Who Do You Believe?

The history: Ever since the idea of developing the Lower Churchill hydro project came to the fore I've been a big supporter of utilizing as much of the power as possible to attract local industry to Labrador.

Through multiple correspondence, between November 2006 and March 2007, with Newfoundland and Labrador's Minister of Natural Resources, Kathy Dunderdale, it was made abundently clear to your's truly that attracting industry (precisely building a smelter) in Labrador was not in the cards due to the costs involved.

Over the past few months Premier Danny Williams has publicly stated on several occassions that the building of a smelter in Labrador is indeed one of the key uses he sees for Lower Churchill power.

The Present:

On January 2nd of this year I took it upon myself to write the Premier about this apparent disconnect between his direction and the information I had been given by his minister. I followed up that correspondence again on January 22nd. To date there has been no response to my concerns.

What follows is a copy of my January 2nd letter. If anyone would like to "suggest" to the Premier that perhaps he should respsond to these questions I encourage you to do so. His email address is:

premier@gov.nl.ca


January 2, 2008

To: Premier Williams

From: Myles Higgins

Dear Premier. Williams:

I am writing to ask your office for clarification of the statements you have recently made to various forms of media which appear to be in direct conflict with those made previously by your cabinet representative, Ms. Kathy Dunderale.

Recently you have made it very clear that one of the mega-projects you hope to see come to fruition is the development of a smelter in Labrador that would make use of Lower Churchill power and create much needed jobs in the area. I congratulate you for investigating this approach to utilization of the Lower Churchill as I have long been a proponent of using that power to attract industry to the region rather than for export alone.

My concern lies in the fact that when I approached Minister Dunderdale in November of 2006 on behalf of the Newfoundland and Labrador Defense League (NLDL.org) to ask her why your government did not appear to be very proactive in pursuing a smelter for the region she responded to me that a study, conducted by ALCOA, had shown that, “…it was not a viable option and in fact required almost $1 billion of Government financial assistance.” (Please see attached letter “Dunderdale_Nov_2006.doc)

When questioned about the details of these costs Ms. Dunderdale said she could not go into the details of the study but reiterated that a smelter in Labrador , using Lower Churchill power, would cost ALCOA $1 billion more than other alternatives. (Please see attached letter “Higgins.pdf which was sent to me by Judy Beckwith on behalf of Minister Dunderdale in March of 2007)

My concern does not lay with the government’s intention to attract industrial development to Labrador , in fact I applaud the move. My concern lies instead with the apparent conflict in message between your office and that of your Minister. I am also concerned over which message is the correct one and as I expressed to Ms. Dunderdale at the time, my concern is also what the province might be lacking that would require an expenditure of $1 billion dollars in order to make Lower Churchill spin off development competitive with other options available to large organizations like ALCOA.

Your latest comments on the development of a smelter in the region have once again raised my concerns and additionally, I wonder why this massive expenditure no longer appears to be a factor. Has the cost simply disappeared for some reason, are we to expect that if a smelter is developed it will cost the provincial government a massive expenditure to make it happen, or is there really a drive underway to build a smelter at all or is this simply political posturing of some kind? I sincerely hope the latter is not the case.

Sincerely,
Myles Higgins

BREAKING NEWS: Globe Publishes Unbiased Article

Hey, the headline may be a bit over the top but when the Mop and Pail actually publishes something that doesn't trash Newfoundland and Labrador it's definately breaking news.

Here's the article for anyone who isn't so turned by the paper that they refuse to even visit their site.

http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080122.rmdanny0122/GIStory/

There are Lies and Then There are Damn Lies

Today I nearly fell off my chair after visiting the federal Conservative website and reading a press release issued this week. The funniest part of the whole site (funny in a rather sad way) has to be the verbal diarrhea they espouse on regular basis.

I have to admit to visiting various party sites on a somewhat regular basis. Not only is it good research into what these guys are up to but it helps solidify my personal opinion of the total lack of credibility these guys have and the political crap they heap on the public with apparent glee.

On visiting the Conservative site earlier this week I was taken aback by the fact that the site, at the time, prominently displayed no less than 6 large pictures of Stephane Dion but only 3 small pictures of the PM could be found after searching around the page. For a minute or so I thought I might have visited the wrong web site but this was not the case as the sea of blue there indicated in no uncertain terms.

Mind you each of the Dion pictures was accompanied by very cutting and often inaccurate attack commentary. In fact a quick trip to the site's press release page showed 16 anti-Dion releases but only 1 lonely pro-Conservative story. Doesn’t it say something about a party when it’s more concerned with trashing the opposition than highlighting its own merits? Then again, I guess you need to actually have some merits before you can brag about them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m certainly not a supporter of the Liberal party of Canada any more than I’m a supporter of the NDP, Conservatives or any other federal party. I’m more of a supporter of localized political groups who actually attempt to address REAL issues rather than those that turn everything into a political game and an opportunity for personal or electoral gain.

Sorry, I digress.

Speaking issues, today’s Conservative news release really sparked my interest and I admit, more than a little ire as well.

A key section of the release reads as follows:

With his priorities clear, Prime Minister Harper has followed through on his promises. Whether by providing direct support for parents to help with child care, taking real action to get criminals off our streets or allowing the hard-working taxpayer to keep more of what they earn, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has proven that he is a man of his word. He believes that government works best when it delivers on its promises and only promises what it can deliver.

Well folks, I guess I stand corrected. It seems you don’t really need to have merits in order to brag about them.

I love the line, “…government works best when it delivers on its promises and only promises what it can deliver”

Really?

Why then did the Harper government promise never to tax income trusts and then cause billions of dollars in losses to investors when they did?

Why did Stephen Harper promise to remove non-renewable resource revenues from the equalization formula but then back out on the promise and even deny he did so?

Why did Stephen Harper promise to station a 650 person rapid response battalion at 5 Wing Goose Bay and increase the military presence in St. John’s, only to do nothing of the sort?

Why did the Conservatives, while in opposition and on the election trail, push for a full inquiry into compensation for those affected by Agent Orange, fight to have custodial management put in place to protect Atlantic fish stocks and…

I could go on and on although by now I believe I’ve made my point and most of you are probably already adding some of your own favorite broken promises to the list.

It’s one thing to have government spin doctors bend reality a little, we’ve all come to accept that as one of the realities we face, like it or not. It’s quite another for a party, especially a governing one, to presente abosolute lies to the electorate on a regular basis.

There are those who will say that the great thing about a democracy is that the people get what they ask for by voting a party to power or voting them back out. The problem these days is that more often than not the public really has no idea who or what they are voting for thanks to the regular diet of lies fed to them on a regular basis.

It makes me wonder just how much control the public really has over the direction of the Country or if Canada is really a democracy after all, and that my friends is NO laughing matter.