Finance minister Cathy Bennett read words that tried to make the provincial government's financial situation sound better than it was forecast to be last spring.
For all the wonderful words in Bennett's scripted remarks, Bennett could not hide the truth. Her tone of voice was more sombre and depressed than if Premier Dwight Ball had been there himself - rather than in Ottawa for a Memorial University fund raising dinner - and had done his very best Eeyore impression. Bennett was so stiff and wooden in her delivery that it seemed like her motions were written down as well, in stage directions: "As you can see from the slide [look at slide, pause, then look back at script]...".
Then there was the bizarre bit at the end where Bennett thanked people. The reference to her cabinet and caucus colleagues, in the back of the room, seemed like a very obvious attempt to make it appear that they were firmly behind the government's actions. It was so obvious though that it would have the opposite effect.
The real political division in society is between authoritarians and libertarians.
28 October 2016
Sunshine, lollipops, and fluffy kittens #nlpoli
Tags:
public spending
27 October 2016
Three for Thursday #nlpoli
Quebec opposes more federal cash for Muskrat Falls
The Government of Quebec has always opposed federal loan guarantees for Muskrat Falls on the grounds that it skews the hydro playing field. This week, they just renewed their objections as the provincial government tries to score a second $5.0 billion guarantee.
Speaking of Ottawa and the loan guarantee, Dwight Ball is skipping the financial update this morning to go to Ottawa. Ball's doing a Memorial University alumni dinner but is he going to meet with anyone to talk financial aid for the province?
Expect as much sunshine as they can imagine
The midyear financial update is coming at 11:00 AM this morning. There was supposed to be some word on the gas tax. Expect some concrete information on when they will start to eliminate it. Invariably the provincial spring budget contains some fictitious numbers. Over the past decade the government loved to low-ball tax revenues. This would inflate the deficit and make it look much better at Christmas time, when the Conservatives used to do the mid-year update. We might see a few of those little surprises.
What you will most definitely not here is any talk of cuts to spending by the government. Those days are over. And if finance minister Cathy Bennett hints at cuts, expect a long season of protests from now to the spring as people apply the Mustafa Principle in spades.
The Government of Quebec has always opposed federal loan guarantees for Muskrat Falls on the grounds that it skews the hydro playing field. This week, they just renewed their objections as the provincial government tries to score a second $5.0 billion guarantee.
Speaking of Ottawa and the loan guarantee, Dwight Ball is skipping the financial update this morning to go to Ottawa. Ball's doing a Memorial University alumni dinner but is he going to meet with anyone to talk financial aid for the province?
Expect as much sunshine as they can imagine
The midyear financial update is coming at 11:00 AM this morning. There was supposed to be some word on the gas tax. Expect some concrete information on when they will start to eliminate it. Invariably the provincial spring budget contains some fictitious numbers. Over the past decade the government loved to low-ball tax revenues. This would inflate the deficit and make it look much better at Christmas time, when the Conservatives used to do the mid-year update. We might see a few of those little surprises.
What you will most definitely not here is any talk of cuts to spending by the government. Those days are over. And if finance minister Cathy Bennett hints at cuts, expect a long season of protests from now to the spring as people apply the Mustafa Principle in spades.
26 October 2016
The Mustafa Principle #nlpoli
Go back to Friday's post about false choices.
That's where you will find the explanation for the 11 hour marathon meeting. The final agreement is more about the Premier's need to appear to be in control than it is about the substance of the decision. That's because the government had already agreed to the major demand for clearing.
This was always a simple choice between clearing or not clearing the Muskrat Falls reservoir area of soil and trees before the final flooding. In the meantime, Nalcor needed to hold back water to avoid an accidental, uncontrolled flood that would damage the work site.
The government accepted the major demand last week when they accepted the notion of some clearing of soil and vegetation. Some morphed to all in the final version and, in the meantime, Nalcor gets to carry out its planned hold-back of water.
So what changed?
That's where you will find the explanation for the 11 hour marathon meeting. The final agreement is more about the Premier's need to appear to be in control than it is about the substance of the decision. That's because the government had already agreed to the major demand for clearing.
This was always a simple choice between clearing or not clearing the Muskrat Falls reservoir area of soil and trees before the final flooding. In the meantime, Nalcor needed to hold back water to avoid an accidental, uncontrolled flood that would damage the work site.
The government accepted the major demand last week when they accepted the notion of some clearing of soil and vegetation. Some morphed to all in the final version and, in the meantime, Nalcor gets to carry out its planned hold-back of water.
So what changed?
Tags:
Muskrat Falls
Truth and Reconciliation #nlpoli
Long ago, so long ago no one remembers when, they did away
with Virtue in Newfoundland politics. To be on the safe side, they
slit the throats of her twins, Truth and Justice, and tossed the little corpses
on top of their mother's still-moving body before leaving the three in a
shallow, unmarked grave in the woods.
Newfoundland politics is a daily metaphor of that
Original Sin. This fall, we are seeing the crime repeated everywhere with more
people drawn in than ever before. Such is the power of modern media. Such
is the state of democracy that mortal sin, like political power, is no longer
the exclusive domain of the rich and powerful. Everyone can get their
taste.
There is no monument to Virtue and her murdered children but
if Muskrat Falls is ever finished, we can perhaps use it to remember what
happened, who was involved, and why. That is the only way you can
reconcile, the only way you can sincerely balance the accounts -
financial, historical, political - one with the other.
25 October 2016
Small town politics in the big city newspapers #nlpoli
The federal Liberals created a new process to pick judges for federal court appointments. The process - as the Globe pointed out on Thursday - was to ensure they could ensure future appointments would be more reflective of the diversity of the country.
On Saturday, the Globe editorial praised the recent announcement of a white, middle-aged man - with no experience on the bench before taking a politically-soaked appointment to the trial division in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001 - as the first appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada from the far eastern province.
This appointment, heralded widely in Newfoundland as recognition of the province's identity, was not a case of playing identity politics, according to the Globe editorialist.
And, the appointment of yet another grey-haired white guy was an affirmation of the government's new diversity process in appointments. This was a triumph of qualifications over political connections, the Globe stated emphatically even though there is no evidence that what the Globe said is true or that the person who wrote the editorial was not under duress, mentally impaired, or drunk at the time.
A vintage Globe performance all-'round, in other words.
The editorial is quite obviously the result of something other than an unbiased assessment of anything.
But is it the result of some connections between the Globe and the folks behind the appointment?
Or is it yet another case of the Toronto Globe passive-aggressively poking at the Toronto Star?
You see The Star featured a story on Friday about newly minted Supreme Court Justice Malcom Rowe's decision in R v. S.B, a 2016 case from the Court of Appeal in which Rowe wrote the decision for the court.
Rowe and his colleague White disagreed. “I have reached this conclusion with reluctance given the
unfair manner in which the complainant was dealt with,” Rowe wrote for the majority.
On Saturday, the Globe editorial praised the recent announcement of a white, middle-aged man - with no experience on the bench before taking a politically-soaked appointment to the trial division in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001 - as the first appointment to the Supreme Court of Canada from the far eastern province.
This appointment, heralded widely in Newfoundland as recognition of the province's identity, was not a case of playing identity politics, according to the Globe editorialist.
And, the appointment of yet another grey-haired white guy was an affirmation of the government's new diversity process in appointments. This was a triumph of qualifications over political connections, the Globe stated emphatically even though there is no evidence that what the Globe said is true or that the person who wrote the editorial was not under duress, mentally impaired, or drunk at the time.
A vintage Globe performance all-'round, in other words.
The editorial is quite obviously the result of something other than an unbiased assessment of anything.
But is it the result of some connections between the Globe and the folks behind the appointment?
Or is it yet another case of the Toronto Globe passive-aggressively poking at the Toronto Star?
You see The Star featured a story on Friday about newly minted Supreme Court Justice Malcom Rowe's decision in R v. S.B, a 2016 case from the Court of Appeal in which Rowe wrote the decision for the court.
The three justices on the panel criticized the trial judge for allowing the defendant's lawyer to read to the
jury sexually explicit texts between the complainant and her
lover as well as the graphic transcript of a consensual sex tape she made with her
husband. The Star story explains that the "complainant alleged she’d been raped vaginally and
anally by her husband, and assaulted several times. He was acquitted on all
counts by a jury."
The three appeals justices diverged on the outcome while agreeing the trial judge had made serious errors. Then Chief Justice Derek Green, the dissenting voice, felt a new trial was necessary since the jury might well have reached a different verdict were they not exposed to the evidence of her sexual that had been presented to them inappropriately.
“Nonetheless, I am persuaded by counsel for the respondent that the
complainant, by her untruthfulness and the inconsistencies in several areas of
her testimony, gravely undermined her credibility.”
“I think, by and large, what (Rowe’s) decision shows is that the criminal justice system is really quite bankrupt when it comes to dealing with our huge social problem of sexual assault,” [University of Ottawa law professor Constance Backhouse told The Star], “I think it says more about that, than it does about Justice Rowe.”
And a couple of days earlier, the Star editorial pointed out - no d'uh - that Rowe hardly stands an appointment that reflects diversity.
Seriously. And this is what the Globe missed in its rush to endorse the political nonsense represented by Rowe's appointment.
News and editorial opinion, as it seems, is like politics. It is nothing if it is not local. And, as in this case, it is nothing but local hogwash circling the boots of people who consider themselves Canad'as elites. Why people ever thought the Globe was more than a small town newspaper written by and for people with a small-town mindset is amazing.
Why people outside Tronna put so much stock in anything in its pages is an even greater mystery.
“I think, by and large, what (Rowe’s) decision shows is that the criminal justice system is really quite bankrupt when it comes to dealing with our huge social problem of sexual assault,” [University of Ottawa law professor Constance Backhouse told The Star], “I think it says more about that, than it does about Justice Rowe.”
And a couple of days earlier, the Star editorial pointed out - no d'uh - that Rowe hardly stands an appointment that reflects diversity.
Seriously. And this is what the Globe missed in its rush to endorse the political nonsense represented by Rowe's appointment.
News and editorial opinion, as it seems, is like politics. It is nothing if it is not local. And, as in this case, it is nothing but local hogwash circling the boots of people who consider themselves Canad'as elites. Why people ever thought the Globe was more than a small town newspaper written by and for people with a small-town mindset is amazing.
Why people outside Tronna put so much stock in anything in its pages is an even greater mystery.
-srbp-
Massive re-write: 29 May 2019
Tags:
Globe and Mail
24 October 2016
The political dynamics of Muskrat Falls #nlpoli #dip-o-crites #cdnpoli
The people of Labrador who have now occupied the work camp at the construction site are exercising the only political influence they have in the only way they have been able to influence events thus far on this project.
There'll be a post later in the week to run through how we got to this place. For now, let's just understand the political dynamics right now. People ignored by everyone else in discussions about this project have taken the only action they knew how to take. This is one of those disjointed protests that happens every once in a while. It has a life of its own.
Outsiders see it from their own perspective. Remember that as you see New Democratic Party politicians federally and provincially or local townie celebrities or mainlanders professing their undying solidarity with the indigenous people of Labrador in their fight against blah blah blah. Yeah. Whatever.
In 2010 and in every year since then, these same people sided with the people building this project in Labrador. They backed the project despite the fairly obvious lies the proponents told, despite the many financial problems with the project, and despite the environmental problems including the problem with methylmercury. These folks had other interests then and their actions now are driven by interests other than the cause of the protesters.
There'll be a post later in the week to run through how we got to this place. For now, let's just understand the political dynamics right now. People ignored by everyone else in discussions about this project have taken the only action they knew how to take. This is one of those disjointed protests that happens every once in a while. It has a life of its own.
Outsiders see it from their own perspective. Remember that as you see New Democratic Party politicians federally and provincially or local townie celebrities or mainlanders professing their undying solidarity with the indigenous people of Labrador in their fight against blah blah blah. Yeah. Whatever.
In 2010 and in every year since then, these same people sided with the people building this project in Labrador. They backed the project despite the fairly obvious lies the proponents told, despite the many financial problems with the project, and despite the environmental problems including the problem with methylmercury. These folks had other interests then and their actions now are driven by interests other than the cause of the protesters.
Tags:
Dwight Ball,
Jack Layton,
Muskrat Falls
21 October 2016
False choices #nlpoli
It's not often you can see a "half-way" compromise as plainly as the one the provincial government announced on Wednesday about Muskrat Falls.
Government's starting point was to flood the reservoir now and not do any additional clearing of the area to be flooded. The protesters wanted to hold off on flooding for a bit and to clear vegetation and topsoil from the flood area.
On Wednesday government opted to flood now but to do some clearing, plus have some folks do a study to see if more clearing would be good. That's pretty much half way between the two positions.
And not long after that, you could see plainly that the attempt at compromise had no effect.
20 October 2016
The Reverse Midas Touch Rides Again #nlpoli
The crowd running this place these days has an unrivalled ability to look at a problem and find the worst possible response imaginable.
On Wednesday, natural resource minister Siobhan Coady and environment minister Perry Trimper announced that the government would tell Nalcor to keep flooding the Muskrat Falls reservoir but at the same time, they will have to cut down more trees and clear more vegetation from the flooding area.
This solves nothing.
On Wednesday, natural resource minister Siobhan Coady and environment minister Perry Trimper announced that the government would tell Nalcor to keep flooding the Muskrat Falls reservoir but at the same time, they will have to cut down more trees and clear more vegetation from the flooding area.
This solves nothing.
19 October 2016
Rumpole and Reversible Error #nlpoli
Brian Tobin's favourite judge may be on his way to the Supreme Court of Canada but along the way he will probably have to answer a few questions about his decision in the appeal in R v S.B.
The case is on its way to the Supreme Court of Canada and Rowe will have to appear before a House of Commons committee before his appointment is confirmed.
Justice Malcolm Rowe wrote the decision with Justice Charles White concurring. Chief Justice Derek Green dissented.
In the original case, S.B. was acquitted by a jury of "two counts of sexual assault upon C.M. in addition to six charges of assault (five against C.M. and one against another complainant), one count of assault with a weapon (against C.M.) and one count of careless use of a firearm." (R. v S.B., 2014 NLTD(G) 84)
In the appeal, Rowe wrote that notwithstanding "the serious errors made by the trial judge outlined above, the jury verdict should not be set aside. I have reached this conclusion with reluctance given the unfair manner in which the complainant was dealt with." (2016 NLCA 20)
The case is on its way to the Supreme Court of Canada and Rowe will have to appear before a House of Commons committee before his appointment is confirmed.
Justice Malcolm Rowe wrote the decision with Justice Charles White concurring. Chief Justice Derek Green dissented.
In the original case, S.B. was acquitted by a jury of "two counts of sexual assault upon C.M. in addition to six charges of assault (five against C.M. and one against another complainant), one count of assault with a weapon (against C.M.) and one count of careless use of a firearm." (R. v S.B., 2014 NLTD(G) 84)
In the appeal, Rowe wrote that notwithstanding "the serious errors made by the trial judge outlined above, the jury verdict should not be set aside. I have reached this conclusion with reluctance given the unfair manner in which the complainant was dealt with." (2016 NLCA 20)
18 October 2016
The War of the Flea Circus #nlpoli
Muskrat Falls has become a three-ring flea circus.
In the first ring, we have the political ambulance chasers, a.k.a. Maudie Barlow and the Council of Xenophobes. The Safari Saviours rolled into town last week, issued a fill-in-the-blanks news release, and then frigged off having successfully tutted a few tuts and gained the media coverage they wanted,.
They, at least, want to end the project, which is more than you can say for the folks staging all sorts of protests here and there. The folks in the third ring are likely the majority of folks in the province. They want Muskrat Falls finished, no matter what the cost. The only difference between Gil Bennett and Bill Gauthier is that Gil actually wants to spend less public money on a project that never made any sense at all.
In the centre ring of the circus we have the province's New Democrats and the self-described "progressive" white folks in the south. The Dippers sent a letter to the Premier on Monday demanding that he open the House of Assembly "forthwith" in order to give the circus a bigger stage. Make no mistake, the Dippers don;t want to stop the project either. They just want to slow things down a bit. The NDP, like the Liberals and Conservatives and the overwhelming majority of people in the province want Muskrat Falls at any cost.
The Dippers, like some others, just want you to think they are against the project. That is the flea in our flea circus.
And that, of course, is the flea in our circus. It is the thing people insist is there even when it obviously is not.
In the first ring, we have the political ambulance chasers, a.k.a. Maudie Barlow and the Council of Xenophobes. The Safari Saviours rolled into town last week, issued a fill-in-the-blanks news release, and then frigged off having successfully tutted a few tuts and gained the media coverage they wanted,.
They, at least, want to end the project, which is more than you can say for the folks staging all sorts of protests here and there. The folks in the third ring are likely the majority of folks in the province. They want Muskrat Falls finished, no matter what the cost. The only difference between Gil Bennett and Bill Gauthier is that Gil actually wants to spend less public money on a project that never made any sense at all.
In the centre ring of the circus we have the province's New Democrats and the self-described "progressive" white folks in the south. The Dippers sent a letter to the Premier on Monday demanding that he open the House of Assembly "forthwith" in order to give the circus a bigger stage. Make no mistake, the Dippers don;t want to stop the project either. They just want to slow things down a bit. The NDP, like the Liberals and Conservatives and the overwhelming majority of people in the province want Muskrat Falls at any cost.
The Dippers, like some others, just want you to think they are against the project. That is the flea in our flea circus.
And that, of course, is the flea in our circus. It is the thing people insist is there even when it obviously is not.
Tags:
Muskrat Falls
17 October 2016
Caribous, Choice, and Craziness #nlpoli
For a while, it looked like one of the island's major communities wouldn't be able to put a senior hockey team on the ice for the new season. Low ticket sales were threatening the Clarenville Caribous. After a bit of publicity, the team managed to sell enough tickets to finance the team.
There's no way of knowing if changing demographics were affecting the Caribous. Clarenville has enjoyed a small boom driven largely by Hebron construction at Bull Arm. As that project is winding down, the local economy is likely to shrink a bit. Maybe some folks didn't want to shell out for hockey tickets given the local economic slow-down and the potential for more taxes or cuts coming from the provincial government.
We shouldn't be surprised, though, if more and more of these sorts of stories turn up as our population shrinks, gets older, and migrates into some of the major centres, particularly St. John's. After all, we've heard from municipal leaders over the past couple of years that some towns are having a hard time finding employees or even enough people to form a council. In some places, councilors are picking up garbage and doing other jobs that the town would normally hire someone to do.
There's no way of knowing if changing demographics were affecting the Caribous. Clarenville has enjoyed a small boom driven largely by Hebron construction at Bull Arm. As that project is winding down, the local economy is likely to shrink a bit. Maybe some folks didn't want to shell out for hockey tickets given the local economic slow-down and the potential for more taxes or cuts coming from the provincial government.
We shouldn't be surprised, though, if more and more of these sorts of stories turn up as our population shrinks, gets older, and migrates into some of the major centres, particularly St. John's. After all, we've heard from municipal leaders over the past couple of years that some towns are having a hard time finding employees or even enough people to form a council. In some places, councilors are picking up garbage and doing other jobs that the town would normally hire someone to do.
Tags:
demographics
14 October 2016
Refitting the USS Nimitz (CVN-68)
Ordered in 1967, laid down in 1968, launched in 1972 and commissioned in 1975, USS Nimitz is the lead ship of a class of 10 aircraft carriers in the United States Navy. They form the backbone of American naval power in the world.
The ships in the class will be replaced by the Gerald R Ford class. Current plans call for the navy to retire the Nimitz between 2025 and 2027.
The video documents part of the recent repair and refurbishment of the Nimitz at the naval shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. It highlights refurbishment of the rudder, catapult, and anchors and chain as well as the fabrication and installation of new sponsons on the hull.
-srbp-
Tags:
aircraft carrier repair
13 October 2016
The politics of Sally Albright #nlpoli
A surprisingly large number of people loved Monday's post about the political impotence of protesting against Muskrat Falls now that the thing is pretty much finished.
As if to confirm their impotence, some of the protesters turned up on Tuesday at the government's dog and pony show. The Premier cut out the back door to avoid them but most of the participants went out the main entrance and stepped around the folks laying about at the protest.
There was a bit of cynical joke, of course, because what was going on inside the "consultation" was a display of political irrelevance for all the folks in the building. The whole idea of these consultations is to make people feel like they are playing some role in making government policy when, in reality, they are just being played for fools.
As if to confirm their impotence, some of the protesters turned up on Tuesday at the government's dog and pony show. The Premier cut out the back door to avoid them but most of the participants went out the main entrance and stepped around the folks laying about at the protest.
There was a bit of cynical joke, of course, because what was going on inside the "consultation" was a display of political irrelevance for all the folks in the building. The whole idea of these consultations is to make people feel like they are playing some role in making government policy when, in reality, they are just being played for fools.
Tags:
budget consultations,
consultation
12 October 2016
Eeyore and the Blustery Day #nlpoli
Premier Dwight Ball stood up before a hand-picked crowd at The Rooms on Tuesday and told them they were there to help develop a strategy for the future of our province. They would look over some ideas the government crowd had worked up, sit around tables talking with "facilitators" as part of this gigantic consultation, and then the government crowd would figure out what the final strategy should look like.
In his speech, Ball said that we were in the current financial mess because the crowd running the government before now had followed a strategy of strategies. They'd have a strategy for ever problem. One year they came out with 10. All developed according to the same basic formula: issue - idea - consultation - cogitation - strategy.
The Liberals would do things differently, Ball said. How they would be different he could not say. Maybe it was that instead of doing a health strategy and a n innovation strategy and a fisheries strategy, Ball and his crowd were going to have One Big Strategy.
But somehow, the same was different to Ball's way of thinking and all would be wonderful as a result.
In his speech, Ball said that we were in the current financial mess because the crowd running the government before now had followed a strategy of strategies. They'd have a strategy for ever problem. One year they came out with 10. All developed according to the same basic formula: issue - idea - consultation - cogitation - strategy.
The Liberals would do things differently, Ball said. How they would be different he could not say. Maybe it was that instead of doing a health strategy and a n innovation strategy and a fisheries strategy, Ball and his crowd were going to have One Big Strategy.
But somehow, the same was different to Ball's way of thinking and all would be wonderful as a result.
Tags:
Dwight Ball,
paul davis
11 October 2016
The Bigger Picture #nlpoli
Whatever the provincial government is doing about its own spending or the provincial economy generally or whatever it is up to starts at 9:00 AM.
They announced an invitation-only event by Twitter a week or so ago that made it sound like the Premier would be the key player all day. On Friday, the official announcement made it plain Ball is showing up for the kick-off and wrap-up. Another announcement had him with another minister doing a funding announcement at 10:00 AM.
Oh yeah, and that invite-only thing had transmogrified into a case where "the general public" can participate by live video using social media.
There you have it: can't tell you what they are doing because they do not know what they are doing, otherwise known as "making-it-up-as-they-go."
No encouraging at all, but let's skip over that sort of eye-roll inducing stuff and think about some of the bigger issues. We can then keep an eye open to see how they turn up - *if* they turn up - in this stunt at The Rooms.
They announced an invitation-only event by Twitter a week or so ago that made it sound like the Premier would be the key player all day. On Friday, the official announcement made it plain Ball is showing up for the kick-off and wrap-up. Another announcement had him with another minister doing a funding announcement at 10:00 AM.
Oh yeah, and that invite-only thing had transmogrified into a case where "the general public" can participate by live video using social media.
There you have it: can't tell you what they are doing because they do not know what they are doing, otherwise known as "making-it-up-as-they-go."
No encouraging at all, but let's skip over that sort of eye-roll inducing stuff and think about some of the bigger issues. We can then keep an eye open to see how they turn up - *if* they turn up - in this stunt at The Rooms.
Tags:
demographics,
provincial economy
10 October 2016
Politics as masturbation #nlpoli
"I am warning you. Don't make me wear my pikachu costume." |
Demonstrations at Memorial University and at Nalcor headquarters on Friday show the extent to which Newfoundland politics has become little more than irrelevant stunts staged chiefly for the personal amusement of the folks with the expensive cellphones.
The protesters do not want to stop the project. A few people who turned up *think* that was the goal. But the university students' union representative quoted by the Telegram about aboriginal rights made it plain in her CBC interview she wasn't interested in stopping the multi-billion dollar blunder cum boondoggle.
Just as well. The project is basically unstoppable and has been for years. That is also the position of all three political parties in Newfoundland and Labrador: we cannot afford to let this project stop.
07 October 2016
Sweat Equity - new ISER book on housing policy #nlpoli
Sweat Equity
Cooperative House-Building in Newfoundland ,
1920–1974
"The lack of decent urban housing — a problem neither new nor unique to Newfoundland — was widely recognized during the twentieth century. After numerous piecemeal attempts to find a solution, a remarkable and successful government-supported “sweat equity” program was established in 1952, where homes were built cooperatively and, upon completion, became owner-occupied. This labor (about 2,000 hours per man) was accepted in lieu of a down payment.
"Tracing public policy during the Commission of Government and
the early days of the Smallwood administration, and sourced from archival
material and interviews with surviving members of the cooperatives, Sweat
Equity outlines how people in Newfoundland tried to solve the housing shortage
themselves by building more than 500 houses in the 1950s and 1960s.
Available online from the Institute for Social and Economic Research or in bookstores.
-srbp-
Tags:
housing policy
06 October 2016
Canada's Dippers: taking the democracy out of politics #nlpoli
The guy who didn't know what electoral district he lived in likes proportional representation.
Provincial Dipper boss Earle "More Austerity" McCurdy was so excited Wednesday that he talked to a parliamentary committee about it and even got all frothy about it on Twitter.
If proportional representation is such a wonderful thing, then Earle must have included it in his party's election platform last fall. Right?
Go check it out.
Look for any reference at all to proportional representation.
We'll wait.
Take your time.
Tags:
Earle McCurdy,
election reform
The trouble with transparency - CADO version #nlpoli
"How do you deal with a government computer system that is
hopelessly out of date it wants you to 'update' your Internet browser to a
version that is actually three version older than the one you are using?"
That would be the online search for the government registry of deeds, companies, and lobbyists. The thing was already ancient in 2009 when SRBP first wrote about it. The thing was nine years old then. These days it is around 16 years old and is still chugging along.
Someone else took a poke at the database by asking for an electronic copy of the record through the access to information law. In addition to requesting the data, the person offered an observation that the database wasn't truly access as required under the access law because the software was so old: "I am of the opinion that these records are not truly
available to the public. Currently a user must access this database online
using Internet Explorer 7, which is no longer supported by Microsoft, and
leaves the end user vulnerable to malware spyware. I doubt Ministers would be
permitted to use IE7 at Confederation
Building due to the threat of
digital exploits. The CADO system built by x-wave is incredibly outdated."
Tags:
access to information,
OCIO
05 October 2016
The trouble with transparency #nlpoli
Last week, the provincial government's communications gang tweeted a picture, which we have reprinted on the right. It was supposed to show where Premier Dwight Ball is on his little sojourn to tomorrowland that he calls "our fiscal future."
You can see how they have crossed off a whole bunch of milestones on the way along. Supposedly we are now at the "Focus and Refine" stage. Next thing to come is the "Report of Choices" due at some unspecified point in the fall. Notice the diamond-shaped point there called the fall fiscal update.
The Liberals haven't told us when the update will come. First we have to get through this thing on October 11 at which a bunch of hand-picked leaders from various "sectors" of our society will get to see what choices the government has already made for "our fiscal future."
This is "consultation" in GovSpeak. In LibSpeak, it is Transparency, one of the Five Points of the Liberal Plan for Strategic Word Capitalization.
The Liberals haven't told us when the update will come. First we have to get through this thing on October 11 at which a bunch of hand-picked leaders from various "sectors" of our society will get to see what choices the government has already made for "our fiscal future."
This is "consultation" in GovSpeak. In LibSpeak, it is Transparency, one of the Five Points of the Liberal Plan for Strategic Word Capitalization.
Tags:
budget consultations
04 October 2016
The Strategic Two-Step #nlpoli
There's a sheet of paper taped on the underside of one of
the drawers in the Premier's desk on the 8th Floor.
It's very old. No one knows for sure how long it has
been there but there are countless rings from countless coffee cups on it and
more than few circles from the underside of rum bottles.
On the back, there are a couple of spots where it looks like
people jotted down messages and phone numbers. You know, like someone had the
sheet laying around on the desk and it just happened to be the closest bit of
paper handy.
You can barely make out "Doyle - Panama "
and long string of digits including what looks like a bank account number after
the word Caymans. In another corner there's a woman's first name with
couple of numbers and a note : "Frank - call her back for Christ
sake. Gerry"
On the other side, the words are in Courier 10 point from an
IBM Selectric.
At the top, in all caps and underlined, it reads WHEN
IN TROUBLE... The first bullet is one word: Pander. The
second bullet is: Pick a fight with Ottawa .
Tags:
political strategy
03 October 2016
The Way Forward #nlpoli
Last December, Dwight Ball laid out his plan to deal with the provincial government's financial problems.
Ball made the comments to CBC's David Cochrane a week or two after he'd been sworn in. This was after he'd been briefed on the provincial government's financial situation, so he'd had a chance to get over any shock and figure out a plan to cope with an unprecedented financial mess.
Depending on whether you go with what Ball said last year or what he said at the Liberal fund-raising dinner last Thursday, Ball was totally shocked to find out how bad things were or didn't bat an eyelid because he knew exactly how bad things were. Take your pick.
Either way, here's what the newly minted Premier said were his three ways to handle the unprecedented financial mess:
Ball made the comments to CBC's David Cochrane a week or two after he'd been sworn in. This was after he'd been briefed on the provincial government's financial situation, so he'd had a chance to get over any shock and figure out a plan to cope with an unprecedented financial mess.
Depending on whether you go with what Ball said last year or what he said at the Liberal fund-raising dinner last Thursday, Ball was totally shocked to find out how bad things were or didn't bat an eyelid because he knew exactly how bad things were. Take your pick.
Either way, here's what the newly minted Premier said were his three ways to handle the unprecedented financial mess:
Tags:
Dwight Ball,
public spending
30 September 2016
Jerome! rides again #nlpoli
Retired justice David Riche is the only independent person who has examined any information about Don Dunphy's death.
Hired by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as an outside reviewer of its investigation into Dunphy's death, Riche had an unusual but informed perspective. Riche's comments to reporters last week about the Dunphy shooting and the police investigation did not fit with the carefully fabricated, self-serving comments made over the past few months by the police officer who shot and killed Dunphy.
That's why former justice minister Jerome! Kennedy smeared Riche this week. Kennedy wants to damage Riche's credibility. Kennedy represents the police officer who killed Dunphy and who will be, not surprisingly, the focus of much of the public inquiry conducted by Justice Leo Barry.
The fact that Kennedy's unprincipled and unwarranted attack is so transparent in its purpose means it will be ineffective, at least as far as Barry's inquiry will go. But the prospect that Kennedy will try to turn the make the inquiry a circus is cause for public concern and condemnation.
Hired by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as an outside reviewer of its investigation into Dunphy's death, Riche had an unusual but informed perspective. Riche's comments to reporters last week about the Dunphy shooting and the police investigation did not fit with the carefully fabricated, self-serving comments made over the past few months by the police officer who shot and killed Dunphy.
That's why former justice minister Jerome! Kennedy smeared Riche this week. Kennedy wants to damage Riche's credibility. Kennedy represents the police officer who killed Dunphy and who will be, not surprisingly, the focus of much of the public inquiry conducted by Justice Leo Barry.
The fact that Kennedy's unprincipled and unwarranted attack is so transparent in its purpose means it will be ineffective, at least as far as Barry's inquiry will go. But the prospect that Kennedy will try to turn the make the inquiry a circus is cause for public concern and condemnation.
Tags:
Jerome Kennedy
29 September 2016
The letter Peter Whittle got #nlpoli
This is the letter Peter Whittle got from his colleagues on the school councils federation executive. Whittle resigned today.
Samson sale price "reflective of risk": Galgay #nlpoli
Jonathan Galgay sent along an email to add some information to the post last week about the city's tax assessment for the property at 50 Beaumont Avenue, also known as I.J. Samson school.
He's adds some useful background about how the city arrived at a value: the waited for the sale.
Galgay also adds some other information that matches up - ironically enough - with the reasons the school-board offered up for the relatively low cost of the sale despite the fact it's a big piece of land in the centre of town.
"The sale price," Galgay wrote, "would have been reflective of the risk associated with the unknowns for the cost of environmental remediation , demolition of the building and uncertainty with regard to redevelopment potential related to the necessary rezoning of the property."
Exactly. The property is worth what the market will pay for it. And the property, as it is, comes with lots of risks, as Galgay noted.
Funny thing is that a couple of weeks ago, Galgay wrote to the provincial auditor general asking for an investigation into the process of tendering and sale of the land and building. Galgay said he was "disgusted" by the sale. Plus, as Galgay notes below, the city can reassess the property as it is developed and increase the tax bill to reflect any future development. That's pretty much what folks in the real estate industry said two weeks ago.
Tags:
IJ Samson,
Jonathan Galgay
28 September 2016
Through others' eyes #nlpoli
For Newfoundland's pseudo-intellectuals, the Toronto Globe and Mail is a kind of one-handed reading material. They use one hand to scroll down the Internet site looking at stuff. They use the other to stroke the keys of their computer until it spurts indignation all over the screen about something someone in the Globe said or didn't say about Newfoundland.
They are an easy bunch to click-bait, as the Globe editors showed this past weekend. The province's gaggle of celebrities took to the Internet to slag columnist Margaret Wente or Confederation. Hans Rollman exploded in a ball of perpetual, fabricated victimhood. Ed Riche pretended he was above it all and, always one to spot a hot, if insubstantial, trend, CBC produced an online piece about the negativity.
On Monday, the corp even got Wente to suffer through an interview about her recent trip to Fogo Island. "Do you understand how wrong you were?" Grand Inquisitor Debbie asked the penitent mainlander. "Do you repent your sins?"
Yes, said Wente looking like she was going to tear-up any second. "I got Newfoundland wrong,"
Never, in the history of journalism, has so much been made by so many about so little.
They are an easy bunch to click-bait, as the Globe editors showed this past weekend. The province's gaggle of celebrities took to the Internet to slag columnist Margaret Wente or Confederation. Hans Rollman exploded in a ball of perpetual, fabricated victimhood. Ed Riche pretended he was above it all and, always one to spot a hot, if insubstantial, trend, CBC produced an online piece about the negativity.
On Monday, the corp even got Wente to suffer through an interview about her recent trip to Fogo Island. "Do you understand how wrong you were?" Grand Inquisitor Debbie asked the penitent mainlander. "Do you repent your sins?"
Yes, said Wente looking like she was going to tear-up any second. "I got Newfoundland wrong,"
Never, in the history of journalism, has so much been made by so many about so little.
27 September 2016
No help, not my department, and missing records #nlpoli
Starting a little over a hundred years ago, the Government of Newfoundland publishing a list of public servants by name, showing their job title, the department they worked for, the annual salary,and the Christian denomination to which they belonged.
Since 1981 and the passage of the first freedom of information law in the province, anyone in Newfoundland and Labrador has been able to request information about people employed by the provincial public service. You can get the title of a position, the name of the person currently holding the job and the amount paid to the person for doing the job. The House of Assembly reaffirmed that right in the 2002 version of the access to information law, the infamous Bill 29 amendments, and in the current version, drafted in 2014 by an expert panel.
Telegram reporter James McLeod sent a series of requests last winter to government departments and agencies. He asked for a list of positions in which people on the government payroll made more than $100,000. McLeod was trying to put together his own version of a so-called Sunshine List. Most organizations answered McLeod's request and provided him with the list. There was no legal reason to withhold the information.
What the English school district did was fascinating.
Since 1981 and the passage of the first freedom of information law in the province, anyone in Newfoundland and Labrador has been able to request information about people employed by the provincial public service. You can get the title of a position, the name of the person currently holding the job and the amount paid to the person for doing the job. The House of Assembly reaffirmed that right in the 2002 version of the access to information law, the infamous Bill 29 amendments, and in the current version, drafted in 2014 by an expert panel.
Telegram reporter James McLeod sent a series of requests last winter to government departments and agencies. He asked for a list of positions in which people on the government payroll made more than $100,000. McLeod was trying to put together his own version of a so-called Sunshine List. Most organizations answered McLeod's request and provided him with the list. There was no legal reason to withhold the information.
What the English school district did was fascinating.
26 September 2016
Illegal deletions okay in NL: access commissioner #nlpoli
Shortly after he took office a month or so ago, newly appointed information commissioner Donovan Molloy told CBC there had been a "substantial increase" in the number of access to information requests since 2015 when the House of Assembly passed a new access to information law.
True, said the always accurate labradore, but that was only in relation to the two years when Bill 29 seems to have reduced the number of requests. People had filed 343 access requests up to the first part of August. That would work out to about "800-and-some requests completed for the year," according to labradore, "which would be something of a surge compared to Bill 29 levels, and even, to a lesser degree, compared to pre-29 levels.*
"But, apart from a hypothetical surge during the balance of the fiscal year, the statistics do not support the Commissioner’s concerns. ... To the extent that there has been a surge in request volume since the 2015 unravelling of Bill 29, that may just as easily be accounted for by the fact that, in the post-Bill-29 era, the public is simply more aware of their right to access public records, and, thanks to the elimination of application fees and the praiseworthy creation of an online filing system, more able to exercise that right."
True, said the always accurate labradore, but that was only in relation to the two years when Bill 29 seems to have reduced the number of requests. People had filed 343 access requests up to the first part of August. That would work out to about "800-and-some requests completed for the year," according to labradore, "which would be something of a surge compared to Bill 29 levels, and even, to a lesser degree, compared to pre-29 levels.*
"But, apart from a hypothetical surge during the balance of the fiscal year, the statistics do not support the Commissioner’s concerns. ... To the extent that there has been a surge in request volume since the 2015 unravelling of Bill 29, that may just as easily be accounted for by the fact that, in the post-Bill-29 era, the public is simply more aware of their right to access public records, and, thanks to the elimination of application fees and the praiseworthy creation of an online filing system, more able to exercise that right."
Those comments are a good starting point, though for a couple of posts on the current state of the province's access to information law. What you will see in this two-part series is that there are enormous obstacles to public access to government information. The obstacles come from the way bureaucrats apply the law. They produce their own problems and, in one of the most serious obstacles, illegal censorship gets the seal of approval from the province's information access watchdog.
23 September 2016
Reforming the way government works #nlpoli
Conservative and New Democrat goons are fapping themselves into a frenzy on Twitter over Bern Coffey's appointment as Clerk of the Executive Council. Qualifications don't matter, they would have it. Bern Coffey's appointment is partisan just because Coffey is a Liberal and therefore it is bad. No Liberals should be appointed to anything.
Derpy Conservative David Brazil dismissed Coffey in an interview with NTV News because Coffey has no connection to the provincial public service. He's an "outsider" supposedly. The facts are irrelevant: Coffey spent a couple of decades as a highly successful Crown prosecutor before he set out on his own about 16 years ago.
Dipper boss Earle McCurdy thinks Coffey is "lacking the right qualifications" although McCurdy had no idea what the right qualifications would be other than, say, not being Liberal.
For his part, Premier Dwight Ball told NTV that Coffey's job will now involve "challenging" the province's public servants so that the government has the best information possible when making decisions.
Such is the shallow nature of provincial politics these days. Even Dwight Ball's comments don't accurately reflect what is going on.
Derpy Conservative David Brazil dismissed Coffey in an interview with NTV News because Coffey has no connection to the provincial public service. He's an "outsider" supposedly. The facts are irrelevant: Coffey spent a couple of decades as a highly successful Crown prosecutor before he set out on his own about 16 years ago.
Dipper boss Earle McCurdy thinks Coffey is "lacking the right qualifications" although McCurdy had no idea what the right qualifications would be other than, say, not being Liberal.
For his part, Premier Dwight Ball told NTV that Coffey's job will now involve "challenging" the province's public servants so that the government has the best information possible when making decisions.
Such is the shallow nature of provincial politics these days. Even Dwight Ball's comments don't accurately reflect what is going on.
22 September 2016
City assessed school property at sale price #nlpoli
City councillor Jonathan Galgay attacked the school board and the provincial government over the sale of IJ Samson school for $189,000 after the purchaser put the thing on the market for 10 times that much.
Galgay wrote to the provincial auditor general asking him to investigate the sale.
Two things.
First, a property is worth what the market will pay for it. Galgay can get as excited as he wants but the fact is that the bids demonstrated the value of the property in the current market.
Second, Galgay might want to check out the official city hall view of 50 Bennett Avenue.
St. John's municipal records show that the City of St. John's assessed the former junior high school as a business property with a value of... wait for it... $189,000.
Seems awfully convenient that the numbers matched up like that. If Terry Paddon investigates this sale, he should expand his inquiry to include city hall. Something smells awfully funny. Well, besides the stink from the budget Galgay brought in last year
Galgay wrote to the provincial auditor general asking him to investigate the sale.
Two things.
First, a property is worth what the market will pay for it. Galgay can get as excited as he wants but the fact is that the bids demonstrated the value of the property in the current market.
Second, Galgay might want to check out the official city hall view of 50 Bennett Avenue.
St. John's municipal records show that the City of St. John's assessed the former junior high school as a business property with a value of... wait for it... $189,000.
Seems awfully convenient that the numbers matched up like that. If Terry Paddon investigates this sale, he should expand his inquiry to include city hall. Something smells awfully funny. Well, besides the stink from the budget Galgay brought in last year
Tags:
city hall,
Tammany at Gower
21 September 2016
Not talking but talking about something #nlpoli
It took them a few days but the folks at Nalcor managed to put out a statement that addressed the possible talks with Hydro-Quebec about the Lower Churchill.
They didn't post it to the Nalcor website or anything but a few people were flicking it around on Tuesday. They must have tweeted it out or something.*
Anyway, here is a picture of it.
They didn't post it to the Nalcor website or anything but a few people were flicking it around on Tuesday. They must have tweeted it out or something.*
Anyway, here is a picture of it.
Now we can see what it says, line by line.
20 September 2016
Grits and Cons play dodge-fact over Labrador hydro talks #nlpoli
"There are no discussions between this government and the Quebec government."
That's part of a statement sent out by email to local reporters from natural resources minister Siobhan Coady's office. You can't find it on the government website or the party website. Coady was responding to a release from provincial Conservative leader Paul Davis challenging Dwight Ball to state the administration's plans for the province's hydro resources in Labrador.
Words matter. No one has suggested that the two governments were talking about anything. The talks would take place between Nalcor and Hydro-Quebec and, whether we take Nalcor boss Stan Marshall's own words or the local scuttlebutt, the talks are going on between the two companies.
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