Following the explicitly anti-Muslim demonstration held on March 4, on April 23 some of the same far right forces tried a different approach, calling for a demonstration against the governing provincial Liberal Party, taking care to not include anything about race or Islam in any of their materials, and telling people
Continue readingTag: quebec
The Progressive Economics Forum: The Alternative Federal Budget 2017
This year’s Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) was released on March 9. I was proud to be the primary author of its housing chapter (that chapter is available in English here and in French here). The first AFB exercise began in 1994, with the first AFB being published in 1995. That
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: What kind of society encourages children to eat unhealthy food?
What kind of society encourages children to eat unhealthy food? Our kind of society. A society that bombards its children with 25 million food and beverage ads ever year on their favourite websites, 90 per cent of which are for unhealthy products, much of them high in salt, fat or
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: What kind of society encourages children to eat unhealthy food?
What kind of society encourages children to eat unhealthy food? Our kind of society. A society that bombards its children with 25 million food and beverage ads ever year on their favourite websites, 90 per cent of which are for unhealthy products, much of them high in salt, fat or
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Social Housing in BC, AB and QC (1975-2015)
Over at the web site of the Calgary Homeless Foundation is a transcript of a recent discussion I had with Dr. Maroine Bendaoud. His recently-defended PhD thesis looks at social housing in BC, Alberta and Quebec from 1975 until 2015. Points raised in his thesis include he following: -After Canada’s
Continue readingTrashy's World: Mosque atrocity – hate driven or coincidence?
Canada has its First mass shooting in years. So tragic, and can’t help but note that a mosque was targeted. This is amid all of the hate being spewed by Trump and his brown shirts, as well as their Canadian apologists like Kellie Leitch. Police haven’t yet confirmed it, but it
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Justin Trudeau responds to Québec City mosque shooting: “We condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims”
Responding to Sunday night’s Québec City mosque shooting, which left six people dead, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “We condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims.” The post Justin Trudeau responds to Québec City mosque shooting: “We condemn this terrorist attack on Muslims” appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingWe Pivot: White- and Male-Dominated History Perpetuates White, Male Supremacy
If, like me, you don’t recognize these women as household names, you are likely a victim of history education that focuses on males and white people. And while you are likely not a racist misogynist, we all have to do … [Read more]
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Montreal police spying on journalist Patrick Lagacé condemned by Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is appalled by recent revelations that Montreal police secretly monitored the mobile phone of La Presse columist Patrick Lagacé. A coalition of Canadian rights groups links the Lagacé case to Canadian police and security services’ growing hunger for new powers and investigative capabilities. The post Montreal police
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The question must be asked: Was Brad Wall’s party being paid to undermine Alberta’s NDP?
PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, not looking quite like himself, were still smiling and standing side by side at the start of the July 2015 premiers’ meeting in St. John’s. A week later? Now? Not so much. Below: Mr. Wall as we’ve come to know
Continue readingBabel-on-the-Bay: Pardonez-moi M. Lisée.
Paul Wells of the Toronto Star offers it as evidence that sometimes a journalist can make something of himself. Besides an ass, we assume. Wells was writing about Jean-François Lisée who won the leadership of Quebec’s Parti Québécois last Friday. We all had a good laugh at the PQ last
Continue readingCarbon49 – Sustainability for Canadian businesses: Canadians Prefer Businesses with Green Vehicles
Should your company cars and long distance fleets go green? 90% of Canadians believe businesses should reduce transportation related emissions and 82% feel having an environmentally friendly fleet is an important factor when choosing vendors. I look at the findings to see if turning your fleet green may make business sense.
Continue readingCarbon49 – Sustainability for Canadian businesses: Canadians Prefer Businesses with Green Vehicles
Should your company cars and long distance fleets go green? 90% of Canadians believe businesses should reduce transportation related emissions and 82% feel having an environmentally friendly fleet is an important factor when choosing vendors. I look at the findings to see if turning your fleet green may make business
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Worst possible time for HQ deal #nlpoli
If the rumblings from Labrador are correct, an opinion column in lapresse – “Why Quebec should regain Labrador” – this weekend both fits right in and provides a cautionary tale for us all.
Pierre Gingras – right – spent 31 years with Hydro-Quebec (1966 to 1997) building large hydro-electric projects like Manicouagan and James Bay.
Gingras thinks the time is right to rescue tiny Newfoundland from itself and a very old injustice done to Quebec. After all, Gingras notes, people in Quebec should recall that, owing to what Gingras calls the “shenanigans of certain [but unnamed] financiers” the Privy Council in London tore Labrador from Quebec in 1927 and gave it to the British colony of Newfoundland without any protest from Canada.
“On se rappellera que le Labrador a été arraché au Québec (et au Canada) par le Conseil privé de Londres en 1927, à la suite des manigances de certains financiers, pour être rattaché à Terre-Neuve, alors colonie britannique, et ce, sans la moindre réaction du gouvernement du Canada.”
Quebec cannot buy power from Muskrat Falls as it is right now, according to Gingras, since the existing transmission lines are at maximum capacity. But a new transmission line costing $3-4 billion would make it profitable to develop Gull Island. Such a project would also allow for the development of many smaller projects in Labrador and along the Quebec North Shore that are currently held up, according to Gingras, by the uncertainty over the border.
Talk of a potential deal with Hydro-Quebec on the Lower Churchill has been swirling for months. Stan Marshall has done nothing to dispel public concern with his comments in August that he is busily improving the relationship between Nalcor and HQ. In June, Marshall said that Nalcor was looking at ways of boosting revenue from Muskrat Falls in conjunction with Nalcor’s existing partners Emera and Nyro-Quebec.
Nor did Premier Dwight Ball calm concerns when he said a couple of months ago that there were “no talks about Hydro-Quebec taking over MuskratFalls.” That sounds like one of his patented denials using very precise and misleading language. The deal apparently in the works would have HQ buy a significant interest in a much larger project that, as Gingras described it, would involve development of Gull Island. That isn’t about taking over Muskrat Falls, so Dwight’s comment would be literally true, even if it did not tell the whole truth.
The worst possible time
This is the worst possible time for Nalcor to be talking with Hydro-Quebec about the Lower Churchill. Nalcor and the provincial government are more vulnerable than ever before. Not only is the Muskrat Falls project spiraling out of control and unable to deliver its promised electricity, the provincial government is in the midst of its worst financial crisis since 1933.
Then there is the fact that the current government is in third place in the polls and the Premier is at the lowest point in the polls for any Premier since we have had polling information. The last time a politician was even half as desperate to make a deal on the Lower Churchill, Danny Williams cut one for Muskrat Falls. It guaranteed free electricity for Emera for 35 years, partially privatized the electricity grid in Newfoundland, and bound the province into the current mess. Don’t forget either that Williams himself spent five years desperately – and secretly – trying to get Hydro-Quebec to buy the Lower Churchill.
Dwight Ball has already made it clear he, too, is desperate to complete the Lower Churchill, despite the incontrovertible evidence that it is a mistake. His administration never completed a proper assessment of the alternatives to continuing the project, as it seems. Ball is in an even more desperate position than Williams was, if that is even possible. The government is vulnerable, therefore, to even the weakest offer that would beggar the provincial position and give Hydro-Quebec precisely the level of control of resources that Gingras is proposing.
Make no mistake, the provincial position had been strengthening in the late 1990s. It has deteriorated sharply since 2003, most significantly since October 2010. There is no reason to believe that the current Liberal administration – pot-committed to the ludicrous Muskrat Falls project – could produce a viable deal even with Stan Marshall. Indeed, Marshall is already jammed into an impossible position since Ball and the current Liberal administration have denied him the most power option anyone has in any negotiation: walking away from a deal. Marshall was interested in examining all options when he took over as chief executive at Nalcor. Dwight Ball has made it plain his only option is to finish the project.
Ball and Marshall don’t have many options. The federal government cannot increase its financial exposure in the project as it currently stands. It is a boondoggle and, as a recent court decision in Quebec confirmed, Nalcor does not control water flows on the river. As such, Muskrat Falls can scarcely produce enough electricity to meet the freebie Williams and Ed Martin gave Nova Scotia. The federal government will not pour more cash into it.
Having cut off every option for himself, Ball is clearly left with Hydro-Quebec and its deep pockets and experience as the only way to go. That’s why Ball must stop any discussions involving Hydro-Quebec and the Lower Churchill immediately. If he persists and, God forbid, he tries to implement a deal, Ball will precipitate a political crisis the likes of which the province has never seen. Given the government’s precarious financial state, such a political confrontation crisis over what can only be an inevitably bad deal on the Lower Churchill would be one the province cannot afford.
The Tory Pirate - Politics & Policy: Brexit: How Not To Do Referendums
In a semi-surprising move Britain voted to leave the European Union late last week.There has been endless discussion on how bad this might be for Britain, where thecampaign to remain in the EU went wrong, and what this means for the Union’sfuture (both of them actually). What has received less
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- Caroline Plante reports on Quebec’s scourge of medical extra-billing and user fees (as identified by its own Auditor General). And Aaron Derfel notes that the federal government has done nothing to app…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Parlez-Vous Contempt?
Comment? Conservative contempt for democracy, representation, culture, and people not like themselves [really really white!] does not end with Harper or #TheNewHarper. This new francophone minister, the anglophone Squires, not only clings to her talking points as if her political life depends on it [which it does], but she also waxes unironically about herself, showing … Continue reading Parlez-Vous Contempt? →
Politics, Re-Spun: Parlez-Vous Contempt?
Comment? Conservative contempt for democracy, representation, culture, and people not like themselves [really really white!] does not end with Harper or #TheNewHarper. This new francophone minister, the anglophone Squires, not only clings to her talking points as if her political life depends on it [which it does], but she also waxes unironically about herself, showing … Continue reading Parlez-Vous Contempt? →
The Adventures of Diva Rachel: Marine Le Pen et les pleutres du Québec
Quand Radio-Canada convoque Marine Le Pen à un tête-à-tête télévisé, les yeux du Québec sont rivés sur l’entretien. Quelle que soit votre opinion sur «l’immigration massive», l’intégration à reculons ou bien le rêve (ou le cau…
Continue readingThe Adventures of Diva Rachel: Marine Le Pen et les pleutres du Québec
Quand Radio-Canada convoque Marine Le Pen à un tête-à-tête télévisé, les yeux du Québec sont rivés sur l’entretien. Quelle que soit votre opinion sur «l’immigration massive», l’intégration à reculons ou le rêve (ou le cauchemar?) du multiculturalisme utopiste, Marine Le Pen vous offre un franc parlé sur un sujet à la fois
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