Real BREAKING NEWS

Yesterday Sue's Blog focused on the journalistic style of James McLeod in his story headlined "Nalcor audit won’t be done before retirement: AG".

Today let's look at some of the other information we can take from this interview.

The AG Terry Paddon is retiring at months end. He leaves behind an unfinished audit of specific operations of Nalcor.

The story does not tell us some important things.

How far along is the audit?
When did Paddon expect to finish it when it began?
Did he run into unforeseen difficulties in attaining the information he needed?
Was it Paddon's intent to finish the audit before he retired?
What does Paddon think the cost will be to finish it?
Is it more costly under a new Auditor General than if he completed it before he retired?
Did he find anything worth noting now?

Terry Paddon is one of those nice people. Not much - I've ever seen in his personality that would put people off. He is a professional by designation and as best I could tell - took his role seriously.

Paddon - however - missed a couple of key areas in his tenure with the Department of Finance and as Auditor General. He missed some real activity regarding the Federal - Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act (Equalization) - despite being alerted to it.

Equalization - as the program is normally referred to - primarily has been to the benefit of Quebec. The program which Stephen Harper promised he would change but then did not - I assume was kept whole for Quebec.

Harper's promise to remove royalties from non-renewable resources from the formula - would have meant that our oil revenues could have served to improve the lives of future generations so much more. That was a digression. (still angry at CPC for deliberately conning Newfoundland and Labrador and "Seantor" Manning's standing at Harper's side as he did it)



BREAKING NEWS

Many people may not have noticed - but Hydro-Quebec does a significant amount of public program spending. They have been doing that for decades.  Why is the question....

ANSWER

Back in 2000 Stephane Dion then President of the Queen's Privy Council and Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs appeared on Bill Rowe's Open-Line. I asked questions the Minister could not answer on line - so he did as he promised - wrote me the answers to my questions.

Below is the response: 





"On the question of the treatment of Churchill Falls under the Equalization program, it should be noted that an adjustment has been made in the calculation of Equalization payments since 1982 which takes into account how Churchill Falls hydro is priced. Equalization payments are based on the relative ability of each province to raise taxes; and the Churchill Falls adjustment shifts some capacity to tax hydro sites from Newfoundland to Quebec. The net effect is to reduce Quebec's annual Equalization payments while raising Newfoundland's. Furthermore, to the extent that profits from Churchill Falls translate into profits to Hydro Quebec that are remitted to the Quebec government, these too have the effect of lowering Quebec's Equalization."

Right from the get-go we were being further penalized on the Upper Churchill - while Quebec reaped even more benefits. Then the formula was changed to reflect the real contract (albeit not enough in my opinion).

Were we ever compensated for the past - NO.

The real kicker though was found accidentally in the last sentence of Dion's response.  "Furthermore, to the extent that profits from Churchill Falls translate into profits to Hydro Quebec that are remitted to the Quebec government, these too have the effect of lowering Quebec's Equalization."

That little remark was an eye opener for anybody watching Hydro-Quebec - as I certainly was.

The hundreds of News Releases coming out of Hydro-Quebec in those years were phenomenal. Now it made sense. Before profit - expenses come out. If Hydro-Quebec delivered or helped to deliver public programming on behalf of the Government of Quebec - they lowered their profits - while the province of Quebec saved equalization money - which gave the province even more to spend on public programs.

In short - Hydro-Quebec making billions off our resource - reduced their profits - lowered remitances to the government - in some years almost to zero - to avoid the loss of equalization. This in turn exponentially increased the value from Labrador resources for Quebec.

At the time Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro was making money and was remitting profits to Newfoundland and Labrador. At the time we could have taken advantage of the same. Today Nalcor is not "profitable" - only by force of the PUB, our laws, and oil activity. Nalcor never did do the investment and development that Hydro-Quebec has successfully. 

Terry Paddon was aware of this and we did nothing. We sat on our hands and did nothing.

The political and media spin in Newfoundland and Labrador became we MUST become a "have" province. The romantic - naive - irrelevant title of "have". The "have being based on a formula that could see a financially destitute province be "have" while a thriving growing super power province be "have not".

Let me be more clear: Quebec has an unemployment rate of 6% Newfoundland and Labrador is at almost 15%. The population in NL was 530,854 in 1971 and 528,817 in 2017 meanwhile the population in Quebec was 6,137,305  in 1971 and 8,394,034 in 2017.  Provincial debt NL is $23,052 per person while in Quebec it is $22,104. This does not include the albatross of 13 Billion for Muskrat Falls. Then we take into account that Nalcor is not financing all it's own obligations - we put in a fair chunk and it is only barely profitable because of oil operations. When compared to Hydro-Quebec which has hundreds of millions in profits - without oil revenues.

Paddon failed by not describing what equalization truly is and how the system works. It's not all his fault - but political masters should not have had that much say.

The media - should really get its collective act together and do some real reporting. It should make itself knowledgeable about important issues and policies before it puts out fluff - this denying the people of balanced information on which they can make a decision.

It is no longer acceptable to have zero leadership in politics and zero accountability of the news media.

We are broke. We continue to repeat mistakes. We continue to dream without doing anything that remotely will help us achieve our dream of prosperous future. 

By the way - are there any MHA's willing to wade in to this discussion or members of our "press corps"?















 

Banging our head on the Canadian Wall

Have you all noticed the last month or so the hype over three Quebec bye-elections. The Conservatives - Libs - and NDP beating the streets - leaders beside themselves tripping to get into Outremont or Roberval-Lac-Saint-Jean or Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot.

If this district goes Conservative - so goes the country. If the Lib does not win this seat - Dion is finished as a leader and party execs will begin the infighting. If the NDP take this seat - well they are on their way to taking the official opposition.

The media in Ottawa were in a frenzy - speculating for weeks as to what might happen and how important these "3" seats were to the future of politics in Canada. Harper had to keep momentum going in Quebec by taking a Bloc seat - Dion had to hang onto the Liberal seat or the entire Liberal machine in Canada was breaking down. If the Bloc lost one seat - Duceppe was finished - the federalists were on the rise.

Well what a mess it all was.

Here's a sample of headlines and quotes from various media...

by-election in the Liberal stronghold of Outremont will be an acid test for Stéphane Dion's leadership

Stéphane Dion spent six months searching for a star candidate to run in the Outremont by-election

The results will have major consequences for the Liberal party and Dion, as the byelection was widely considered to be a test of his leadership.

Jack Layton "Quebec has chosen a new direction, and it has started right here in Outremont. You have participated in making history and changing the course of politics in Quebec, and in Canada."

The Conservatives, who kept expectations low during their byelection campaign, were quick to call the results an indictment of Dion.

>

The outcome of Monday's vote won't affect the balance of power in the House of Commons, but it will likely fuel election speculation in Ottawa, where many Conservatives appear keen on another election if the Liberals and Bloc are weak.

"Mr. Dion has spent at least seven days in the riding. He's still there today."

Dion loyalists charge byelection sabotage

In Newfoundland and Labrador - however - where the Conservatives are liable to be wiped out - WHO CARES - 7 seats and WHO CARES? Other than the Liberal and NDP wannabes who will get a nice pay-check thanks to Dan's ABC campaign - the three federal parties do not care.

If Quebec does not elect enough government MP's - appoint an unelected leach into the Cabinet. The fact that PEI (the entire province) does not have direct representation in Cabinet - who cares?

If Quebec squawks over equalization - boom - there goes Harper's promise to Newfoundland and Labrador - Nova Scotia - and Saskatchewan and WHO CARES?

Now between Quebec and Ontario - they will decide the future of our Canada - that's our federation - and it is broken. If there is no real way to resolve this - a new union must be found.

Can we learn in under a century what Iceland took...

...hundreds of years to understand?

Denmark was to Iceland - what Canada is to Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Iceland Review Online features young Icelanders speaking out about issues important to them. The latest one is probably a great lesson for us - and one that all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians should think about.

Here's a few paragraphs from the column titled "A Colony's Revenge":

You see, the Danes have at times in the past, done some pretty rude things to Iceland and generally behaved a bit like some kind of brute.

For example, there was the time back in 1380 when Denmark took over Norway (and subsequently Iceland as we were a bit of a package back then) and decided that unlike Norway, Denmark no longer needed any of the homespun wool or fish Iceland was used to selling and exporting, a decision that led to a dramatic financial and trading deficit on the little island of ice and fire.

By 1602, when Iceland had finally established a pretty good income through European trade, Denmark decided that they didn’t really want Iceland to trade with others either and enforced this with the looming threat of their massive naval army. Iceland embraced poverty yet again.

Then there was the time back in 1783 when Laki Volcano erupted and killed off 9,000 people (a hefty chunk considering our size) and about 80 percent of our livestock. The livestock deaths led to a starvation that killed off 25 percent of the nations populous. “Where” the people asked “is Denmark? They are meant to be helping us”. The answer? “Nowhere”.

Take the time and read the rest of this interesting story. Witness the passion young Icelanders feel about their history - culture - and nation. I'm just a little envious - are you?

Now we know the difference - ABCD

- between Stephane Dion and Stephane (Steven) Harper.

One says he will do it and does not. The other just admits - upfront - that he won't.

Change the campaign Danny not ABC - but ABCD

Anything but Conservative & Dion!

The next federal election will be a banner one for Newfoundland and Labrador separatists. The two leading parties are trying to hang on to a minority by pleasing Ontario and Quebec. Unlike the Martin and Harper (term 1) elections - the focus and the promises will be aimed at Central Canada.

The truth is - it's our turn - Saskatchewan - Nova Scotia - and Newfoundland and Labrador to have the equalization formula geared to us. Since the inception of the equation - Quebec - has been the needy province and the formula demonstrates that.

Ontarians should close their eyes - take a gulp - and whisper - Quebec is a welfare province. They are getting more than us - and they still want more - that's not fair.
Ontarians keep looking further east and west to find the subjects for their pompous ridicule.

Listen guys and gals - at least Newfoundland and Labrador keeps saying we want to be a net contributor to the equalization formula. (We already are net contributors in every other way) When was the last time you heard Jean Charest say "we want to be a have province?" When was the last time you heard Quebec say in just two or three years we will be on the "have" side?

Yet Quebecers have no trouble in believing that they can separate and go it alone. Geez on that basis alone - Newfoundland and Labrador should do it without a hitch.

Quebec always gets the lions share of equalization - and that increased even more after the Harper equalization fiasco.

It is time the formula changed to reflect other economic factors and it is time that non-renewable resource revenues were removed. If that happened both Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador could be net contributors to the equation for the foreseeable future and perhaps even Nova Scotia. Not doing this jeopardizes the long-term economic health of our "sharing" system and eliminates the possibility for provinces such as ours.

Then again if we left the Central Canadian federation - we'd be laughing all the way to the bank.

The next Prime Minister for the Country of Ontario-Quebec has arrived...

Update:

As predicted by Sue's Blog earlier today - and according to a VOCM news story:

Stephane and Danny talked turkey on the Lower Churchill with Dion saying - he would be very pleased to work with Newfoundland and Labrador and the province of Quebec, to try and reconcile the views of both provinces and move forward on the development of the Lower Churchill project.

and

Dion says the development would greatly benefit the entire country, pointing to our energy needs and the issue of climate change.
_________________________________________________________________



Stephane Dion is here - and he brings this message:

We will honour the Atlantic Accord - a promise Dion says that Stephen Harper broke.

I wonder can Stephane Dion read English? Evidence so far suggests he cannot.

For Stephane and cling-ons Siobahn Coady - Judy Foote - Walter Noel et al. - here's the promise the Prime Minister made:

We will remove non-renewable resource revenue from the equalization formula to encourage the development of economic growth in the non-renewable resource sectors across Canada.

Dion delivers safe - safe - safe message for Quebec and Ontario - usual crap for Newfoundland and Labrador.

So Stephane - what's your position on non-renewable resource revenues? Don't come here and tell us that you will live up to the promise that Harper did not make.

While your visiting with our Premier - don't forget to push Canada's energy objective - to remove the Lower Churchill power from Labrador and move it into Central Canada to help air-quality and energy shortages in Ontario. And true to form - don't forget to push that power through a Quebec owned transmission line. You have a Premier who is determined to solve the energy issues in Canada - while leaving our province without the industrially attractive hydro-power.