Freedom from Information: oil royalties version

After two e-mail requests to the provincial finance department yielded nothing but delays for two weeks, a simple e-mail to the federal natural resources department produced information on the provincial oil royalties the provincial finance department had trouble releasing.

And it only took four working days.

The request on October 21 to the provincial finance department was simple enough:

What is the total offshore royalty received by the provincial government from 01 Apr 09 to 30 September 2009?

The first response (October 23) from the department spokesperson said:

The information you are requesting is provided at the end of the year in the public accounts and can be made available to you at that time.

Of course, the estimates are publicised at the end of the fiscal year but the audited financial statements  - the public accounts -  for 2009 won’t be released until February 2011. 

That seemed like an unusually long and unnecessary wait for information that should be readily available.

Oil royalties are collected each month by the federal natural resources department (NRCAN) under the terms of the 1985 Atlantic Accord.  The amounts collected are set by the provincial government through its own royalty regimes for Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose.  The royalties collected are turned over in their entirety to the provincial finance department monthly.

A second request (October 23) to provincial finance asked for the reason the information was being withheld.   The reply to that inquiry came on November 4, 2009 and gave a new, more curious response:

For the particular timeframe of your request, the department is still receiving the relevant information.  When the data collection is complete, the information will be made available. 

Still receiving information?  Now that’s a bit of an odd idea since the finance department should be in the process of completing a mid-year financial update for public release.  The figures on oil royalties would be sitting right there on someone’s computer, presumably since they form a very big part of the provincial government’s annual revenues. 

If nothing else, finance officials produce monthly statements of account showing revenues and expenditures both for government as a whole and for individual departments.   It would be exceedingly strange if the finance department didn’t have the figures for at least April to August. 

As it is, your humble e-scribbler went looking for the information in October.  It might have been a bit optimistic to get even the September figures.  At this point – early November - provincial officials should have September done and October should be well on the way.

But nothing at all until the whole thing was complete?  Highly unusual, to say the least.

Your humble e-scribbler turned instead to NRCAN.  An e-mail inquiry to the NRCAN manager of media relations on November 5 for the year to date oil royalty figures produced the response on November 9:  the oil royalty figures for April to August 2009.  September is in the pipeline and even October might be available within a few weeks.

It was that simple and that fast.

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Lower Churchill a long way off

In another Telegram story not available on line Danny Williams admits the Lower Churchill is still a long way from being a reality:

“We’re not looking at a Lower Churchill in the near term. “

He then expressed his hope to have the project approved within two years and started some time after that.

But that’s just his hope, not a prediction of anything.

As Bond Papers readers have known for some time, the project is full of problems, not the least of which is a lack of markets and financing, the two elements crucial to building the multi-billion dollar project.

Again, it’s pretty much old hat since he’s been dampening expectations about the project since at least early 2008.

Many people didn’t quite know what to make of it. Now we know that Williams had been consistently rebuffed for five years in his efforts to get Hydro Quebec to take an ownership stake in the project.

That wasn’t what Williams said publicly at the time but then again, when people don’t know what’s going on they can’t ask uncomfortable questions.

Incidentally, it has been two months now and not a single conventional news media outlet has bothered to follow up on the stunning revelations from natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale about the secret pitches to Hydro Quebec.

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Governments are afraid of their people after all

Well, afraid of their people getting their hands on information and then daring to ask questions.  Good heavens, imagine the time that would take.

Take for example, this quote from a weekend Telegram news story (Correctional Update:  Yeah it is online.) on Danny Williams and his attitude toward disclosure of public records:

“If things get out and they have to be known, and we can be questioned on it, absolutely but if we had to have an open book on absolutely everything we’re doing, I’ve got to tell you, I’d be out of here.  I’d be gone.”

In the front end of that quote, Williams was expressing his concern about the drag on his time if he had to explain things once documents and other information were released.

This is really old hat by now and it is really old hat to note that Danny Williams was a huge proponent of open records laws before he got elected.  Once he took the oath, he very quickly thought it a bad idea for the public to know what he was up to.

Take for example his very first great foray into freedom from information.  The telegram asked for copies of polling Williams commissioned from one of his favourite pollsters.  Williams refused to disclose them despite the fact the law stated in plain English that polling couldn’t be withheld.   In another instance, the telegram asked for files it knew existed.  Williams admitted there were “purple files”.  The official reply to the request was that they didn’t exist and no documents were disclosed. 

Funny, then to see him quoted in the Telly six years later as saying:  “we go through the process and we vet what we’re entitled to vet by the rules. ”

That purple file one is still lost in the “process”, incidentally, almost two years later.

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Cougar 491 survivor’s statement

Robert Decker survived the crash of Cougar 491 on March 12, 2009. The S-92 ditched in the ocean off St. John’s Newfoundland after aborting a routine resupply run to two of the province’s offshore oil production platforms.

He testified this week at the Wells inquiry into offshore helicopter safety. That’s an important point lost on some reporters and most of the ghouls – political and otherwise – who’ve busily been trying to capitalize on the tragedy for their own purposes. This is an inquiry primarily focussed on offshore safety.

Decker’s testimony was riveting and added considerable new detail to the events on that late winter day. The testimony was, however, tightly controlled, with Decker agreeing only to respond to previously agreed upon questions. The trauma of the event and its effect on him were painfully evident.

There’s an account of it at the Telegram. The full transcript is also available at the helicopter inquiry website.

Decker also read a prepared statement. His closing words should be heeded by all, particularly those who have used this tragedy for their own purposes. The ghouls should take note:

"If we really want to make offshore helicopter travel safe, what we have to do is to make sure that every helicopter does not crash.

"The best way to keep every offshore worker safe is to keep every helicopter in the air where it belongs.

"Safety starts with the helicopter, and I think everything else is secondary."

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Legislature Light

The Bow Wow parliament will be having another short fall. 

The legislature, normally open in the middle of November, won’t be opening until after the Terra Nova by-election.

Supposedly this is to ensure the parties can participate in the by-election.  More likely, it is to let the government avoid the daily heat of question period at such an inopportune moment.  Of course it could also mean that the entire Tory caucus will be living in Glovertown for the month of November.  That worked so well last time.

If the governing Tories lose Terra Nova don’t be surprised if the House doesn’t sit at all until the new year.

The members of the House of Assembly are among the highest paid legislators in the country and sit in the legislature the fewest number of days annually of any federal or provincial house.

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Fire cost NALCOR $18 million in lost revenue

A fire at Churchill Falls last November cost the province’s energy corporation a total of $18 million in lost revenue in late 2008 and early 2009 under the Guaranteed Winter Availability Contract (GWAC) with Hydro-Quebec.

NALCOR Energy released updated information in response to a request from your humble e-scribbler.

The fire occurred November 3, 2008 in a cable shaft at the Churchill Falls generating station and caused what a NALCOR spokesperson described in an e-mail as “extensive damage”.  Damage knocked two of the plant’s 11 turbines out of action and reduced overall generating capacity by a reported 1,000 megawatts.

According to the spokesperson,

This contributed to the decrease in GWAC revenue to Nalcor Energy in 2008 of $8.4 million and year-to-date 2009 of $9.6 million. No penalties [for non-performance] apply under GWAC.

One of the turbine/generation units was back in action by February 2009.  Repairs to the second unit were completed over the summer.

Under the GWAC,  Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation [CFLCo] agrees to supply Hydro-Quebec with a set amount of power during HQ’s high demand winter season apparently in addition to that supplied under the 1969 contract.  The power is used in Quebec. 

GWAC is one of several elements of a 1998 deal that included the recall and resale of a block of 130 megawatts of power and a new shareholders agreement for CFLCo between majority shareholder Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro and minority shareholder Hydro-Quebec.  

In the recall component of the deal, NL Hydro recalled a block of power under the 1969 contract and then resold it to Hydro Quebec at new, higher rates.

The recall element of the agreement has now been replaced by a new deal to wheel upwards of 800 megawatts of Churchill Falls power to the United States through Quebec.  Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro pays Hydro Quebec’s transmission corporation $19 million annually in fees for wheeling the power under terms set down by Quebec’s provincial energy regulatory board.

NL Hydro gets  about the same net price for its power under the wheeling deal with Emera and Hydro Quebec as it did selling the power directly to Hydro Quebec. 

Note that some of the links on GWAC are no longer active. They seem to have disappeared in a series of routine redesigns of websites in the provincial government and in the development of the new NALCOR website.

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How far will the make-over go?

The Mighty Mother Corp’s newly minted/re-organized national political news reporting is well worth the time and effort every single day.

There’s even a blog -   Inside Politics – where the reporters in the Ceeb’s parliamentary bureau weigh in on all manner of stuff that local news hounds and political watchers will love.

Like skewering the Liberals for not knowing how many sleeps there are until Santa comes.

Or the federal Conservatives for their new-annoyance with Access to Information (all the while insisting they are the most accountable, open and transparent government in history, shurely)

Or printing transcripts of scrums and interviews or – mercy sakes – doing something called “linking” to other information using that new-fangled Innertubes, or Internet or whatever the heck that infernal contraption is on the desk there.

Undoubtedly, politicians in Ottawa will be soon accusing the Ceeb’s reporters of misrepresenting quotes,  of just cutting up things to suit their evil purposes and moaning about how they will inevitably suffer the wrath of what the parents of 50-somethings still call the blogosphere.

The CBC news make-over is refreshing.  Interesting to see how far it spreads.

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A new era of original ideas

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador spent an untold sum on a consultant to develop a so-called youth retention and attraction strategy.

They created a new ministerial title: “Minister Responsible for Youth Engagement.”

The news release has nine paragraphs and no fewer than four media contacts.

The “strategy”, as described by the consultant, consists of four elements. 

It took 13 focus groups with young people across the province and in Ottawa and Fort MacMurray to come up with these highly innovative concepts designed to keep young people in the province:

1.  Create jobs.

2.  Put services in major centres. Like maybe St. John’s, Gander, Grand Falls-Windsor and Corner Brook?

3.  Link education to the labour market.

4.  Build “an understanding of the benefits of immigration and diversity through public education, community dialogue and strengthened curriculums in the education system.”

 

The “strategy” document describes this as a “fresh, modern approach.”

At least the current administration is getting faster at peddling someone else’s old ideas in new packages. 

In 2007, they unveiled the provincial government’s 2002 waste management strategy.

This took only 18 months.

You could not make this stuff up if you tried.

 

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Why people who can think are abandoning the conventional media in droves

Courtesy of CBC’s provincial affairs reporter comes an explanation of why the local press gallery did not report Danny Williams “sell it off and pay off the debt” comment.

Seems the Premier did not actually mean to say he would sell off the provincial energy corporation in order to pay off the public debt.

Rather, the Premier explained that he meant to say he would sell off all the assets of the provincial energy company to pay the debt off.

Oh.

So glad that got cleared up.

For a second there it looked like he said he would sell of the company to pay off the province’s debt. 

Apparently what he really said was that he would sell of the company piece by piece to pay off the province’s debt.

Oh.

At least someone explained it.

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Williams wants energy sell-off in NL, too

Danny Williams in 2009, on the sale of NB Power which will reduce the provincial debt by 40%:

"They've agreed to sell away their future."

Danny Williams, in 2008, on his own plans for the energy corporation owned by the provincial government in Newfoundland and Labrador:

This particular government wants to strengthen Hydro, wants to make it a very valuable corporation: a corporation that will ultimately pay significant dividends back to the people of this Province; a corporation that perhaps some day may have enough value in its assets overall as a result of the Hebron deal and the White Rose deal, possible Hibernia deal, possible deals on gas, possible deals on oil refineries and other exploration projects, where hopefully we might be able to sell it some day and pay off all the debt of this Province, and that would be a good thing.

Huge tip of the hat to Geoff Meeker and ultimately labradore for that one. It is amazing after all this time and the countless examples just like this one that conventional media still report his comments on anything without balancing them with his other comments about the same thing.

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How will you remember?

The official description of the 2009 Veterans Affairs poster:

The Veterans’ Week 2009 poster pays tribute to Canada’s service men and women who have served this nation from the First World War to current missions.

The Veteran featured in the background on the left of the poster is Harold Wishart as he salutes his fallen comrades. Mr. Wishart was a pilot in the Second World War and since then he has done so much to preserve the memory of the achievements made by Canadians in wartime and in peace.

Over the years, Mr. Wishart was a very active member of the Wartime Pilots’ and Observers’ Association and the former provincial chairman of the Royal
Canadian Air Force (RCAF) Benevolent Fund.

The image seen in the background features Canadian Forces soldiers on the international mission in Afghanistan as they pause for remembrance. These men and women are continuing Canada’s legacy, passed on by our Veterans, of defending peace, freedom and the preservation of human values worldwide.

The central image features a young girl, Brianna Arsenault, whose reflections on the contributions of our Veterans and Canadian Forces members in Afghanistan are demonstrated in her creation of a poppy. The image reflects this year’s call to action to all Canadians through the phrase “How will you Remember?” which asks Canadians to think about their own remembrance and participation in remembrance activities.

Canadians are encouraged to take an active role in commemoration and to ensure that the selfless dedication of Canadian Veterans is never forgotten. Talk with Veterans and Canadian Forces members about their service to Canada, learn how serving our nation has changed their lives, and pass on what you have learned to your peers.

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Remember, remember…

People should not be afraid of their governments.

Governments should be afraid of their people.

A bad deal

Gordon Weil thinks the NB Power purchase deal with Hydro-Quebec is a bad idea.

Interesting that both the pro and con for this two part series in the Telegram both come from people associated with the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies.

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You can never go home again

Ron Ellsworth lost his bid to sit on the eastern school district board, the place where he began his short career in elected politics.

That’s hot on the heels of his humiliation at the hands of Doc O’Keefe in the race for mayor of St. John’s in September.

All that bodes extremely well for his opponents if  Ron gets the Tory nod in any St. John’s seat in any upcoming provincial general election or by-election.

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A good deal

Brian Lee Crowley and Tom Adams weigh in on the NB Power sale.

Among other things they not that the Lower Churchill is a dead horse owing to the current market situation:

The lesson for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians is inescapable. They should learn from the Mackenzie gas experience before supporting Premier Williams' ephemeral dream to press ahead with hydro-electric development on the Lower Churchill in a glutted market. Taxpayers should be relieved, not outraged, that Nalcor, Newfoundland's Crown energy company, is not out in the market trying to sell costly power right now.

In the long term, the economics of Lower Churchill development may well turn around, particularly if the market for its environmental characteristics becomes sufficiently rich to overcome the costs of remoteness. But that's for another day.

Perhaps one day soon local reporters will stop carrying the transmission line line as if it was anything vaguely close to reality.

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And then another EA steps up…

Sandy Collins, former executive assistant to Paul Oram is the provincial Conservative candidate in Terra Nova in the by-election yet to be called.

Orange Update: Robyn Brentnall is the New Democrat in the running.

Red Update: The Liberal candidate is John Baird. He was elected in a nomination fight on October 17.

Two things:

1. Remember what your humble e-scribbler said about a party that can only offer up former executive assistants as candidates, and,

2. The people in Terra Nova district can vote today by special ballot even though no election has been called.

Every person can request a special ballot including:

• an elector who has reason to believe that he/she will have difficulty voting on polling day perhaps due to work or personal commitments;

• a student who is in attendance at a recognized educational institution either inside or outside the Province;

• an elector temporarily residing outside the Province for a continuous period of less than 6 months who is unable to attend at either the advance or regular poll;

• an elector who is incarcerated in a correctional institution or in detention at the Waterford Hospital;

• a patient in hospital who will be unable to attend either the advance or regular poll.

All you have to do is contact the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, otherwise known as Elections Newfoundland and Labrador.

There’s a form to complete and send in. You can find it in pdf format here.

They’ll send you back a voter kit which you can use to cast your vote right now.

But there’s no election yet, you may be thinking.

Doesn’t matter.

Under section 86(4) of the Elections Act, voters who meet those criteria above can ask for a special ballot no more than four weeks before an election or by-election is called. Well, you and the rest of the world don’t know when the thing will be called but we know when the earliest date is that it could be called.

That would be the day Paul Oram threw his teddy in the corner. Any of you who knew Paul was going could have already voted.

But since the rest of us found out later on, you should be able to get a ballot and vote right now.

There is no legal reason for the Chief Electoral Officer (former Tory party president Paul Reynolds) to refuse you the opportunity to vote under section 86(4).

And don’t worry if you don't like the party but not the candidate. [Updated to reflect that all candidates are now in place, barring any independents]

Under section 86.4, you can write in the name of the political party you want to vote for instead of the name of a particular person.

Voting is your right.

Now that’s pretty much the same thing said in a post about the Straits, but you know, it is not very often people get to protest a completely foolish electoral law twice in the space of a month or so. In the Straits, people were a bit fried so a protest vote was possible.

In Terra Nova, townies may not be able to judge which way the local wind is blowing.

This time everyone can take advantage of the oddest election rules in the civilised world. Only in Newfoundland and Labrador could you get to vote before an election has been called.

Vote early for the candidate of your choice.

But vote.

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Oh where, oh where did his big report go?

The province’s auditor general release a report last week to update issues covered by some of his previous reports.

or did he?

Your humble e-scribbler dutifully noted the release when it appeared and flagged it for later examination.  returning to the site today, your humble e-scribbler found that the release had mysteriously disappeared.

There are traces of it, though, just in case you were thinking the old boy had finally lost it entirely. 

On the government website you can find the archive of AG news releases.

The month of October is there but underneath it is nary a thing.  Odd that, given that in other months where nothing was said, not even the name of the silent month is noted.

On the AG website, the name of the report is there  - right at the top of the pile -  but the report itself is not.

Interesting, wot?

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His Greatest Hit seems to have missed

Hard across the province on CBC Radio, Tuesday afternoon, a woman in Plum Point reminding the host of CBC radio’s On the Go that many parts of the province still live in what host Ted Blades had referred to as the Dark Ages of the Internet or some such.

Dial-up.

Not broadband.

There is no modern, high-speed access in said community because of the costs of bringing such tools to sparsely populated areas of the province.  The woman interviewed talked of a federal government initiative to help expand coverage of the information superhighway to places like Plum Point.

The lovely town of Plum Point is interesting because it is in the same neck of the woods once represented in the House of Assembly by Trevor Taylor.  Trev represent the Straits and White Bay North and across the highway, his buddy Wally young still represents the district of St. Barbe in which Plum Point is located.  The boys were touted back in January 2001 as the start of a Tory wave sweeping the province.

Odd the number of people scurrying to claim that the opposite is not true now, but that’s another issue.

The only thing Trevor listed as an accomplishment as he hastily ran from cabinet and local politics a month ago was a provincial government plan to give a bunch of private sector companies a wad of public cash so they could stretch broadband access across the island to places that sounded suspiciously like Plum Point.

Now Plum Point is also no ordinary town as these things go for many more reasons than the fact that it is near where Trevor used to rule.

Plum Point is also home to the local member of the House of Assembly, one Wallace Young.  He owns the local motel.  His official biography also reminds us that his wife is a teacher who “has seen first-hand the effects of teacher cuts and larger classrooms”.  Old news or foreshadowing?

Anyway, perhaps Wally’s good lady wife knows, as well, the value of Internet access for local schools. 

Maybe someone should ask Wally and his wife about that.

And while they’re at it wonder how it is that this glorious fibreoptic deal Trevor was so proud of could benefit Greenland but not the lovely community of Plum Point.

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Class act

A few years ago Roger Grimes took a royal roasting for telling an off-colour joke at a small, private gathering of business people in New York. 

It was inappropriate, to put it mildly.

That’s why it so nice to see the decorum Grimes’ successor has brought to the office as he welcomed the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall yesterday in St. John’s.

This came shortly after a plug  - completely out of place - for the Danny Dam, by the by:

Hopefully your experience will be contrary to the experience of Sir Winston Churchill who when asked if he had any complaints after his tour of the United States in the 1930s said, and I quote him, “the toilet paper was too thin and the newspapers were too fat.”

Yes, there is nothing like a Royal Visit to make a joke about the ‘loo.  And if the thing is broadcast live on national television, so much the better.

Don’t even bother with the fact that the quote is only attributed to Sir Winston.

The rest of the speech is about Hisself, of course.  His time at Oxford.  Miniskirts.  Popular music from the mid 1960s.  And his staff, fish and chips and Coronation Street. 

Incidentally, the applause at the front end of the speech might have to do with the fact that the relatively small crowd in the venue (600 out of a seating capacity 10 times that) was crammed full of the governing party’s caucus and staffers.

His capper for the crapper speech – of course – was a half-story about the naming of the stadium, something Hisself said he had done.  Mile One was the half of the tale he told.  What Hisself didn’t say is the name he wanted but everyone else rejected.

The applause was restrained, even for such a loyal and faithful audience.

It all makes you wonder who is writing speeches for Hisself these days.    This one was about as cliche-laden, stereotyped and – as the quote shows – as grossly inappropriate as can be imagined.  He’s been known to deliver the odd clunker or six, including one in Toronto where his flat tone must have had his security detail making sure to keep an eye on the sharp objects and the high ledges.  Then there was the mess from the now legendary January 5, 2004 speech.  

But this one?  Makes you wonder what the Governor General and HRH, the Prince of Wales tittered over immediately after the Churchill “joke”. 

At least if Hisself didn’t write it they can correct the problem by finding someone who can write speeches for the next one.  You see,  speech-writing is like a lot of things:  you are usually better off not doing it yourself.  Experience counts.

The speech also stood in stark contrast to the other two, one by the Prime Minister and the other by the Prince of Wales which were light in tone and charming in content.  And lookit, if Stephen Harper – one of the worst speech readers even to live at 24 Sussex Drive  - comes off sounding better than you do, you know you are doing something wrong.

Again.

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That’s one way to stop the bleeding

The House of Assembly pay and compensation commission got its report in on time and out the door very quickly. 

While few people noticed it and normally few people even get it outside of a being defeated in an election, the commission recommended changes to the notion of severance for elected member of the legislature. There’s a whole section on it, in fact, beginning on page 26.

But that  recommendation  and the whole section is odd given that the commission admits right up in the front that:

Public submissions on MHA severance pay, as with pensions, were few. Those who did comment on MHA severance pay felt that it should be one week for each year of service instead of the current one month, to make it more in line with other severance payment provisions in the province.

How few?

Well one, to be exact. (page 27)

An energy warehouse

How can it be that Prince Edward Island is getting 15% of its energy needs met by wind power but all Newfoundland and Labrador has are two small projects pumping 27 megawatts each and a“demonstration project” at Ramea?

And that’s it!

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Privatizing Hydro

1.  A link to a speech on the proposal to turn Newfoundland and Labrador into a private sector energy corporation.  Note the list of specific goals established by cabinet.  Note that cabinet could use those goals to measure any proposal against but – more to the point – note that every Newfoundlanders and Labradorians could use the same list to measure the proposal. 

Now let me compare that to my energy mega-corporation checklist from 2005.

or was it 2007?

Ummm.

Errr.

Just a sec. 

Must be here somewhere.

Anyway, while the hunt continues…

2.  Try this link from last February to a proposal to privatize Hydro-Quebec.  Talk about inefficient!  But even that inefficiency is nothing compared to the mess known as NB Power.

Meanwhile, wait for any of the hysterical anti-sale opponents to give even the vaguest clue as to how NB residents could get lower power rates and pay down the NB Power debt without getting rid of the debt pig company as a Crown corporation?

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Scoping out the wind energy deficit

The current issue of The Scope includes a front page feature on wind energy in the province or – to put it more accurately - the lack of any serious development of wind energy.

Maybe one of the answers is that everyone talks about an island when in fact there is a huge landmass on the mainland potion of the province that is ripe for wind energy development.  Heck it’s even got a connection so people can ship the power to where it is needed on the eastern part of the continent.

There’s just one obstacle.

Care to guess what it is?

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NB Power Collection

Following are links to some stories on the memorandum of understanding to sell  of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec:

1.  There’s strong positive reaction side Quebec to news of the MOU.  La Presse Canadienne from metromontreal.

2.  A 30% drop in electricity rates could save the Edmundston pulp and paper mill.   Bet people in Corner Brook would be looking hard at that right now if they were in the same spot, not to mention what would have happened in Stephenville or Grand falls-Windsor under the same circumstances.

3.  NB Premier Shawn Graham accuses NB Opposition leader …err…Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams of misleading the people of New Brunswick.  From the Gleaner.

4.  A long term rate cap is needed in New Brunswick, according to some analysts.  Considering the province has the highest residential electricity rates in Canada that would seem to be a good point. maybe opponents of the deal – including the gigantic facebook site  - could explain how to keep NB Power and lower public debt and reduce rates simultaneously.

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Whine, moan, bitch and complain

Danny Williams muses on his political past and future in the weekend Telegram. All of it is very much old hat for the locals after six years, but the mainlanders might find it revealing, especially those who are looking for some perspective on NB Power. 

The constant negativity the Premier displays really starts to get wearisome after a while.

Relentless negativity.  There’s hardly anything positive to the guy. And then he accuses others of always harping on the bad stuff.

It’s all vintage Danny:  things were so much better (for him, of course) when he was in the private sector and didn’t have to be accountable to anyone.  If only things could be like that now, with no criticism or complaints from anyone, all following dutifully behind  - unquestioningly - and jumping at his every bleat. 

He doesn’t even seem to take heart that he still has the Fan Klub, as the comments section to the story shows.  Some are so smitten with the aging leader that it seems only a matter of time before they start holding conventions, like Elvis groupies.  There they’ll be, some with their hair in Mullet Danny and others in the Silver Fox Danny of later years, either version – of course - perfectly parted down the middle.

Either version always tanned, as if fresh from yet another vacation.  Of all Canadian premiers, only Richard Hatfield spent more time out of the province he ran during the course of a year than Danny.

Perhaps they’ll hold shoulder twitching contests and if he should deign to make an appearance perhaps the Fan Klubbers will be like Ontario and fall on their knees, on a go forward basis.  Can’t you just see it?  There he is in the director’s chair, a lone spotlight glinting off his cufflinks as he takes questions from the audience about his career as a politician who loathes being a politician.  What was it like in episode one, when you did battle with the evil emperor of Canada that first time? they will ask.

Then they will mouth the lines they have memorized from countless viewings of his previous scrums as he repeats his answer, complete with the quite-franklys at just the right spot.  All designed, it seems,  to send their Fan Klubber hearts a-twitter. 

Sometimes all you can do is chuckle at it all.

Some of his fans no doubt have not heard all his past rants about what he would like do, if only he had the time.

Like no free speech in the legislature.  That’s right.  He once mused about stripping the legislature of the right of members to speak their minds without fear of persecution. A right hard won centuries ago by English parliamentarians and cherished by all elected to such a body ever since.

Well, all but one, so it seems.

It’s hard for Williams to get things done, apparently, when half his time is taken up with pesky things like speaking to reporters  -  or editorial boards too? - or blocked off with nuisances like going to cabinet and caucus meetings.

In the past, he has worried about whistleblowers and what they might get up to if they are not properly controlled.  No mention this time of the headache of trying to keep his speeches from being made public.  You know, speeches that were in public in the first place.  These are the sorts of things that prevent from doing more. 

Uneasy lies the head, he is wont to remind us all constantly.

If only people would focus on the positives instead of the negatives, he complains.  Danny has been on this complaint track quite a bit this year.  Much more so than usual, even for him.  Ranting at Randy Simms seemed like only yesterday.

But thankfully – for the Fan Klub and Tony’s sanity -  he’s going to stick around in a job he evidently despises for some totally incomprehensible, unexplained reason.

Unless, of course…

"I'm definitely going to hang around to see if I can get it [the Lower Churchill]  done," said the premier.

But Williams said he's not going to stick around forever "to beat a dead horse" if a deal cannot be sealed, nor will he sign a bad deal for the sake of getting one done while in office.

Dead horse, eh?

Keep clicking those heels, Tony.

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Bad placement

Separately, they are great ads.

But if someone in layout isn’t paying attention…

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Tough times at National Post

Criminals are now writing columns, presumably from inside their American jail cells.

Yes, Insta-peer Conrad Black has a by-line for a piece on the monarchy.

Quebec and Newfoundland have a string of politicos with criminal records all of whom could do either court or political reporting.  Maybe that would help solve the Post’s financial woes.

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Federal Kremlinology 1: Connie Unease

So, did Jane Taber’s informant actually do air quotes around the word “pollster”, or did she add that for extra effect on her own? 

You know, a creative-reporter-license kinda thing?

That’s a funny thing about something someone is supposed to have said.  There are no quotations marks.

Must be something about Connies  - like Jane’s informant - that make them telegraph their fears.

Meanwhile, in Frenchman’s Cove, Newfoundland, at least one provincial Connie must be clicking his heels together frantically and chanting ‘There’s no place like home”  at the top of his lungs.  

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Fruitloops on parade

So if there really had been a cultural genocide, as the Societe St-Jean Baptiste claims, there wouldn’t be anyone speaking French in Quebec , would there?

Some people just need to portray themselves as victims for some unfathomable reason.

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The Can Opener II

Just in time for Halloween, there’s a remake of an old horrorshow:  the local economist who makes dubious assessments that seem a wee bit tinged by things non-economical.

Used to be Wade Locke was the regime-supportive economist of record.

Now it’s Jim Feehan, a guy with a record of producing dubious bits of research on partisan political subjects.  He also co-wrote a paper on another local partisan favourite, the 1969 Churchill Falls contract.  The article  was titled “The Origins of a Coming Crisis” but at no point in the article is the crisis ever described. That should make you scratch your head just a wee bit in scepticism.  

Anyway…

Jim Feehan told local CBC radio listeners Friday morning that while this New Brunswick power deal looks like a good one in that rates will be stabilised after a series of increases, public debt will be hacked down and pulp and paper mills will benefit from lower rates, this deal isn’t really so good because once it is sold, NB Power can never come back again.

In other words, even though this deal is great from the standpoint of an economist, people should maybe think twice because of things the economist commenting knows nothing about.

Like say law.

You see, as the Fortis expropriation in this province demonstrates, even in the worst possible case in New Brunswick, there is nothing like this that can’t be undone. 

But why would you want to expropriate or buy back a debt pig like NB Power if the new arrangement delivers all the economic benefits the economist noted but downplayed?

Well, there’s a question for us to ponder as we wait for the great news in Labrador Feehan’s predecessor once predicted. In the meantime, don’t hold your breath expect an answer to that one from Feehan.

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Something to look forward to…

When Gushue’s book is finished, make sure you get a copy.

in the meantime, check John’s blog post and leave him some words of encouragement and support.

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No word on Fortis expropriation talks

While other power utilities in Atlantic Canada are up for grabs, there’s no word on the status of compensation talks between the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and Fortis, Inc. resulting from the provincial government’s surprise seizure last winter of hydro-electricity assets in central Newfoundland.

Fortis-owned Newfoundland Properties  was one of three companies – including ENEL and Abitibi – generating capacity in the unexpected, and thus far unexplained, seizure.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams announced the measures.  Williams introduced a bill in the provincial legislature in December 2008 that also quashed active court cases and stripped the companies of any legal recourse to the seizure.

The seizure of assets caused a loan default among other financial consequences.

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Emera silent on NS Power sale

With Hydro-Quebec reportedly casting covetous eyes on Nova Scotia Power, the company’s current owner – Emera – is keeping to a strict “no comment” policy, according to reports.

In related news, Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter said his government has not been contacted with respect to any sale of NS Power.  He also said he doubted HQ was even interested in NS Power, despite some media reports.

Dexter also backed away from joining Newfoundland and Labrador Premier cum New Brunswick Opposition Leader Danny Williams in his crusade against the recent deal to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec:

"At this point, it’s certainly not my intention to pick a side in this," Mr. Dexter said.

"Those decisions with respect to what New Brunswick does are New Brunswick’s decisions. We are going to have to deal with the system operator, no matter who it is, and so we respect their right to make those decisions."

Danny Williams reportedly fears being isolated.

Too late to worry about that now.

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And by his actions, he is known

In war, said Napoleon, the moral is to the physical three to one.

In other words, psychological effects are three times greater than physical ones.

The recent by-election loss seems to have had a profound psychological impact on some of the most ardent supporters of the Blue Cause.

 Tony the Tory – he of Open Line fame – was left so profoundly distraught by the loss that he wrote the editor of the province’s largest daily to assure the world that all had not been lost and that his beloved party was not dead.

No one said it was.

But Tony evidently was afraid of such a thought.

Now it’s hardly surprising that Tony’s emotional reaction is so extreme.  The fellow is a fervent believer in The cause.  Tony worships Hisself as fervently as any. 

So it is not surprising Tony is full of fear, disquiet and unease since, you see, his idol attacked the by-election with the same manic intensity out of all proportion to what was actually involved.

As such, the psychological impact of the defeat is equally out of proportion.

labradore, it turns out, has made much the same point.

Tony rattles off a bit of history to bolster his case, but only a bit and he conveniently forgets much.

In 1987, for example, his beloved Blue Cause was so afraid of a by-election  - so petrified of the newly chosen Liberal leader at the time - that they delayed calling it as long as they could.  

Months rolled by. 

In those days there was no law requiring a by-election to be called with a fixed period.  The Liberals introduced such a law setting the maximum delay after a vacancy at 90 days.

Then in 1988, the Tories called a by-election in the old configuration of Waterford- Kenmount but only when they thought they could win it.

They didn’t.

But all of that has no larger meaning just as Tony’s list of by-elections has no such larger meaning.

But Tony’s letter itself does.

It just doesn’t have the meaning he thought it would have.

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Williams fears wheeling partner will bail, too

New Brunswick Tory Opposition leader Danny Williams said today that New Brunswickers should rise up and oppose the plan to sell NB Power to Hydro-Quebec.

Williams, who is also Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, said that "if [Quebec also] acquires P.E.I. and Nova Scotia [power], we will find ourselves in a situation where one province will have energy control of the entire Maritime provinces. It will be attempting to strand Newfoundland and Labrador. So good, cheap, competitively priced energy, can't be offered to that whole region.”

Williams is worried that HQ might also buy Nova Scotia Power?

Of course, that would be the  Nova Scotia Power that is owned by the same company  - Emera – that Williams is paying to sell electricity from Churchill Falls into New York state. 

Yes that’s right.  While Williams was frothing about the negative impact of the NB Power deal on Lower Churchill power sales to the United States, he is already selling power through Quebec and happily agreed to pay $19 million annually to do so. 

So much for blocking the Lower Churchill, right?

And now Williams is concerned that Emera will bail on him in favour of selling their Nova Scotia subsidiary to HQ.

Things must be getting really bad for Williams if he believes that even his business partners are abandoning him.  That’s on top of reports that have his party organizers blaming Trevor Taylor, the former member of the provincial legislature, for Williams’ loss in the Tuesday by-election.  Talk about clubbing the fans.

Next thing you know he’ll be accusing his campaign donors of screwing him over too.

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Lower Churchill “unviable for the foreseeable future”: analyst

Energy analyst Tom Adams had this to say about the Lower Churchill project in a recent commentary on the NB Power sale:

Premier Williams has attacked Quebec’s interest in NB Power as a threat to Newfoundland’s prospects for developing the Lower Churchill’s hydro‐electric potential. Charged with emotion arising from historic Churchill Falls grievances – a contract that Newfoundland’s then Premier Smallwood sought out and willingly signed and that has been twice confirmed by the Supreme Court – Premier Williams imagines inter‐provincial intrigues to be Quebec’s motivation. This emotionalism blinds some Newfoundlanders to the real commercial challenges to the Lower Churchill’s development. Just as natural gas from the Mackenzie delta is now recognized as uneconomic in light of foreseeable market conditions, the factors that have driven down power prices in Northeastern North America make the economics of Lower Churchill development unviable for the foreseeable future. Newfoundlanders are lucky that Nalcor, their Crown energy company, is not out in the market the trying to sell high cost power right now. [Emphasis added.]

Unfortunately, NALCOR and Danny Williams didn’t get Adams’ memo. Premier Danny Williams revealed yesterday that NALCOR is out there trying to flog high cost power from an economically unviable project.

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The NB Power/Hydro-Quebec Memorandum of Understanding

The Governments of Quebec and New Brunswick unveiled the deal today that will see Hydro-Quebec buy most of the assets of NB Power.

The full text of the memorandum of understanding is available online.

Key points of the deal (quoted from the official news release):

• Under the terms of the MOU, Hydro-Québec would acquire most of the assets of NB Power for an amount equivalent to NB Power's debt, $4.75 billion. The utility's debt would thereby be completely eliminated.
• As a pre-condition to the negotiations, New Brunswick has established a revised rate structure to benefit New Brunswickers. It is estimated by New Brunswick to have a value to ratepayers of about $5 billion. The proposed transaction would have no impact on Hydro-Québec's electricity rates in Quebec.
• NB Power would continue as a separate, New Brunswick entity, headquartered in Fredericton, and would use the existing name and corporate identity. Hydro-Québec would offer employment to all employees of NB Power at the time of closing, and respect the collective agreements in place.
• The nuclear generating facility at Point Lepreau (after completion of the plant's refurbishment), the hydro facilities, the peaking power plants and the transmission and distribution assets of NB Power are part of the proposed transaction. Hydro-Québec would not assume any liabilities with respect to the Point Lepreau refurbishment project.
• Thermal generation facilities at Coleson Cove and Belledune would continue to be owned and operated by the Province of New Brunswick, and would supply electricity to Hydro-Québec under the terms of tolling agreements.

The upside for the New Brunswick provincial government appears to be that it offloads a debt pig while guaranteeing stable rates for residential consumers and lower- and hence more attractive  - rates for industrial consumers.

The one curious part of the MOU is that Hydro-Quebec continues to operate the company as if it were a Crown corporation in that it will pay no taxes of any kind to the provincial government. 

Interestingly, Premier Shawn Graham acknowledged the role played  by his predecessors Frank McKenna and Bernard Lord in laying the ground work for the disposal of NB Power. 

Lord’s successor as Tory party leader has been opposed to the deal since before he knew what it was about. 

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The Fan Club

There has always been this bizarro cult of personality thing to Danny Williams’ supporters.

They worship him as if he was a celebrity.

Some out here in the rest of the world – your humble e-scribbler included – have taken to calling the truly hard core cultists The Fan Club.  They make comments all over the Internet faithfully  pushing whatever line is currently on the go from the Club directors or simply attacking anything that they think undermines the gloriousness of their idol.

They’ve got a language of their own, too, but that’s another story.

Six years in, though, the Fan Club doesn’t have quite the same impact as it once did.

Take the past 24 hours with two examples.

Not so very long ago, the sort of attack on supposed foreign demonios being launched by Hisself and the Fan Club  against Hydro-Quebec (again) would be spreading like wildfire.  For examples of the Fan Club talking points, just check the comments sections at the Telegram, CBC or even here at Bond Papers.

Not so this time.

This is all old hat around these parts and ordinary taxpayers seem to be having a really hard time connecting a theoretical issue in far off New Brunswick to real-world issues in this province and in their lives. 

People have built up an immunity to the same old, same old.

Now that’s really interesting because the immunity is really at the heart of the results in the Straits by-election.  Hisself framed the whole thing around the same old, same old:  look at all the riches I brought you.  $137 million.  Show me how much you appreciate that by voting for me.

Well, they didn’t. 

A couple of thousand people didn’t and likely lots more didn’t who just never bothered to show up at the polls.  A monumental effort worthy of the most grandiose display of the faltering Smallwood empire failed to motivate enough to win the seat as it has every time since 2001 in the Straits and on the overwhelming majority of other similar cases across the province ever since 2001.

That’s not good.

Nor is it good that the Hydro-Quebec attack – another same old, same old – ain’t working either. 

That is intended for two purposes:

First, it lets Hisself vent his frustration that the Lower Churchill just isn’t happening. 

Second – and perhaps most importantly -  it is supposed to help change the channel and get people’s mind off the disaster in the Straits.

But it isn’t doing that second thing.  The ordinary taxpayers seem to have caught on.

Meanwhile, there is another problem for the Fan Club beyond the fact their usual stuff just doesn’t work any more.

As he left, Trevor Taylor provided his membership in the Fan Club by praising Hisself to the highest heights on every level.  Hisself returned the favour in his comments about Trevor.

Until the loss in the Straits.

Now party insiders are spinning the story to local media – see David Cochrane’s report on Wednesday’s Here and Now, for example –  that the whole loss was Trevor’s fault.

That sort of stuff just isn’t going to sit well with a whole bunch of people who haven’t joined the Fan Club but who like the stuff Hisself puts out.  They’ve been buying his CDs for a few years now just like they’ve bought The Other Blue Note CDs before. 

But maybe not so much any more.

Not, that is, if people like Trevor are getting blamed for stuff they really didn’t do.

Fan Club takes on a whole new meaning when it’s the fans getting clubbed.

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Eating his own

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams is tearing strips, not off New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham or Hydro-Quebec but his own deal with Hydro-Quebec from last April.

Williams attacked the deal in a letter to Graham:

Despite our expectation of regulatory fairness [ in wheeling electricity across Quebec], Nalcor Energy has encountered obstacles in Quebec. Nalcor has been forced to lodge four complaints with the regulatory authority in Quebec about the tactics being used by Hydro Quebec Transenergie that serve to delay and inhibit our progress.

Under an agreement announced in April 2009, the provincial government’s energy corporation sells power to unidentified customers in New York state.  The power is wheeled along transmissions lines in Quebec under what is known as the open access transmission tariff.   NALCO pays Hydro-Quebec $19 million a year to wheel the power.  The figure was not released by NALCO or the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.

While Williams is now slamming the deal – making it sound as if there was no wheeling agreement at all -  back in April, he was positively giddy with excitement at what he termed an “historic” agreement:

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

There is no obvious explanation for Williams sudden attack on his own project nor is there any explanation for his claims that Hydro-Quebec is blocking or trying to block NALCOR’s access to markets.  The April deal proves there is no real obstacle.

What makes the latest tirade all the more bizarre is that in a scrum with reporters two days ago, Williams acknowledged  that there was no obstacle to getting power to markets in the United States.  In the same scrum, he said Hydro-Quebec might be trying to do just that. 

His disdain for the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec is apparently based on losing the race for new markets for hydroelectricity.

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A cross between Karnac and Kreskin

In 2006, the Globe’s Konrad Yakabuski warned Danny Williams that he might be beaten to market by the people at Hydro-Quebec.

Turns out Konrad was right, after all:

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams decided earlier this year to go it alone on a proposed $6-billion to $9-billion (according to already stale estimates) hydroelectric development on the lower Churchill River in Labrador, rejecting an offer from Hydro-Quebec and the Ontario government to jointly build the 2,800-megawatt project. It was great politics. Newfoundlanders still feel they're being stiffed by Quebec on the massive 5,400-MW Churchill Falls hydro deal that their late premier Joey Smallwood negotiated in the sixties. They'd dearly love to see their current leader stiff Quebec on the lower Churchill.

The problem is that it's impossible. Hydro-Quebec is the biggest and most savvy hydroelectric company on the continent. When Mr. Williams turned his nose up at its offer, it took about two seconds for Hydro-Quebec chief executive officer Thierry Vandal to move to Plan B. The latter entails fast-tracking 4,500-MW worth of hydro developments within Quebec. If Hydro-Quebec's stated goal is not to prevent Newfoundland from proceeding without it on the lower Churchill, its decision to green-light competing projects in la belle province certainly casts enough of a pall over Newfoundland's project in order to make it a tough sell for Mr. Williams.

Anyone have the full article?

It is amazing the number times people have forecast things like this since 2003 and they have come true.

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Williams miffed that HQ beat him to market again

In his written reply to Shawn Graham released today, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams reveals that his government energy corporation was in discussions to sell power to New Brunswick from the still largely conceptual Lower Churchill project.

But Hydro Quebec – with as much power as the Lower Churchill may one day offer already under construction -  evidently beat Williams to the punch.

The real  source of Williams’ frustration at news of a deal to sell NB Power to Hydro Quebec is buried after six lengthy paragraphs of irrelevant frothing:

One of the potential impacts of Hydro Quebec’s dominance may be the premature cessation of current, good faith discussions between Nalcor Energy and NB Power to sell competitively priced Lower Churchill power to New Brunswick and jointly advance the long term, mutual interests of both of our provinces in conjunction with Nova Scotia and P.E.I. These discussions have not yet reached an advanced stage, so it is not possible to quantify the benefits that might be lost to our two provinces and all of Atlantic Canada if discussions are terminated. If New Brunswick narrows down its range of alternatives to a single-window with Hydro Quebec, full information may not be available to evaluate the opportunities that other alternatives may bring. I would reiterate that our province feels compelled to look into the potential of anti-competitive behaviour on the part of Hydro Quebec given the potential monopoly that could exist as the result of an agreement between them and NB Power. [Emphasis added]

The revelation that Williams had been beaten to the market by Hydro Quebec is almost as astonishing as word last month from Williams energy minister that he had been working for five years, making secret offers for Hydro-Quebec to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill project. 

Williams criticises the Churchill Falls deal in the Graham letter but, according natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale, Williams was willing to set the issue to one side in exchange for Hydro-Quebec buying a piece of the Lower Churchill.

In 2006, Williams rejected a proposal from Ontario Hydro and Hydro-Quebec to jointly develop the Lower Churchill.  Williams said the province would go-it-alone.  He made no reference at the time to efforts to lure Hydro-Quebec into another deal, as Dunderdale revealed.

Hydro-Quebec already had significant hydro projects in the works and added about 4,000 megawatts of wind energy to its mix of new project.

The Lower Churchill proposal currently undergoing environmental review consists of transmission through Quebec and a line to bring power from the project to eastern Newfoundland.  There is no proposal in public to run the power to New Brunswick.

The Lower Churchill project  - estimated to cost between $6.0 and $9.0 billion – has no confirmed markets.  An opening to Rhode Island apparently fell apart because power could not be delivered at a marketable price.  That isn’t what the energy minister told the public.

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The best by-election commentary

1.  There is nothing that trumps the analysis by a political veteran like nottawa.  The Temelinis, Dunns and Marlands of the world are so far removed from what actually goes on they really can’t offer anything beyond theory and abstraction masquerading as fact. 

To take it a step further, nottawa has really hit on the essence of the Danny message since Day One.  Back in 2001 and again in 2003, it was “Elect me and I will personally take away all your pain, bring you jobs and gobs of cash.”  In 2007 and since then, it was all about Hisself and how much Hisself had brought in fulfillment of the earlier promise.

2.   Right behind nottawa is Winston Smith.  His round-up includes a reference to Yvonne Jones pithy observation that:

"People want a voice, and there isn't a voice inside the Williams government," she said. "Most of the backbenchers are silent. Many of the cabinet ministers are allowing critical cuts to happen in their districts without ever speaking out against it."

Winston has a couple of other things in there including the complicity of the local media in supporting the cult of personality but that’s almost old hat.

3.  Undoubtedly there’ll be more but that should hold you for now.

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Separated at birth: Magicians

Harry Blackstone Junior

Marshall Dean

Kremlinology 11: Words that start with “p” and “o” together

Just notice in the by-election follow up media how much the Premier and others – including Memorial University profs like Alex Marland and Michael Temelini  - base their assessment of the importance of Marshall Dean’s win in the Straits pretty much exclusively on how popular Danny Williams is showing in the polls.

Just notice it.

Pretty well exclusively.

It doesn’t really matter, they say, because we are/he is hugely popular.

Just keep that in mind.

Polls.

Popularity.

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Libs win Straits

Marshall Dean took the by-election in the Straits and White Bay North this evening against Premier Danny Williams, just about all the provincial cabinet and millions in public cash.

Dean defeated provincial Conservative candidate Rick Pelley – former executive assistant to Trevor Taylor – and New Democrat Dale Colbourne.

The results (40 out of 40 polls) were:

Dean – 1925

Pelley – 1799

Colbourne – 320

The Straits was one of two by-elections won by the provincial Conservatives in 2001 and heralded by many as a sign of the ascendency of the Tories under Danny Williams. 

Trevor Taylor won the seat for the Tories.  The by-election Tuesday was necessitated by his unexpected resignation in September.

Danny Williams, the former cable television mogul,  was the only declared candidate to lead the provincial Conservatives at the time of the 2001 by-election in January 2001 and was acclaimed as leader a few weeks later. 

In many respects this Liberal victory is truly remarkable.  Williams’ Conservatives have been virtually unassailable for years and their bank account is full.  that’s exemplified by the 2008 financial reports which show the Tories raised the better part of $600,000 while the Liberals barely pocketed $40,000.

While Williams, his cabinet and long-time party organizers rushed to the district to back the Tory candidate, the Grits could rely on little more than moral encouragement from other parts of the province, a very small cadre of provincial organizers and whatever Dean could pull together himself. 

The next test will be a by-election in Terra Nova necessitated by the surprise resignation of Paul Oram only days after Taylor bailed out.

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Lash-up

With municipal affairs minister Diane Whelan hospitalized with an undisclosed but reportedly very serious illness, the Premier shuffles a few more portfolios off to ministers on a temporary basis with no sign of a permanent set up.

Whelan was already carrying the temporary assignments resulting from Trevor Taylor’s surprise resignation.

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Shawn to Danny: sod off, mate

New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham sent Newfoundland and Labrador premier Danny Williams a polite letter on Wednesday telling him to keep his nose out of the NB Power talks and stick to running his own province.

Graham also repeats the point that others have made, namely that any suggestion that the grid through new Brunswick might be somehow closed or restricted as a result of any deal with Hydro-Quebec is without merit or foundation. Click that image, by the way, and you’ll get the whole letter, courtesy of cbc.ca/nb.

Stunning.  Not.

Incidentally, there’s also no small irony in Williams’ comments warning about New Brunswick selling off its natural resources to Hydro-Quebec.

In September natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale revealed some details about Danny Williams’ previously secret offers to Hydro-Quebec to take an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill.

labradore offers chunks of the transcript of Dunderdale’s interview. So much for “despicable.” 

Those Dunderdale comments were all the more stunning in light of Williams’ previous position about demanding redress for the Churchill Falls contract before there would be any deal on the Lower Churchill.  According Dunderdale, Williams was willing to set the whole issue of the odious 1969 contract to one side in the interest of giving Quebec a fair return on its investment in the new project.

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NL and the NB Power story: the facts

For the benefit of those who keep using the Premier’s comments on the NB Power story, here is what is really going on, in the words of natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale:

We know that if you come in here as an equity player that you have to have a good return on your investment. And we want you to have a good return on your investment. But it also has to be a good deal for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Now we have been with that message back and forth [i.e. to Hydro-Quebec] for five years. No, sir. No, sir. There is no takeup on that proposal.

Yes.

That’s right.

Danny Williams wants Hydro-Quebec to have a good return on its investments.

In this case, it was a good return in exchange for owning a piece of the Lower Churchill.

So what is the pseudo-racket all about?

It might all be irrelevant by tomorrow evening.

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The next target for over-the-hill celebrities

That used to be a seal in there somewhere.

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Kremlinology 10: Ah to be a Tory in Gander in October, when the dogs are fit to wag

When the political going gets tough, what better way to handle it than to launch a phoney jihad against a completely imaginary enemy over a completely imaginary dispute:

The Premier is gearing up for another fight on the national stage. Danny Williams says Hydro Quebec continues to try and block this province from developing the Lower Churchill, now refusing to sign onto a water management agreement for the Churchill River in Labrador.

For starters, Danny Williams is only pissed at Hydro-Quebec because they aren’t willing to take the ownership of the Lower Churchill he offered then. It’s not that they are so interested in the LC and Danny that they are blocking him, it’s really bothering him that Hydro-Quebec just isn’t interested at all.

And that’s after five years of desperately trying:

[Natural resources minister Kathy] Dunderdale told VOCM Open Line show host Randy Simms on Friday morning that over the past five years, the Williams administration “got a path beaten to their [Hydro Quebec’s] door” in an attempt to have HQ become what Dunderdale described as an “equity partner” in the Lower Churchill.

Dunderdale described the Lower Churchill “piece” as a “win-win” for Hydro Quebec. She said that despite efforts by the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador there was “no take up [from Hydro Quebec] on the proposal.”

But the biggest thing you have to consider on this water rights agreement thingy is that if the two parties – NALCO and Churchill Falls-Labrador Company – can’t reach and agreement on their own, the whole thing will be settled legally and finally by the public utilities board.

No big public, hair-mussing fuss required.

Danny Williams knows this because that’s what he amended the law to say in preparation for just such an event.

Well, okay first the provincial government tried to screw with the contract – as someone else tried in the 1980 water rights case - but they got caught red-handed in that little bit of tomfoolery.

While Williams and his ministers tried to downplay it at the time, they were caught so far in the wrong they even had to call an extremely rare emergency session of the legislature to deal with the mess created by someone’s childish legalistic game.

Anyway, that’s another story.

CFLCO not interested in the deal on water rights Williams wants?

Well that’s no problemo.

The whole thing just falls along according to amendments made to the Electrical Power Control Act in 2007 by none other than Danny Williams’ own administration.

The public utilities board – headed by Williams’ new buddy Andy Wells – just imposes a deal on the two sides:

5.5 (1) Where 2 or more persons to whom subsection 5.4(1) applies fail to enter into an agreement within a reasonable time, one or more of them may apply to the public utilities board to establish the terms of an agreement between them.

(2) Where an application is made to the public utilities board under subsection (1), the board shall establish the terms of an agreement for the purpose of achieving the policy objective set out in subparagraph 3(b)(i).

(3) An agreement established by the public utilities board under subsection (2) is binding on the persons named in the agreement.

Poof.

Job done.

Pas de sweat.

And lookit, the company involved here isn’t Hydro-Quebec, it’s the Churchill Falls-Labrador Corporation. That’s the company in which the provincial government’s energy company – NALCOR - owns a 65% stake.

And if you are still not convinced this is all yet another case of Tory dog-wagging, just consider that this evil foreign demonio Hydro-Quebec hates Williams so much and is working so hard to block the Lower Churchill they were will to sign a deal allowing energy from Labrador wheel across their province.

Wheel power and they make millions off the wheeling charges. Gee, that’s really putting obstacles in the way of the Lower Churchill. Yep, what better way to block the Glorious Lower Churchill project than demonstrating that Danny Williams can wheel power through Quebec to some other market than Quebec without any obstacles.

So what is all Danny Williams’ puffed chest really about?

Not even Ed Martin - the head of the provincial government’s energy company - seems to know.

But if one Ed doesn’t, maybe your humble e-scribbler can offer some easy suggestions on what issues are causing the provincial Conservatives to go hunting for a distraction:

- The by-election in the Straits is really not going well at all for the Tories. Then there’s Terra Nova to fight where the Tories haven’t even got a candidate yet and the Liberals wound up having two to pick from. Eight cabinet ministers in one day and four trips by the premier Hisself don’t seem to be working on the voters, at least not the way it is supposed to work.

Very frustrating when the old tricks don’t work any more.

- It’s really, really, really painful to make one decision and then be forced to make another. Think Danny Williams and the whole lab and x-ray thing. Jerome Kennedy confessed just this past week to what some of us have known all along: the decision to chop service was made by the entire cabinet.

That’s why they all stuck so hard to the line about “improvements.

That’s why they resisted changing their minds right up until the point they had no choice.

That’s why they tried desperately for weeks to try and blame someone else for the shag up rather than the people who actually shagged up.

It really bruises the ego to lose.

- And that’s on top of a string of “losses” including the Gros Morne one. Again, as much as they tried to downplay it, the whole emergency session of the legislature must have deeply embarrassed cabinet.

- There’s also the ongoing embarrassment of Paul Oram coupled with his decision to up and run when the going got tough. A cabinet minister resigns hot on the heels of another, thereby creating a mini-crisis in the government? Not a way to make the leader feel cheery. Paul Oram took himself off a raft of Tory Christmas card lists with his poorly executed exit.

- Unflattering comparisons to Roger Grimes? Lighten up a bit, people. It’s a joke.

- Let’s not forget the admission that the provincial Conservatives haven’t been doing such a fine old job of managing the public purse as they’d claimed. The word Oram used was “unsustainable.” Finance minister Tom Marshall said much the same thing.

- Then there’s the revelation that the government’s satisfaction rate ain’t what it was purported to be by the government’s own pollster. Between the opposition and local media, three recent CRA polls – never released publicly before – show that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador told CRA one thing but CRA told the public something else. The truth is sometimes painful but it does come out.

- Then there is the ongoing frustration of the Lower Churchill. As a story in the Telegram noted [not available online], NALCO has to go back and answer a whole bunch of questions for the environmental review on the Lower Churchill and that is now behind schedule. That’s on top of the lack of partners (see above), lack of markets - think Rhode Island - and the huge embarrassment to the government of being forced to abandon their original plan of slinging power lines through a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

On the whole it has been a very rough patch for the ruling Conservatives, at least from their perspective over the last six weeks and a bit more.

And what better place for provincial Conservatives to engage in some traditional Tory dog-wagging than the annual convention in Gander.

After all, that’s where ABC was born, at a time – as the House spending scandal broke in 2006, among other things – when things didn’t look all that rosy for provincial Tories in the short term.

Come to think of it, Loyola Sullivan packed it in not long after that, as did Paul Shelley and a few others.

Hmmm.

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Minister in hospital, “seriously ill”

Revealed at the Tory convention in Gander:  municipal affairs minister Diane Whelan has been hospitalised and is “seriously ill.”

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$10 billion for NB Power

A deal is close according to the Globe and Mail that would see Hydro-Quebec buy all of NB Power for $10 billion.

But the Globe story contains some of its characteristic shit reporting in the sub-head: “blocking access of other provinces' utilities to U.S. markets”.

There’s more the same drivel farther down the story but don’t buy most of it because it just isn’t true.

This sale can’t block access for anyone to NB’s power grid.  It can’t, not if NB Power and HQ want to keep selling power into the US.

And from the looks of it at least one statement could be completely false:  “Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro has complained to regulators in Quebec and the United States that Hydro-Québec's transmission arm is not providing it fair access to U.S. markets.”

You see Danny Williams has bitched alright, but he was bitching because he couldn’t get HQ to buy into the Lower Churchill. 

But…

According to Ed Martin, Williams right-hand on any of a number of issues, there is no problem whatsoever with Hydro-Quebec.  Thus it would be very odd if the company Martin runs was doing things – as the Globe reports -  like filing formal complaints alleging some pretty serious unfair market practices against HQ. 

All they have actually done is pursue a tariff through Quebec which they duly got.  Your see – Shawn and Rheal take note – NL Hydro has already been wheeling power into the United States across lines in Quebec in a deal touted by none other than …wait for it…Danny Williams Hisself.

Notice there is no further detail on that in the Globe story.  That’s a pretty good clue that Rheal Seguin and and Shawn McCarthy just didn’t do their homework.   Instead, they seem to have opted for a half-backed paraphrase of an equally a half-baked version of the old Danny story and not rely on what Danny’s energy minister said. 

In the process, the bitching morphed into a complaint filed with a Canadian or American utility regulator.  Look farther on in the story and that’s exactly what they do, and as you can see they got the bitching story and the bit about the alternate transmission line wrong too.  That’s what you get for quoting Liz’s thumbs and not doing any real research.

There’s also another completely asinine comment about HQ getting greater access to the US as a result.  If the guys at the Globe even bothered to check their facts, they’d know that HQ already owns capacity on the grid through New Brunswick. The story has been out there since the spring. That’s definitely not the motivation for this deal.

The upside to this story is that New Brunswickers will shed a 90-year-old chronic debt pig and retire in the process what the Globe describes as 40% of public debt in one fell swoop.

Let’s just hope that while about half the story appears to be complete fiction, the bit about New Brunswickers shedding their debt burden turns out to be true.

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