A note to Cons - Look out your window

Back on April 17, I mentioned in my blog that there were no secrets in Ottawa, just people who try to make them. I was referring to the accusation made by the Cons that Elections Canada had "tipped off" the Liberals that the Con party HQ was about to be visited by the Federales with respect to the "In and Out" scandal... err misunderstanding.

Just for kicks I decided to locate the Con and Lib HQs on Google Earth and guess what? You can see each others building from each others offices.

Is it possible, Cons, that someone in Lib HQ saw the RCMP wagons circle your HQ and went to take a look, grabbing a video camera as they were going out?

The image above shows you the locations of the Cons on Albert St and the Libs on Metcalfe St..

Hey, I am just asking.

Dr. Perfect PP

So here I am in Vancouver, the home of the crazies and who should I hear a story about but the Perfect PP, Pierre Poilievre, the mighty mouse Con MP for Nepean Carleton. What could PP have said that could possibly get the tongues wagging on the Left Coast? Seems that PP has decided that, in addition to his training as a Con mouth piece and bum boy for many of the lesser-known Con politicos, he is now a qualified mental health doctor.

"I think that if people want this medically unnecessary treatment, they have that right. But taxpayers should not have to pick up the tab for it," spouts Perfect PP. What ever could he be talking about?

PP has his shorts in a knot over the 8 or 10 sex change operations performed in Ontario every year. It doesn't matter to PP that these procedures are deemed necessary by medical and mental health professionals who subject applicants for the procedure to strict evaluation. It also doesn't matter to PP that the total bill for the procedures is in the range of $170,000 per year out of a health care budget of billions of dollars.

PP wants the federal government to withhold medical funding transfers to Ontario until they come up to his standard.

Funny thing is that PP is actually an Alberta transplant to Nepean Carleton but he does not seem to apply his same logic to Alberta which also funds the procedures. It is also a funny thing that he does not attack the Canadian military which agreed to fund this type of procedure a couple of years back.

Can you spell "election pandering"?

I have some news for the Cons

One of the rules of good communications is to be clear with your message. Another is stay on message.

A third is that sometimes taking a hit is less painful than fighting the hit.

OK, I made up the third one. But it fits the current situation of the Cons to a "T".

This In and Out Scandal that has enveloped the fed Cons is more than likely a conflict in regulation interpretation between EC and Cons, but the way that the Cons reacted to it has created the elephant in the room.

Election Canada charges that their audit of 2006 election expenses shows that the Cons federal campaign transferred money to local candidate who had room in their allowed advertising budgets. These local candidates were either shoe-ins or also-rans. The local campaigns then sent back the money to the federal office, usually within a few days and within a few bucks of what was sent to them. The federal campaign then used the money to purchase ads purportedly on behalf of the local candidates. Never mind that the "local" ads purchased by the federals Cons were often not even running in the catch area of the local candidate. If you accept that these were really federal ads, as does Elections Canada, then the federal campaign exceeded its allowable ad budget by $1 million AND 67 local candidates were not entitled to the $700,000 reimbursement from Election Canada for bogus local advertisement.

The federal Cons, on the other hand maintain that they did nothing wrong. They interpret the Election Act differently with respect to advertising. That is the nub of their argument. But rather than saying that they would work something out with Elections Canada; the Cons went into immediate damage control mode, hauled out their communication bigwigs and wrote a new playbook on how to spin the situation.

I got a copy of the playbook, in a brown envelope marked "Contents may damage your brain", left on my door step the other day. The following is the content, verbatim:

Page one of the playbook states: Accept no blame.
Page two states: Demand that all other parties be subject to scrutiny
Page three states: Blame it on Elections Canada
Page four: Blame it on that weinie Dion
Page five: Blame it on Global Warming scientists
Page six: Sue Elections Canada
Page seven: Accept no blame (we cannot mention this enough)
Page eight: Hide the PM in Louisiana and send the rest of the cabinet (especially that Baird guy) to a retreat in an unannounced location.
Page nine: Make sure that the face you put in front of this scandal is disposable, because it is going to destroy his/her credibility.
Page ten: We recommend MP Pierre Poilievre to be the face of the party in this matter.

Poor old Perfect PP. He gave his career for his PM.

Oh, oh. We are in trouble now!

The Minster of Finance, the Honourable James Flaherty, told a group of American citizens (lawyers and potential investors) at the tony New York Yacht Club that, "Canada is not an island." Pretty good so far. He got his geography right. He then went on to say that Canada is fiscally well positioned to "weather the storm" of an American recession. That is a good positive statement meant to impart confidence. Hear, hear, Jimmy.

Then the wheels fell off.

Jimmy pledged that he will deliver a balanced budget. Oops. Many Canadians, especially Ontarians, will remember that Jimmy used the same words during a provincial election when he was Minister of Finance for Ontario. Unfortunately Jimmy's idea of a balance budget differed from eveyone else. He left Ontario with a "balanced" $5 billion deficit.

The current Liberal government in Ontario has eliminated that deficit, delivered REAL balanced budgets and started the uploading of services from the cities that Jimmy downloaded while balancing his budgets.

So does Jimmy applaud the government of Ontario? Nope. Not his style. He has carried out a relentless attack on Ontario over corporate taxes. Alberta, which is rolling in cash has reduced its corporate tax rate. So has Manitoba and New Brunswick and many other provinces. Ontario is the lone hold-out. Fair enough, but let's look at the facts behind the rhetoric.

Question? What do all provinces (except Alberta), who have lowered their corporate tax rates have in common?

Answer? Equalization payments which distributes funds gleaned from the only two "Have " provinces, Alberta and Ontario, to the "Have-nots", which is the rest of the provinces.

Is it safe to assume that, if Equalization did not exist, "Have not" provinces would not be able to reduce tax rates and that Ontario could have? I think so.

So Jimmy is saying to US lawyers and investors, over shrimp and Johnny Walker Blue at the NYYC, that Canada is a great place to invest. I wonder if he is also reiterating his off-mentioned slam that Ontario is the last place in Canada he would invest?

The Hon. James Flaherty, Minister of self-promotion and slight-of-hand.

"Perfect PP" is back and in fine form

Pierre "Perfect PP" Poilievre, the mighty mouse MP for Nepean Carleton has resurfaced in the news after a long absence. Rumour has it that he went back to his native Alberta to recharge his batteries and to ask his Mama for permission to continue his mission to spew invectives in the East.

Permission was granted so PP flew back to his temporary office on Parliament Hill and got back to work. Earlier this week the RCMP raided the Cons Ottawa HQ, looking for evidence with respect to the 2006 election In and Out financing tactics of the Cons. The press was in attendance, as was a liberal worker with a camera.

Perfect PP went ballistic. "Somebody should ask who in Elections Canada invited the Liberal party to make a home video out of the visit to our headquarters," he said.

I know you are just a young pup with only 5 years toward your gold plated pension so I will let you in on a little secret about political Ottawa. THERE ARE NO SECRETS IN OTTAWA. There are only some people who try to keep secrets. If you want to know how people knew in advance about the raid, just watch the dreaded CBC once in a while, not just those days you star on Don Newman's Politics show. Tear your focus away from the spiritual channel just long enough to know what is really happening around you.

While we are on the case of petty politicians, let's hear what the Minister of Impending Deficits, Jim Flaherty, has to say on this scandalous behaviour. "I do find it odd, when I look at a photograph this morning and I see someone knocking on the door with cameras, with news cameras present." I listened to what Jimmy said and I waited with bated breath for him to blame this on the corporate tax policies of the Ontario government. No mention. I guess that scandal is over... for now.

When you promote yourselves as a squeaky clean government, any bit of dirt will show. PM Harper, Minister Flaherty and Perfect PP... you are all past your best-before date.

It's a victory for Canadians!!!

I would not want to be the Federal Minister of Industry, Hon. Jim Prentice's cat tonight. Fluffy is probably hiding under a bed out of the range of Jimmy's size fours.

You see Jimmy is the latest in a string of casualties that are falling out of the ineptitude of the Harper government.

The groundswell of opposition to the sale of MacDonald Detwiller (MDA) to a US defence contractor, ATK, has resulted in the halt of the sale by Jimmy as not being in Canada's (read the Harper government's) best interest.

Three cheers for the triumphant Jimmy. He saved Canada. He saved our technology. He saved our massive investment in technology owned by MDA. He saved the jobs of the people at the Florida Labs in Ottawa (where the real brains behind the MDA assets work for the federal government).

What? What was that comment from the legal beagles at ATK? You have thirty days to comment on Jimmy's decision and, if you don't like it, you can take Canada to a free trade hearing?

We are screwed. Just see:
canbloopers.blogspot.com/2007/11/is-health-canada-trying-to-kill-us.html
to know how well we fair in being "protected" by NAFTA.

Say bye, bye to MDA.

Ontario Cons in Contradiction

Lisa MacLeod, Con MPP for Nepean-Carleton, and John Tory, lame-duck leader (pending the resurrection of some guy named Flaherty who will soon become the one true leader) of the Ontario Con party, had better put their heads together to create the semblance of a coherent message.

On page B1 of Ottawa's premiere news rag, April 1, 2008, MacLeod wants the Liberal government to be investigated to determine if they interfered with the 2006 Ottawa civic election by stating, in the answer to a media question, that any change to the approved transit plan in Ottawa would need to be evaluated by the Provincial government, which was putting $200 million into the plan. The answer was correct according to the terms of the provincial/municipal agreement, but MacLeod calls it political interference.

Her comments were in no way timed to match the April 1 appearance of John "the Screamer" Baird in front of a parliamentary committee; he being accused of hijacking the municipal election by leaking confidential contract documents of the transit deal and then pulling the federal funding from the project He is also answering questions about an alleged meeting with the new mayor of Ottawa who has been charged with trying to buy off another mayoralty candidate with money and a promise of a federal job, such job being one of the many doled out by Baird.

Do, dah. Do, dah.

Ms MacLeod, methinks that you doth complain too much.

But what of John (Help me, I need the job.) Tory. On page B3 of the same news rag, Tory complains that the Ontario Liberals did not put strings on a recent $14.6 million grant to Ottawa, earmarked for infrastructure repair. The city decided to use $10 million of it to overcome its budget deficit. Tory thinks that the city needs to be micromanaged a whole lot more by Queen's Park.

So MacLeod complains that the Ont Libs are interfering in civic affairs while Tory complains that they are not interfering enough.

That's a pretty balanced view, I suppose.

Poilievre, The New Screamer, screws up another attack

Pierre Poilievre, the MP for Nepean-Carleton, is getting to be more and more of an embarrassment for Canada and Canadians. He skips in the Commons and cusses like a sailor; but he does it in a tailored suit so that no-one will possibly notice.

He acts like a jack-ass with an IQ of a dung-beetle.

On the day that the Ontario government released its latest budget, the "Perfect PP" travelled to Toronto to be the mouthpiece of Harpers latest slagging of the Ontario government. I guess that "Pretty-boy" Flaherty, the federal Minister of Money, who got the ball started on this slag-fest, decided that maybe he was hurting his image in Ontario (as he tries to wrest the provincial Tory leadership from John Tory) so Harper assigned a disposable Ontario MP, Perfect PP, to carry on the attacks.

So Perfect PP gets to Toronto and offers to be 12 lines above the fold to any journalist he could find.

McGuinty is a dope, Perfect PP yells. Ontario is the last place in Canada anyone would want to invest, he screams. God will smite the non-Conservatives in this province of heathens. He finishes with, That's just my personal opinion, of course.

He then strays a bit from the PMO-prepared script and, boy, is he in trouble now!

In a post-budget press conference McGuinty was asked about the Federal Immigration proposal currently being force-fed in Ottawa. A descendant of Irish famine-era immigrants, his response was that, "...we were [unskilled but] looking for opportunity and we brought with us a solid work ethic."

The door was open for Perfect PP to pounce and he jumped in with all five appendages but... unfortunately his brain was not in sync with his mouth.

"The Premier had no business commenting on immigration," blurts Perfect PP. He went on to describe immigration as an exclusively federal jurisdiction. Guess he didn't fully read his illustrated copy of the Constitution Act of 1867 that states that immigration is a federal responsibility but also states that provinces can set immigration policy. In fact Quebec has a major say in immigration and other provinces are trying to get the same concession from Ottawa.

What was his come-back to this mis-speak... Aahhh, what time does my government jet leave for Ottawa?

Where, you might ask, was the other major CON from Ottawa and why was he not volunteered to go to Toronto instead of the PP? Well, it seems that John "the Screamer" Baird was busy setting up a date to a dog show or something with the PM's missus.

Ottawa City Councillor John Baird, MP PC

Separated at birth

Someone on the hill just noticed that John "the screamer" Baird, Federal Minister of All Things that Glow Green, may have interfered in a process at Ottawa City Council in 2006; to whit, he suspended federal funding of a municipal project that he was told not to like. And he did this during the municipal election campaign. Not only that but he freely distributed the contents of a confidential agreement between the city and a private vendor.

We are, of course, talking about the North-South Light Rail project.

Let's get a few things straight. The decision on Light Rail was a municipal one. The federal funding of the project had already been approved, as was provincial funding. Baird had no say in the project.

Let's also understand that the project was the pet child of the then-mayor Chiarreli, who was a former Liberal MPP; and that he was being challenged by a Conservative Party member O'Brien. O'Brien won the race and now the vendor (Seimans) is suing the city for its first born for cancelling the contract and possibly breaking the confidentiality of the contract.

It was O'Brien who asked Baird to review the contract. This is the same Mayor O'Brien that has been charged with influence peddling during the same election; a charge that also has a Baird involvement.

One more example of the transparency and public discourse from Canada's Greatest Government(TM).

Did Lewis make a mistake?

Say it isn't so. Lewis MacKenzie, General to the stars and a man who have never met a microphone he didn't want to drone into, made a mistake by suggesting that 10,000 more NATO troops are needed in Kandahar, Afghanistan?

He stated this in a interview with the precious CFRA tyke, Michael Harris., last week. He then sent Mikey a memo the next day correcting himself by saying that the 10,000 was for all of Afghanistan. Only 3,000 more are needed in Kandahar, where all the real fighting is.

Two problems, Lew. Why do you need 7,000 more in the relatively tranquil north? Also, if you send 3,000 more troops in to help out the Canadians in the already target rich south, what would you do with them that you cannot do with the current contingent?

I suggest, General Lew, that you read the book, Utility of Force, written by your British peer, General Rupert Smith. Smith talks about war amongst the people, as he describes Afghanistan and Iraq. He maintains that, when you fight a war amongst the people, rather than an industrial war, the key is not bulk; the key is intelligence and stealth. Rather than 3,000 more troops, let's send in 3,000 sneaks and spooks to infiltrate the local population and ferret out where the insurgents are and what they are doing.

Also, with respect to rigid withdrawal time frames as advocated by the NDP and the Bloc, I urge the Liberals to back a continuation of the mission, for now, with the proviso that Harper, MacKay and Hillier read Smith's book. The Taliwackers in Afghanistan are in no hurry to conclude the strife. To pull out before we make some real progress would be an error.

Privatize AECL?

I wonder if there is any truth to the rumour floating around that Minister of Woodworking, Gary Lunn, is shopping AECL around to General Electric or even France's Areva Group? It could explain why Lunn recently jumped all over Linda Keen at CNSC and protected the asses over at AECL.

GE are biggies in the nuclear world. It makes sense that they would want AECL, considering that AECL has 22 installations around the world and all their research is paid for by the Canadian people.

It would not look too good to the GE folks if AECL was blamed for the isotope fiasco. Keen was a opportune target.

By the way, this sell off idea first surfaced in the Toronto Star back in May, 2007, well before the isotope misunderstanding.

But GE folks are not stupid. I wonder if they have used the isotope misunderstanding to get the price down or even walk away from the rotting mess.

You can be sure that Lunn and Harper will find a way to blame it on the Liberals.

The government that can't shoot straight

Jeez, when will the federal government learn that Canadians are not all stupid.

They fired Linda Keen from her post as President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission saying she was incompetent, a Liberal hack and all sorts of stupid names. This happened at 10 PM on the night before she is to testify before a Commons Committee. Minister of Woodworking, Gary Lunn, claimed that Keen knew less about her job than he did. Sso he slammed her in the media and sent her pink slip with a comment that she must be some sort of dumb.

Finally Keen got to testify on the Hill and what does she tell us? "Nuclear reactors are in communities where Canadians live. They (Canadians) need to know that the commission will make its decision based on what's right." Sounds right to me.

She also explained that her mandate was to protect Canadians from undo risk nuclear risk. She had no mandate to make sure that MDS Nordion's (Nordion's name seldom comes up in these debates but they and their bottom line, I believe, are central to this issue!) contract with AECL for isotopes was fulfilled.

She also pointed out, backed up by her peers in many other countries, that if AECL tried to get their reactor licenced today, it would fail.

So what is new on this file to warrant another Blog entry? Well, within an hour of Keen's that could go wrong with a reactor. testimony on the Hill, Health Minister Tony Clement told the press that Keen was so dumb that she claimed that the AECL reactor was more dangerous to Canadians than is allowed by international standards.

Clement says, with a straight face I might add, "When you balance the health and safety of Canadians versus the possibility of an earthquake never seen in the Ottawa Valley in human history, she got it wrong." Notice he didn't mention anything about terrorism or even mechanical disaster, or any other of 10,000 things

"She got it wrong," Clement told reporters. Guess what, Tony. YOU got it wrong!!!

I checked the mandate of the CNSC on their web site. It reads: "The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) is an independent federal government agency that regulates the use of nuclear energy and material to protect health, safety, security and the environment and to respect Canada’s international commitments on the peaceful use of nuclear energy."

They fall under the the Nuclear Safety and Control Act which came into force on May 31, 2000, when it replaced the Atomic Energy Control Act. The NSC Act provides the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) with its regulatory authority. I went from one end of the CNSC site to the other and I could find nothing to suggest that the Commission was responsible for the supply of isotopes to MDS Nordion or the financial health of foreign hospitals and doctors.

The government got it wrong and rather than saying they were wrong or even just shutting up until the issue passed over... they blow of their collected mouths and try to lie their way through it.

By the way, AECL now tells us that the two emergency pumps that were the centre of this conflict initially have been connected to emergency power, as the CNSC has required. Mind you, that is the second time, AECL has told us that the work has been done. The first time was months before this murky episode broke onto the national stage. Do we believe them now?

Finally, it is important to note that Minister Clement is eminently qualified to tell Keen she was wrong because prior to being elected to the Ontario PC party in 1995, he, according to his own web site, was "... counsel to a national law firm, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Toronto Faculty Of Law and was a small business owner." He maybe just a little short on nuclear experience but that didn't stop Harper or Lunn, now did it?

One last thing. If you want to know more about Clement's comment that there is no "possibility of an earthquake... in the Ottawa Valley in human history"; check out the map at: http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/historic_eq/images/caneqmap.pdf. The Ottawa Valley's pretty much saturated with small to medium quakes.

The Manley Report fails the simplest test

I have a lot of respect for John Manley but I hope that his study and report on Afghanistan didn't cost more that about $4025. That amount would pay for a researcher to Google on the Internet for a month to collect the background and foreground information that Manley claims he and his team discovered. There is nothing new here!

Let's pick a couple of issues that show the best of what I am talking.

The report claims that the mission must be working because the Taliban have resorted to IEDs and other small skirmishes rather than taking on NATO directly. It is interesting to note that Manley even mentions that the largest number of Canadian casualties occurred when Canada went on a major offensive in 2006. Guess what, John. It is a different kind of war; different than the one's starring John Wayne. IEDs and ambushes are tactics that work when you have no deadline to end a war. And make no mistake about it, the Taliban are not in any hurry.

Second, on page 21, the report talks about our goal of not allowing Afghanistan to revert to being the headquarters of global terrorism. But guess what? The headquarters for global terrorism is a figment of an over centralized imagination. Do you think that nuts in Spain and Indonesia and other hot spots around the world sit down around a table in Afghanistan like NATO does in Brussels. Terrorism has its headquarter all across the world; when ever two or more bizarros get together to foment hate!

I have some ideas on Afghanistan that I will impart later. In the meantime maybe I can get CGG (Canada's Greatest Government TM) to pay for a trip south to collect my thoughts.

The Manley Report - Part 2

John Manley will make his report to Canada's Greatest Government (TM) today. According to some news sources he will recommend that Canada stay in Khandahar, demand that NATO provide 1000 more troops (I wonder if he calculated in the 3500 new Americans who are already on their way?) and do a better selling job on why were are there.

So much for Part 1... what about Part 2? Has he written it yet? Does he have a clue about what should be in it?

Let me enlighten him!

First, Canada must decide on the goals of the mission. If it is peace making then let the army make the peace. If it is peace keeping then get the army out of there and send in some cops. The army cannot be makers and keepers at the same time. They are not trained that way. No one is!

Second, give the troops the correct equipment. Tanks are useless in the desert with 110 degree temperatures unless you are fighting a rolling war. This is a static war! Get the troops off the ground and into the air. Of the 77 Canadians killed so far, almost all have been due to IEDs hitting fast tracks and transport vehicles. Give them helicopters!

More to come from the Manley Report? I hope so.

The Cons that couldn't shoot straight

Will the bush league activities of Canada's Greatest Government (TM) never cease?

One day the head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission is accused of playing politics (Harper calls her a Liberal hack), the next day the head of AECL is gone, then Minister (I build houses!) Lunn fires the head of the CNSC hours before she was supposed to testify on the Hill. Now three weeks after the fact the head of technology at AECL claims that CNSC never told AECL to upgrade the power back up on the NRU. This is after the AECL claimed that they told CNSC that they did the back ups as requested; apparently lying as they spoke, cause they did not do the back up power connections. I suppose that the new Chairman of the CNSC shoud be called a Conservative hack since he was appointed by Harper!

If you are confused; join the crowd! Is this anyway to run a government and especially a nuclear industry?

Can you say investigation?

Catching up with Petie MacKay

I have been off sick for a few days. In the meantime, life and politics goes on. I will attempt to catch up as soon as possible.

Let's start with our straight shooter Defence Minister Peter (I love my dog... and only my dog) MacKay. Let me set things straight at the beginning. Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper) has been in power for almost two wonderful and glorious years, a time of great prosperity and positive things happening to our finally-on-the-world-stage nation.

In late 2005 the former (boo hiss) government of Paul (spit!!!) Martin signed an agreement for new helicopters. The schedule called for deliveries of begin November 2007. They won't, at this time, begin for another year or two. Forgive me for restating that CGG has been in power since 2006, a year before the first delivery was scheduled. Did no one notice the helicopter contract was in default? Did CGG and the Defence Department, ask any questions? Did they demand any answers? Did they apply any penalties?

Nope.

"So what went wrong, Minister MacKay?" the press and the opposition asked.

MacKay cleared his throat, smiled, and then blamed everything on a decision made by Jean Chretien in 1995 or so.

So much for ministerial responsibility.

I love the government!

Canadian book industry is dying

Unless Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper) steps up to the plate with some ideas, the Canadian Book Industry is going to die a painful death.

Just today Raincoast Books announced that they will get out the book publishing business. The high dollar and disappearing margins can only be experienced for so long before you give up the ghost, I guess. They are not the first publisher to quit recently and they will not be the last.

The whole writing industry in the final throws due to government action and inaction.

When the dollar rose to parity and beyond, what did CGG Minister Flaherty do? Rather than finding out where the discrepancy in cross border pricing was, he demanded that Canadian retailers slash their prices, regardless of their cost! Silly Minister.

The problem with book pricing is at the publisher level of the chain.

I am a writer. I have a number of books in print. I do not control the selling price of the books, the publisher does that. I know that the retailer gets a 40% discount from the publisher and that I get about 10% for doing all the real work so that leaves 50% for the publisher. But here is where the problem arises.

The publisher sets the retail price at whatever he thinks the market will bear. He could sell my book to a retailer in New York for $10 but turn around and sell the same book in Ontario for $14. Doesn't sound like a problem until you factor in the margins for retailers. The US retailer can sell the book for $14 but the Canadian retailer must sell it for $18 just to make the same $4 as the US counterpart. If you demand, as did Flaherty that the Canadian retailer reduce his price to match the US retailer then the Canadian retailer just lost his margins and will probably go out of business or make up the lost margins selling X-rated videos (which I am led to understand have great margins and the government steers away from talking about them).

The dollar is a sh*tkicker for Canadian exporters but when you combine it with bonehead statements from Ottawa, it can hurt importers also, especially in an industry like publishing, where regulation is a joke.

But let's not stop there. Tomorrow we will take a look at how the media industry is killing the news.

Nuclear specialist Gary Lunn trumps CNSC

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn says, ""The continuing refusal of the commission, under your leadership, to prevent unreasonable risk to the health of Canadians potentially undermines public confidence in the regulation of the nuclear industry in Canada."

He is of course talking about the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the body, which reports to parliament, that is charged with safeguarding Canadians on nuclear safety.

The issue at hand is that the CNSC refused to allow a 50 year old reactor at Chalk River to be brought back on line until it was upgraded to protect against accident or terrorism.

OK, let me get this straight. The Minster is saying that the Commission's refusal to be bullied into backing down on a safety issue undermines the confidence in the nuclear industry in Canada?

I would suggest that the actions of Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper) is what will cause Canadians to scratch their heads. If AECL had done the upgrades that had been recommended to them for a number of years before the incident and if Health Canada had a back up plan to protect the profits of MDS Nordion, the only client for the isotopes produced by the deficient reactor, then none of this would have happened.

Lunn is calling for the dismisal of Linda Keen, the President of the CNSC since 2001. Since all we know of her is that she is a liberal hack, according to PM Harper, I thought that it would worthwhile to check out her resume. The following is from the CNSC web site:

Linda J. Keen is an Albertan. She received her B.Sc. (honours in chemistry) and M.Sc. (agriculture sciences) from the University of Alberta. After working as a chemist, she continued her career in three science-related fields: agriculture and agri-food, mining and currently, in the nuclear area. As a certified agrologist, Ms. Keen has worked in the private sector, for the International Development Research Centre in West Africa, for the Provinces of Alberta and British Columbia and for a British Columbia crown corporation, Expo ’86. Her agriculture work has encompassed a variety of roles including scientific research, trade policy and international marketing, culminating as the director general of strategic planning and coordination for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. After a period of time at Industry Canada where she spearheaded its approach to Team Canada and developed the Export Source Web interface, Ms. Keen was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister of Minerals and Metals at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). In addition to heading the development of the Mining Sustainable Development Policy and the world-renowned CANMET laboratories, she led NRCan’s approaches to international affairs, policy and regulatory development. She was also responsible for the regulation of explosives in Canada and participated in the dual Task Forces on Risk Management and Risk Communications.

Ms. Keen was Chair of the International Nuclear Regulators Association in 2003. She was the first Canadian President of the Convention on Nuclear Safety from 2004 to 2007, which involved international peer review among its 65 signatory countries to ensure worldwide nuclear safety. Ms. Keen was also the Honorary Chair of the 2006 Women in Nuclear Conference, held in Canada for the first time, and the keynote speaker of the 2005 International Conference of Women in Science and Engineering, held in Seoul, South Korea. She speaks regularly in Canada and internationally on matters of regulatory excellence and efficiency.

Let's compare that the Gary Lunn's resume, according to the Natural Resources web site:

The Natural Resources portfolio is well suited to Minister Lunn because his early working days were spent in the mining and forestry industries in British Columbia and northern Canada. This experience has allowed him to understand first-hand the importance of Canada’s natural resources to our present and future prosperity. A certified journeyman carpenter, Minister Lunn has designed and built numerous homes, including his family’s current home in Sidney, British Columbia.

I don't know. It is too close to call, who's resume is better.

Resolution for PM Harper

I have a New Year's resolution for Canada's Greatest Government (TM: PM Harper). If you see an injustice to victims in the implementation of Canada's Young Offenders Act and that injustice is deemed to be an infringement of the Constitution, then amend the Constitution so that the infringement goes away! Don't blame the Supreme Court for striking your changes down!

At issue is that the pundits expect that the Supremos will rule unconstitutional an amendment that CGG is trying to float. The change to the Young Offenders Act is focused on making violent youth, doing premeditated violent crimes, more easily made subject to adult laws. The changes also want to change the parole and bail provisions for violent youth.

I have no problem with either changes. I would suggest that the majority of Canadians, save a few lawyers and special interest groups, have no problems with the changes either.

I might also suggest that the Supremos have no moral problem with the change. They have a legal objection. The role of the Supremos is to weigh the changes you propose in light of the Constitution, and, according to them, the proposed laws are contrary to the Rights and Freedoms of youth.

So the Supremos are doing their job. Now it is time for CCG to do their job and amend the Constitution!

The Canada Act of 1982 and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms were never meant to be cast in tempered steel. They are subject to change over time with an amending formula designed to protect the rights of Canadians. In other words, if you wanted to amend the Constitution to allow one party rule and goose-stepping, then the rules under the amending formula probably would stop you.

But if you want to make amendments to make Canadians, especially victims of crime and potential crime, safer, I think that you could make a compelling case to the provinces and the population.

Canadians are growing tired of the grandstanding by CGG. We grow weary of having our government blame everybody else for everything that they, the government, perceive as wrong with the country.

Note to PM Harper: Canadians want and need leaders not whiners. You want to go up in the polls and win a majority government? Then act like a leader!

The Nuclear Conundrum

A conundrum is defined as "an intricate and difficult problem". Such is the case with the recent series of Canadian Political Bloopers tied to AECL, CNSC, Canada's Greatest Government (copyright PM Harper) and MDS Nordion.

The Atomic Energy Commission (AECL) is a crown corporation who designs and builds nuclear reactors for distribution around the world. They also do research into reactor technology and maintains a couple of their own reactors in Chalk River, Ontario. CNSC is the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, whose job it is to oversee AECL and to safeguard Canadians from nuclear accidents. Canada's Greatest Government (CGG) is... well, you know who they are.

MDS Nordion used to be part of AECL until it was sold off in 1991 (Mulroney era) to Medical Data Science, an Ontario based private company. Nordion buys radioactive isotopes from AECL, refines and packages them for sale (used in mostly diagnostic imaging and some treatment) across the world. About 93% of shipments are exports from Canada, according to Nordion.

OK, now that we know the major players, let's begin the tale.

AECL has a contract to deliver isotopes to Nordion. At this time, AECL uses a 50 year old reactor called the NRU for this job. This is the only job assigned to the NRU. Problem is that the NRU has some problems, including: in case of earthquake or terrorist attack, the NRU's cooling waters could leak out and set off a chain reaction that could wipe out multiple square miles of land and people, al la Chernobyl. Well, why not fix the reactor, you ask? Enter the CNSC.

The CNSC has been trying to get AECL to fix the problems for a couple of years but AECL keeps putting it off. In November of this year, AECL shuts down the reactor for some maintenance (not including the CNSC-required fixes) and CNSC jumps on the time frame and demands that AECL implement the fixes or they will not be re-licenced (another role of the CNSC) to bring the reactor back on line. In steps MDS Nordion.

With the reactor down, the supply of isotope flowing to Nordion begins to dwindle. Some of these isotopes have shelf lives of only days. MDS Nordion, and its customers, is crying that people are dying world wide because procedures and treatment are being delayed and cancelled due the shortages. In steps CGG.

"Safety be damned," bellows the government. "The CNSC are just a bunch of Liberal hacks, anyway," they continue to bray. "Get the reactor back on line and get those isotopes flowing!"

Yippee! The government, whose benches must be filled with nuclear scientists, as well as multiple space cadets, has come to the rescue of the downtrodden and the dying! All hail the CGG!

But hang on a bit... there seems a little bit more to this than meets the press. Seems that the problem is not the NRU or the CNSC, the problem is more to do with Nordion and AECL.

When MDS bought Nordion from AECL, the Mulroney government decided that, to sweeten the deal, two new reactors were to be built by AECL, to replace the ageing NRU. As part of the deal, the new reactors would be owned by Nordion! As well, AECL would look after (store, really) the waste products of the isotope production. AECL embarked on a plan to build the two new reactors called Maple for Nordion. Long story short - the Maples don't produce sap... they do not work. AECL has designed a reactor that is inherently unsafe and, having recognized that, Nordion sued the government, received $10 million in compensation and AECL had to take over ownership of the Maples.

So let's get this straight. AECL decides that they do not need to perform the safety upgrades to its NRU reactor in order to comply with the licence they have from the CNSC, the commission whose job it is to ensure that nuclear safety is job #1 at AECL. AECL are using the 50 year old NRU to deliver on their contract because the replacement reactors they designed do not work. Nordion and their customers complain when the reactor remains off line, with a campaign of "shock and ouch"! (It is never mentioned that a major complaint by Nordion is that their fourth quarter profit is taking a hit.) CGG steps up to the table and declares that they know better than the CNSC and the Liberal hacks that run it. (No mention is made of the fact that the head of the CNSC claims that she has no political affiliation and that before heading CNSC she has an illustrious career in the public service.) The NRU must come on line without its upgrades and start producing money making... oops, I mean, life saving isotopes for MDS Nordion.

Wow, that CGG! What a bunch of take-charge people. They put those stupid CNSC people in their place and then...

They fired the head of AECL.