Waiting for Public Pensioners to Die - Dunderdale's Policy Choice

Sometimes the "shock and awe" approach is the only thing left to fight an obvious injustice and unfairness.

Such is the case with Newfoundland and Labrador Public Sector Pensioners'.

I understand their Association (NLPSPA) held a public meeting last night in St. John's and there was a full house. Apparently Jim Morgan was a speaker and rallied the troops - to take action to get resolve.

I also spoke at a similar event of theirs a few years back and suggested the same things - a real action against government - until an equitable resolution was found.

This group comprises of many who dedicated their lives and careers to public service - at a time when oil was not the player it is now.

There is no question or argument to be had to deny these individuals a living pension with increases that reflect the actual cost of living - today - not based on 20 years ago.

You see this problem was caused by a number of things - Joey Smallwood did not collect premiums from workers - Frank Moores collected and then spent all the employee contributions for operations of government such as roads, bridges, hospitals, and schools - Peckford who stopped spending the contributions but did nothing to start refunding the unfunded mess left by the first two - Clyde Wells who did the actuarial studies that identified the mess of the pension plans - Brian Tobin and Roger Grimes who began the process of funding the unfunded and underfunded portions for future pensioners and Danny Williams who carried on with the refunding of the plans with monies accrued from the federal Martin administration (all since lost because of the Harper administration) and the market meltdown. None of them however have done anything to index the pensions for those who lost that investment potential when government spent all their premiums.

Yes this is a mess and Dunderdale - as with Williams - has the ability to do something about it with oil money - yet have decided instead to wait for these pensioners to die. Does that sound harsh, jaw-dropping, even cruel? Well these are our realities and the "shock and awe" of the statement should be delivered to the public and MHA's on a daily basis. Insurance, pensions, and other financial instruments are all based on actuarials defining life expectancy of you and me. There really is no other way to determine the future costs of pensions and the ability of plans to survive.

People who have just been pensioned or are on that cusp are working with their unions - such as NAPE and CUPE to ensure they will have a livable pension and show very little concern for those living - in many cases - below the poverty line.

Kathy Dunderdale, Cabinet, and Caucus should deal with the plight of these people - but they know by the numbers - that most of the problem will expire within a couple of terms of government. The Unions know the same thing. The question is - will our society work toward ignoring this unfairness or will we all stand up and instruct our governments and unions to allow these people to live the rest of their lives comfortably - without having to choose between heat and food - or clothing and gas?

In many respect this is not dissimilar to the fishery - and the social experimental number crunching that sees government policy both federal and provincial remove relatively small numbers of people year over year from that industry - so as not to cause an uproar or political war. Destroying one community at a time seems to be the plan - so that there are never enough to stand together and protest - for fear if they did their community would be next. Yes we have seen tens of thousands of people leave our province - displaced by government mismanagement of the resource - with their elderly parents left behind. This in turn places additional strain on the budget as the family structure of care is stripped away piece by piece.

Kathy Dunderdale shows very little promise of developing policies that will serve us well over the short medium or long term. The Premier has missed many significant opportunities to find efficiencies and divert savings into programs which could save our fiscal behind and allow our population to thrive in the future and in retirement. Dunderdale and her colleagues are too engrossed with partisan politics to accept very good and well meaning advice - choosing instead to enrich those who tow the line - regardless of how weathered and weak that line may be.

Unfortunately - despite the very large potential of the pensioners' voice - the association itself remains politically cautious and therefore unsuccessful.

Equally as unfortunate - the politicians of the day - are more concerned about thumping the dented desks in the House of Assembly - than hearing the voices of reason and compassion.

Newfoundland and Labrador had better change it's partisan ways very soon - or another generation will be left with crippling debt, inferior resource contracts, incalculable social needs, and no ability to build a way back out.

Meanwhile - the pensions and benefits of politicians continue to be superior. No need to worry there.

Personal Enrichment or Enrichment of Society (you choose)

 PASS ON TO A PENSIONER YOU KNOW!

Let's look at list of illustrious leaders and determine if they or we have benefited more from their years in "Public Service".

Joey Smallwood - oversaw the giveaway of the Upper Churchill and recruited and retained many foreign crooks who took us for a ride. He did give us the "baby bonus" - the "highway" such as it was and is particularly in Labrador and wonderful confederation (wherein he dispensed of our fishery).

What do you think - has he helped your children and grandchildren? Has he harmed their futures with his decisions on natural resources?

Then there is Frank Moores - well he did spend the pensioners money (put it in general revenues and built infrastructure with it) no plan to repay it though - so now pensioners living in poverty. Where did he end up? Well until shortly before he died  - was an extremely well paid lobbyist on the federal scene - then there was the airbus and schreiber Mulroney thing. Screwed up the Lower Churchill a few times and was also the one who purchased Upper Churchill rights from Brinco at outrageous prices and without any retribution on the bad deal. It almost cost us a bankruptcy.

What do you think - has he helped your children and grandchildren? Has he harmed their futures with his decisions on natural resources?

How about "Our Brian" number 1. Brian Peckford Well he was the giant (cucumber) who Sprung into action on our behalf and developed alternate industry. He stopped spending pensioners money but did not refund the unfunded liability left by Joey and Frank. He blew a deal on the Lower Churchill with the Power Authority State of New York (PASNE) - because he wanted to fight Trudeau on the constitution. We lost the development deal (if CBC would rerun the program) that was probably the best ever potential to develop the Lower Churchill. As we were drifting into debt - good ol' Brian 1 claimed he could not do the bad things necessary to do so he quit. Ended up making a fortune in the mining sector in British Columbia (living well). Wonder if he made any of those contacts while in office?

What do you think - has he helped your children and grandchildren? Has he harmed their futures with his decisions on natural resources.

Then comes Clyde Wells our constitutional genius and the man responsible for the "Economic Recovery Commission" or the continued enrichment of Dr. Doug|House for results which are non-existent. Then of course to fix our debt - he was going to sell off at bargain basement price Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro - had it happened future of Labrador was lost. Light bills would be up 50% we would still have virtually the same debt but without money making asset which has since become NALCOR. He is now a Judge (semi-retired). Clyde managed to get an actuarial done of the state of pensions.


What do you think - has he helped your children and grandchildren? Has he harmed their futures with his decisions on natural resources.

The along comes "Our Brian" 2 Brian Tobin -  The Premier of gab and celebration - he celebrated us out - did nothing for the fishery and tried to sell the last of our power resources to Quebec with a fizzled out seal-coat wearing event in Labrador. back and forth he went from here to Ottawa - to the extent where he did not pick up on Elizabeth Marshall's (then Auditor Generals) cries of I need to audit the House of Assembly books. We all know what happened there. Seems he missed the fray of women's panties and perfumes - art and wine - booze and money - gambling addictions and all other sordid little things such as a couple million dollars worth of pins and tokens. So he oversaw and enabled it to continue as he headed up the denial of Marshall into the records of the HOA. How's "Our Brian" 2 doing these days? Seems he went on to greater things and at last report was set to gain  millions in the sale of a mining company. How do you get from A to B. Brian refunded some pension money - but nothing for indexing.

What do you think - has he helped your children and grandchildren? Has he harmed their futures with his decisions on natural resources.

Then there was Danny - gained 2 billion lost who knows what of that when the market collapsed - then he lost 10 billion in fight with Harper that managed to get Fabian Manning to the Senate, Loyola Hearn to Ireland as an Ambassador, and Loyola Sullivan as the fisheries and seal guru in Europe. Left without finishing a deal on the Lower Churchill - and lined us up for another Upper Churchill fiasco  - the largest giveaway of this generation. He lead the way in health care by having his own surgery done in the United States - while crucifying health care at home. He has absolutely blown the fisheries file and did nothing to seek compensation for the billion annual loss to that sector. Most recently we have learned - that as Sue's Blog predicted - he did approve money to his buddy for fibre-optics which has not panned out for us - but apparently was quite good for Dean MacDonald when Persona was flipped to East Link. How's he doing - You can figure that out. He was however the leader in patronage and was well known for shutting up his critics through intimidation and was by far the best manipulator of the media. What did he do for the pensioners? He told them to take a flying leap.

What do you think - has he helped your children and grandchildren? Has he harmed their futures with his decisions on natural resources.

Now what's next - you really need to think about this - long and hard and maybe seek a better option.

Cry me a River

It seems like forever or at least the past few decades that I have been an adult - that tears have fallen slowly down the collective cheek of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Drop by drop our future has been sucked away by this like a case of liposuction gone wrong. This - being the Upper Churchill contract. A deed done in a time when we were told the legal brilliance of our community somehow sucked their thumbs while attached to the teat of Joey Smallwood. Who was around in the sixties and seventies? Who were our leaders?

This is a partial list:

Smallwood, Joseph Newfoundland, Premier, 1949-1971
Barry, Leo D. Newfoundland, Mines and Energy, 1972-1975 and 1979-1981
Callahan, William Newfoundland, Minister of Mines, Agriculture and Resources 1968-1971
Crosby, John Newfoundland, Minister of Finance and Economic Development
Curtis, Leslie Roy Newfoundland, Attorney General,lMinister of Justice, 1969-1971
Doody, William Newfoundland, Minister of Mines, Agriculture and Resources, 18January-19 April 1972
Gover, Frederick Newfoundland, Deputy Minister of Mines, Agriculture and Resources, 1960s-1970s
Hickrnan, Alec Newfoundland, Justice, Deputy Minister, early 1960s-1966, Minister of Justice, 1966-1969
Lukins, F.1. Newfoundland, Department of Mines, Agriculture and Resources, Chief Engineer, 1960s
Martin, Cabot Newfoundland, Department of Mines, Agriculture and Resources, legal counsel, 1972-1979 and legal counsel to Premier Brian Peckford, 1979-1985
Moores, Frank D. Newfoundland, Premier, 1971-1979
Bill Rowe Elected 1966 at 24 and became one of Canada's youngest Minister 2 years later
Clyde Wells 1966 - to you know the story Hydro once - twice - three times

Sure the whole deal is complicated - and the deal was between Hydro Quebec and Brinco - but these people were aware and were involved at some level in allowing the project to go through or reach fruition.

The one thing that is not complicated is the fact that we have lost billions in revenue for apparently not recognizing that the price of oil might go up over a 70 year period. Clearly Hydro Quebec seen something as they are the party that raised the lions share of the financing. So sure were they that they put the Province of Quebec out on the proverbial limb to the tune of an outrageous amount of money (in sixties terms). The largest external raising of cash of US money.

Now the Churchill deal unfortunately did not only miss escalation - it also seen the decline in prices over the term of the contract. Then there were clauses like if CFLco could not meet its obligations then Hydro Quebec would have the right to pay the monies and receive common shares for the value. In short as CFLco went broke and the minority partner paid the bills the minority partner (Hydro Quebec) would end up owning it all.

Remember though that at the time that partner was Brinco not Newfoundland and Labrador. Over the next few months leading up to the election Sue's Blog will detail every little piece of this failure - but for now let's stick to the Reader's Digest version. So we've summed up the mess the Liberals made - now let's take it to the Tories and the introduction of a new group of geniuses. Who were the leaders then?

Leo Barry was initially elected as a Progressive Conservative in 1972. He served as Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly before being appointed to the Cabinet of Frank Moores as Minister of Mines and Energy In 1979, Barry returned to Newfoundland and contested the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party placing second to Brian Peckford. He won a seat in 1979 and was appointed energy minister in Peckford's cabinet. Barry resigned from cabinet in 1981 due to a disagreement with Peckford over negotiations with the federal government over Newfoundland's claim to offshore resources. On Feb. 21, 1984, he crossed the floor to join the Liberal Party and became the party's leader later that year.

In 1969, John Crosbie challenged Smallwood for the Liberal party leadership and lost. He crossed the floor to join the opposition Progressive Conservatives led by Frank Moores. Crosbie helped the Tories defeat Smallwood and come to power in 1972 and held several senior portfolios in Moores's cabinet.

C. William Doody was active in provincial politics and was first elected to the Newfoundland House of Assembly in 1971 as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party. He became minister of mines, agriculture and resources when Frank Moores formed his government in 1972. In 1975, Doody became the province's finance minister and when Brian Peckford became Premier of the province, Doody was made Minister of Mines and Energy. In October, 1979, Doody left provincial politics and was appointed to the Senate by then Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Joe Clark in 1979.

Tom Farrell was a represented the riding of Humber East in the House of Assembly from 1971 to 1979. He was a member of the PC's.

Noel Murphy entered politics as a Progressive Conservative and won the seat of Humber East in the 1962 provincial election. In 1966 he became party leader and Leader of the Opposition leading the Tories into the 1966 General Election. The party lost four of its seven seats and Murphy was defeated in by Liberal Clyde Wells, a future premier. Murphy was elected mayor of Corner Brook for three terms and was unexpectedly appointed Minister without Portfolio in 1971 in the final cabinet of Liberal Premier Joey Smallwood however he lost the riding of Humber West in the subsequent 1971 election to Conservative leader Frank Moores.

By now you should start to see a very interesting picture emerge.

The next installment of Sue's Blog will takeover with what Frank and company did with the Churchill. But take your time and read things carefully - think about what has happened and know this - it must not happen now. The Emera deal must be stopped. This is only a continuation and that river will flood the banks of Newfoundland and Labrador with the tears of our children and grandchildren.

From the 60's to now - they still believe they can guide us. Many are still here. Over and over they fail. Not this time.