Sue Kelland Dyer - Adding Sarcasm & Wit to the Equalization Fiasco

I’ve noticed that many of my readers also take the time to read the articles of local activist and commentator Sue Kelland-Dyer. While Sue and I may not always agree on issues of concern in Newfoundland and Labrador I believe that at heart we both want what's best for the province and the people here. This is why I was so pleased recently when I heard some comments from Ms. Dyer about the Harper equalization fiasco on an open line program. I was doubly pleased with the wonderful idea she proposed for resolving the current impasse.

I’m sure Ms. Dyer presented the plan with her tongue firmly planted in cheek, (I know she brought a smile to my face) but she also raised some good points in the process and since Sue hasn’t been doing much writing lately (and I was stuck for an article) I figured I’d share her thoughts with you all. (paraphrasing of course)

The idea was quite novel really.

First the background:

As we all know Stephen Harper promised on multiple occasions, in several locations and in two elections to remove non-renewable resource revenue from the equalization calculation. No Caps. No 50% inclusion. No limitations of any sort. 100% removal was the promise made and the promise broken. Harper claims the government didn't break any promises. Yes, He and the Conservative party did break a promise but since they weren't actually the government at the time he made the promise, technically I guess he's right. (Don't you just love the ease with which sleazy politicians twist the truth)

Anyway, enough said on that.

Another fact is that equalization is based in part on a province’s population. Essentially the federal government does a head count, identifies how much revenue a province has at its disposal and based on both of these figures calculates the amount of equalization to deliver (or not) to the province.

In the Newfoundland and Labrador context, we all need to understand that the backbone of our economy for centuries has been the fishing industry. A fishing industry that has been decimated because of mismanagement and trade negotiations carried out by the federal government. As a result of their mishandling of the file the province’s fishing industry collapsed a couple of decades ago resulting in a moratorium being instituted in 1992. Fifteen years later the cod still haven’t returned.

The moratorium saw over 20,000 people leave the province at the time and the exodus is still going on. As a result, thousands upon thousands of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are now having their heads counted elsewhere and, in addition to working and paying taxes, are helping to increase the amount of equalization funding provided to other provinces. On the flip side of the coin, since the head count here has fallen so dramatically the amount of equalization available to Newfoundland and Labrador continues to fall.

The idea is simple according to Sue. (I just love this) Since the federal government presided over the collapse of our province’s main industry, Newfoundland and Labrador should simply agree to accept the equalization cap and even the inclusion of 50% of resource revenues, but only when the cod come back.

The federal government presided over the collapse of the province’s economic engine so the least they should do is allow Newfoundland and Labrador to generate economic stimulus needed to replace it.

Good one Sue. I doff my hat to you.

Deadly warming cools seal hunt

The following was written by a Washington Post columnist and appeared as well in the Chicago Tribune. Finally the mainstream media across Canada, the U.S. and the world have been given a chance to see what a balanced, well researched and well written account of the annual seal harvest should look like.

This article presents both sides of the debate clearly. The writer doesn’t try to slant the story by only presenting the pre-conceived ideas, misinformation and stereotypes so commonly spread by the anti-sealing movement.

Well done.

Deadly warming cools seal hunt

By Doug Struck
The Washington Post
Published April 5, 2007

TORONTO -- Hunters and animal-rights activists face off on the ice this week as Canada's annual seal hunt begins, but a succession of unusually warm winters in the Gulf of St. Lawrence already has drowned thousands of the animals.Canadian authorities reduced the quotas on the harp seal hunt by about 20 percent after over flights showed large numbers of seal pups were lost to thin and melting ice in the lower part of the gulf off Prince Edward Island.

"We don't know if it's weather or climate. But we have seen a trend in the ice conditions in the last four or five years," said Phil Jenkins, a spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. "The pups can't swim for very long. They need stable ice. If the ice deteriorates underneath them, they drown."

Rebecca Aldworth, an activist for the Humane Society of the United States, flew over the area this week. "We should have seen vast ice fields but we saw only a few floating ice pans," she said. "We should have seen thousands of seal pups but we just saw a few."

Jenkins said only two of the usual fleet of about 40 seal-hunting boats ventured into the southern gulf when the hunting season opened Monday. "There weren't many seals there to hunt," he said.

In the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence and along the Labrador Sea, ice conditions were normal and the hunt was to start Wednesday with the now-traditional confrontation between hunters and people who oppose the hunt.

Canada set a quota of 270,000 seals for the hunt this year, down by 65,000 from the previous year. The hunters, most of them commercial fishermen from the seaside towns and villages of eastern Canada, get about $90 per seal for the fur and seal oil.

"All we are looking for is to go to bed with a full stomach and a tight roof over us," said Jack Troake, 71, a fisherman and seal hunter in the town of Twillingate, on Newfoundland's northern coast. He said he has been hunting since he first went out with his father in 1950. "We're coastal people, just hanging on by our fingertips. We need the seal hunt to make ends meet."

The economically depressed fishing towns depend on the spring seal harvest to pay bills and buy gear to start the crab and shrimp season, about all they have left after the cod disappeared, said Jim Winter, co-founder of the Canadian Sealers Association."

The real bottom line is that killing seals is no different than killing pigs or cows or lambs to sustain your family," Winter said from St. John's. "We are using the same methods they do in abattoirs," or slaughterhouses, he said. Most hunters shoot the seals, but some kill the animals with clubs. "Because this is out in the open, it's the Bambi syndrome run amok."

Aldworth, who has been watching seal hunts for the Humane Society and other organizations for nine years, contends that "year after year, people continue to see unacceptable forms of cruelty."

"This is a hunt of baby seals for their fur," she said. "Most of them are under 3 months, and many of them are under 1 month old. They are killed to produce fashion items."

The United States banned imports of seal products in 1972, and several European countries have moved to impose bans or restrictions. The Humane Society has promoted a boycott of Canadian seafood products to try to end the seal hunt.

Jenkins, of Canada's fisheries department, argues that these moves are a product of emotionalism."We've brought this seal herd back from 1.8 million in the 1970s to 5.5 million in 2004," he said from Newfoundland, where he was to monitor the hunt. "We look at this as a conservation success story. We feel very strongly we are going to keep this herd in abundance and keep it healthy."

Jenkins said the loss of so many seal pups this year in the lower Gulf of St. Lawrence was not unexpected, because of warmer weather. "Our scientists say that the 5.5 million population can sustain this kind of event, but it has to be managed" with the lower hunting quotas, he said.

Aldworth said the milder winters provide another argument for protecting the seals."We're going to see far higher levels of mortality," she said. "We can't control global warming in the short term, but we can control the hunt by ending it."

Premier Lorne Calvert to take out Anti-Harper ads

Originally published on the CTV News web site.

Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert has climbed on the same soapbox as his Newfoundland counterpart, saying the federal Conservatives have broken a key budgetary promise to his province and may lose support as a result.

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams has taken out national newspaper ads slamming the government and has criticizing the budget in numerous interviews, calling on Newfoundlanders to vote against the Tories in the next election.

During an appearance on CTV's Question Period on Sunday, Calvert said he's equally angry, claiming Prime Minister Stephen Harper simply didn't keep his promise to fully exclude non-renewable natural resources from the formula used to calculate equalization payments to the provinces.

Harper's promise, made during the last election, would have meant hundreds of millions more in funding for the Saskatchewan.

Instead, the Conservatives' allowed for the option of removing resource revenues, but capped the amount of money paid out to provinces under the equalization program.

Much like Williams' current campaign, Calvert said he is working to convince people in Saskatchewan that the Conservatives -- a party that holds 12 of 14 federal seats in the province -- have let the province down.

"The people of both of our provinces have been promised by this prime minister and this Conservative government that when it comes to the calculation of equalization we would see 100 per cent of our non-renewable natural resources revenues excluded, so we would stop sending these revenues from the province to other parts of Canada," Calvert told CTV's Craig Oliver, co-host of Question Period.

"That was a promise made, not just in one election but two elections. It was made not just to Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia but also to Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the promise was broken."

In new radio ads running in Saskatchewan however, the Conservatives claim the new budget does keep the pledge to remove natural resources revenue, and that it delivers $878 million in new funding to the province and provides the largest per-capita investment of any province.
But Calvert said he is taking out ads of his own and is spreading his own message through a public awareness campaign. He warned the Conservatives could lose support over the issue.

"The fact of the matter is some of those (Conservative) seats were won on the promise to be fair to Saskatchewan when it comes to our non-renewable natural resources," Calvert said.
"Of course I'm a strong New Democrat, Danny Williams is a strong Progressive Conservative, but on this, I'll tell you, this is a promise made to the people."

Calvert said people from all political stripes in Saskatchewan, and across Canada, have united in calling on Harper to do more to keep his promise to exclude non-renewable natural resource revenue from the equalization formula.

Calvert also said he, along with every "Martha and Henry" in Saskatchewan, believes the new equalization measures mean the province's resource revenues are being used by the federal government to provide tax cuts to Quebec, and thereby buy votes in the key province.