Month: June 2008

Navy gets number two slot at the CF

Shut out from the top job for more than a little while now, the Navy won the number two spot in the Canadian Forces with the announcement earlier today that Rear-Admiral Denis Rouleau (right) will become the vice-chief of defence staff (VCDS) when the incumbent, Walt Natynczyk, becomes the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) upon Rick Hillier's retirement next month.

Both Hillier and Natynczyk are army guys — tankers, to be precise — and the guy who held the CDS job before those two was Ray Henault, an air force guy. The guy before that? Maurice Baril, an army guy. It was the guy before Baril, Larry Murray, who was the last navy guy to hold the CF's top job.

I'm told that the idea of rotating the top job among the services — army, navy, air force — is now a bit quaint. After all, the CF is mostly made up of ground forces and so wouldn't that be where you'd expect to find all the leadership talent?

In any event: Rouleau will be promoted to Vice-Admiral to take the number two job — a decent consolation job for the navy which is going through some issues of its own right now.

The change of command ceremony putting Rouleau into his new job will take place on June 24.

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Politicking in Guelph

The federal seat for Guelph is vacant right now. The incumbent, Liberal Brenda Chamberlain, retired in April. Sooner (probably) than later, Prime Minister Harper will have call a bye-election there. I wrote about the match-ups predicting that it could be the Liberals to lose although the Conservatives believe they have a shot at it.

The NDP, however, are very high on this riding and their candidate, Tom King.

In fact, the NDP is putting the full-court press on Guelph tomorrow:

OTTAWA – NDP Leader Jack Layton will join local candidate Tom King and several prominent members of the party’s Ontario caucus in Guelph on Friday to meet with local leaders and tour the city in advance of upcoming by-election.
The City of Guelph is another Ontario community that will be hard hit by the current crisis in the manufacturing industry, with 18 per cent of local jobs coming from that sector. The NDP has long been pushing for a green jobs plan that would not only help limit greenhouse gases but would also help to restore Ontario cities that are seeing layoff after layoff.
“Green-collar jobs are the future for cities like Guelph,” said Layton. “We need to support the growth of good quality, sustainable jobs that will help us clean up our environment and build for the future of Canada’s communities.”
MPs joining Layton in Guelph are Brian Masse (Windsor West), Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain), David Christopherson (Hamilton Centre), Irene Mathyssen (London Fanshawe) and Peggy Nash (Parkdale-High Park).

FRIDAY, JUNE 13 GUELPH

8:00 AM Breakfast with City Councillors, Chamber of Commerce and Labour Council Members
Delta Hotel 50 Stone Rd. West


10:00 AM Press Conference
Bookshelf Café Green Room
41 Quebec St.

11:00 AM
CAW Plant Tour Hitachi Construction Truck Manufacturing
200 Woodlawn West

12:00 PM Lunch with Environmental Groups
Diana Restaurant
141 Wyndham St. North

2:00 PM
MPs Meet with Local Civil Society Groups
Evergreen Senior Centre
683 Woolwich St.

4:00 PM
Meet and Greet with Volunteers
Tom King Campaign Headquarters
104-141 Woolwich St.

4:30 PM
Mainstreeting with Tom King
104-141 Woolwich St.

The Conservatives, too, will soon bring some relatively big guns to support their candidate, Gloria Kovach:
Meet Gloria Kovach, candidate for Guelph

Meet special guests, including Ministers, Senators, MPs, and a few surprises, including:
The Hon. John Baird, Minister of the Environment
The Hon. Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
The Hon. Consiglio Di Nino, Senator for Ontario
The Hon Michael Chong, P.C., M.P. for Wellington-Halton Hills
Gary Goodyear, P.C., M.P. for Cambridge
Bev Shipley, P.C., M.P. for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex
Dave Van Kesteren , P.C., M.P. for Chatham-Kent-Essex
Jeff Watson, P.C., M.P. for Essex

Meet the campaign team, mix and mingle with friends, and Enjoy!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
2:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Exhibition Park, Guelph

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Outsourcing the visa application business

From today's papers ..

OTTAWA – The federal government has quietly outsourced the processing of visa applications to lighten the load at some of its busiest embassies around the world.

The latest one to hire some help is Canada's embassy in China.

The move to allow third-party service providers has raised concerns by some Canadian immigration consultants that foreign nationals who are applying for visas to visit or live in Canada may not enjoy the same privacy or security rights they would receive by applying through a Canadian embassy. Moreover, those who apply through these third-party firms may pay additional fees that they would not pay by applying directly through an embassy.

The federal government is outsourcing the processing of visa applications — including those from China — to lighten the load at some of its busiest embassies.

The federal government is outsourcing the processing of visa applications — including those from China — to lighten the load at some of its busiest embassies.

Last week, VFS Global Services Pvt. Ltd, a Mumbai, India-based subsidiary of Kuoni Travel Holding Ltd. of Zurich, Switzerland began accepting applications for temporary visitor permits on behalf of the Canadian Embassy in China. Immigration consultants in Canada say VFS Global was required to get a licence to operate from the Government of China.

“I see some real problems with this,” said John Ryan, a Toronto-based immigration consultant who operated an immigration consultancy in China. “You have no expectation of any kind of privacy.” … [Read the rest of the story]

You can check out the Website VFS Global has set up for its Canada-China operation.

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First Dion ad spotted in the wild!

A correspondent writes from Guelph:

I heard one of the anti-Dion ads (slagging the concept of carbon taxes if I recall) on Magic 106 this morning on my drive from Guelph to Kitchener. It would have been about 8:15 a.m. Normally, I listen to CBC1, but Andy Barrie is becoming increasingly self-righteous, so I usually switch to another channel after the 8 o'clock news.

I have no comment on Andy Barrie (here in Ottawa, Kathleen Petty is our drive-time companion in the morning) but my correspondent asks:

Does this mean the PM is about the byelection for Guelph?

And here is my thinking, based on some chats with some of the political players in the region, of why the half-a-million people in the Golden Triangle of Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Cambridge, Ontario likely to hear more, rather than less, political advertising.
First, in Guelph, the Liberal incumbent, Brenda Chamberlain, retired on April 7 so there will be a bye-election there unless a general election comes first. The Conservative Party fired the candidate, Brent Barr, that was selected through a local nomination process in favour of Gloria Kovach, who has been a city councillor for years. The Tories are very high on their chances in Guelph with Kovach.The Liberal candidate is Frank Valeriote. In 'old' Guelph, the name Valeriote carries a lot of cachet in political circles. His dad Mico was an alderman in Guelph for what seemed like forever and held a lot of political influence. There's a big Italian vote in Guelph and Mico would 'deliver' it for Liberal candidates like Frank Maine, who represented Guelph when Pierre Trudeau was Prime Minister. So in Guelph, we've got two pretty good candidates, both with strong connections to the community, and no incumbent running. It's a race the Liberals ought to win but, with the right campaign, the Conservatives could steal it. If the Tories steal one in the Golden Triangle, the best bet is likely in Guelph.
Meanwhile over in Kitchener, Liberals Karen Redman and Andrew Telegdi hold the twin cities and will likely continue to do so in the next general election. Redman is her party's whip.
In the largely rural region surrounding Kitchener, first-time Conservative MP Harold Albrecht will try to defend his Kitchener-Conestogo riding against what will be a concerted Liberal effort to unseat him. Liberals believe unseating Albrecht is their best chance for a steal in this area.
Down in Cambridge, Conservative Gary Goodyear is a decent bet to hold his seat.
Just to his south, though, is the Liberal-held riding of Brant, held by Lloyd St. Amand. I'd say this one is in play and St. Amand will have to work to defend it. Both Stephen Harper and Paul Martin campaigned in Brant in the last general election, a sure sign that both parties think the seat could tip one way or the other.
So with Guelph, Kitchener-Conestogo, and Brant in play, my bet is listeners of the area's radio stations are going to hear a bit more from Ottawa's political parties.

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The death of Red Rock

I spent two years as a reporter for the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal, during which I had lots of time to explore Lake Superior's north shore — and communities like Marathon, Schreiber, Terrace Bay, and Nipigon. All of those towns are pretty much one-industry concerns and have been suffering terribly recently as mills and mines have been shut down.

I finally had a chance to talk about one of those towns — Red Rock — in a piece I filed earlier this week for Canwest News Service that takes a deeper look at some of the job numbers in Canada:

The tiny town of Red Rock, Ontario, will soon shutter its only municipal hockey arena, a direct result of the loss of its paper mill and major employer two years ago.When Norampac Inc. shut down its Red Rock facility in August, 2006, 350 people were thrown out of work, a very big deal when there's only 1,000 people in the town. And the prospect of replacing those jobs with nearby work were dimmed six months later when its municipal neighbour, Nipigon, a town of about 1,700 people a few kilometres away on Lake Superior's north shore, went through its own economic nightmare. Nipigon's employee-owned mill and major employer, Multiply Forest Products, burned down in a mid-winter fire so fierce, the town ran out of water trying to put it out. The mill is not being re-built and 100 people are out of work. There were sad stories like this throughout northern Ontario and Quebec in late 2006 and 2007. Montreal-based Domtar, alone, announced the closure of four mills, all on one day: October 11, 2006. Domtar mills in Matagami, Val d'Or and Lebel-sur-Quevillon, all in Quebec, and in Nairn Centre, near Sudbury, Ont., employing nearly 950 people were all quickly shuttered within weeks of Domtar's announcement. But none of those closures, or dozens like them in small rural towns across the country, ever generated the headlines or Parliamentary outrage that the threat of the shutdown of a General Motors plant in Oshawa, Ont. And yet, in relative terms, the manufacturing crisis in Canada's out-of-the-way corners, far away from television cameras, may be more alarming. And it's a crisis that's been mushrooming for years, well before GM ran into its problems. … It will be difficult, certainly, for the city of Oshawa and for the families of the 2,600 workers who may be laid off when General Motors shuts a pickup truck plant in 2009. But Oshawa will presumably still be able to operate its hockey arenas and provide other municipal services. And the 2,600 families facing a potential layoff may be comforted in some small way that the prospects for work in the Greater Toronto Area, with a population of nearly six million or so, are significantly greater than one-industry towns hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest large urban centre.Indeed, in the same week that GM said it was shutting a plant, Ford, on the other side of Toronto in Oakville, said it needed 500 workers for a new production line. But the workers in Red Rock, Matagami and other smaller dots on the map have few and sometimes no options for replacement work, imperilling the survival of entire towns … [Read the rest of the story]

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Tory army on the move

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In Ottawa today, many young people are out and about doing a little political work on behalf of the Conservative Party. They are wearing bright, yellow t-shirts and are handing out cards that suggest Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion will tax anything. A reader of this blog sent along some pics, one of which is reproduced here, that s/he snapped with the comment: “I wonder if they're junior tories or if this was the best they could do in the summer job department!”

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Wheat Board politics: Ritz vs Goodale

The Conservatives want to break up the monopoly the Canadian Wheat Board has when it comes to selling wheat and barley produced on the Prairies. You won't be surprised to hear, this is a controversial proposal and one forms one of the major political cleavages in rural Western Canada.

Last week, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz (left), an MP and former farmer from Saskatchewan, issued the following press release:

OTTAWA, ONTARIO–(Marketwire – June 5, 2008) – Canadian Wheat Board Chair Larry Hill confirmed that an overwhelming majority of Western Canadian farmers are demanding barley marketing freedom during his appearance before the Senate Agriculture Committee today. David Herle, a long-time Liberal insider and Ralph Goodale advisor, conducted the poll for the CWB.
“This Government is working hard to deliver barley marketing freedom and the CWB's own polling results leave Ralph Goodale and the Liberals with no excuse but partisanship for blocking that freedom,” said the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food and Minister for the Canadian Wheat Board.
The CWB's own survey makes it clear Western Canadian farmers want change and Minster Ritz called on Ralph Goodale and the Liberals to listen to Western Canadian farmers by passing Bill C-46.
“Western Canadian farmers have been crystal clear: they want barley marketing freedom by August 1, 2008,” said Minister Ritz. “How can Ralph Goodale and the Liberal Party claim to have any respect for democracy while ignoring the clear results of their own survey?”
The numbers Mr. Herle delivered to the CWB show that nearly 70 per cent of Western Canadian farmers are demanding barley marketing freedom.
“If Ralph Goodale and his Eastern-based Liberal colleagues still refuse to listen to Western Canadian farmers, maybe they will at least consider the clear results provided by long-time Liberal insider David Herle,” said Minister Ritz. “Western Canadian farmers have made their demands for barley marketing freedom loud and clear. For 13 long years, the Liberals simply did not get it done and they must listen to farmers now. This is a time for action and Prime Minister Stephen Harper and this Government are delivering on farmers' demands for barley marketing freedom.

Ralph Goodale (left), who represents a Regina riding and is the lone Liberal MP between Winnipeg and Vancouver, says Ritz has it all wrong:

POLL SHOWS SUPPORT FOR CWB
A fresh survey among prairie farmers shows clear support for the Canadian Wheat Board.
Conservative Minister Gerry Ritz leaked just snippets of the survey last week – trying to twist the message as anti-Board. But the full results contradict his destructive interpretation.
For example, two-thirds of producers say they support the Board; they find its views quite similar to their own; and they’re confident the CWB will maximize returns to farmers.
Two-thirds of producers also believe the Board gets higher prices from the marketplace because of its single-desk system. By a similar margin, they suspect a “dual market” would disadvantage the CWB because it doesn’t own any elevators or terminals.
Close to 70 percent feel the more flexible pricing and delivery options recently initiated by the CWB provide many of the perceived benefits of dual marketing – without sacrificing the advantages of the single-desk.
This poll also highlights strong disagreement with the under-handed tactics the Harper government uses against the Wheat Board.
Specifically, 77 percent say the future of the Board should not be determined by politicians, but by producers themselves and the people they elect to be CWB Directors.
But Mr. Ritz is proposing the opposite – i.e., he has introduced a new law to eliminate all producer control and allow the Conservatives to kill single-desk marketing by issuing secret orders from the federal Cabinet.
There would be no consultation. No role for the elected Directors, or Parliament or the Courts. No vote among producers. No democracy. No transparency. Nothing!
If Mr. Ritz is so sure of his position, he should simply act under the law as it exists today.
Hold a fair and respectful producer plebiscite.
Ask a direct, honest question – “Do you want the CWB’s single-desk system or the Open Market?”
And then abide by the results.

And now that you've read that intro, here is the official release from the Wheat Board itself with the details of the survey.

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The latest FUD from the federal Tories —

This just popped in my inbox. I'm golfing so I didn't click through to the link, but I've got a pretty good idea of what I might find and who sent it …

—– Original Message —–
From: Stéphane <info@willyoubetricked.ca>
To: Akin, David (Canwest News Service)
Sent: Sun Jun 08 11:09:36 2008
Subject: Higher taxes are the answer!

Hi David,

Stéphane wanted to tell you…

Having trouble setting priorities? Friends don't know what they speak about? Billions of dollars of spending promises got you in a big debt hole? Well don't worry. If you answered yes to any of these questions, there is an answer. A permanent new tax on everything!

If you agree click here <http://www.willyoubetricked.ca/reachout.php?task=ec&u=53015KCK3409&v=320125fd9b2d43e340a35fb0278da235d> .

American consumers hunker down

Scotia Capital economist Gorica Djeric looks at new data on spending by U.S. consumers and doesn't see a pretty picture:

Consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of real gross domestic product (GDP), isthe key growth factor for the U.S. economy. On annual basis, the contribution from realpersonal consumption expenditure (PCE) has been exceeding all other components (i.e., fixedinvestment, private inventories, net exports, government spending) since the 1930s, with theonly exceptions being just about every recessionary period. However, since 2004, householdshave been adding an increasingly smaller share to the U.S. economy, shrinking to 2.2% lastyear, the smallest contribution since 2002. Furthermore, in the first quarter of this year — amidweakening employment conditions, record-high debt-to-equity levels, restrictive lendingstandards and rising inflationary pressures — PCE added only 0.7% to GDP, the least since thesecond quarter of 2001, and considerably below the five- and ten-year averages (of 2.1% and2.3%, respectively) …


After years of profligacy, over-extended U.S. consumers are heading for bunkers, with leadingindicators pointing to more turbulence ahead. Consumer confidence continues to erode, withinflation expectations reaching “an all-time high” in May, further undermining purchasingpower. While ‘stimulus’ rebate check are expected to provide some offset, recent surveysreveal that Americans are planning to put only 40% back into the economy in 2008, with anincreasing share going towards basic necessities, predominantly food and gasoline.

Kevin Lynch on tour

Canada's top civil servant, Kevin Lynch, surprised the locals in Fort McMurray, Alta. when he and some buddies flew in by helicopter for a tour of some oilsands facilities there.

Lynch's buddies, as it turned out, were, like him, the Clerks of various privy councils from other Commonwealth countries. Every two years, Commonwealth clerks get together for a conference and this year it was Canada's turn to host. Every other year that Canada has hosted this meeting, they've met in dull, old Ottawa. So this year, Lynch decided to go West and show off the economic powerhouse that is northern Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Lynch, like his boss the Prime Minister and many Alberta cabinet members, have been keen to counter some of the messaging from environmental groups that oil sands development is 'dirty'.

The latest salvo in that war was fired today by a Washington-based group, the Environmental Integrity Project.

Here's the piece I and my colleague Mike De Souza filed on this issue this afternoon:

OTTAWA – Environmental activists are warning U.S. lawmakers and consumers that Canada's oilsands are an environmental disaster, the latest salvo in a pitched public relations battle over Western Canada's resource riches.

Most of the petroleum that comes out of the oilsands developments in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan markets ends up in American markets. So, environmental groups who are trying to limit or clean up oilsands developments are taking their message to the United States in the hopes that U.S. federal and state policy-makers will prevent imports of what they call “dirty oil” from Canada.

“The environmental costs of tar sand development are staggering,” says a report released Wednesday by the Environmental Integrity Project, a Washington-based group. The report says oilsands production results in the release of harmful pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, sulphuric acid mist, nitrogen oxide as well as toxic metals such as lead and nickel compounds.

[Read the rest of the story]

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