Rumpole and the Old, Old Story

The sorry tale of the Summer of Discontent in Gander turns out to be a much sorrier tale than first appeared.

At the end of a story entitled “One Judge Short” from last February (not online), The Beacon reported that then-provincial Court Chief Judge Reg Reid had “requested the minister fill the position [in Gander] as quickly as possible.” 

It seems that justice minister Tom Marshall could have used the same list of candidates from which he picked Don Singleton for a round of musical judicial chairs to also find a name to fill the vacancy in Gander.

When the Singleton appointment went sour, though, Marshall did nothing with either of the two vacancies.  Nor did he do anything with the list of candidates in front of him either – except flick it to one side - even though there were other names on it of people who not only met the bare minimums set out in the legislation but exceeded them. 

And that was six months ago.

In the meantime, not only are there still vacancies in Gander and St. John’s yet to be filled but two more have turned up.

Chief Judge Reg Reid retired in April.  That leaves newbie Judge Mark Pike in the role of assistant chief judge, a position that appears to have been created for him to fill but there is still a new vacancy in St. John’s.

On top of that, Judge Joe Woodrow – familiar to visitors to Courtroom Number Seven  - opted to retire in February and now sits on a per diem basis (as required).

There you have it:  three judges’ seats in St. John’s empty and one in Gander, all of which need to be filled.  Plus – and for some equally unfathomable reason – cabinet has not gotten around to appointing a replacement for Reid even though he’s been gone since April.  The chief judge’s job is a cabinet appointment, you see.

As a sign of how serious the problem is in Gander, consider that The Beacon reported last February the issue came up at a Gander town council meeting that month.

The chair of the town’s economic development committee wanted someone to have a chat with Hander member of the House of Assembly Kevin O’Brien.  The prospect of having cases directed to other towns caused some furrowed brows, it seems, since the people attending trials in Gander bring with them a certain benefit to the local innkeepers and restauranteurs. The slowdown in the courthouse meant a slowdown in the local economy.

Now this sort of dithering and delay is nothing new either for the justice department or the current administration as a whole.

Retired justice Bill Marshall (no relation) has been working on not one but two separate “reviews” one of which appears to have been underway since 2004.  Not a thing has come of either review and the government is also refusing to release any information about the status of either review.

Since 2003, a surprising number of senior public service positions have gone without a permanent appointment for periods of up to two years.  Some are appointed on an acting basis for extraordinarily long times and for no apparent reason. In other instances, legislation is passed but  not put into effect and in other instances, reports and promised policies have sat untended for two or three years.  It’s all part of the “missing in action” syndrome that befalls chunks of government these days.

Now part of the cause of all this might be that the appointments to the bench are supposed to be made  - ultimately - by the Lieutenant Governor-in-Council.  That’s legalese ease for cabinet.  And, if the practice with deputy ministers is any indication, “cabinet appointment” now means the picks are made by the Premier Himself and only the Premier.

And if he is pre-occupied with other things, no matter what those other things are, … well, that’s been pretty much the old, old story of this administration since Day One.

-srbp-

Old habits die hard: legislative expenses version

In the United Kingdom, an inquiry into the expenses scandal at Whitehall is running into members of parliament griping about their quality of life.  The MPs want improvements, so it seems, despite the excesses which have been revealed in the past few months.

Meanwhile, the Bow Wow parliament has a committee holding hearings before the committee submits recommendations on a new pay and allowances scheme for local politicians to the House of Assembly management committee. 

Ostensibly, the committee wants to get public input. So far only five people have turned up to offer views to the committee at hearings held across the province.

  That’s hardly surprising given that the committee is holding hearings during the time when most people in the province  - including most politicians - take a nice long break from the business of politics.

But here’s the question no one seems to have asked in Newfoundland and Labrador:  why is the committee out there in the first place?

The politicians will tell you they appointed the committee because it is in the Green bill, the legislation that came after the local spending scandal hit daylight. Now that is true, but there was considerable discretion available to the legislators. 

Since they got their salaries set in 2007 at the time of the last election, they could have amended the legislation so that the next salary committee wouldn’t be appointed until after the next general election 2011.   They also could have delayed appointing the current committee until some time in early 2011, thus giving members of the legislature a full four years at their old pay scheme before they would look at an increase.

Either of those approaches would have shown some restraint on the part of members.  This might have been prudent given that the public is more than a wee bit soured on them after listening to the litany of miss-spending and excuses for same that poured forth from the honorable members.

And it’s not like the poor darlings wouldn’t have seen any pay hikes in the meantime.  Under section 15(3) of the Green bill, they would have collected the same percentage increases the executive of the public got in any given year.  That’s not bad for a crowd making a hefty wage anyways and given that almost half of them or more are drawing extra pay allotments, members of the legislature can hardly claim they’ve been hard done by. 

Rather than do either of those things, the members of the legislature  - most or all of whom are members of the successor to the old internal economy commission - decided to go for a restructuring of their pay and allowances scheme in addition to the annual percentage hikes a mere two years after the system came into effect in the first place. 

They decided to do it at a time when the public are – for the most part – simply not paying attention to things political. The politicians discussed postponing things until the fall, incidentally,  but decided to carry on such that the bulk of the work was being done at the worst possible time of the year. 

Well, worst possible time if one was serious about getting public input.  The resolution appointing the committee went through the House in May.  The committee must report no later than the end of October. The hearings will be over and done – save for one – by the end of August. 

Their report will then find its way back to the House of Assembly where it will be passed, one expects, as quickly and as quietly as possible in what has become a notoriously lightweight and very short fall sitting of the House.

That’s pretty much how most things involving pay and allowances for members have been handled over the past decade.  Despite all the public furor, despite all the revelations of miss-spending, the members of the provincial legislature are carrying on much as they have always done when their pay and allowances are involved.

Old habits -  it seems -  die very hard indeed.

-srbp-

The story that won’t go away

The seizure of assets belonging to three companies last December may have been popular but it could wind up being very costly:

According to Prof. [Russell] Williams and Vancouver-based trade expert Henri Alvarez of Fasken Martineau, Abitibi has a strong case: NAFTA’s Chapter 11 was designed explicitly to prevent these kinds of scenarios. In Prof. Williams’s [sic] view, the suit, if filed, could hit Ottawa with a big legal bill that will likely get passed on to Newfoundland.

Financial costs aren’t the only issue at stake here; there’s also the small matter of how foreign investors are likely to react. For now, government officials aren’t keen to discuss it. Williams’ government would not comment; neither would Trade Minister Stockwell Day. Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Laura Dalby said the fact that a notice of intent has been filed “does not establish the merits of a challenge.”

-srbp-

Rumpole and Rorke’s drift

From the agreed statement of facts in R. v Aylward comes a description of the events on the night in question which might help readers appreciate the incident.

You may recall this as the case in which Judge John Rorke, as he then was, uttered his now infamous words about pots to piss in and the young accused having put both the judge and the Crown prosecutor in a jam.

Note that in reproducing the agreed statement of facts, your humble e-scribbler has reduced the names of  the young men involved in the sorry episode to initials, with the exception of the young man convicted by Judge Rorke.  Dates of birth for each have also been omitted as well as the street numbers in the addresses at which the incident took place. 

At the time of the incident, all but one of the young men present were over the age of 18 years and none was over the legal drinking age.  The one young man under age 18 was present but was not identified as playing a key role.

The name and age of the victim are  also not given in the version below.

Although this information is part of the public record and as such are readily available the information the information is not necessary to appreciate the incident and the sentence imposed initially as well as the change in sentence on appeal.

[Taken from: R. v. Aylward, [1998] N.J. No. 338, 170 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 185, 22 C.R. (5th) 191, 40 W.C.B. (2d) 494 Docket: 98/117, the decision rendered on this case on the appeal by the Crown about the sentence imposed.]

On June 21, 1998, Jeffrey Aylward … attended a party hosted by MR …at his residence at …Paddy Dobbin Drive, St. John's, Newfoundland.  MR’s parents and younger brother were away on vacation at this time. Most of his guests departed by about 1:00 a.m. on June 22, 1998. Remaining at the residence were Jeffrey Aylward, MR, RR …, RL …, AH …, SM …, MJ …, and AH ... .

At about 1:30 a.m. someone suggested ordering a pizza. Since no one had any money to pay for the pizza, it was decided that it would be ordered anyway, and Jeffrey Aylward and RR would steal it from the delivery man. MR placed the order for the pizza with the local establishment "Pizza Pros". He ordered it to be delivered to … Paddy Dobbin Drive, a house two doors up the street, and made up a phone number. At the time of placing the order, MR knew that he was setting up the pizza delivery man. When the order was initially placed, the intent was to simply steal it; however, after the order was placed Jeffrey Aylward and RR decided that they did not want to confront the delivery man empty handed.

Alcohol was consumed that evening. Jeffrey Aylward believes he drank around twelve (12) beer; RR, eight (8); and MR, three (3).

Jeffrey Aylward and RR first asked MR for masks and then for weapons. M R gave Jeffrey Aylward a ski-mask and RR a "Freddy" Halloween mask. Jeffrey Aylward was given a "Tonfa", which is a wooden t-shaped baton designed for the sport of Kung Fu, and RR was given a wooden stick, about two and a half feet long. Since RR found the Halloween mask to be uncomfortable, he ended up not wearing it but replaced it with a t-shirt, which he wrapped around his head and face.

RC …, who works as a delivery man for "Pizza-Pros", arrived at … Paddy Dobbin Drive at approximately 2:25 a.m.. Since there were no lights on at the residence, RC proceeded to check the area. As he approached the house, he heard someone from behind say "we'll take that". RCs thought it was a prank and said, "You'll actually stealing a pizza"? The two men then said, "Give us the fucking pizza". At this point, RC realized the seriousness of the situation and handed the pizza over to Jeffrey Aylward and RR. Both RR and Jeffrey Aylward held their weapons in full view of RC. Although he was not injured in any way, RC felt threatened during this encounter. Jeffrey Aylward and RR then returned to … Paddy Dobbin Drive, and the pizza was eaten by all in the group except AH, who had since gone to bed.

The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary were notified at 2:25 a.m. of the robbery. With the use of a police dog, Jeffrey Aylward and RR were tracked to …  Paddy Dobbin Drive. The police approached the residence and asked to speak to the owner. MR came forward and agreed to let the officers look around. The weapons, masks, and pizza box were recovered. A warrant to search was executed at 7:35 a.m. and the masks, weapons, and pizza box were seized.

MR, RR, and Jeffrey Aylward gave cautioned statements to the police, admitting to their involvement. RL, AH, SM, MJ and AH also cooperated with the investigation by providing statements.

The appeal decision summarised the sentence as follows, at paragraph two:

2 In addition to the statutorily prescribed conditions, the respondent was ordered to,

-   Abstain from the taking or consumption of alcohol or other intoxicating substance.

-   Abstain from the taking or consumption of drugs except in accordance with a medical prescription.

-   Abstain from owning or carrying a weapon, ammunition or explosive substance.

-   Perform 200 hours of community service work over 12 months.

-   Attend and participate actively in such awareness or educational programs or counselling sessions to which you might be referred by your probation officer, and in particular any relating to alcohol, drug or substance abuse or addiction, and anger management and control.

-  Write a letter of apology to [RC].

On the appeal, the court decided in part:

11 Nevertheless, we are in full agreement with the Crown's second submission. It has been likewise expressed in all of the above cases that because a conditional sentence is "a sentence of imprisonment" (s. 742.1(a)) which is being served "in the community" (s. 742.1(b)), it is appropriate that there be some restrictions on the liberty of the offender during the period of such imprisonment. Otherwise, it obviously would not be imprisonment and would not be distinguishable from a probation order. In our view, while such a condition is not a mandatory condition under the legislation, only in the rarest of cases should there be no such restriction.  [Emphasis added]

12 As has already been stated, the offences of which the respondent had been convicted are most serious ones. The surrounding circumstances and, in particular, the transition of what appears to have started out as a drunken prank conceived on the spur of the moment by a bunch of 18 year olds, into a criminal offence, nevertheless justify a sentence of only one year's imprisonment, to be served in the community. However, the nature of that offence is not, in our view, properly reflected without a limitation on the liberty of the respondent and the trial judge was in error in not doing so. We therefore intend to additionally impose such a condition.

13 In the result therefore, leave to appeal is granted and the appeal is allowed in part in that, in addition to the conditions imposed by the trial judge, the respondent, for the remainder of the conditional sentence period, will be confined to his place of residence from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., except where it is necessary to leave such residence for the purpose of compliance with other conditions imposed by the trial judge and this Court; to continue attending school; to have no contact with the other persons involved in the offence; and, to have no contact with the complainant or his place of business. Additionally, following the serving of the sentence prescribed herein, the respondent will be subject to a probation order for a period of two years. … [Emphasis added]

 

-srbp-

Irving company wins NL government ferry contract

A company from the Irving Group has won a government contract to design a ferry for the Newfoundland and Labrador  ferry system.

According to a provincial government news release, Fleetway Inc. came out on top in an expressions of interest process begun this past May.

The release is unusually brief, does not provide any details on the company and erroneously describes it as a Newfoundland and Labrador company.

The original news release announcing the process contained much the same information as the announcement that Fleetway got the job.

-srbp-

Rumpole and the Summer of Discontent

There is disquiet in the sleepy hamlet of Gander.

The provincial courthouse is short one judge since Judge David Peddle was appointed to the Trials Division of the Supreme Court last December.

Justice Peddle’s former bench-mate  - Judge Bruce Short – is on something of a work-to-rule, as it seems, to protest the delay in appointing someone to help with the load of cases parading before him in the Gander courthouse.

Court is held only on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Judge Short repairing the rest of the time to his home, which is, it should be noted noted, more than the maximum 70 kilometres from his bench required by the statute.

Judge Short is reportedly so peeved that he has told counsel appearing before him that they are free to call their members in the House of Assembly and impress upon the politicos the need to send a second judge out to share the burden in Gander.

One wonders what might happen if no one can rouse the appropriate authorities to fill the spot in Gander not to mention the other three seats on the provincial court bench that currently sit vacant. 

Perhaps Judge Short might be compelled to start tossing  cases out the door based on delays in hearing them and the resultant constitutional issues arising.

Perhaps justice minister Tom Marshall is holding off on any new appointments out of embarrassment over last winter’s Singleton fiasco. It’s not everyday someone turns down a judge’s appointment once details of his past emerge.

Bond Papers discussed this earlier in “Rumpole and the Blind Tasting”,  “Rumpole and the Minister’s Choice” and “Rumpole and the Doddering Old Man”.

The politicos tried to push the whole thing off as a failure of the selection committee, but that story turned out to be a bit of a nose puller.

Whatever the reason, Gander is experiencing a summer of discontent in 2009 with a very special cause. 

It will carry on, one suspects, until someone manages to get a few names in front of Tom Marshall the next time he comes into the office from his home in Corner Brook.

-srbp-

Air Lab to axe southern Labrador service

Air Labrador will be cutting its service to the southern coast of Labrador shortly. 

The company will announce the cut within the next 30 days, including determining the date on which the service will end. 

That’s what Air Labrador’s Philip Earle told CBC in a broadcast interview.  Earle said the company couldn’t make a “business case” for continuing operations in the region.  The company will continue to provide medical evacuation service to the local health region under its current contract.

This is the second cut by Air Labrador in 2009.  In March, the company stopped flying Dash-8s and laid off 100 people.

-srbp-

Rumpole and the Piss Pot

[Originally posted as "Strong language welcome...sometimes"]

Today he’s the interim child and youth advocate but a decade ago, then-Provincial Court Judge John Rorke was facing disciplinary action for remarks at a sentencing for armed robbery.

Justice Robert Wells - appointed to review the complaint - decided that Rorke’s language at the sentencing was “inappropriate”. As the Telegram reported it at the time,

Inappropriateness occurred at two levels, Wells wrote. "Firstly, a judge should not use unacceptable language in the course of judicial duties. Expressions such as 'haven't got a pot to piss in' are simply unacceptable when coming from a presiding judge, as are personal references such as 'I've had a dozen beer in me, a good many times.'"

Rorke also observed that the young man, who had robbed a pizza delivery man at a house on Paddy Dobbin Drive in the east end of St. John’s, had placed the Crown and the judge in a bind with respect to sentencing.

The young man was handed a 12 month conditional sentence, as opposed to the three years which Rorke said in his decision was more typical for the offence under the circumstances.

"So, the next guy I got to look at and say three years is going to throw back at me, 'Oh yeah, you let the rich boys go because they are your buddies, they are your friends. There's no justice here.' That's the jam you put me in. That's the jam you put the Crown in," he said.

The young man at the original criminal trial was represented by Danny Williams and his law partner Steve Marshall.

Williams told the Telegram in 1999 he had no problem with Rorke’s language if it worked to “save a soul”. Williams did subsequently take umbrage at strong language from another judge in Ruelokke v. Newfoundland and Labrador aimed at actions to which Williams was a party.

Rorke was reprimanded by the disciplinary review.

-srbp-

What a picture shows

Most people will see a nice campaign-style picture featuring the current Prime Minister.

What anyone seriously interested in defence of the north will see is something else:

1.  This exercise took place in August when four little old ladies with severe arthritis could operate fairly easily in the Arctic. 

Try working there in January, especially with a diesel electric submarine that needs air to breathe and the sea is clogging with thick ice.

2.   The aircraft are so far away from any fuel supplies they could only form up for this picture if each was carrying three additional fuel tanks.  As a result they are carrying shag-all in the way of ordnance.

-srbp-

Happy Fire-Poll Season

Day One:  the observation.

Day Two:  the confirmation.

The whole thing couldn’t have been any funnier if your humble e-scribbler had advance knowledge of the government’s news release schedule.

-srbp-

Public comment sought on draft southern strategic environmental assessment

From the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board:

The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board is inviting public comment on the draft Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for the Southern Newfoundland area of the Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Area.

The Southern Newfoundland area is included in the C-NLOPB’s Call for Bids, and the bids for this area close on November 19. The results of the SEA will be considered in decisions relating to the potential issuance of exploration licences.

The Board is conducting the SEA for the Southern Newfoundland Offshore Area with the assistance of a working group with representatives from federal and provincial government departments and agencies, One Ocean, the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union, local Regional Economic Development Boards, and non-governmental organizations, and has engaged an environmental consulting firm to prepare the associated SEA report. The Board has received a draft SEA report from the consultant and now is soliciting public comment on that document.

The draft SEA Report may be viewed on the Board’s Web site at www.cnlopb.nl.ca or by e-mailing a request to information@cnlopb.nl.ca.

Written public comments on the draft SEA report will be accepted by the Board until noon on September 16, 2009.

Comments can be sent to Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board, 5th Floor, TD Place, 140 Water Street, St. John's NL, A1C 6H6, 709-778-1400; or via email to ead@cnlopb.nl.ca.

-30-

 

And just to make you feel really old…

Beloit College has just released its most recent edition of the Mindset List, that marvellous compendium of things the incoming class of university freshmen understand as having always been true.

-srbp-

Lono calls for municipal auditor general

From the candidate’s website:

Councillor at Large candidate Simon Lono says
St. John's needs a Municipal Auditor General

St John’s  - Councillor at Large candidate Simon Lono says he would work to have a Municipal Auditor General (MAG) appointed for the City of St. Johns.

A municipal auditor general would perform independent reviews of city spending and operations and make recommendations on how to improve the way the city spends taxpayer's money. The office would also help make sure taxpayers know how city council is spending their money.

Lono said, “Our city, the city of St. Johns, is the largest public institution in the province still not subject to scrutiny by an autonomous auditor general. We need a MAG that is outside council control with the power of independent investigation and the mandate to share its findings with the citizens and tax-payers of St. Johns. It would go a long way to improve transparency and accountability at City Hall.”

There is a federal auditor general and a provincial auditor general, but there is no equivalent for the municipal level of government in this province.

Nova Scotia has recently instituted a province-wide system of municipal auditor generals. In Alberta, a bill is before the provincial legislature to create provincially funded offices. Responsible cities across Canada have taken the initiative to create their own office of MAGs , including Toronto.

“The capital city of a vibrant province with a growing economy needs a Municipal Auditor General, “ says Lono. “This is no time for council to be defensive and cling to old ways of operating. In the next 4 years, the St. Johns municipal budget will exceed $200 million a year. If we are a great city, let’s act like one and be open to an independent public sector audit. Let’s make sure that taxpayers get value for money and residents get the best possible service, the service they deserve.“

- 30 -

Great Gambols with Public Money: The Stunnel, Part Deux

The sort of collective insanity that leads people to support incredibly asinine ideas like the Stunnel isn’t confined to any one political party.

Consider these musings from Liberal leader Yvonne Jones in the Wednesday Telegram.  The story isn’t available online.

Jones, it should be noted, just happens to represent the electoral district into which the Stunnel would go to connect the island of Newfoundland with the continent.

That is a mere coincidence, though.

Meanwhile, Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones said while fixing Marine Atlantic's service has to be done in short order, the long term solution could be reopening a 2004 report on a fixed link between the  Northern Peninsula and Labrador.

"It's pretty much common knowledge that if you're going to have a  strong economy, a functional economy, you need to be able to have good  transportation and communication links to the rest of the world," she said.

"The realty is we are losing business because of the level of service that's being provided. People are turning away at the docks."

Whether it's a tunnel, bridge or some other link, Jones said transportation to the mainland cannot depend on someone else's schedule.

It’s pretty much common knowledge that Newfoundland and Labrador has a strong, functioning economy complete with diverse and very good transportation and other communications links to the rest of the world.

There is a very particular problem with one service that is provided by an agency that seems chronically unable to sort out the difficulties.

The solution to this particular problem is to sort out this particular problem, not peddle some completely lunatic idea to spend untold billions digging a hole through which trains would run. 

The solution isn’t even to dig a hole through which people might drive their cars at a cost of billions which will never – realistically – be repaid or otherwise recovered.

All that Jones has offered up here is just more of the same old ideas that haven’t worked to solve the Marine Atlantic problem before. 

One very plausible solution would be to end Marine Atlantic’s monopoly and allow competition on the run.  A similar idea would be to dispose of the Crown corporation altogether and let a private sector company enter the picture. 

After all, if there is that much business being lost – as Jones claims – there’s likely room for another carrier.

Maybe that other carrier can run between Halifax and the Port of St. John’s.  Maybe that carrier would run between Montreal – for argument sake – and Stephenville or Corner Brook.

But wait.

Even in the absence of a competitive ferry service, there is an alternative already.  There are other cargo ships that ply the waters between the island of Newfoundland and the mainland of the continent.  Tourists can fly into airports located conveniently near the major attractions.

Any of these are viable options to digging a hole in the ground and pouring public money in behind it.

On some level, though, the longer Marine Atlantic continues to screw up, the more it is just useful political fodder for everyone from provincial opposition politicians, to federal ones like Gerry Byrne to St. John’s city councillors. If Marine Atlantic stooped being a problem, they’d have to find something else to talk about.

Now to be fair to Sandy Hickman, he is just following on the time honoured tradition of St. John’s city politicians talking about anything but stuff they can do anything about or should be worried about.

The current mayor – Doc O’Keefe – rose to prominence by advocating for the province-wide gasoline price fixing scheme taxpayers in the province now pay for.

Wannabe deputy mayor Keith Coombs is a teacher who liked to use public money to run a hockey rink and failed entertainment operation, better known as the Wells-Coombs Memorial Money Pit.

You’d hear both of them on radio or television talking about that stuff long before you’d hear them talking about capital works plans or garbage collection.

At least Hickman offered up a half-ways sensible idea that might just work and at no cost to the taxpayers.

On that ground alone, he should get re-elected to city council. 

Heck, on that ground alone, he should enter provincial or federal politics.

At least his head is screwed on straight.

-srbp-

Poll goosing: Can you say fire truck?

There are two bits of humour in the same post.

The first is this video of a child having some interesting trouble saying the words fire and truck together. 

It’s a wee bit predictable but still funny and cute.

Also predictable, funny and cute is the fact that the provincial government likes to announce and deliver fire trucks in a particular season of the year that just coincidentally is also the time the official provincial government pollster is on the go collecting his latest data for a government-sponsored poll.

Since 2007, the provincial government has consistently started announcing fire trucks with the bulk of the announcements coming just before and during Government Polling period.

July 11, 2007:  $108,000 dropped on the association representing firefighters.  Don’t forget that was also part of the pre-election Summer of Love spending frenzy.

August 9, 2007:  Government pollster Corporate Research Associates starts collecting data.

August 16, 2007:  A new fire truck for Conception Bay South,  “presented” by municipal affairs minister Jack Byrne with incumbents/candidates Terry French and Beth Marshall in tow.

August 16, 2007:  A news release listing off $1.7 million in emergency services spending, including a list of nine new fire trucks and other emergency vehicles for communities across the province.

August 17, 2007:  As if the announcement of the presentation on the 16th wasn’t enough, there’s a second news release on the fire truck in CBS. It includes three photos of people posing with the fire truck.

August 31, 2007:  CRA stops polling.

Other than one lone fire truck presentation in October, there’s no other fire truck activity in 2007.  By the way, that one in October was the presentation of a truck included in the August 16 release and it was presented in a town in the minister’s district.  He didn’t “present” any other trucks, at least with a news release going with it.

Skip ahead one year and you will find the next Fire Truck Season that – just by coincidence  - matches up to Government Polling Season.

July 15, 2008:  $130,000 in government cash for the firefighters association.

July 25, 2008:  New fire trucks for Badger and Whitbourne.

August 5, 2008:  New fire truck for St. Anthony

August 7, 2008:  New fire truck for Irishtown-Summerside.

Government pollster CRA polled from August 12 to 30, 2008.

There were three more vehicle presentations extending into October last year. Of course by the time the last one was done, the government pollster was getting ready to go back to the field in November for the last poll goosing foray of the year in November.  Lo and behold there was even the announcement of a new fire hall in that month, as well. 

Fire and polls really do go together.

The pattern has continued in 2009.

An announcement in January – covering a raft of new fire trucks -  in advance of the February poll goosing season and with plenty of time for the weekly newspapers to cover the stories.  Even more funding for the firefighters association in July 2009 and of course the August announcement. CRA’s been in the field since last week.

Now some of you might protest that these announcements don’t match up with polling time.

But if you think that you might be forgetting what no less an authority than the Premier himself said about the whole idea of poll-stacking when he was asked about it last year.   If he was going to poll goose, he’d be out there a week or two before polling started.

Oh, he knew exactly when CRA started polling, by the way.  Not exactly the sort of information you’d expect a busy Premier to have at his finger-tips.

Well, not unless he needed to be aware of it for some reason.

-srbp-

The whole story sometimes hurts

Cleary. 

Ryan Cleary.

Wannabe (N)DP candidate Double Naught 1.5

License to shill.

Wasting no time in turning his attention to his latest dream job, former journalist Ryan Cleary is now writing letters to the editor of the local paper to poke as his political opponents, that is his opponents should he win the (New) Democratic Party nod in St. John’s South-Mount Pearl.

The subject: federal money for a new provincial penitentiary in Newfoundland and Labrador.

So, the federal Liberals are disappointed about the lack of action on Her Majesty's Penitentiary ("Lack of action on penitentiary disappointing: MP," Aug. 12 Telegram) and would do more to make a new prison a priority? That's surprising, considering the party totally ignored a direct question about their commitment to a new prison leading up to the October 2008 election.

Now for those who don’t know, this is an old chestnut from Tory campaigns past  that has become legendary in the local world of political efforts to buy votes with public money.

Originally, it was supposed to be a federal prison in the province built entirely with federal money and handling prisoners doing more than two years of a sentence. 

Since it was first tossed out in the early 1980s, the idea has morphed to its latest version in which the provincial government  - in the interim flush with oil cash - wants the federal government to pay 70% of the cost of building a new provincially-run prison.

Danny Williams included it in the most recent version of his now trade-mark schtick, the begging letter to Ottawa.  That’s the phrase that comes from the way  (N)DP member of parliament Jack Harris described this sort of stuff:

Some politicians think we gotta treat Ottawa like Santa Claus and write him begging or something...or when Joey was around it was "Uncle Ottawa" maybe he'll do us some favours.

Cleary apparently doesn’t agree.

It seems that the supposedly independently minded wannabe Dipper MP  endorses the approach of a provincial government going cap in hand to the federal government for money to do what the provincial government not only should do on its own but clearly has the cash to do on its own.

But if Liberal leader Stephane Dion didn’t talk about that particular issue in his response to the begging letter from Danny Williams, what  - pray tell  - did Jack Layton of the (N)DP offer?

Well, he sure didn’t jump at the chance to cost-share a provincial prison on a 70/30 basis with the feds picking up the larger bit.

Nope.

Layton committed to finding an “acceptable funding arrangement”.  That’s it.

An acceptable funding arrangement could be anything from having the province bear the whole load to having the federal government pay only enough to represent the handful of prisoners that are held in provincial custody awaiting transfer to federal custody.  That wouldn’t likely be 70%, incidentally.

No wonder Cleary didn’t make any reference to the letter Jack wrote. His party isn’t really any better than the crowd he’s trying to poke.  Well, at least when it comes to answering people that come begging to Uncle Ottawa.

Sometimes the whole story is just too painful to write, even in a brief letter to the editor.

-srbp-

Great Gambols with Public Money: The Stunnel

Normally, governments in Newfoundland and Labrador don't turn to the freakishly large, insane, totally whacked out, over-the-top, no-evidence-to-support-it kind of ideas until, like the Peckford crew, they are at the end of their time and have run out of all the good ideas.

That's what happened with Sprung, basically.

Smallwood didn't get into them - including the Stunnel, incidentally - until he was at the end of what for most people would have been a normal political lifespan.

Some, like Wells, for example, never got into them. Tom Rideout, Roger Grimes, Beaton Tulk and Brian Tobin just weren't around long enough for the air to get a little thin in the New Ideas department.

Not so with the current crew.

They endorsed a tunnel across the Straits of Belle Isle from Day One. They even commissioned a feasibility study of the whole idea even though - on the face of it - the thing just didn't add up.

Well, the nutty ideas haven't gone away. The stunned tunnel - or Stunnel - is good enough to get ministerial junkets to Norway and prompt the odd letter to the local papers. No word, incidentally, from transportation minister Trevor Taylor on what he found out from his fact-finding mission to Norway.

Take a look at that letter to the Telly by the way and you'll see all the classic warning signs of megaproject proponents. You got your gross and unsubstantiated claims of benefits and pretty much no talk of costs, risks or alternatives.

Don't take Dave Rudofsky's letter in isolation, by the by. It comes hot on the heels of a mention for the project in an interview the Premier gave to yet another safari journalist. If the Big Guy is still talking about these things, others will take the cue.

Megaprojects are like the crack cocaine of ideas: all hype, buzz and spin and a great feeling on the way up.

Followed by a hideous crashing sensation when the high wears of and reality returns. They are highly addictive too, especially in places like Newfoundland where there has been so much of this crap going on that short-term memories have been affected. In Newfoundland (not so much Labrador) some people can't remember what they did politically yesterday so the peddlers of the nuttiest of schemes can find a willing buyer for their wares.

Way back in those early days, your humble e-scribbler took a look at the whole Stunnel idea and put some numbers on it. Since the nutty idea never went away, here's the link to that again for your mid-August reading enjoyment.

And if you want something even better, try Megaprojects and risk, a devastating study of megaprojects by three Scandanavian academics. One reviewer described it as "a warning against the betrayal of public trust when hubris and profit come together." The book could have been written in Newfoundland and Labrador.

-srbp-

Great Gambols with Public Money: Sprung Cukes 3 – ministerial statement version

Things got pretty bad when the Greenhouse was accused of dumping cukes on the Maritime market. The following is the ext of a statement by Premier Brian Peckford in the House of Assembly as part of an effort to address many of the criticisms and complaints which emerged by the spring of 1988.

Ministerial Statement by the Honorable A. Brian Peckford
Tuesday, May 24, 1988

Mr. Speaker, I believe it is urgently necessary to address this Honorable House on a matter of great importance. It has been suggested for several days now that this Government and Newfoundland Enviroponics Limited has been engaged i some sort of insidious plot to take over Maritime cucumber markets through a systematic dumping effort aimed at bankrupting the Maritime greenhouse industry.

Mr. Speaker, there is not now nor has there ever been any such plan. Such a plan would be totally inconsistent with the policy positions of this Government which have been to strengthen the free flow of goods and services between Provinces [sic] in a fair and open manner.
Newfoundland Enviroponics has absolutely no intention of unfairly competing in any market place. Indeed, the facts are just the opposite.

Newfoundland Enviroponics entered the Maritime marketplace on a fair and reasonable basis. It is probably the most cost-efficient producer in Canada today and we make no apologies for that. As well, it is producing product that is herbicide and pesticide free and is of the highest possible quality. We make no apologies for this either.

Newfoundland Enviroponics can and will compete on that basis. The fact, Mr. Speaker, is that Newfoundland Enviroponics has done nothing wrong. It is not a case of Government subsidy competing with private enterprise.

Newfoundland Enviroponics is financed on a business-like basis and will have to pay its own way. It is no more subsidized by Government then are greenhouse growers or for that matter any other agricultural producer in this country.

Again, Mr. Speaker, we must consider the facts. In an interview published in the May 21 edition of the Globe and Mail, the vice-president of Clover Produce in Halifax indicated that he would be making up the shortfall caused by cancelling orders with Newfoundland Enviroponics by purchasing from Ontario producers at lower prices.

Does this sound like a dumping situation or a situation in which local Maritime growers are being unfairly competed with?

The answer is clearly no.

Mr. Speaker, I feel it is important that the record be set straight on this issue. I would like to quote from Hansard of May 20 and the statement of the Honourable the Minister of Rural, Agricultural and Northern Development:

“Mr. Speaker, it is not the government's intention, or Newfoundland Enviroponic's intention to deliberately put anybody out of business. It is not our deliberate intention to dump so that we can up prices afterwards. It is our deliberate intention to be very, very aggressive in the marketplace and to make sure that we are there in a price competitive situation. We are not going to be competitive in a quality situation because nobody can compete with us on quality. There is nobody who produces a cucumber like we do, that is herbicide and pesticide free, packed fresh and gets to the market as quickly as ours can. On quality we have no concern at all because we are going to be the best by far in the marketplace. When it comes to price, we are going to compete in any marketplace we choose to be in and we are going to do very, very well in those marketplaces.''

Mr. Speaker, not withstanding what I have just said, if there has been any misunderstanding created through a misinterpretation of the Honorable Minister's comments, I feel compelled to apologize. My apologizes go to the local Maritime growers, to the Governments of our sister provinces, to the consuming public, and, perhaps most importantly, to the employees of Newfoundland Enviroponics. They are doing their best to create a successful enterprise. This Government will be making appropriate contacts over the next day or two with neighbouring governments and others to reassure them on these points and to hopefully repair some of the damage which has been done.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of other related misconceptions about this project and the occurrences of the past few days which need to be cleared up.

First of all, Newfoundland Enviroponics has not, as I stated earlier, been dumping produce on the Nova Scotia market. Any suggestion to the contrary is totally without foundation.

Newfoundland Enviroponics has not sold produce outside of this Province at any time at a price lower that it was then offering to its local customers.

Second, there has been discussion about smaller cucumbers being produced by Newfoundland Enviroponics. For the record, Newfoundland Enviroponics is currently producing a variety of grades of cucumbers to cater to the preferences of its customers. These different grades are characterized by different sizes and are packaged and designated as such. The different sizes of product command different prices.

To put it simply, Newfoundland Enviroponics sells the smaller cucumbers for less than the larger ones and of course this is reflected to a degree in the ultimate retail price. It must be reiterated, however, that the retailer controls the final price and therefore, it is difficult to make generalizations about pricing issues.

Third, it has been suggested that Newfoundland Enviroponics is marketing its produce at prices significantly less than its costs. This appears to stem from information released some time ago which suggested that at output levels in the order of seven million pounds annually, Newfoundland Enviroponics would require average prices in the order of $1.08 per pound to be viable. The suggestion seems to be that if Newfoundland Enviroponics sell at prices lower than $1.08 per pound it is dumping.

Again this is simply not the case. To begin with, the $1.08 was clearly an average price. We are entering the season of the year when prices in produce markets will be at their lowest. Clearly Newfoundland Enviroponics has to compete in these produce markets and price is certainly a primary criteria. It also has to be remembered that Newfoundland Enviroponics has to break into new markets. It is an accepted business practice to offer some price incentives to establish new products.

Is this dumping? I think not. I would also add that the $1.08 figure was preliminary and premised on annual output of about seven million pounds. Newfoundland Enviroponics is currently producing at rates which are far in excess of our original projections. This allows Newfoundland Enviroponics as an extremely efficient, low-cost producer, to charge lower prices. The $1.08 figure has absolutely no relevance in this type of environment.

Mr. Speaker, I think all Honourable Members need to reflect on this situation. My administration believes that this venture can succeed but it has to be given a chance to succeed. It has to be given a chance to operate without its every business transaction being subjected to microscopic scrutiny by the media and in this Honourable House.

Newfoundland Enviroponics has to compete in the market place; it can and it will. However, we are subjecting this business to untenable pressures which severely hamper its ability to compete. Its suppliers, its customers and its potential customers are constantly being harassed. It makes it difficult to be a supplier or a customer of Newfoundland Enviroponics because of the attention one gets.

This is patently unfair.

Mr. Sprung himself has been called a crook, a liar and a cheat. I have found him to be an honourable, hard-working man, who has perfected a technology significantly ahead of anything else in the horticultural world today. Time will prove this to be correct.

My administration has taken a great deal of criticism over our decision to invest public funds in this project and over the so-called secrecy which surrounds it. During my nine years as Premier of this Province I can recall no other Government decision about which more information has been made available to the public.

Some, however, will not be satisfied until we totally destroy the ability of Newfoundland Enviroponics to compete in the market place.

Mr. Speaker, Government has therefore decided that we will make no further comment on day-to-day operational and marketing decisions of Newfoundland Enviroponics. A Board of Directors is in place and it has our confidence. We will of course continue to report to this Honourable House and to the people of the Province on a regular basis on factual occurrences such as production levels and financial performance, but we are going to give the management of Newfoundland Enviroponics the opportunity to run this business as any other and an opportunity to compete on a fair and even basis in the market place.

My administration takes full responsibility for the decision to invest public funds in this project, just as we have done in numerous other business enterprises in this Province. My administration will also answer criticism directed at this decision.

However, I implore this Honourable House and members of the media to focus their criticisms on the Government and to allow Newfoundland Enviroponics a fair chance to succeed. I would remind Honourable Members that there are 200 people employed in full time jobs at Newfoundland Enviroponics; people who would be unemployed were it not for this project; people who will be unemployed again if it fails.

Surely we owe them the opportunity to make this project a success.

They will take no political satisfaction from its failure.

-srbp-

Great Moments in Political Philosophy

 

“…the whole reason we have elected officials is so we don't have to think all the time.”

Homer J. Simpson

-srbp-

Freedom from information: a symptom of ponocchiosis

That would be an inability to recognise realise that what one is saying is humourous because it contradicts the claim:

Oram said verbal briefings aren't an attempt to avoid putting anything in writing.

He said he can't remember if he was supplied with written briefing documents when he took over the business department in 2007.

But of course, not having any written briefing notes is exactly intended to avoid having anything in writing.  That way, there is nothing to contradict cabinet minister Paul Oram’s faulty memory.  In this instance, Oram cannot remember what he did less than two years ago in taking on the single most important job of his working life.  His mind is a complete blank slate.

Yet…

He would have us believe  - despite having an evidently sieve-like memory - he can successfully administer $2.6 billion in public money and account for his actions when needed.

Paul Oram is not alone.  Joan Burke and likely most of their cabinet colleagues  - update:  the Aural Majority - have adopted the paperless office approach.  The tendency to a paperless ministry is nothing new nor is it confined to Newfoundland and Labrador.  Donald Savoie, among others, has documented the trend and they have also firmly fixed the reason: avoiding accountability.

In itself, that’s a pretty dramatic development for a government that sought office in 2003 on a platform that included accountability and transparency as a cornerstone.   It would also pretty much make a mockery of former deputy minister Doug House’s claim in 2005 that the “Williams government is exceptional in the extent to which its electoral platform, Our Blueprint for the Future (commonly referred to as "the Blue Book") is actually being adhered to in implementing government policies.”

Now, one of the possibilities unexplored by either CBC or The Telegram – both have covered this same issue based on separate open records requests – is that the response from government is actually not completely in accord with the facts.  One of the other tendencies noted over the past couple of years is for government officials to respond to certain access to information requests in a way which is false.

For example, the now infamous case of the purple files, every knows that purple files exist.  The person requesting them saw them.  Both premier and an official of his office have confirmed they exist.  Yet, the official written response was that there were no such records. 

In other instances, officials have invented a category of documents simply to avoid releasing them.

Now at this point, no reasonable person in the province should need convincing that a problem exists and that it needs a solution.  We don’t need to see another story of another cabinet who claims to have a decent memory but who mysteriously can’t recall anything when asked about it.

The only real question is what, if anything, the current administration will do to correct the situation.

They started out with a platform that would have put this province in the forefront of public accountability, openness and government accessibility.  Where they’ve wound up is significantly less accountable, less open and far less accessible to voters than the government they attacked in 2003 with their pledge of 23 positive actions.

The only question right now is:  will they do what they promised six years ago?

-srbp-

Women in Arms

From New York Times two videos on the experience of women serving in the American military side by side with men.

The attitude toward fraternization has changed dramatically within the American military.  The army now issues oral contraception to female soldiers and condoms are regularly available.  In some instances husbands and wives are working together at the same post and share quarters.

-srbp-

Route around park shorter

Contrary to claims by project supporters going around the province’s second UNESCO World Heritage site at Gros Morne would produce a shorter transmission line to bring  Lower Churchill power to St. John’s than going through it.

Since the Premier’s estimated cost of the jog around ($100 million) was pulled out of his ass – by his own admission – then perhaps there is good reason to believe it too is a gross exaggeration of the actual cost of running a power line from Labrador to the townies.

So if the line is both shorter and (as it turns out) cheaper around the park, why the instance on risking the park's UNESCO World Heritage site status?

Maybe it’s because the crowd at NALCO just dusted off their old plan – done before the park existed – and never bothered to think it through.

How encouraging that thought is.

-srbp-

Towns left off branch lines, no plan from gov’t to help

Apparently, there are many towns in Newfoundland that will not be receiving high speed internet service.

This despite a $10 million plus investment dating back to 2005  - not 2008 as the Telly states – which was premised, in part, on bringing the marvels of modern technology to many parts of the province that otherwise wouldn’t receive them.

As for those left out of government’s scheme for Internet railway branch lines, the province’s innovation minister has an innovative solution:  maybe somebody else will invent something to fix their problem and then government can take another look at it.  But apparently government has no plans to deal with them now:

"In two or three years' time, there might be new communications or there might be a new initiative in government to try and help those people.”

-srbp-

Dipper doodles: NL First meets the (N)DP

Scanning the list of resolution at this weekend’s (N)DP convention – the “New” is optional -  someone from Newfoundland and Labrador might find it all very curious.

There’s a resolution to reorganize the party’s national executive board.

The resolution provides for two seats representing all of Atlantic Canada.

Four provinces:  two seats.  Ontario gets two seats on its own as do Quebec and British Columbia.  But according to the (N)DP,  seven of the 10 provinces in the country have to be bundled together in clumps to equal the other three provinces on their own.

The very attitude so many Canadians have fought against for decades is enshrined as (N)DP national policy in how the party governs itself.  The Liberals and the Conservatives both have representation on their national executives by province. 

Good enough for Grits and Connies.

But not for Dippers.

This must not be sitting well with such long-standing and hard core (N)DP types as Ryan Cleary, he of the Newfoundland and Labrador uber alles wing of the party.

Cleary has set as his goal improving the “long-term status of Newfoundland and Labrador” so it must be tough having to start by trying to sort out the headspace of his fellow (New) Democrats on top of all his other challenges.

Now almost certainly some irked Dipper will point out that there is representation for each province on the national council.

But take a look at the revised structure of that council.  Each province gets one member.  But where party membership is over 5,000 in that province, there’s another member.  And there’s another for province’s with more than 10,000 (N)DP members, and so on.  That sort of structure obviously favours more populous province’s like  - interestingly enough – Ontario, British Columbia and Quebec.

The run-up to the next election could turn out to be really fascinating for political watchers, but not because the (N)DP can’t figure out what to call itself. 

Nope.  There could be a little war brewing between the party and one of its wannabe candidates.

-srbp-

Quagmire update:  At this writing (1015 AM Eastern) The convention wound up moving two separate motions to refer the resolution back to committee to reconsider the representation issue for both the Prairie’s and Atlantic Canada.

How did this get out of committee in this state in the first place?

Great Gambols with Public Money: Sprung Cukes 2

Another view of the Peckford Pickle Palace, this time with some questions which proved to be prophetic.

Don't forget that at the time, supporters of the regime du jour accused journalists and other who questioned the wisdom of such schemes as being pessimistic and too negative to be worthy of any consideration.

It seems everything is being recycled these days including the Fanboy arguments.

 

“Peckford pummelled over greenhouse funding plan”

The Financial Post,  November 2, 1987

by Philip Mathias

 

Newfoundlanders are puzzled by Premier Brian Peckford's decision to commit $11.4 million in government funds to a huge experimental greenhouse.

Greenhouse experts are equally mystified by Peckford's loyalty to what many feel is a far-fetched and overpriced scheme. Even in Newfoundland, one government specialist advised against the scheme.

The province's media and opposition parties are pounding Peckford, and cucumber jokes have multiplied. The $18.4-million Newfoundland Environponics Ltd. project is a 6.4-acre greenhouse being built outside St. John's. Plants will be grown hydroponically on racks - in other words, without soil, in a slow-moving nutrient solution.

The greenhouse, due to start up this month, is meant to make Newfoundland self-sufficient in cucumbers and tomatoes, which are now mostly imported.

The joint owners are the province and Philip Sprung, who also owns a Calgary company that manufactures marquees. Sprung is said to be putting $4 million of cash and loan guarantees into the St. John's project.

Sprung is a self-educated horticulturalist who says he has the key to revolutionary greenhouse technology. The big question is whether he is far ahead of conventional horticulture, or badly out of step with it.

Among Sprung's early ventures was a greenhouse in Calgary. It suffered, he says, from hydrocarbon vapours rising out of the soil, which had been underneath an old oil refinery.

Sprung offered to relocate the greenhouse in Quebec and then on Prince Edward Island. Both provinces declined his request for funds. The project was also given the thumbs down by the National Research Council and the Department of Regional Industrial Expansion. '

Sprung's next stop was Newfoundland. The province's agriculture branch wrote a critical report on the project.  Nonetheless, Sprung was welcomed by Peckford and his cabinet.

The provincial government has agreed to provide $3.5 million in equity (land and cash); a $7-million loan guarantee; and a $900,000 provincial sales tax rebate. The unit now being built in St. John's is Sprung's Calgary greenhouse transported holus-bolus to Newfoundland.

Peckford may soon face some tough questions:

• How does the premier justify the $18.4-million cost of the greenhouse? 

The most advanced greenhouses being built elsewhere, experts say, cost half what's being paid by Newfoundland.  The province could probably buy two proven, conventional greenhouses for the price of Sprung's one.

• Can the greenhouse achieve the phenomenal yields projected by Philip Sprung?

He has told the government it will produce seven million pounds of vegetables on 6.4 acres. This yield is 2 1/2 times the best commercial yields in Canada.

Sprung's secret is to pack his greenhouse with three times as many plants as a regular hydroponic model. A hot, humid, jungle-like environment is maintained constantly. Simple arithmetic says three times the plants equals three times the yield.

Horticultural experts say it's not that simple: Yields fall off sharply at high plant densities. Professor Andre Gosselin of Laval University says, ''Sprung's yields are biologically possible, but I doubt if he can get them.''

Professor Herman Tiessen of the University of Guelph adds that Sprung's projected yields are ''unrealistic.''  Sprung recently severed connections with a British ex-partner Soil-Less Cultivation Systems Ltd., which claims to be the technical and managerial brains behind the system.

Sprung is reported to be looking for a new manager. If one cannot be found who is versed in his unusual technique, yields may be lower than promised.

• -Can the greenhouse be economic at lower yields?

The cost of growing tomatoes at the highest yields obtained at research stations would be about $1.75 per lb., using Sprung's capital and labour inputs. The price of tomatoes in Newfoundland (less retail and wholesale markups) is $1.05-$1.45 per lb. In other words, the cost of Sprung's process seems to be far above probable selling prices.

Sprung claims his yields will be much higher than those achieved at research stations.

• Can Sprung maintain projected levels of employment?

The province has been promised the greenhouse will provide jobs for 150 people - more than three times the industry average for hydroponic greenhouses.  If yields turn out to be anything other than phenomenal, the economics would be improved by reducing employment levels to the industry norm (about 40 people for 6.4 acres).

That might raise questions about the wisdom of the Peckford government advancing $11.4 million for the project. Unemployment in Newfoundland is officially 18%, unofficially about 28%.

• If the greenhouse proves uneconomic, will the province pour even more cash into the project?

Peckford's critics and other commercial greenhouse operators in the Atlantic provinces fear it will.  Critics complain that Peckford has veered away in the Sprung case from regional development guidelines laid down by the 1986 Newfoundland Royal Commission on Employment and Unemployment.

-srbp-

A mid-summer night’s gambol

“Love”, as Shakespeare put it, “looks not with the eyes, but with the mind and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

Of all the political pixie dust in the province, none has clouded the eyes more than the Lower Churchill.  And while many have played the part,  no Lysanders have been more besotted of this megaproject  than our current one.  

T the course of true love also never runs true and in this case, the course has run nowhere near as true as claimed. While Danny Williams had hoped to be rid of his current job and on to other things by now, he is now saying he will be around until the project is done.   But not a fourth term.

Williams said the project will likely be completed before the 2015 election, and he will be done with politics by that time.

"I can guarantee I won't be around for four terms," the premier said.

The new target date is before 2015, much as the old date, except that now the Premier  is proposing to finish two dams and a power line through the UNESCO World Heritage site and on to St. John’s in less than four years.

The power line, though doth wander everywhere.   According to the latest version it will go over hill, over dale, thorough bush, thorough brier, over park, over pale,  thorough flood, thorough fire, and through some other unnamed provinces to get to market.  Where those markets are remains a mystery.

One major problem with this power line tale is that the project – as laid down in the environmental review documents – is exactly the same one described by an earlier Lysander, namely Brian Tobin.   One line to get the power to Quebec and another down through Gros Morne park – the government’s clearly preferred option – and thence to the townies.

That’s it.

There is no line proposed to run from Newfoundland off to Nova Scotia or anywhere else.

But gentle readers, enough of these jests.

Let us walk through the Premier’s latest musings on the Lower Churchill, as contained in a Telegram story this August Saturday, and wash the pixie dust from your eyes.  One megaproject-love-struck player is enough.

1.  Show me the money or Follow the money:  The fact Williams didn’t talk about money should be a clue this whole thing is a crock.  Of course, the Telly reporter also didn’t ask about it, so Williams managed to skate around what likely could have been a very testy and difficult part of the interview.

Basically, there’s no talk at any point in the entire interview about power purchase agreements and those puppies are the key to raising the $10 billion to build both dams and the transmission lines.

It’s that simple:

No money?

No project.

2.  Timelines.  Done by 2015, which was the plan back when the project would have been sanctioned in 2009.  The timeline before that was first power in 2011 based on project sanction in 2007.

Early last year the whole thing was a dodgy proposition according to Williams.  At this point, the environmental reviews won’t be complete until 2010 or 2011, leaving, supposedly, a mere four years years to get all the work done.

Horse feathers.

The project cannot be sanctioned – that is approved for construction – until it clears the environmental process.  As such, the project that was supposed to be sanctioned in 2009 is effectively two to three years behind schedule.  Even if everything goes according to the current timeline – and there’s no guarantee that won’t change too – the whole thing will not be up and running until some time around 2019 at the very earliest.

Anyone who has followed this project consistently will recognise the timelines in this interview are simply a crock.

3.  And the departure date’s a crock too.  Danny Williams may run in the next election.  Then again he may not.  If Williams stuck to the original timeline, the project would be sanctioned this year and hence he could leave knowing it is on the way. 

The Lower Churchill isn’t the determinant of Danny Williams political career.  Something else is.  Figure that out and you can figure out whether he will go soon or run again in 2011.  You see, Williams has changed his commitment on departure so many times, it’s hard to take seriously his current version:  that he will leave, definitely, in 2015.

4.  NALCO – run from the Premier’s office.

Williams said he meets regularly with officials at Nalcor Energy - the provincial Crown corporation which is overseeing the project - to get updates on the outstanding issues which need to be addressed before the project is sanctioned.

Anyone who thinks Williams isn’t the de facto head of NALCO can take that quote as a slap upside the head.  There are a raft of implications that go with that but they should be fairly obvious for anyone with a clue.

5.  The sanctioning issues:

Some of those outstanding issues for the Lower Churchill include ratification of the New Dawn agreement with the Labrador Innu, an environmental assessment - expected to be complete next year - choosing a transmission route for the power, finding customers for the power and obtaining financing for the project, which could cost $10 billion.

But Williams is confident that all these matters can be resolved and said steady progress is being made towards the project.

"None of these are insurmountable, they all just take time," Williams said.

Well, let’s see.  There’s  money, something Williams didn’t talk about that much at all and that one isn’t insurmountable unless someone plans to stick taxpayers with the full bill.

As well, there’s:

6.   New Dawn or, as it is known around these parts, the Fart Man Accord.   The land claims deal with the Innu was supposed to be over and done with last January.  Right now the vote on the agreement is postponed until…well…never.  There is no date for a ratification vote.

There’s also no sign the federal government has accepted it and they have to be party to any land claims deal with the Innu

7. The environmental process.  Should be pretty much a mechanical exercise except for the Gros Morne bit.  That one is going to be sticky but only because the feds hold the trump card.  If the thing had included a line to the mainland outside the province, it would be subject to a federal environmental review.  As it is the provincial government will sanction its own power line project – what else would they do? -  but they’ll have to come up with something clever to deal with a backlash over Gros Morne.

Could that “something” be the jobs created by poking a few holes in the ground at Parson’s Pond which is just outside the park?

8.  The feds.  Danny Williams has a bunch of federal things that need fixing if his pet project goes anywhere.  At this point, all that is dead in the water, largely due to his own actions over the past couple of years.

He’s linked the project to federal funding but even as recently as this summer Williams ducked a chance to pitch the project directly to federal cabinet ministers.  Was it because Harper showed up?

The feds won’t just pony up cash for this.  Odds are good it would come – if it came at all – in the form of an equity stake.  That’s means the federal government would own shares in the Lower Churchill just as they do in Hibernia.  Is that something Danny Williams is prepared to accept since he is already so peeved that the Hibernia shares exist?

The feds are also not likely to be persuaded by a cheesy blackmail attempt: 

Williams said the Gros Morne route would probably be the cheaper and shorter route, but he said it could be taken off the table if Ottawa would commit to help fund the project.

9.  Not the preferred route…  Through Gros Morne and the park’s UNESCO World Heritage site designation, that is.  Not the “preferred route”.  Nope.  It’s the only route.

NALCO is pushing the line through Gros Morne it’s the only route they have looked at since all they’ve done is just updated plans that have been around since before the park existed.

Notice, of course, that in polling season Danny Williams is suddenly talking all sweet and purty.  The last time the park route came up he insisted he’d drive the line through the park based on numbers he pulled out of his ass on the spot and a totally shameless bit of nonsense about grandma and her heart surgery.

The time before that Williams was all for the route saying those who doubted the route would be persuaded once they saw the “trade-offs”.

10.  The only thing in the interview you can take to the bank. (Don’t buy the “green project” bullshit)

"This is going to happen, it's just a question of when."

The Lower Churchill has been a project in the works since the 1950s or 1960s.  It’s been going to happen for 50 years.  it’s always been a question of when. 

The only thing we can say for certain now besides saying the project will happen at some point is that the “some point’ will not be by 2015.

-srbp-

Missing in Action: the 2006 economic policy review

In 2006, Danny Williams decided he needed to take a second look at the economic development plans he was following.

"Over the past two years we have undertaken strategic initiatives that are significant planks in our economic development agenda," Premier Danny Williams said. "Now, halfway through our mandate, it is time to take stock of what has been initiated to date, and move to the next phase to ensure our development strategies are being carried out in an integrated, co-ordinated fashion, in line with our original goals."

He appointed Doug House to “lead the process”.

The process was supposed to lead to some called an “integrated provincial development plan”.

So where the heck is it?

Missing in action, apparently.

In April 2008, House quietly slipped back to his real job as a sociology professor at Memorial University. There’s absolutely no reference in his resume to what he did after the 2006 news release other than to mention he was a deputy minister.

There’s a mention in his biographical sketch of the work he did but no title for the final report or indeed any sign that there was a final plan produced after two years of work.  In fact the only thing House mentions in his bio is being a “key contributor” to the 2003 Tory party platform, although he doesn’t call it that.  Likely that was the chapter that paraphrased the 1992 Strategic Economic Plan.

Now maybe there’s a good reason for all that.  Maybe the plan doesn’t exist.  Maybe it doesn’t exist because of a fundamental difference of opinion between Doug House and some others  - or maybe just one big other - in the current administration. 

You see, going back to the 1986 report of the Royal Commission on Employment and Unemployment, House has been one of those who has rejected the megaproject model for local economic development.  You know megaprojects:  things like Hebron, Hibernia South and the Lower Churchill.

You can find a good description of the report – titled Building on our strengths – in House’s memoir of his time at the Economic Recovery Commission in the 1990s.  House defined what he viewed as the attitude of the Old Guard within the bureaucracy.  They combined the industrialization policy of the Smallwood era with the resource-management focus of the Peckford years.  The result was a focus on big projects Hibernia, Voisey’s Bay and the Lower Churchill which were – and are – often described as the “last chance” for the province.  This same Old Guard view rejected or was suspicious of the potential for  small scale industrial development, agrifoods, and aquaculture.

The Old Guard  - the attitudes that House fought against from 1989 to 1996 - also believes in an expanded federal presence in the province comprising things like a federal penitentiary and defence bases.

Now it shouldn’t take too much energy for someone to realise that the economic development policies of the current administration heavily favour large scale industrial development projects.  Other stuff  like forestry and agriculture and the list House mentioned don’t get nearly as much attention.  There is a bit of cash thrown at them in the budget but when it comes to capturing the attention of the real decision maker(s) in the current administration, if it isn’t really big it just doesn’t exist.

With all that as background, it’s really no wonder House left government.  What’s really amazing is that he stayed as long as he did. 

-srbp-

Great Gambols with Public Money: Sprung Cukes

Ah, how quickly they forget, these pleasant but heavily indebted, taxpaying people of Newfoundland and the sorry experience of governments that gamble (or is it gambol?) with public money on all manner of ventures.

How quickly they forget just how they got to be the most indebted people in the entire country.

More than anything else, they got into hock up to their eyeballs from cheering government after government as it poured thei tax dollars into this hole and that, each of which was supposed to gush barrels of cash so that God's Other Chosen (But Seemingly Forgotten) People could at last have their Eden here on Earth.

How quickly do they forget?

Apparently 20 years ago is too long for some of the poor darlings.
From the Memory Hole, the first newspaper cutting about that gloriously foolish venture known as the Sprung Greenhouse.

Bear in mind though that at the time there were a great many supporters of the regime du jour who cried that any amount (in this case upwards of $22 million) was fitting.

"Spend a buck to make a buck" they cried. 

"Brian can gamble with my money any day" they shouted. 

"How can anyone be so negative all the time and oppose this idea?"

"Sure they'll create a few jobs and get it all back in taxes."

"We will be the world leader in cucumber production."

At the end, all the pod-houses did was induce an epidemic of insomnia among the good residents of Mount Pearl and add another $22 million to the public debt.

"Skepticism rains over hydroponic greenhouse"
The Toronto Star
Friday, May 22 1987

by Alan Story

ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. - In a province with a mere 380 farms and the poorest soil, a raging agricultural debate has been at the centre of politics - and over-the-back-fence conversations - here for the past two weeks.

The subject: hydroponic cucumbers.

With the active encouragement and financial assistance of the Peckford government, an Alberta firm is dismantling its 3.2-hectare, high-tech greenhouse in Calgary and shipping it east to St. John's to begin growing hydroponically produced cucumbers, tomatoes and other vegetables.

The $18.5 million joint venture between the Sprung Group of Companies and the Newfoundland government is being touted as a solution to several of Newfoundland's problems.

Among them:

• The lack of cheap, high-quality produce available locally. Neither the price nor taste of a tomato or a cantaloupe you buy at a St. John's supermarket matches what you can find at Toronto's Kensington Market.
• The lack of jobs. According to company president Phil Sprung of Calgary and the government, which will put up to $11.5 million into the project, 330 construction jobs and 150 permanent jobs will be created.

Even if all Newfoundlanders became vegetarians, the Sprung greenhouse would produce far more tomatoes and cukes than the local market could ever consume. Sprung's surplus would shipped to the mainland.

"For once, Newfoundland will be first in new technology and not just in unemployment rates," Peckford said on May 8 when he announced the deal. It's not only skeptical mainlanders who are questioning the wisdom of setting up a giant food factory based on technology that failed to perform properly in Calgary and on market studies the premier won't release.

Peckford's mad hunt for employment has brought him "full circle to the insanity that premier (Joey) Smallwood pursed when he tried to set up a chocolate factory, a rubber factory and orange juice factories in the middle '50s," declared Newfoundland New Democratic Party Leader Peter Fenwick.

Worried about the Sprung greenhouse's potential surplus entering markets in the Maritimes and even Ontario, James Keizer, president of the Greenhouse Growers' Association of Nova Scotia told Peckford that "if this greenhouse is built and operated as Sprung claims, it will fail within two years and take some Maritime growers who have built their business - one stick at a time over many years - with them." Letter-to-the-editor writers and editorial cartoonists have had a field day too.

Last week's Sunday Express, a new and brightly written St. John's weekly newspaper, featured a cartoon of a moronic-looking Peckford, clenching a stem of grass between his teeth and overseeing a Rube Goldberg-like operation known as "Peckford's Pickle Farm."

The main serious questions being raised are whether a major hydroponic greenhouse is technically feasible in Newfoundland - hardly Canada's banana belt - and whether it makes economic sense. Hydroponics - growth with water, instead of soil, as a medium - is recognized as a viable method of producing vegetables which is just starting to come into its own across the North America..

Sprung's somewhat secret hydroponic process involves planting seedlings in trays of water containing various nutrients, but no pesticides, and rapidly raising them to maturity under natural or artificial light in greehouses. Sprung makes big claims about the level of productivity. At his former Calgary greenhouses, he says 28,000 tomatoes and 22,000 cucumbers were produced daily. The cukes matured in less than a week.

But can his process work in often foggy and cloudy Newfoundland? Agricultural scientists have pointed that in St. John's, the number of degree days (a measure of natural heat available) is 1,600 while southern Alberta has 3,100 days. The extra heating required and the extensive use of artificial lights proposed for the St. John's greenhouse may significantly boost the costs of production, they warn.

Others following the great greenhouse debate aren't sure what to make of Sprung's claim that gas leaks from the soil at his Calgary site were the only reason why he had a major crop failure last year and why his tomato plants turned grey.

 The economics of the project are also in doubt. Some here are surprised that Peckford, who has tended to avoid getting sucked in by the industrial dream-peddlers who regularily come calling in Atlantic Canada, has become the project's biggest promoter.

Will all of the tomatoes and cucumber grown - more than twice Newfoundland's entire current level of consumption - actually be sold?

Why is the project so large after a recent provincial royal commission specifically warned against the dangers of getting tied into mega-projects?

What will be gained if other Maritime greenhouse producers are put out of business by the government-financed Sprung operation?

Before the Sprung story is over, Peckford may realize that tomatoes can be thrown as well as grown.

-srbp-

Invent a weasel word…

The New York Times’ Ben Schott challenges readers to have some fun and invent new words or phrases that have an obscured or no meaning to replace words and phrases that already work perfectly well.

Here is one to get you started:

Democratic Party (of Canada)

-srbp-