These are emotional times we live in

These are emotional times we live in.

If anyone has been following the Mark Gallagher story, it has to touch you somehow. Unless maybe you’re a cold hearted politician. I was quite moved this morning listening to the CBC and the words spoken by his widow and fellow workers who pulled him from the rubble in Haiti. When they spoke of presenting his Stetson to his son, I was quite choked up thinking of my sons and the limited time I spend with them because of the way society has become today. Some things for the better, some things for the worse.

The reports of emotional breakouts, or maybe breakdowns, by politicians when they are confronted with citizens voicing their opinion on the sale of NB Power is another subject that has touched the hearts of many. It is no longer a topic of technical details and how much one province will gain or another will lose. It has become a topic if integrity, democracy, and emotion. If the merits of the deal could be sold on their technical or financial ramifications then I imagine the government would. But the fact that the public at large is no longer privy to the details, changes the focus from the why, to the why not. From how come we need to sell NB Power, to how come we can’t see the details.

Is the truth that gory that we can’t handle it? Will the whole of the NB economy collapse with the status quo, or some semblance of it, kept at NB Power? Have all of the largest employers in the province given their two weeks notice that they are moving on, and this is a last ditch effort to keep them here? The citizens want to know why you are changing their status quo. The information presented for public viewing is short on depth and foresight. Long on smoke and mirrors. All of the technical details go against the platform that the current government campaigned on, they go against the economic strategy espoused by even the minister of energy one short year ago, and they go against the environmental plan published since this government came into power. And the government can’t claim that they didn’t know the financial situation at NB Power and only found out the details recently. They apparently never consulted with anyone at NB Power during this whole process anyway. So the whole deal was seemingly done by reading publicly available financial statements, consulting former elected officials, and consulting with an “expert”. They never gave the board of directors the directions to change NB Power. Even worse, the negotiation team for NB Brunswick went to Quebec with a political mandate that does not match the direction given to NB Power, and negotiated against the full force of one of the biggest utilities in the world, and thought they came home with “the best deal for New Brunswickers”. Obviously the best deal for HQ, but how would we ever know if it’s the best deal for NB. We don’t truly know why it was done. The technical details given are so full of holes, it’s hard to know where to start in the analysis. Using poor little 50 year old soon to close Grand Lake plant as the basis for the environmental benefits, is about as accurate as using a modern day politician as a poster boy for integrity. Go T.J.! A year ago the Eider Rock refinery was going to save the province and put NB on the map as a force to reckon with. The greenhouse gas emissions were estimated to be nearly equal to the GHG of NB Power, but were considered “not of significance”.

We are a have not province. We will remain a have not province because of weak political leadership, and the single minded direction of big business in this province. Maybe the status quo is not an option. Maybe we should let all big business go bankrupt. Let them all close down, and make them all turn their facilities into green fields. Then we can take back all the rights and ownership to all the forestry sector, all the mineral rights, and all the energy rights. Then we can start all over retaining ownership, or at least a decent royalty rate for any of these things. Tell Fraser’s when they close their doors that they will give up all their lease holdings that covers a large part of the northern part of the province. They will be here for awhile.

Just think of all the jobs that would be created by decommissioning all those facilities. Think of all the jobs created by rebuilding all the infrastructure required to process all the natural resources of the province. Just a ridiculous idea isn’t it. About as ridiculous as refurbishing a nuclear station, and then giving it away for the refurbishment price, while someone else makes $10 Billion from it during the next 25 or so years.

Being is seeing in the human dimension. And what we see is highly interrelated to what we are. We can’t go very far to change our seeing without simultaneously changing our being, and vice versa.

If this deal is ever legislated and passed as written, democracy will be dead in this province, and serfdom reborn.
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