the cartoon, the Bows have it, indeed.

---------------------
¹ Danny Williams,Macleans:

Have you called your first session of the House of Assembly?

I'm not going to call. We're not going to bring the House back ever again! It's just a personal preference. [Laughs.] No, it's going to be probably the second week of March. I have to say, I found in opposition there were times I shook my head and said, "You know, this could be so much more productive." I find there's a lot of wasted time in the House where people get up to talk just for the sake of talking. I'd like to find ways to make it more efficient, more productive, so we can go ahead and get the work done.[Emphasis added]

Incoming!

From strategypage.com, this amateur video of American soldiers in Afghanistan during a mortar attack by insurgents.

The rounds are relatively few in number and the first couple are well wide of the target which is the American compound. After a few incoming rounds, the Americans start shelling a nearby hillside.

Fair warning: There is some foul language in the video. Portions are out of focus.

But just listen for the whistling of the incoming rounds.

A bloody war or a sickly season

Traditionally, naval officers used to offer a toast for a bloody war or a sickly season, either of which would kill off their fellows and speed the chances for promotion.

Well, St. John's city council and the St. John's International Airport Authority aren't quite that blood-thirsty, but you have to wonder how they might possibly increase military aircraft traffic through St. John's by some 300 aircraft per year. They are considering adding more ramp and taxi-way space to the airport and, presumably some sort of promotional work.

They call this military tourism, a phrase they likely picked up from the Baghdad Visitor and Convention Bureau.

Allied military aircraft that can't refuel in the air use St. John's on their way to and from Europe. If they aren't heading back and forth, there's no reason to drop in here.

The single biggest reason for recent increases in traffic at the airport has been the war in central Asia and Iraq.

So...

The only way to increase military tourism - the phrase smacks of fundamental ignorance - would be to have the Americans become more deeply involved in military operations in the Middle East.

Now there's a good idea.

I can't wait to see the marketing plan for this latest bright idea from city council.

Left: United States Air Forces crew pose in front of their C-130 Hercules on the ramp at St. John's. [Photo: Paul Daly]

CBC shifts views on "embedding"

Stephen Puddicombe just got back from spending six weeks with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan as an embedded journalist.

As the BBC describes the practice embedding means that "reporters eat and sleep alongside soldiers and, thanks to recent advances in technology, bring live reports of firefights and artillery onslaughts into our living rooms."

Jeff Gilhooley from CBC radio St. John's Morning Show interviewed Stephen about his experiences last Friday. You can find the interview here.

[http://www.cbc.ca/thestjohnsmorningshow/
media/20060317puddicombe_embedded.ram]

The link requires RealPlayer.

Biggest news: Puddicombe's attitudes have changed to being embedded, just as the CBC's views on the subject seem to have changed.

One of the first things Stephen says is that he initially rejected the offer to go to Kandahar, based on the attitude toward embedding that CBC News displayed during the Iraq invasion three years ago.

At the time CBC refused any opportunity to embed with coalition forces claiming that they would lose their ability to report independently. There were plenty of suggestions that embedding was just a Pentagon tactic to control the media or influence coverage in a subversive fashion:

They call it embedding. It would be disingenuous to suggest this is all because the Pentagon has been struck with First-Amendment fever. Rather, it's a savvy PR campaign to win the hearts and minds of the nation with stories of fresh-faced troops in historic victories.

Paul Workman, CBC television's workman international correspondent, spent a great deal of his time three years ago reporting as an "independent" journalist on his inability to gain access to areas of the battle zone. "We approached the Mutlaa Road check point for the third time in 24 hours...". Sadly, his comments on that incident are no longer linked from the cbc.ca site, although the link page is still active. His National story is available here.

Workman described his approach versus embedding this way comparing embedding to a report he had filed on an Iraqi who was upset with the war:

You're not getting interviews like that from embedded reporters. You're more likely to see a glorified view of American power and morality, in a war much of the world considers unnecessary, unjustified or plain wrong, and is being covered at every crossroads, at every captured bridge, by a press corps that's sleeping with the winner."

Puddicombe's comments are startling in contrast, and sign of a change in CBC attitudes since deployment of Canadian troops to Afghanistan. Peter Mansbridge's first trip to Kabul prompted the National Post to cover the change in embedding policy.

It's interesting to see that in 2004, CBC's editor chief Tony Burman said the decision against embedding in Iraq was practical, not philosophical. Compare that to Paul Workman's report, linked above, in which Workman states that the decision against embedding with American or British troops was both practically and philosophically based.

There is some evidence that Workman's view was correct. CBC television had a number of incidents in which stories were deliberately skewed against Americans through dubious editing practices. One of the more egregious examples was using footage of a dramatic fire on an American M-109 howitzer - with soldiers running for cover - with a story on depleted uranium munitions in Iraq and their supposed horrific impacts on Iraqi civilians. M-109s don't fire depleted uranium and the soldiers. In that piece, CBC even contradicted its own detailed story on the same issue from only a couple of years earlier, lending weight to Iraqi claims that had previously been dispelled.

Puddicombe is now convinced of the value of embedding. As he told Gilhooley, "being there and getting to know the men and women that were serving and going out on patrols and what have you really changed your perspective on being embedded. It's a first hand access we otherwise wouldn't have had."

That's what embedding is supposed to do. There's nothing sinister about it. And, as Puddicombe and others have found, reporters get access to stories they otherwise would never have come across. In Iraq, CNN could reporter live from the field as an on-scene American army chemical weapons unit inspected a farm suspected of being a chemical weapons cache. The magic of the report came when the detachment commander provided his assessment live, before having submitted the formal report through his chain of command: this was a farm and the chemicals were typical agricultural fertilizers and pesticides.

In my own relatively limited experience with embedding, reporters got access to information and episodes simply by being there. The subsequent reports were thorough and accurate, even if some sensitive information was deleted for admittedly legitimate reasons.

Those reading, watching and listening to the reports also got more detailed reporting than they would have otherwise had.

Will they be fooled by it?

Likely not. News consumers are increasingly a sophisticated lot that can smell spin - bullshit - for what it is.

What they do have is more information on which to base their own judgments.

When it comes to the deployment of Canadian troops in any part of the world - including Kandahar - an informed public is a good thing.

Emergency!

Premier Danny Williams announced on Friday that the province will be spending about $5.0 million next fiscal year to improve the province's ability to respond to emergencies.

Aside from the new bodies in health and wildlife, there will be three new people hired in the province's emergency measures organization, including a new fire protection officer, a new financial assistance co-ordinator and a new emergency management officer.

A new deputy minister position was also created some time ago specifically responsible for emergency response planning.

All this is very good news, especially in light of the Titan missile fiasco last year or the September 11 thing. The provincial government's inability to process intelligence and respond appropriately was painfully obvious in both incidents. The technical term for the situation on those occasions was TARFU.

Let's see how things improve.

Two things to note, however:

1. There is no sign the provincial government has created an ability to assess information coming to it and make appropriate decisions. Information co-ordination - i.e. intelligence gathering and analysis - is a key element of the emergency response puzzle.

Otherwise, as in the Titan fiasco, we wind up with GIGO: garbage in, garbage out, which inevitably leads back to TARFU.

Or, as in the 9/11 thing we wind up watching people pull things out of the nearest available bodily orifice.

The technical term for this is SNAFU, which is not what you want by any means, either.

2. There is no communications/public information/public relations position anywhere in the mix. If we have learned anything in emergency response in North America over the past decade, it would be that emergency communications is a crucial element in the overall success of the mission.

Unless this gets fixed sooner rather than later, the whole emergency response will be FUBAR no matter how many public health nurses there are, doses of bird flu vaccine sitting in storage or how many new financial assistance co-ordinators are busily co-ordinating financial assistance for the new emergency management officer and the new fire protection officer.

There needs to be a dedicated emergency communications co-ordinator, with staff and the appropriate resources to help get everyother jurisdiction in the province sorted out.

Psst. there's federal money available to help pay for this, by the way.

If the gag fits

From the Saturday Telegram editorial on the Prime Minister's gag order:

Conspicuously missing in that list of five issues [being emphasized by the Harper administration] are pretty much any local issue that might have influenced votes for Conservative candidates in this province.

To those who trumpeted Loyola Hearn as a fresh approach - and some in the media went so far as to claim Hearn was the only approach - during the last federal election, this news must come as something of a surprise and perhaps a disappointment, as well.

The idea was that, with a new minister and a new government, concerns affecting this province, like custodial management, would take the fore. That hope seems sadly misguided now - but not unexpectedly so.

Reporters dealing with the new fisheries minister - when they can get him to do an interview - say he's different now. Cautious isn't strong enough to describe his approach.

Hearn has already come under fire from those who note that his pre-election belief in the necessity of custodial management - and the uselessness of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) - has tempered to the point that he now seems to be echoing past ministers of fisheries about reforming NAFO, not scrapping it. It's a disappointing turn of events, to say the least. [Emphasis added]

There are legitimate reasons for a new prime minister to lower the cone of silence over his minister: rookie ministers make rookie mistakes, and you need look no further than last weekend'’s crossed wires over the Conservatives' plan for the Atlantic Accord money and equalization to realize that.

Left: the latest Harper cabinet fashion accessory.

The Telly-torialist makes some solid observations, not the least of which is the bit that comes after the section just quoted above. The Telly points out that by gagging cabinet ministers now and cutting access to the media, the Harper Conservatives are running a strong risk of alienating a group of people they will need later to help spread their own messages.

True enough. But the Telly's advice may be a case of casting pearls.

The Conservatives dislike and distrust the media. Their efforts to control messaging reflect the sort of actions that go with their established attitude. Moreover, they also go with the anal-retentive attitude Stephen Harper displayed as Leader Opp and the one he has shown in spades since taking office: he will not speak to media at all unless the encounter is highly controlled and the interview is a softball affair.

More importantly though, the sort of centralized control the prime minister's office is imposing is doomed to failure. The federal government is simply too big to have every communication vetted by Harper's staff. Having seen gag orders in action, like the one imposed in National Defence in the mid-1990s, I can tell you they simply don't work.

As the Globe notes in its Saturday edition, public relations experts and those with experience of political comms know that gag orders like this simply can't work in the real world.

Patrick Gossage, a former press secretary to prime minister Pierre Trudeau who coaches politicians on media relations, said the new government's strategy is simply unworkable.

"Every PMO in the history of PMOs since Trudeau's PMO at least have made attempts to control the message centrally, usually without success," he said. "We tried to do it for a little while. It didn't work.... They're in a way, dysfunctional, because it makes the team look like it's not a team."

Delays - politically deadly delays - will occur in a business that is time sensitive. In the end, the Harper government will experience more political problems as a direct consequence of the gag order than the order could ever hope to solve.

In the short term, though, the gag order also sends a powerfully negative message about the Harper government. Gagging your own team tells the world that you are not in control, that you are afraid. If Stephen Harper and his ministers can't deal with a few scraggly reporters, how in the name of heavens will they cope with the real challenges every prime minister will face?

There aren't enough carefully stage-managed photo-ops in Afghanistan to undo the image of a shit-baked¹ government.

--------------------------
¹ shit-baked: adj. scared shitless

Honouring things Irish

On this St. Patrick's day, take some time to visit pauldaly.net.

Admire the work of an expatriate Irishmen who had the good sense and good taste to marry a gorgeous woman from Newfoundland and settle his arse in St. John's.

Paul Daly is a photographer of exceptional ability.


He has an eye, as they say, as can be seen from these samples of his work.

Paddy-whacking

It's St. Patrick's Day.

Again.

The day when the popular image of a proud, noble and ancient culture is reduced to the drunken ramblings of Irish-wannabe wankers (including the legions of ex-pats) who take a break from the green pilsner only long enough to torture everyone within earshot with another round of Danny Boy that sounds more like someone beating a cat in a bag with a shillelagh.

It's the day when everyone thinks it's fine to be a paddy.

To put this into terms the locals might appreciate, consider having a day in which every knob on the planet feels obliged to adopt an appalling accent, trace their dubious ancestry to the same couple of first cousins who once settled in Hibb's Hole, and who slobber over all who will listen about the joys of being...a newfie.

Now I am neither Irish nor a wannabe, but it always struck me that, if I were Irish, I would fervently hope that St. Patrick's Day might be something that eventually people might grow tired of.

But they don't.

And perhaps the Irish still in Ireland are smart enough to use St. Patrick's Day as a clever way to lure the rest of the world into the orbit of the Great Celtic Global Conspiracy.

And so to that extent, good on 'em.

For those who want to experience Ireland - the real one - here's a link to the Irish tourism outfit (tourismireland.com), along with samples of their awesome television spots aimed at North Americans.

Forget the green pilsner or lager; try the elixir of life, Guinness.

Tackle a little James Joyce.

Heck, find out about the edgy comedy of the late Dermot Morgan and wonder why Newfoundland and Labrador never produced that kind of in-your-face political satire Dermot cranked out on Scrap Saturday. It's not like we don't have enough fodder right in front of our faces to replicate the CJ/PJ thing.

In other words, celebrate everything genuinely Irish on this, St. Patrick's Day.

Rumpole and the Old Boy Net, Newfoundland and Labrador version

What would Horace think?

No point in being Premier if you can't put your brother and former law partners in silk.

The Queen's Counsel (Q.C.) list was announced today.

Among the lawyers now entitled to wear silk:

* Tommy Williams, the Premier's brother and a partner at O'Dea Earle, proud sponsors of the Rogers Cable program Out of the Fog, which has another strong connection to the Premier;

* Steve Marshall, the Premier's former law partner and the guy who navigated the assault case involving Danny's son through the court of public opinion;

* Glenda Best, another partner at Danny's old chambers;

* Stephanie Newell, a partner at Danny's brother's chambers;

* Tom Fraize, a long-time Conservative operative;

* Brian Murphy, a former law partner of the current Minister of Justice, Tom Marshall; and,

* Valerie Marshall, whose father is Bill Marshall, former Tory cabinet minister under Frank Moores and Brian Peckford, retired justice of the Supreme Court Trials Division and the guy who served on Danny's transition team. He's also the fellow who gave us the term "rack of Confederation".

The other Q.C. is Edward Cardwell, a Crown prosecutor, who has no apparent political connections despite being the namesake of the British secretary of war who abolished the practice of purchasing commissions in the British army (1870).

Under the Queen's Counsel Act, the appointments are made by the Lieutenant Governor in Council - that is, the cabinet - on recommendation of the Minister of Justice. The Minister is required to consult with the Legal Appointments Board, a body appointed by cabinet.

The Q.C. Act does not contain any basis for making the appointments, such as merit or exceptional contribution to the practice of law, noting only that someone is "right" to be appointed as being "learned in the law".

In other jurisdictions, the appellation Queen's Counsel recognizes exceptional merit and contribution to the legal profession. Unfortunately, no one can make a clear determination of the merit of any of the local Q.C. appointments since the news release announcing them contained only the sketchiest of biographies.

In jurisdictions still making Q.C. appointments, the practice has come under review from time to time. Quebec stopped the practice of making such appointments in 1976 and Ontario did likewise in 1985. In Manitoba, Queen's Counsel have been replaced by Senior Counsel, an appointment made entirely by the Law Society of Manitoba. This is similar to the practice now followed in Australia, where in at least one jurisdiction there are clear definitions of the criteria for designation as Senior Counsel.

Now while there should be no doubt that all the new silks in today's announcement
are fine individuals and lawyers, this list draws to attention the extent to which a title which should be an honour may at the very least appear to be tainted by personal and/or political connections to the people making the appointments. It is astonishing that fully seven of the eight appointments have obvious connections to the Premier, the Minister of Justice or the political party to which they belong.

To put this in perspective, the 2004 list contained some individuals like Glen Roebothan, who is the Premier's former law partner. However, out of the 10 lawyers who took silk, there is a much greater diversity in the appointments both in terms of the type of practice represented or even the firms involved.

Similarly, in 2005, while another of the Premier's former law partners took silk, the list is diverse in the firms involved and in the areas of the province from which the Q.C.s come.

Two of the appointments, namely Jerome Kennedy and Randy Piercy are eminent barristers with impressive records in the criminal courts. Few could question the appropriateness of those two appointments, in particular.

It's time to change the practice of appointing Queen's Counsel in Newfoundland and Labrador. Take it out of the hands of the Premier and cabinet and give the responsibility to lawyers themselves and judges, as done in Australia and Manitoba. Then the honour can be the deserved recognition of one's peers.

Publicly recognizing exceptional performance is one mark of a society that encourages the pursuit of excellence.

Sadly, it appears the Q.C. list, like the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador may be headed back to the days when what you got depended on who you knew.

Loyola Regan strikes again

Federal fish minister Loyola Hearn announced today that the total allowable catch for harp seals this year will be the same as it has been for most of the past 13 years.

So far, Mr. Hearn hasn't made a decision that his predecessor Geoff Regan didn't make already for him.

But Hearn is still a newbie and there's time for him to change some federal policies.

Like say the one on NAFO, the international organization that sets fisheries quotas in the northwest Atlantic.

Here's what Loyola had to say a couple of weeks ago when he announced Canada would be developing an new international fisheries management approach. Work on the approach began in 1999.

"Arriving at this model with a member state of the European Union provides the opportunity for the international community to show its commitment to results;" stated Minister Hearn. "I hope it will lead to an acceleration of the NAFO reforms we're already seeking."[Emphasis added]

Now the really freaky thing about that last line on reforming NAFO is not what Minister Hearn told John Ivison of the National Lampoon Post in mid February, shortly after the noob minister was sworn in:

Numerous parliamentary committees have complained over the years that the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization, which is meant to enforce fishing quotas, is toothless and in urgent need of reform. However, Mr. Hearn said it is too late to reform NAFO, and Canada has to take on its responsibilities with the backing of other nations that oppose overfishing. [Emphasis added]

What happened in the matter of a couple of weeks for Hearn to go from claiming NAFO was beyond reform to wanting to reform NAFO?

Maybe that's like custodial management, Hearn's pre-election hobby horse. Hearn has gone from wanting to take control unilaterally of waters outside Canada's 200 mile economic zone to supporting the same policy his predecessor was following.

[h/t to an e-mail correspondent for Hearn's new name. Blarney the Green Dinosaur was getting shopworn.]

Ed Byrne on PetroNewf and the equity position

Atlantic Business Magazine has a great oil and gas supplement in the current issue, including an interview with provincial natural resources minister Ed Byrne.

Check out the Byrne interview at atlanticbusinessmagazine.com, but here are a couple of excerpts.

On PetroNewf, that is having Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro get into oil and gas:

Over the last year and a half we have moved Nnewfoundland and Labrador Hydro and the Department of Natural Resources, particularly the Energy Division, to more of an integrated approach with each other, particularly on the bigger files and the big public policy issues. We'’ve moved Hydro towards an energy corporation that could potentially participate in the oil and gas play, both offshore and onshore.

...

ABM: Are you turning Hydro into an oil company?

MINISTER BYRNE: No, we'’ve talked about Hydro becoming more of an energy corporation that moves beyond what it has traditionally done in building dams and burning oil.

ABM: Like doing seismic work and drilling in the offshore?

MINISTER BYRNE: I'’m not sure that'’s where it'’s going. But certainly if there'’s a legitimate business opportunity that will provide a benefit to the province and revenues to Hydro, and thus to the province, we won'’t turn anything down. But all that is being assessed and we are at the ground floor of that right now.

On the equity position in Hebron Premier Danny Williams is apparently making a condition of any development agreement for the last offshore oil field:

ABM: Do you see Hydro taking an equity stake in Hebron?

MINISTER BYRNE: That'’s a public policy position we'’ve laid down that as a province we'’d like to have some equity stake in the emerging oil and gas industry, not unlike what'’s happened in Norway, not unlike what'’s happened in other jurisdictions in the world. Those are some of the things up for discussion right now.

...

From our point of view, equity is important from this perspective: it puts us at the table and helps us develop an intellectual capacity that doesn't necessarily exist within the provincial structure right now. It puts us in the seat as a legitimate bona fide partner in developments. It helps us gain further insight, expertise and knowledge into the oil and gas industry. It has worked successfully as a model in other jurisdictions and there'’s no reason to think it wouldn't here. Other jurisdictions are both equity partners and royalty partners. So while there is some legitimacy in saying that equity is represented by royalty, there are other benefits associated with being an equity partner.

Stephen Harper au Quebec: The heart and cradle of Canada

Policy Options also has the full text of Stephen Harper's December 19 speech in Quebec.

Some excerpts:

Nous ne devons jamais oublier que le Canada a ete fonde a Quebec, par des francophones. Voila pourquoi je dis que le Quebec est le coeur du Canada, et que la langue francaise est un element indeniable de l'’identite de tous les Canadiens, meme si certains d'’entre nous ne le parlons pas aussi bien que nous le devrions.

...

Nous reconnaitrons l'’autonomie des provinces et les responsabilites culturelles et institutionnelles speciales du gouvernement du Quebec. Nous respecterons les competences federales et provinciales telles que definies dans la Constitution canadienne. Et nous elaborerons des mecanismes qui donneront aux provinces un plus grand role dans leurs propres champs de competence sur des questions internationales. Je sais, par exemple, que le gouvernement Charest aimerait un plus grand role pour le Quebec en ce qui concerne ces competences a l'’UNESCO. Selon le modele du Sommet de la francophonie, un nouveau gouvernement conservateur va inviter le Quebec a participer a l'’UNESCO!

Inside the mind of Stephen Harper

Check out the latest issue of Policy Options for a raft of good articles on the last election and other public policy stuff.

Then read the short interview with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

On federal-provincial relations: The New Incrementalism

It's probably not useful for me to go back and revisit the discussions of 10 or 15 years ago and where we would be vis-a-vis that. I think the most important thing, and something I came to see clearly about three or four years ago after I became leader of the opposition, was that what the country really needed in dealing with federal-provincial matters, the federation in Quebec in particular, was to look forward rather than backward, stop worrying about who was right and wrong in Meech Lake and concern ourselves more with contemporary issues.
...
We'’re trying to make significant changes, but in a way that is step-by-step and achievable, and will actually happen.

On the fiscal imbalance: Let's talk

I doubt I would go the full-fledged route of a Royal Commission. The first thing, hopefully in the very near future I'’m going to be sitting down with the provinces informally, to talk a little bit about their thoughts. We'’ve got a couple of reports pending, we'’ve got an equalization review that was set out by the previous government, and the provinces have their own report on the fiscal imbalance. I think it would be helpful to have some kind of a joint body go off and do some thinking on this before we go out into tough negotiations, but frankly, I'’d probably stop short of a full-fledged Royal Commission unless everyone thought that was a good idea.

On Quebec: A New Option

Je dis depuis longtemps que les Quebecois veulent une option qui n'est pas la separation, qui n'est pas la corruption ou qui n'est pas un parti impuissant ou un parti du status quo et du centrisme. Et je dis aussi depuis longtemps que, - un moment donne, les Quebecois vont se decider a essayer quelque chose de different. Je ne savais pas exactement quand ils allaient se decider, mais evidement je suis tres heureux qu'’ils aient commence pendant la campagne electorale (RIRE). Je crois que notre resultat aurait meme ete meilleur si la campagne avait compte une semaine de plus.

On Canada-United States relations:

My difficulty with the previous government was not simply that they had fights with the United States, but their fights with the United States did nothing to advance Canadian interests.

On the Afghan commitment:

It is a very dangerous mission. But it is a commitment that Canada has made, a commitment to play a significant role for some time in Afghanistan. I think quite frankly, my sense is that the allied participation in Afghanistan is paying dividends, that we are making progress.

More seal crap

This article from the Toronto Star is by Rebecca Aldworth, who lived in Newfoundland and now works for the HSUS.

Her piece is appropriately titled "A betrayal of the facts".

For example, she subscribes to a goofball theory that by not killing seals, we can promote cod recovery. It's an interesting concept given that seals are a high level predator in the ocean food chain and prey, among other things on the cod and the stuff that cod would prey on...if there were lots of cod. In the article linked here, Aldworth refers to seals preying on creatures that prey on cod. Sadly, the link doesn't actually say anything about that.

What it does do is discuss the merits and demerits of the argument for a seal cull and its impact on cod populations.

Too bad no one is talking about culling seals to save cod anymore. The reason? The ocean ecosystem is to complex to make such a facile claim that culling cod will allow seals to recover. At the same time, there isn't much reason to believe Aldworth's claim that not killing seals would let cod recover. Cod, it would seem, are actually red herring in this whole fish and cod mess.

In The Star, Aldworth makes a big deal about the fact that 99% of seals killed offshore eastern Canada each year are:

"just two months of age or less. Over the past five years, the majority of the seals killed have been younger than 1 month old. At the time of slaughter, many of these pups had yet to eat their first solid meal or take their first swim - hardly "adult" seals by anyone's standards."

Ok.

But here's some relevant information, Bec didn't see fit to tell the readers of her article:

Newborn pups are about 85 cm long, weigh about 11 kg and are yellowish in colour. In about 3 days, the fur turns to a fluffy white from which the pups derive the name "whitecoats". Young harp seals rank among the fastest growing and most precocious of young mammals. They are nursed for about 12 days and then abandoned by their mothers. During this period they more than triple their weight on milk which contains up to 45% fat (compared to 4% for cow's milk). When weaned, pups weigh an average of 35 kg. More than half of this weight is fat in the form of blubber.

Yep.

You read that correctly. Pups are weaned after a mere 12 days and then left by their mothers to fend for themselves. When the sealers reach the ice floes, the seals are in a transitional phase maturing into independent adult seals - they definitely aren't pups anymore, and that's what made Aldworth's little stunt with the McCartney's fundamentally misleading.

But forgetting all that, my favourite part of Becky's article was the bit where she mentioned Sir Paulie McCartney's license buy-back scheme.

An interesting concept.

Except that the buy-back would have to be federally funded.

Apparently Sir Paul must have been a little short on cash the week he was in Prince Edward island - thinking he was in Newfoundland.

Otherwise, wouldn't Sir Paulie's great big idea have more credibility if Paul took some of his spare change and endowed a fund, managed by a reputable Canadian agency to support just such a buy-back concept?

The problem with that idea?

Putting in place a workable, fully-funded scheme and ending the seal hunt isn't really what the annual March Madness is about for groups like HSUS.

Nope.

It's about raising cash for their own coffers.

It's actually more lucrative for Aldworth and HSUS to orchestrate a boycott they claim is taking hundreds of millions from the fishermen they want to quit sealing, and run expensive radio spots on local radio pressuring Newfoundlanders and Labradorians rather than create a fund that would give fishermen a credible financial alternative to the activity HSUS opposes.

Aside from a few facts Aldworth neglected to include, the real betrayal in her article is not about facts.

It's a betrayal of integrity.

h/t to Mike and Dean's Cross border rant

Bennett off base on Fishery Products International

Provincial Liberal leader Jim Bennett today called on the government to investigate Fishery Products International Limited (FPI) because:

"One of the provisions of the FPI Act -– the 15 per cent rule -– was that control shouldn't leave this province," said Bennett.

"Clearly control has left this province because certain shareholders have gotten together and ousted the board and replaced the former president."

In a news release, Bennett claimed that restriction that no single shareholder could own more than 15% of the company's publicly traded shares "was supposed to ensure that interests of the company remained in Newfoundland and Labrador, and in the best interests of our people."

Bennett alleges that a group of shareholders may have colluded to weaken FPI. "I want an independent investigation to determine if the new board is trying to dismantle the company so that their interests will be served by eliminating a competitor, while picking up the pieces of a valuable company at a fraction of their value."

There are a couple of problems with Bennett's claims.

First, while it is politically popular to allege that FPI is in financial trouble because of under-handed dealings, there simply is no evidence to support the claim. Problems with the income trust proposal have as much to do with the inordinate delay the provincial government took in approving the proposal than anything else. The other financial difficulties have to do with the state of the international fish business and some admittedly questionable decisions made by FPI management. However, there is no evidence of a plot to destroy the company and sell off its assets as Bennett alleges.

Second, there is nothing in the Fishery Products International Act that links the 15% ownership restriction with control of the company remaining within Newfoundland and Labrador. It is highly doubtful that any stock exchange would accept trade in FPI shares if ownership of those shares was restricted such such that shareholders had to reside within Newfoundland and Labrador.

Look at it this way: if there were only 100 shares, the FPI Act allows that no person can own more than 15 of the shares. It says nothing about the person owning those shares being resident in the province. For Bennett to have his way, there would have to be a further restriction in the FPI Act stating that shareholders not resident in Newfoundland and Labrador constitute less than 49% of the total number of shareholders. Good luck trying to find that provision in the FPI Act.

So with this second foray into the FPI business, Bennett is batting zero for two. His first call for the nationalization of FPI was a nonsense. His second call seems to be based on public rumour and misperception as well as a complete misreading of a simple statute.

But hey, if Bennett has any evidence to back up his outlandish claims, let him put it in public. Otherwise his interpretation about this law is likely to get the same simple dismissal his recent constitutional arguments got.

Equalization cold war heats up

The coming battle between the federal government and the provinces over federal transfers and the battle among the provinces over federal-provincial finances started to heat up over the past couple of weeks.

The heat came from comments by federal intergovernmental affairs minister Michael Chong and federal finance minister Jim Flaherty that the offshore deals since in 2005 have wrecked Equalization, the major federal transfer to provincial governments.

Such is the sensitivity of the issue that last Friday, Flaherty issued a statement, reported in Saturday's Telegram, that

“"[m]edia reports suggest that the government is considering scrapping the offshore agreements reached last year with Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador....

"“This is both factually incorrect and misleading. During a brief media availability today in Toronto, I made no mention of Nova Scotia or Newfoundland and Labrador by name nor did I use the words oil and gas."”

The Equalization Top-Up

Equalization is a pretty simple concept: in order to make sure that provincial governments have similar levels of revenue with which to provide key services, the federal government transfers some of its revenues to each qualifying provincial government based on a formula.

As the Bond Papers put it in January 2005:

Basically, Equalization is like a wage top-up scheme for provinces. The federal government figures out a national average amount of revenue each province should get per person. Fall below the average and the province gets a cheque from Ottawa. Meet or exceed the average and you get nothing. No province pays into the program; the money comes from federal government revenues. As it stands right now, Alberta and Ontario make more than the national average and get no Equalization. Saskatchewan will join them in the "have" category, as some call it, within the next year. All the other provinces get some amount of Equalization. Quebec gets as much as all the others combined because the money is paid out based on population.

In 1957, when the program started provinces were topped-up to the average of the top three provinces. Alberta received Equalization until 1964, but once its income went above the average it didn't get a penny in Equalization. In 1967, the average was based on all 10 provinces and since 1982 it has been based on five selected.

The January 2005 Deals

The offshore deals signed by the Mulroney administration with both Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador contained sections that allowed both provinces to collect a special federal transfer based on growth in provincial government revenue from offshore oil and gas development. For a period of 12 years, both provinces could collect a declining payment called an Equalization offset that was designed to protect the provinces from dramatic declines in Equalization as offshore revenues grew.

Several administrations Newfoundland and Labrador sought to amend the offset provisions of the 1985 Atlantic Accord to extend the offset benefits over a greater period of time or, as in the case of the original Williams proposal in January 2004 to effectively hide all oil and gas revenue from Equalization in perpetuity.

Both in the original Accord discussions and for each subsequent federal administration, one of the major concerns was addressing demands from the two Atlantic provinces without undermining the basic principles on which Equalization operated. The solution in 1985 was the declining offsets, which were temporary.

In January 2005, the solution was to link the added offsets to Equalization entitlement: if a province no longer qualified for Equalization, then it also no longer qualified for the added offset. While Equalization can be spent by a provincial government on any public purpose, the Martin-Williams deal indirectly linked continued offsets to improve long-term economic benefits for the province, particularly to debt reduction.

It's about Ontario

At the root of the Chong and Flaherty comments are fundamental misunderstandings about the January 2005 offshore deals that have been prevalent since at least February 2005. In a perverse way, both supporters of the Williams-Martin deal and its detractors have the same fundamental misunderstanding of the deals.

But more importantly, both Chong and Flaherty reflect the sensitivity in Ottawa these days to Ontario's concerns about federal transfer payments to the provinces. Ontario has been campaigning for some time about the unfairness of the current system and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's comments last winter were just part of that.

Flaherty's speech last Thursday was in Whitby, just east of Toronto and he made it a point to remind people that he used to be the Ontario treasurer:

"I acknowledge the spending pressures on the provinces. I was here," said Flaherty, who was Ontario's finance minister under former premier Mike Harris from 2001 to 2002. [Emphasis added]

Ontario concerns still there; plus Quebec and more

In that context, Ontario is no more inclined to accept the Stephen Harper proposal for Equalization changes than there were to accept the January 2005 offshore deals.

After all, both talk about hiding certain types of income from Equalization and serve, after a fashion, as a distortion of how provincial government income is calculated. The Harper proposals - which would remove all non-renewable resource revenues from the Equalization formula -
would see some provinces lose Equalization entitlements while others would benefit greatly.

But fundamentally, the Ontario concern would remain. Simply put, Ontario is concerned that the overall impact of federal transfer programs has created a situation where Ontario is being shortchanged. That's the point that, fundamentally, Flaherty was agreeing with when he sympathized with Ontario's supposed plight.

The Harper proposals adversely affect more provinces than Ontario, however. Any province which does not derive a significant chunk of its revenue from non-renewables would be at a disadvantage under the Harper changes. While some, like Saskatchewan, would benefit greatly, others, including Quebec would see a decline in their transfers.

In the end, it may well be the political costs of introducing the Harper changes that may scuttle them or at least delay their implementation. After all, changes to Equalization require unanimous consent of all provinces. With the Conservative guarantee that no province will be adversely affected by the changes, in order to move forward, Stephen Harper and his finance minister Jim Flaherty might have to put in place offset arrangements for almost half the provinces in the country.

Ultimately, that would make a mockery of the idea of keeping the fundamental Equalization program intact and treating all provinces equitably, while recognizing special circumstances. Those special circumstances were recognized in the offshore deals in 1985 and 2005 but they were limited to two provinces.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Impact

For Newfoundland and Labrador, there is little chance the offshore Equalization deals will be scuttled. No federal administration would repudiate a legitimate agreement between Ottawa and one or more of the provinces. However, all other things considered, no additional offsets will probably flow this year and for the next four or five years under the 2005 agreement since Newfoundland and Labrador will likely no longer qualify for Equalization.

That said, the looming federal-provincial fracas over Equalization could lead to some tense moments and an uncertain future for the province's share of federal transfers, in general.

Missing from the local discussion has been an understanding of what the provincial government is actually seeking. As noted at the Bond Papers a month ago, Danny Williams' proposal for Equalization reform fits with the way Equalization has operated for most of the past 40 years. It would also give full effect to the Atlantic Accord 1985 and its 2005 supplement. That is fundamentally at odds with the position supported by Loyola Sullivan - the Harper plan - which will take some time to negotiate and may never be put in place as currently proposed.

Add those considerations to the statements coming from federal minister Chong and Flaherty and one cannot say for certain how Ottawa proposes to address concerns from all provincial governments about federal transfers to the provinces.

Given Flaherty and Chong's evident distaste for the local offshore deals and their sympathy for Ontario's arguments, it also isn't clear how the new Harper administration will account for deals that have been blamed for destroying the Equalization program.

Danny Williams may well have to fight to keep the deals from being factored in to discussions on the so-called fiscal imbalance that will consider more than just Equalization.

The looming Equalization War, that has been in a sitzkreig stage since the election, is heating up.

Afternoon trench coat radio

As I sit here working this afternoon, I have been growing increasingly uncomfortable as Bill Rowe, host of VOCM's afternoon call-in show Back Talk, displays an inexplicable level of interest in the motivations for men and women to have various parts of their anatomy pierced.

He spent an inordinate amount of time asking one woman about her labia and clitoral piercings - as in where they were and who did them for her - as if that had anything to do with the issue of health and safety related to piercings. When Rowe got to asking about any impact the piercings had on her sex life, I started to wonder if I had stumbled across Trench Coat Radio, with producer Paul Reubens.

This topic is related to the sudden death last week of a young woman in St. John's that was linked in initial reports to an infected body piercing. Subsequent reports highlighted the underground piercing business in St. John's in which people with no particular qualifications or professional standards poke holes in willing clients for discount prices.

The idea of unregulated piercing is a serious public health and public policy issue but Rowe's digressions, including linking the popularity of piercings to CBC's George Stroumboulopoulos are nothing short of whacked, even by Rowe's standards.

By my count, this is the second odd tangent for Rowe, although this one is nowhere near as serious as his comments about an ongoing police investigation some weeks ago. Still, Rowe's outlandish comments, including the ones about some psycho boyfriend forcing his girlfriend to get her bits pierced, suggest that maybe it's time for VOCM management to find a new host for the afternoon show.

Sure Crap Talk is an entertainment show, but surely Steele communications can find someone - like a local George S - who can both entertain and inform.

Rowe seems to be increasingly more than a little out of touch.

FPI, Tom Rideout and the future of the fishery

Fishery Products International (FPI) released a statement today on its plans for operations on the Burin Peninsula.

One of the points made was that cost savings from exporting undersized yellowtail flounder to China for processing effectively subsidized FPI's processing in Newfoundland and Labrador:

A sensible solution must be found for non-commercial fish. An incorrect perception exists that the export of small and medium-sized yellowtail flounder costs sustainable jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador. In FPI's operations, the opposite is actually the case. With catching costs already incurred, exporting raw material that is too small for the Company to process on any commercially viable basis effectively reduces the unit production cost of the fish that is processed in this province. In effect, any means to generate value from non-commercial fish, including shipping it outside Canada for processing, actually reduces the losses of an operation like Marystown. As FPI has informed the other stakeholders, failure to arrive at a reasonable and responsible solution for non-commercial raw material will collapse the economic basis for pursuing this fishery. [Emphasis added]

This sort of economic reality makes one wonder why Tom Rideout said only a few weeks ago that he wouldn't sanction exports of fish for processing elsewhere.

"I'm telling them and I've told them, don't go coming banging on my door for approvals to ship 60 per cent of their groundfish quotas out of this province. It's not on," Rideout said.

"And if that means you crumble, you crumble."

Maybe Tom will have to reconsider his comments. That is, he'll have to reconsider them unless the provincial government is prepared to inject hundreds of millions of dollars into FPI.

Exports to China?

Some details of Fishery Products International's plans to cope with competitiveness and financial issues are leaking out and according to the local fisheries union, those plans include exports to China.

That's a sign of many things, not the least of which is the major challenges that are coming for the local fishing industry.

CBC News has a good summary, here.

Roll up the rim in Kandahar

Canadian soldiers will be able to get Tim Hortons in Afghanistan.

National Defence and Tim's parent company announced Wednesday that the company will be sending one of its portable shops, on a trailer, to the Canadian Forces camp in southwest Afghanistan.

The next step should be to develop a version of this portable restaurant on a standard military vehicle, like the Canadian MLVW or HLVW or the American 5 ton.

Even if it takes several vehicles, they can be easily linked together, as in this Russian configuration for a field printing plant, left.






For the record, here's the complete release, via Canada Newswire:

OAKVILLE, ON, March 8 /CNW/ - Tim Hortons and the Canadian Military are pleased to announce that a Tim Hortons store will open at Kandahar airfield within the next few months.

"We are extremely proud to be able to bring a little taste of home to our troops stationed in Kandahar," said Paul House, Chief Executive Officer and President for Tim Hortons. "Tim Hortons has always supported the Canadian Military and we are honoured to work together to make the opening possible."

Over the next few weeks, Tim Hortons will convert a trailer normally used during restaurant renovations, and deliver it to the Canadian Forces for use in Afghanistan. Once operational, military personnel will be able to purchase select baked goods and beverages, including Tim Hortons' legendary coffee.

The Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency, the morale and welfare arm of the Canadian Forces, will be responsible for staffing, training and operating the location at the Kandahar airfield.

"I know I speak for all the men and women of the Canadian Forces when I say that I'm delighted to hear this news," said General Rick Hillier, Chief of the Defence Staff. "Opening a Tim Hortons to serve our troops in Afghanistan strengthens an already superb relationship between two great Canadian institutions. I would like to thank Tim Hortons for their endless support of the Canadian Forces over the years."

-30-

Serving those who serve: the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency enhances the morale and welfare of the military community, thus contributing to the operational readiness and effectiveness of the Canadian Forces.

For more information on the Canadian Forces, please visit www.forces.gc.ca.

For further information on the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency visit www.cfpsa.com.

Tim Hortons is Canada's largest coffee and baked goods chain with over 2,600 locations in Canada and more than 290 locations in the United States.

To learn more about the company, visit www.timhortons.com.