What is wrong with the status quo?

What is wrong with the status quo??

If anyone has read this article written by economist Jeff Rubin? http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/front/article/908518

Or seen the Shawn Graham interview with Terry Seguin on the CBC?
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Canada/NB/ID=1379331595

Do you beleive what you see? Do any reporters have the ability to do some significant research? (and I'm not refering to Terry Seguin)
Do politians have the ability to talk without doublespeak? Check this out to see how completely dependent NB Power is on oil pricing and supply volatility.

http://www.nbpower.com/html/en/about/publications/sustainability/supplementarydocuments/StatisticalOverview_English_Nov%2019.pdf see page three

Oil (and orimulsion combined) as a percentage of provincial net generation and purchases for the last 5 years is 23%, 16%, 17%, 20% and 23% respectively.

Oil only, while Dalhousie was still on Orimulsion, was 10% for 2005 and 13% for 2004.

Now that the industrial load has droppped off, and orimulsion is gone, once lepreau is back, oil load for the province should be next to zero. Especially if you calculate the numbers with a 14 TW cap on the heritage pool. as proposed in the MOU.

When Lepreau is back to full load, and they generate at at least historical rates (4.1 Tw / year) in province electricity supply should be about 29% nuclear, 23% hydro, 25% coal, and the rest from purchases. Purchases are currently about 30%. All totalled, there seems to be a surplus, because I can add it up to 107%. So coal generaton, or purchases will be down a few percent. Not much dependency on oil. Even dependency on coal could drop to less than 20%.

Nuff said???

Actually, I have more. Lets look at this from another angle. Where is Quebec going to profit from the good citizens of NB. They will run the nuclear station. Right ? Status Quo there. They will run the hydro stations. Right? Status Quo there. Any refurbishment at Mactaquac in 15 or 20 years will be added to NB Power rates. And don't think otherwise? Who else would pay? Quebec residents? No. Quebec Government? Why would they do that? They'll dump the money in Quebec first. Government of NB maybe? Well then there is no reason to sell NB Power. What about purchased power from independent power producers. Any reason for anything except Status Quo there? This includes natural gas generation. Lots of natural gas in the Maritimes. http://www.soep.com/cgi-bin/getpage?pageid=1/0/0 and http://www.gnb.ca/0078/Minerals/pdf/McCully_Gas_Field_Projecte.pdf
No foreign oil imports there. Wind Power. Lots of that. In fact, more to come. Free fuel forever there! Biomass generator at Frasers. Lots of trees in NB. Status Quo there. Hydro station at St George. And gas turbine at Grandview in Irvings backyard. Do they use this themselvles, or sell it on the grid? http://www.transcanada.com/pdf/power/grandview.pdf Doesn't matter does it. Just more in province generation that won't likely change. That just leaves the other 18% to 25% generated at Belledune from coal and petcoke. We just shutdown a 300 year old coal mine in Grand Lake. http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/cityregion/article/911216 About time for that eh!! A mine that has supplied Grand Lake, Dalhousie, and Belledune. The US has 120 plus years of coal reserves for it's coal fired fleet of generators that produce over 40% of the electricity required. http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/tablees1a.html I also seen elsewhere where over 50% of US electrical supply is from coal sourced generation.

And I'm sorry, but I don't think there is enough water in Quebec to fill that gap in electricity supply to the states and shut down all those coal fired generators. So where would the profit come from? TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION silly. That's where it comes from in PEI, NS, NL, Bangor Hydro, even Quebec. Well maybe not Quebec. They just pillaged and plundered Churchil Falls for $0.25 per megwatt hour and sell it in their own heritage pool at $28. Lots of generation profit there. 1.7 Billion in profits and 63 million paid back to NL last year. Well, technically maybe it is a transmision profit. But anyway, back to the transmission and distribution profits. Why would I make that assumption? Well, check out our neighbours.

Here is a summary:

In PEI Fortis owns Maritime Electric and makes money from the Distribution of electricity obtained from NB Power. Most new wind power is sold to NY.

In NS Emera owns NS Power and makes money from the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. The electricity and self generated from coal (75%)and hydro.

In NL Fortis Group owns Newfoundland Power and makes money from the Transmission and distribution of electricty obtained from the Crown owned Newfoundland Hydro. Newfoundland Hydro is Crown owned and provides over 93% of the electricity in NL from Hydro power.

http://www.nr.gov.nl.ca/mines&en/industry/overview.stm

In NB, NB Power is Crown owned and NB Power makes money from the Generating,
transmission and Distribution of electricty. The sources are from self generation from nuclear, hydro, coal, oil, wind, and purchases from biomass and natural gas generators.

As you can see, the privately owned, and profitable area in each of the other Atlantic provinces is the TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION system within the province. The crown corporation Newfoundland Hydro, supplies over 90% of the power that is sold in Newfoundland through the privately run Newfoundland Power. NF Power has little to no risk in the generation of electricity. As long as the markup on purchases is sufficient to cover expenses, with a fixed rate of return, you're in business. PEI is the same. They have some small deisel and bunker generators that rarely run. Why bother when you can get all the power from the mainland. Let NB Power worry about the capital cost and risk of a generation sytem. MaritimeElectric just buys, marks up, and sells. I grew up in PEI at the tail end of a local distribution system. Having no power after a winter storm for three days was routine. Our house was well equipped to deal with it. We didn't go without a hot meal or a hot shower just because the power was out. It been better the past few years, but my parents have an even bigger generator now. So basically, Maritime Electric service is there, but it has it's bad days. I've been living in New Brunswick for 20 odd years, and don't recall the power been out in my area for more than a couple of hours, and rarely, if ever, on a windy stormy winter day.

Emera also own Bangor Hydro in Maine. They provide transmission and distribution to over 110,000 people in Northeastern Maine. It appears they have no Generation capability. They get a guaranteed return on equity of 11.5%. On the downside, if you read this report you can see the reliability issues they have to contend with. http://www.bhe.com/data/pdf/BHE%20Local%20System%20Needs%20and%20Alternatives.pdf

Emera also recently acquired the 260 MW Bayside power station in Saint John. A former NB Power facility leased out to a private interest many years ago to develope a natural gas fired combined cycle unit.

Even the town of Sumerside is trying to ween itself off of Maritime Electric by Purchasing a portion of the wind power generated at West Cape, PEI.

So the people are right in being outraged that the current government would consider selling NB Power. Especially the part that has less risk, and a basically profitable, guaranteed rate of return.

Plus, as we all know, NB Power has spent considerable time and money developing interchanges will all it's neighbours. NB Power has nearly as many interprovincial, and US connections as does Hydro Quebec, and it's only one tenth the size. See the earlier side by side comparison I did.

This doesn't even include the options available to HQ by getting the transmision system into Maine. And they get to control the NS open access grid. http://oasis.nspower.ca/en/home/oasis/default.aspx In an earlier post I explained that they get their hands on PEI's grid.

So Folks, tell me please, becasue I can't figure it out. How the hell can selling NB Power be good for NB? And nothing but obscenley profitable for HQ?

For the next 20 to 30 years, what needs to change? Why not just sit back, relax, and pay off the debt. All new generation will come from the open market. Right? That's what the MOU is telling HQ to do. NB Power does it now. Why not keep the T&D profits.

And on a side note, if you want to get Hydro Quebec rates, but not move there, call NS power. They have a demand metering system with rates compararble to HQ's. They will even finance your heat pump and ETS device to allow you to drop your rates by nearly 50%.

http://www.nspower.ca/en/home/residential/homeheatingproducts/default.aspx

I don't know about you guys, but I feel ill.

Rebuttal (really a rant) to Grahams blog entry

For those who read the Shawn Graham blog entries at the lowerratesnb website. I picked out the meaty part from the middle of Grahams latest post, and added some comments. Not that it's really so meaty, as most would starve trying to digest what he says, but anyway, it's my rant of the week. My comments are in red, as that is the color most people see when talking of this subject. And my rants don't get links to real information. Trust me, it's all out there in the www. The rant starts here.

The first question most people ask me is "Why was this step necessary?"

Yeah, Shawn, why was this necessary? For each of your statements, I have my own. Enjoy.

First, without a plan, rates would continue to increase. This puts a strain on the pocketbooks of our families and means our businesses and industries will be spending more money just to keep the lights on, instead of making their operations more profitable and hiring more workers.
Rates will still continue to increase. Industrial rates will go up as soon as the deal is signed, and will continue to go up forever. RCW rates only get a five year freeze with a substantial jump in year six.
Second NB Power's $4.8-billion debt is not manageable in the long-term, and as we look ahead at the costs of replacing our fossil fuel plants, that debt exposure would grow by at least $10 billion.

Hydro Quebec is adding $25 billion worth of infrastructure in the next four years to their already existing $36 Billion dollar debt. Plus if they add NB Power’s debt, the total could be over $60 Billion by 2013. Almost equaling their asset value today. No different than the situation NB power is in.

And finally over one-third of New Brunswick greenhouse gas emissions come from energy generation. And we're too dependent on coal and oil from foreign countries to heat and light our homes.

Since when is the US a foreign country? Technically, I guess it is, but I would have to say its a reliable source. Most of Belledune’s coal and petcoke supplies come from the US. Why can we not use the 100 million barrels of oil produced in Newfoundland each year? We have a major natural gas pipeline that supplies the US with natural gas to run power plants and the Bayside power plant in Saint John. The McCully Field in the Sussex Moncton area produces about 10% of the gas that flows through the line, and has the potential to supply more than Sable Island. How is that foreign? 10% of Newfoundland’s oil output would keep NB Power’s Coleson Cove station running at full load everyday of the year. To bad we didn’t put together a national energy policy when we had control, instead of giving it away to our southern friends to pad their pocket, and force us to buy our own resources back on the open market at inflated prices. When Hibernia went commercial, the break even price was $ 9 per barrel of oil produced.

What is your next idea to reduce oil and gas consumption for the transportation sector? Oh yeah, you won’t be around long enough to get to that issue, so no need to worry about it.

These three factors must be addressed if we want to achieve our goal of a self-sufficient New Brunswick.

See above to find out how to address your problems.

So early in 2009, our government sought out an opportunity to lower rates, lower debt and lower our dependence on fossil fuels while maintaining control of our energy policies.

Quebec also sought out new customers as they now can’t compete with the cheap natural gas stations in the US. They also lost an aluminum smelter, pulp mills, mines, and other small industries totaling 8.5 TW worth of sales. This is almost equal to the proposed RCW pool in NB. They needed some new customers. The $25 billion in new dams and transmission lines will cost them a fortune in financing, and the need to pay for it somehow. Fortunately for them, along came you, and guess what? They say there is one born every minute.

As for lowering debt, well that’s a joke.

And we looked for a partner who could help us achieve that.

Partner? I guess when you buy a new car, you could call the dealership that sold it to you a partner. Some one who will give you a five year warranty, and then bleed you dry every time you pull in for even a basic oil change. Eventually you will need a whole new car, and they will be glad to sell it to you.

While we have an excellent partner in Hydro-Québec, we have heard New Brunswickers' concerns about protecting our energy sovereignty. New Brunswick will maintain absolute control over our energy policies. Hydro-Québec is a company operating in a highly regulated industry. Here in New Brunswick, we still set the rules and Hydro-Québec must follow them. That's part of the proposed agreement as it now stands but having heard the concerns from New Brunswickers our government is looking at how we can further protect and enhance New Brunswick's energy sovereignty.

Why would you make the statement that “NB will maintain absolute control” and “look at how we can further protect” in the same paragraph when referring to energy sovereignty. Are you doubting your own beliefs?

Our government will continue to decide what the energy priorities are, what kind of power plants can be built here, and where they can be built.

What kind of power plants? Give it a break. Status Quo or not, because of the economic downturn and loss of industry, NB wouldn’t need a new power plant for 20 years anyway. I thought the future was green. NB has 5000 MW worth of wind power potential. So do PEI and Nova Scotia. Partnering with Hydro Quebec for load control and a place to store all the excess wind energy would be a partnership. That would be progressive thinking. Building wind to hydrogen energy conversion facilities to store excess wind energy, and using it on less windy days would be progressive thinking (no I’m not a paid conservative – but will be voting that way). Newfoundland is looking for customers and a route to the US for it's vast hydro power potential. Partnering with them would have been progressive.

And New Brunswick's Energy and Utilities Board will make the final decisions on whether rates can increase.

This, I can’t wait to see. You can’t even stop the price of home heating fuel and gasoline from bouncing up and down. How come you can’t stop NB Power from doing a simple small 3% rate increase? Is this a smokescreen for the bigger 1 cent per kilowatt hour increase that the Quebec Government (notice I did not say HQ) plans to implement to cover their ballooning debt.
This would be a 26% rate increase to the generation portion of their rate. And about a 16% overall rate increase. I’d like to see the look on the NB industrial customers face on April 1, 2010 when this gets implemented, and they kiss their big rate reduction goodbye. You should put this in your NERA formula and see how many Billions are saved over eternity.

When you ask HQ to tender for any possible new load growth, and all the bids come in at a much higher rate than what is currently paid by the heritage pool, how do you regulate that? Either you pay, or you turn off some customers. Right?

See you at the polls in September.

My view - of why it has to be signed by March 31

I have talked on a few subjects, but only last week realized in my own head, how some of the pieces fit together. This may be old news to some, revelations to others, but I'll try to give a little history lesson for the past year and a half. Some information is not linked, as I have previously blogged about it and linked it in previous posts.

In late 2008, the economic collapse started. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932009
Unforeseen by most. But predicted by a few. http://www.financialsense.com/
Since then Quebec lost an aluminium smelter, paper mills, mines, and others. This resulted in a 8.5 TW loss in load. Data all publicly available published in Hydro Quebec's 5 year strategic plan. This amount of electricity is almost equal to the proposed RCW heritage pool in NB.

HQ also started a $25 billion capital expenditure program to build dams and transmission lines to feed the US. This is to be spent from 2008 to 2013.

Natural gas prices also plunged, http://tfc-charts.w2d.com/chart/NG/W which makes the merchant power plants in the States that use natural gas cheap and very competitive. All these natural gas plants currently are a lot cheaper to run than the new hydro stations coming on line in Quebec. There is a great backgrounder of information published here : http://www.iso-ne.com/nwsiss/pr/2009/final_2009_october_backgrounder_remarks.pdf . This document is from the New England Independent System operator website, so it should be a fairly knowledgeable and objective source.

Here is an excerpt from page 10 detailing the dramatic drop is prices:
"For the entire summer of 2009, average electricity prices were down 63 percent compared to summer 2008. Gas prices were down 67 percent, and oil prices were 40 percent lower. In July 2008, fuel prices were climbing to historic highs and electricity prices followed suit, with an average high at $107.98 per megawatt-hour that month. Fuel prices have dropped dramatically since then. In July 2009 alone, natural gas prices were 70 percent lower than the previous July, and oil prices were 46 percent lower. Wholesale electricity prices were 69 percent lower than in July 2008, at $33.53/MWh."

With wholesale prices at $33.53/MWh, HQ cannot afford the mortgage on those new dams.

HQ's profits in 2009 will fall from over $3B to about $2.4. This is less money available to the Quebec Gov who collected $2.2B from HQ last year. Add this to the $4B deficit that Quebec has this year, and now you have a problem. HQ NEEDS CUSTOMERS. So while all this was happening, along comes Graham and says he needs some cheap power to keep his industrials happy. Mr Charest, knowing he has a problem developing, paints Graham a pretty little picture. The premier jumps up and down with joy as he feels he has just won the lottery. A deal is struck, and the rest is in the papers for all to read.

But where's the catch? Well, heritage pool power rates in Quebec are legislated at 2.8 cents a kilowatt hour. This is under direct control of the government through legislation. Real rates are 2X after adding in transmission and distribution. But still 30 to 50% less than NB. The big rush to have everything finalized is because Quebec plans to legislate a 1 cent per kilowatt price increase to the existing heritage pool customers to cover some of it's $4B budget deficit. This is about a 15% rate hike. A selling feature of the NB power sale, according to Graham, is the lower industrial rates in NB to match Quebec's. A 30% reduction. That will be on March 31, 2010 at midnite. But, when the Quebec Gov passes legislation on April 1 to raise rates 15%. Guess what? All the industrials in NB will get the same rate increase. So that 30 % drop is only 15%. Not such a great selling feature. And then people will be really ticked off. That is why Keir keeps eluding to this window of opportunity. That window will close soon, and once the big rate reduction is gone, then they will have NO friends at all. Plus, if they are spewing a lot of crap now to get us to buy into it, if this Quebec (and NB) rate hike pops up out of nowhere, the backlash will be off the charts.

And that Folks, IMHO, is the why of why Shawn Graham chose the path he did. Inexcusable in itself , but the how is even more inexcusable.

Unfortunately Canada lacks a real Energy Policy. As the largest exporter of crude oil to the largest consumer on Earth ( the US) we have no need to be held hostage to the rest of the planet.
Unfortunatley we don't own our resources, an have a difficult time moving them across the country from the "have" provinces to the "have not" provinces. But, Newfoundland produced 100 million barrels of oil a year for at least the last eight years. http://www.economics.gov.nl.ca/EB-Oil.asp . Enough to keep Irving's refinery going at 300,000 barrels a day.

And there are over 120 to 200 years of coal supplies in North America at current consumption rates.

For those who need more reading material, check this out : http://www.mackinac.org/11309


New Brunswick hasn't even put simple things like air to air heat pumps on their list of things to do. These have advanced a lot in the last few years. And would cut the average bill of an electrically heated house by half. They extract heat for the outside air and dump it in your house. No different than a refrigerator takes heat from inside your fridge and dumps it in your kitchen. On a bigger scale, the average power plant is only 33% efficient at converting fossil fuels to electricity. Natural gas fired stations with co-generation facilites, can operate at 50% efficient. To produce electricity with natural gas, and then use it to heat a house is a waste. If a provincial policy were in place to heat houses with natural gas, the efficiency would be upwards of 97%.

Anyway Folks, I'm drifting off topic. Happy New Years to all if I'm not back before then. Check and support all the other sites I've linked too. And keep up the fight.

"The end of cheap hydro"

I've seen this stated a few times recently, so thought I would post some links.

http://www.quebecoislibre.org/09/090215-3.htm#migbas

http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/10/22/the-end-of-cheap-power-in-quebec/

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Hydro+Qu%C3%A9bec+seeks+rate+hikes/1845406/story.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/cars/Hydro+hike+CEGEP+tutition+fees+table+Liberals/2038109/story.html

Even Hydro Quebec can be caught blindsided by their government owners:

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/talks+rate+hikes+Hydro+Quebec/2073781/story.html

http://www.globalmontreal.com/entertainment/Debate+higher+charges+Bachand/2038109/story.html

That should be enough links to fill your brain for now. Goodnite folks.
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Side by Side comparison NB Power and Hydro Quebec

I did a side by side comparison of some of the statistics for NB Power and Hydro Quebec. The picture below is not readable, but when you click on it, it should open a new page with a spreadsheet with a comparison of the major indices of each company. Use your back button to get back to the blog. Of course, anyone can pick a number from one company to compare to another, but I picked 12 of the larger items. Hopefully I can add to it. All items are from Annual reports or other sources that I have previously posted. I also added the provincial population and provincial debt as a starter. Neither provincial debt calculation has the respective power company debt. Quebec has roughly 10 times the population as New Brunswick, so naturally, one would assume that everything else should maintain some resemblance of that 10x ratio. Most items do, with some items favouring Quebec, and some items favouring NB. But our premier should stop it with the "crippling debt" crap. If anyone has a crippling debt, it is Quebec. Oh yeah, that was the subject of a previous post.

One item that is a major item, that i have not included yet, is the percent of renewable fuel source versus fossil fuel source. I won't pretend to argue that one, but New Brunswick played the hand it was dealt. There is just not much hydro left to develop in the province. Grand Falls, could be doubled (60 - 80 megawatts) but besides that, there are only a couple of hundred megawatts of hydro left in the province. NB Power developed Grand Lake to use indigenous coal at a time when it was beneficial to the province. It served a very useful purpose for a lot of years and will be soon be retired.

Happy reading and Happy Holidays to everyone. Except the Grinch who stole Christmas. You know who you are.

EDIT REQUIRED. (Jan 9) I may have to edit the data for the NB debt. I may have forget the debt carried by the New Brunswick Electric Finance Company that had been formed a few years back when the electricty act was changed and NB Power broken into several companies. Seems part of the debt was tranferred to this new entity for some reason. Actual debt per rate payer may approach $16,000 per ratepayer.

Random thoughts

Check this out : NB's debt rating was downgraded a few moonths ago. Seems somebody's noticing all that spending.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=afzm7ohRqwF0

Debt per person in NB currently stands at about $10,500 per person.

Debt per person in Quebec stands at about $19,000.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Gary+Lamphier+Alberta+financial+troubles+would+envy+other+provinces/1934363/story.html
Seems raising power rates will be an easy target for Charest to combat his $4,000,000,000 (billion) dollar deficit this year. I don't like typing those really big numbers. There are so many zero's it easy to get mixed up. Remember folks, that is just the shortfall in income in one year. Two years of Quebec deficit is equal to all of NB's current debt total to date.

I like this example of how the status quo in Alberta resulted in 50% savings in the last year versus those who chose a five year contract. Sound familiar? Gotta be careful what you wish for.

http://www.workingforest.com/content/alberta-power-rates-plunge

It's time for Quebecers to pay the bills.

http://cebl.vmbl.ca/Economics/9/CEQ_02112009_e.pdf

And I really like the icing on the cake in this article. A 1 cent per kilowatt hour rate hike. That's about 15% in quebec terms and 10% for here.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/queb-n09.shtml
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Hydro Quebec's Debt in 2013

Shawn Graham, our infamous (or whatever word you want to use) leader has been heard saying many times over how NB Power has crippling Debt. How the debt has to be slashed to save the province the extrutiating turture of having our children's children pay off that debt.

Here's some numbers on Hydro Quebec's debt.

Current year (these are rounded) $36 Billion
Planned capital investments( more debt) 2009 - 2013 - $18 Billion
Acquisistion of NB Power 2010 - $4.75 Billion

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Fitch-Rates-HydroQuebecs-bw-1426914954.html?x=0&.v=1

Total debt at end of the NB Residential rate freeze will be in the order of $48 Billion. About 2/3 of current asset value of HQ. Of course their assets will grow by the same $23 Billion. Well not True, James at Gov NB on the lower rates site says that NB Power has no value because of it' debt. It's funny how one person's trash is another's treasure. Numbers are from the strategic plan. NB Power debt is about 90% of assets. I hope to be able to show what it would be at the end of 5 years with the status quo.

The strategic plan for Hydro Quebec talks a lot about capital expenditures.
http://www.hydroquebec.com/publications/en/strategic_plan/pop_feuilleter_le.html
The point of view there, is that this will create great ecomonic spinoffs, economic developements, and untold person years of jobs. But in lowly old New BRunswick, heaven forbid we have any of these problems. The HQ Strategic Plan 2009–2013 is a good read.

Back to my big picture theory. HQ has 8.5 Terawatt hours of electricity surplus this year.

http://www.hydroquebec.com/publications/en/strategic_plan/pop_feuilleter_le.html page 3.

8.5 Terwatts of power is 8,500 gigawatt hours or 8,500,000 megawatt hours of electricity.

The projected surplus for the period 2009 to 2013 will total 35.2 Terawatts.

Going rate these days on the open market, well the heck with the open market. Going rate these days in New Brunswick for residential is $95 per megawatt hours. 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour x 1000 to make a megawatt hour.

Lets see: 8,500,000 megawatt hours available in the head ponds doing nothing, is worth , well nothing. 8,500,000 megawatt hours of electricity sold into NB at residential rates is worth :

8,500,000 x 95 = $807,000,000.

Of course, NB Residential did not consume that much last year, so the difference would have to go to small business, who used to pay more for power than residential. I don't know if that rate parity was corrected over the last few rate increases. Subject for another blog.



Some more simple math, Shawn get out your easy button,


$807,000,000 x 5 year rate freeze = Over $ 4 Billion dollars.




I remember a Bill Cosby show from way back when. I remember one day one of Bill's daughter had a boyfreind over. Bill wasn't to struck on him or something he had done. Too make a point he started to describe a wonderful meal. The most succulent, thick, tender, delicious steak that money could buy. Cooked to perfection on a open flame. Served with only the finest sauteed mushroom, and onions. The side servings of vegetables were described as being too die for. The setting was perfect, the company devine. The meal served on the inside of a stinking old garbage can lid. Sounds really appetizing doesn't it. The same thing has been said about this deal on many websites. And there are a few, and all are doing very well what I have been at least attempting to do, giving great information and comentary on this deal. Check out Donald Arsenault getting conftronted in his riding office in Dalhousie on the Save NB Power website.

So Shawn and Keir, at this point, it doesn't matter how good the steak looks, when you serve it on the back of a stinking old garbage can lid, nobody's really going to buy it.

Oh, BTW, I think the steak we being served is as tough as boot leather.
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