GOVERNING IN THE AGE OF CORONAVIRUS: ADVICE TO PREMIER

Editor's Note: Today, two articles – rather than the usual one – are posted for Uncle Gnarley readers. This one contains a letter written by frequent contributor, David Vardy, to Premier Dwight Ball containing a series of 12 recommendations intended to promote an “all-of-government” approach to combating spread of the COVID-19 virus threatening this province. Recommendation #12, which encourages Government to act to increase the number of people who stay at home, is especially poignant; it is this theme about which PlanetNL has also written. His article is entitled "Courting Disaster With Half-Measured Hypocrisy Against COVID-19". Both pieces rely on an Australian study described in the following Link:  Data shows coronavirus can only be controlled if 8 out of 10 Australians stay home. The Report is based upon simulation studies which conclude that physical distancing requires 80 per cent compliance in order to stop the spread of the virus. The failure by our Government to require closure of construction, mining and other heavy industries, likely makes such a target unattainable. I would be grateful if you liked/shared both pieces on social media and, otherwise, you are welcome to send them to people whom you know are connected with those sectors. – Des Sullivan

Guest Post by David Vardy follows

COURTING DISASTER WITH HALF-MEASURED HYPOCRISY AGAINST COVID-19

Guest Post by PlanetNL
PlanetNL29: Courting Disaster With Half-Measured Hypocrisy Against COVID-19

This province has suffered plenty from political failure in the past decade plus.  We don’t need COVID-19 to turn out to be the next major disaster but the present administration seems, as usual, unable to calculate the risks.  The issue is that the necessity for physical distancing and the shelter-in-place concept needs a very high rate of participation to succeed but the government has left a mile-wide loophole for “essential” businesses to keep operating that is placing many communities and the entire province at great risk.
…………..

THE BARD'S COVID-19 UPDATE

LAME DUCK UPDATE

(COVID-19)

Ball has ballsed the Muskrat Falls

And all he’s called’s on stall.

He now appalls the Covid call

An obscene photo-op to trawl.

Do you believe his words at all? -

Non-confidence installed,

That they can fall the Covid squall.

A lame-duck presence is banal!

March 22, 2020

John Tuach

TIME FOR A REAL WAR ON COVID-19

The Chief of Defense Staff – aka Commander of the Canadian Army - should be involved in fighting the war on COVID-19; the Prime Minister and the Premiers should step back, at least a little, as coordination to combat the spread of the virus seems both late and fragmented.  

After three weeks, we only have the dulcet tones of the Prime Minister and the Premiers. They are doing a good job of staying in touch with Canadians, but as to a coherent plan that will save lives and get the public back to work, there is none. In particular, knowing that one person can infect dozens, no regime exists to stop people from engaging in irresponsible behaviour.  

COVID-19: AVOIDING THE APOCALYPSE

Guest Post by Ron Penney
Because of our geography we have a big opportunity to nip the Coronavirus in the bud but I fear we are not taking full advantage of that fact.

And because we are late in getting cases, we can learn from other jurisdictions.

I know that some will say: what does he know about this, as was said of me and my other fellow naysayers when we dissented on Muskrat Falls.

LIBERALS SHOULD RETHINK LEADERSHIP DECISION

The decision by the Liberal Party to ignore candidate John Abbott’s request to “stop the clock” on the May 9th leadership vote is both disrespectful and unwise. Yes, the public wants to see the ‘arse end’ of Dwight Ball as quickly as possible, but his unsuitability was recognized, including by his own Caucus, long before now. A few more weeks won’t matter didley squat.

More importantly, the Liberal Party should make sure that the process applied to replacing Ball is fair, dignified and respectful to the candidates - and to the public, too. If not them, who does a political Party serve?

The Liberals’ are forgetting that the fairness of the selection process is inextricably linked to the next Premier’s legitimacy. The public is watching; their metric of winning leadership may be just a bit different than that of the Party’s insiders.

THE CHEAP SEAT CATASTROPHE

THE CHEAP SEAT CATASTROPHE

Cruise lines, bus lines, train lines AIRLINES

Move us round like canned sardines.

They sit us down in tiny seats

With bodies bound, cheek to cheek

To share the air tween all throughout,

That circulates and mixes croup.

SCAPEGOATING COVID-19 JUST MORE OF THE SAME

It is difficult to think of a greater responsibility of government than to support citizens in a time of crisis. The Ball Administration is working on the largely non-financial measures to prepare for the arrival of COVID-19, like discouraging events where crowds congregate and gearing the healthcare system to provide strategic care amidst an array of jurisdictions. Otherwise, it has limited, if any, capacity to supplement measures proposed by the Federal Government, to assist individuals and small businesses financially injured by the curtailment of trade and work, or to engage in tax relief. The COVID-19 event arrives on the heels of “snowmageddon” which has already robbed a good many pockets.  

Government’s haplessness exposes the extent to which NL has squandered the ability to function as a viable entity within the nation. The revelation is not new. When a pandemic dramatically shuts down normal commerce, it is a time that exposes how badly we have mangled our financial resources and the opportunity to confront any peril. Even after all that has occurred, in place of leadership, we witness only scapegoating.   

WHY GILBERT BENNETT, OTHERS SHOULD BE FIRED

The public should be disturbed that, in releasing the Report of the Muskrat Falls Inquiry, Premier Ball and Minister Siobhan Coady were unwilling to demonstrate that there are consequences for senior public servants who engage in a calculated and systematic abuse of the public’s trust. Indeed, they exhibited no capacity to even check the behaviour of their Tory predecessors.

Among the Commissioner’s findings is that, in the case of Nalcor, the Corporation failed to adhere “to the core values of open communication, honesty and trust, or accountability in their discussions and communications with GNL [the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador] and Nalcor’s board of directors.” He found that “Edmund Martin, Gilbert Bennett and the PMT [Project Management Team] frequently took unprincipled steps to help secure Project sanction. They concealed information that would undermine the business case reported to the public, to GNL and to Nalcor’s board of directors.” His findings confirm that senior officials of Nalcor and GNL behaved in this way on multiple occasions.

ENGINEER EXPECTS MF INQUIRY to CONFIRM ALLEGATIONS of FALSIFICATION, DECEIT

Guest Post by the "Anonymous Engineer"
EDITOR'S NOTE: The author of today's article is the whistleblower, dubbed the "Anonymous Engineer", who disclosed – on this Blog - falsification of the estimates for the Muskrat Falls project in January, 2017. His disclosures helped bolster the case for the Government's call of the Commission of Inquiry under Judge Richard LeBlanc.

The Muskrat Falls Project – Nalcor's DNA (Deceit, Deception, Falsification)

Background

The Muskrat Falls Inquiry is over. We are awaiting the Provincial Government's release of the report by Judge Richard LeBlanc. What the evidence at the Inquiry has revealed, through 6 million documents, 135 witnesses, is an intriguing sequence of deceit, deception and falsification, which has essentially become the DNA of Nalcor. Almost every aspect of the project was falsified, information withheld, writings edited to dilute the impact, and no one takes ownership, accountability or responsibility for anything.

THE BARD'S THOUGHTS ON COVID-19

THE REAPER HEWS

(The Pale Horse)

Scourges stalk the human race,

Unheralded, unseen,

The Reaper hews - no coup de grace,

Messy and obscene.

The virus grows and many dread,

Few ICU nor cure,

And stealthily, a cancer’s fed -

To final days ensure.

WHEN POLITICIANS ABUSE PATRONAGE

Patronage is all too often a license abused. The rites of political leadership empower politicians to make appointments outside a screening process reserved for the middle and lower ranks of the public service. The practice, while necessary, does not always secure the best and brightest; at times the nod is given to a person on the basis of demonstrated loyalty to the Party in power, or just because they are a friend. That practice is called cronyism.  

Politicians find solace — not that any is needed — in the dictum that patronage, left to bureaucrats, will be afforded the very same standard to which politicians adhere. The argument goes: why should politicians defer such opportunity to bureaucrats when the responsibility and the opportunity is theirs. The argument fails, however, when a generally decent system of meritorious selection is corrupted because the appointees are not up the job or are installed in inappropriate positions.