Ralph Klein; Tyson's Bum Boy

"Screw You, Lakeside Workers"
Cowboy Ralphy, gunslinger for Tyson's

You know you are in trouble when not one but two influential Sun columnists expose the fact that King Ralph and his cronies are on the side of the devil, in this case American Meat Packing Monopoly Tysons, and the workers are on the side of the Angels.

It's not often in a labour dispute anywhere, let alone right wing Alberta, that UFCW has the support of the right wing Sun newspaper chain. Let alone its outspoken columnists like the normally trenchant neo-conservative Neil Waugh or Rick Bell. And they tell it like it is. Let alone two columnists in two major cities that usually never see eye to eye on anything, amazing. Waugh and Bell take on Ralph and sound like Mother Jones, like the workers, they are Mad As Hell.

Looks like Ralph and the boys blew this one big time...especially with the Human Resources Minister claiming to take a hands off approach to this strike, except of course to sic his Labour Relations Board puppies on the workers, while leaving Tysons free to make a bad situation worse with their scabbing.

Which as of today they have temporarily stopped, having shut down the Brooks plant operation for the weekend. And if the strike succeeds Tyson said it may have to divert cattle to U.S. plants in Washington state and Idaho if it cannot run the Alberta plant. It's called whipsawing, threatening to leave to pressure the government. And these guys would do it to with all that cool Alberta Government cash in their pockets.

And I am not the only one who has called on the union to ignore the Labour Relations Board ruling. Something Rotten at the Alberta Labor Relations Board

This isn't just a strike forced on the largely immigrant workforce at Lakeside Packers by Tyson's but by Ralph's gang in the Legislature, with the quiet support of their Federal Counterparts the Harper Conservatives.

Since this is Conservative MP Monte Solbergs riding, and he was off in Las Vegas as all hell broke loose at Lakeside Packers this week. When he finally blogged today it was about using whale oil as an alternative fuel...yep he praised whale hunting while ignoring the mess Tyson's has made in his riding. Talk about being out of touch. Well he is in good company.


Ralph ducks By RICK BELL, CALGARY SUN, Thursday, October 13
Doug O'Halloran, the union president, makes a last effort to persuade the man of the people. Doug asks Ralph to "require the parties to submit their differences to the process of binding arbitration. Leadership demands a balancing of everyone's interests." Of course, Doug knows the bitter truth. Tyson doesn't want a deal because Tyson doesn't want a union. And Tyson runs Ralph -- not the other way around.

Ouch, and it just gets better.....



From hero to zero
Ralph goes from prosperity popularity to part of Tory-concocted strike at Brooks
By NEIL WAUGH, EDMONTON SUN, Thursday, Oct. 13
An aloof and disconnected provincial Tory government, a made-for-TV labour dispute which pits downtrodden workers against a big, bad meat packer. And a premier surrounded by B-team cabinet ministers who freeze up like a Lada at 40 below. Add an even more ironic twist - unlike the politically naive Don Getty who spent most of his dismal time in the premier's office hiding out from Albertans - Ralph Klein has finally rediscovered his populism (through his $400 rebate cheques) after three years of political drifting. Even though the suits blasted him. Finance Minister Shirley McClellan announced details of Ralphbucks on Tuesday, and the premier was a genuine Alberta hero. Less than 24 hours later, Ralph went from hero to zero as the Tory-concocted strike at Lakeside Packers began. A skirmish broke out at the plant gate when Arkansas-based Tyson Foods tried to bust the picket line with two buses loaded with "Green Hats" - the name the boys and girls on the line have given plant management. Windows were broken. The buses turned back. Film at six. And a repeat of the images of the 1986 Battle of 66 Street when United Food and Commercial Workers fought with Edmonton police in front of Peter Pocklington's Gainers plant. The PCs already picked winners and losers with Shirley McClellan's deeply-flawed BSE bailout which saw the province's two multinational packers and the big feedlot corporations take most of the millions that was supposed to trickle down to cow/calf operators. Provincial Auditor General Fred (Get 'er) Dunn revealed that packer profits soared 281% after the border was closed to Alberta beef and the mad cow money kicked in. When the border swung open in July, UFCW Local 401 was poised to strike - disrupting the beef trade again. But the Tories struck first, appointing a disputes inquiry board. Union members overwhelmingly accepted the findings. Tyson rejected it almost out of hand. Thus the strike. This week, Local 401 boss Doug O'Halloran tried to appeal to the province's newly resurrected No. 1 People Person. In a letter to the preem he talked about the other side of Klein's Alberta Advantage where "an employer often requires them to work without pay and stand in their own urine." He talked of a "workforce of good and decent, hard-working people. Many are immigrants or transplants from other parts of Canada pursuing the Alberta dream," Doug informed Ralph. In 1989, Edmontonians were so turned off by Getty's handling of the Gainers strike that they drove the Tories from the capital. Don lost his seat.

And better........

Unequal fight-This is a case in which Goliath is backed up by government
By RICK BELL, CALGARY SUN, Friday October 14
This is a strike where the provincial government still sits on its butt watching all hell begin to break loose. This day Tyson acts as they do every day, knowing they hold all the cards worth holding. They have all the economic edge, some it gained piling up profits during our mad cow mess while pocketing $32.9 million from the Alberta taxpayer in mad cow aid. They hold all the legal advantages. Alberta, unlike most other provinces, doesn't have a system in place for imposing a settlement when a union bargains for its first contract and the workers cannot get an agreement. The province's Labour Relations Board is ... how shall I say this tactfully ... company-friendly. Tyson wants the provincial board to tell the workers to step aside and let buses run into the plant while limiting the number of pickets. Bingo. Meanwhile, Ralph and the boys in Edmonton do what Tyson wants. Tyson wants this strike called off in the summer. The province calls it off. Tyson rejects a deal worked out by the province's own appointee, an agreement overwhelmingly accepted by the union. No problem. Tyson doesn't want the province to get involved as they did in July. Done. Mr. Tyson, what else would you like us to fetch?

And then Neil Waugh exposes the real reason for Tysons forcing the strike....The yankees are robbing the bank of Alberta with profits from government subsidies to support their operations south of the border and oh yes Don Tysons lavish lifestyle, which he failed to report to share holder or the SEC.....

Strange bedfellows By Neil Waugh, Edmonton Sun, Fri, October 14, 2005
Tyson was a major winner in former agriculture minister Shirley McClellan's BSE bingo when the U.S. border was closed to Alberta beef.The workers on the line now believe that the 60-day strike delay forced by the Tories was intended to allow Tyson to get its ducks in a row to break the union. The company summarily rejected the compromise offer that the government's mediator negotiated. But even more disturbing is the loan document filed with the SEC on Sept. 28 while the Alberta Tories were going through their mediation charade. It revealed an unsecured three-year loan agreement for Lakeside Farm Industries (the holding company for Tyson's Brooks plant and adjacent feedlot) for $352.9 million. It's guaranteed by Tyson and would appear to require a serious chunk of cash flow to service. Maybe that's why Ralph's new American friends are so reluctant to give an inch on a union contract when Lakeside not only appears to be a cash cow, but a valuable asset to raise money.Then there's the April 28 "settled enforcement" with the SEC where former chairman and current director Don Tyson and the company agreed to pay $2.2 million US for "misleading disclosures" over Don's benefits and perks. The SEC probe found Tyson and his two unidentified cronies ran up $689,016 US in oriental rugs, antiques and London vacations. There was also the boat and mansion at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. And the house in the English countryside. Plus a whole list of other personal frills including lawn care, maintenance on nine autos and housekeeping at five houses that Tyson shareholders paid for without being properly told about in proxy notices. With friends like these, who needs enemies?


This is a strike by mainly immigrant workers. Both the Alberta and Federal Government agree that we need more immigrant workers.... Migrants needed to bolster workforce: Pettigrew....as it is now it will be to be exploited as cheap labour as the Fraser Institute recomends and Tysons Lakeside Packers is proving in practice.

Alberta needs workers

Alberta will increase immigration and bolster apprentice training to deal with a projected shortfall of more than 100,000 workers over the next decade.

With $107-billion in capital projects on the drawing board, political and industry leaders said Tuesday they want to ensure that the province's red-hot economy continues to roar.

The government plan includes a policy to seek immigrants and help them make the transition to live and work in the province, Economic Development Minister Clint Dunford said.

“Expanding our provincial nominee program will help Alberta employers attract and recruit skilled foreign workers to fill positions that could not be filled across Canada after extensive searching,” Dunford said.

While the labour shortage is most acute in Alberta because of its booming energy sector, including oilsands projects in the Fort McMurray area, other provinces are feeling the pinch for skilled and unskilled workers.

Business groups such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce have been calling on the federal government to devise a national plan to deal with the problem.

Federal Immigration Minister Joe Volpe has suggested Ottawa may raise Canada's immigration levels by up to 40 per cent over the next five years.

Earlier this year trade unions opposed a government program that brought in temporary foreign workers to help in Alberta's oil sands.

Labour leaders were still a little skeptical Tuesday.

“Is this really about immigrants or helping business get better access to cheap labour?” questioned Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.

“We are not convinced the provincial government has done enough to help groups of workers here in Alberta who could be trained to fill some of these trades jobs.”

Immigrants finding jobs in Canada, just not the ones they want

The Tysons battle is the same old battle that all Immigrants to Canada have faced, low wage exploitation, which is why we have unions and why immigrants have been the backbone of Canada's labour movement.

Like the Gainers strike this is a battle of David versus Goliath, and David for once is getting support from Goliath's media buddies.

Neil Waugh Moves Left

Yep its true the right wing crumdgeon Neil Waugh,business columnist at the Edmonton Sun, has become the friend of the workingman and gasp building trades unions!

Though he still manages to get his digs in on the AFL and the divide in the house of labour over the issue of CLAC and CNRL brining in temporary workers, and whether the house of labour should salt CNRL or boycott them.

In his latest column he blasts the Alberta government making him sound like he signed up with the NDP. Move over Brian Mason there's a new pinko in Redmonton.

Alberta unemployment rates are at "near record low levels. The demand for manpower exceeds the available supply of skilled workers in many sectors of the economy," the CAPP document noted. (Unless you are an Alberta Building Trades Council tradesman sitting at home while Chinese and Filipino boilermakers, welders and electricians are showing up at two, maybe more, Fort McMurray jobs.) CAPP's "solution" is "training and immigration."

Sooner or later someone must be asking, if Albertans are giving up billions in forgone royalty (oilsands plants only pay 1% until payout), why are we wreaking environmental havoc in the boreal forest with this massive buildup in production? Especially if the "immigration" solution is to import crews from the Third World?

Why aren't energy companies being forced to build their value-added facilities in Alberta, rather than sending the stuff down bullet pipelines to American refineries? This huge ramp-up in oil- sands production maybe CAPP's agenda. But remind me again, what's in it for Albertans?

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Alberta Fleeced by Enron

Well you know the good ship of state in Alberta is teetering towards toppling and leaking like a sieve when its main propagandist gives it a good backhand slap.

Edmonton Sun columnist Neil Waugh the apologist for all things Klein and Tory has thrown up his hands in disgust over the cover up by the government of the fleecing it got from Enron when it deregulated the energy market. See his Edmonton Sun columns: March 10, 2005 Powerful question where he asks:

When first confronted with the Project Stanley allegations, Market Surveillance Administrator Martin Merritt - a watchdog without a government leash - reviewed the Snohomish/California allegations and declared them old news. Then he turned his guns on the media, accusing us of "mischaracterizing the allegations."

Just 20 days later - on the first day the legislature gets down to business - Merritt suddenly changed his tune. There's going to be an investigation after all.

"The MSA has requested and obtained materials filed in proceedings before FERC," Merritt gulped. The Cantwell tapes. But instead of an Alberta-based probe, he turned it over to the feds' weak sister Competition Bureau. Then he took another shot at published "articles and commentary."

Short hours later, the Tory butt-covering started in the legislature. Surely a coincidence. And the premier quickly ducked and let the B-Team take over.

"Albertans have not been impacted in any financial way," blustered Energy Minister Greg Melchin. But how does he know? Especially after Justice Minister Ron Stevens - when asked if his notorious Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight has launched an investigation - blurted "at this point in time there is no intention to proceed with anything."

Yesterday, Opposition Leader Kevin Taft met the same brick wall.

"I don't get involved in the mechanics of an investigation," the premier snapped.

Melchin blathered on about "legislated hedges."

Even the man who should be on the case, Auditor General Fred Dunn, is handcuffed. The Market Surveillance Administrator has been conveniently tucked away out of his jurisdiction.

"Why do the people of Alberta have to rely on the County of Snohomish to protect their rights?" wondered Taft. Why indeed?

and in his March 17, 2005 column, How serious are we? Alberta talks tough on crime, but ignores power allegations he continues the spanking:

In a week when a New York court declared Edmonton's own Bernie Ebbers guilty in the massive WorldCom securities fraud, Alberta Solicitor General Harvey Cenaiko summoned the province's police chiefs to his office.

He vowed to crack down on criminal conspiracies.

"Gangs are a breeding ground for organized crime," stormed our Harv. "Organized crime crosses all boundaries and affects everyone."

He joined Justice Minister Ron (Get Tuff) Stevens in his law-and-order manifesto. Our Harv and Tuff mean business. Or at least they say they do.

"We are targeting crime bosses through co-ordinated efforts," Cenaiko blustered on. He talked about "aggressive action already taken."

It all sounds so wonderful, until yet another Enron horror story shows up, this time from deep in the heart of Texas. And you realize just how pathetic the Alberta Tories are these days.

Especially with the Enron bigwigs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling about to be the next alleged corporate fraudsters to undergo the tough love concept of the United States Department of Justice and President George Bush's Corporate Fraud Task Force.

OUCH that must hurt, could hear that ring throughout the marble halls of the Legislature.

The privatization and deregulation of energy in Alberta has been its billion dollar boondoggle, the equivalent of the Ferderal Gun Registry. No one wanted it, not the public sector or the private sector, and certainly not the public. It was driven by ideology (See my article Wild West Buy Out, Steve West aka Prince of Darkness, Kleins drinking buddy and his promoter of the privatization of everything) and it has been a failure in reducing costs but a success in making huge profits for the utility companies.

And now it has been revealed that Enron set up a price fixing fraud in Alberta using the deregulated market to set up a sting it would later use in Texas and Califronia. The gutting of the public purse by Enron first happened in Alberta, thanks to the ill informed, poor planning and oversight of the Klein team.It has taken an American court case to reveal the fact and the Klein gang now has egg on their face.

And now they are covering their asses, claiming this fraud is no big deal. After all it wasn't their fault it was the, wait for it, the Federal Governments fault. Yep fleece us with deregualtion, get fleeced by Enron pass the buck to the Feds.

The Official Opposition Liberals have taken them to task over Enron in the house last week. The NDP have made energy deregulation their cause popular, and now both opposition parties have a literal smoking gun. Will this kevlar government feel the pain, well when its allies like Waugh give it a good smack down, you know they are in trouble. Big Trouble, with a capital T and its spelled ENRON.

Waugh continues his attack in the Edmonton Sun where he writes about TransAlta the private utility corporation which pushed deregualtion because it had a license to market electricity into and out of the U.S. Along with it being private it is a holding company for ex government politicians, it was that way under the Socreds and remains so under the Tories.

TransAlta was the power behind West, in the push to privatize electrical marketing in Alberta. They hoped to be able to trade blended electricity into Canadian and American markets, since they were the only Canadian utility licensed to do so. Ron Sothern of ATCO the other private utility company as well as EPCOR and ENMAX the City of Edmonton and Calgary publicly owned utilites opposed the deregulation.

And while Transalta and the public utilities have made oddles of profit on the deregulated market it is us as taxpayers and consumers who have borne the brunt of the burdern with massive cost increases in electricty as well as having to shell out infrastructure costs for expanding the electrical generation base in the province. After all we were told that deregulation would be good for consumers.

Yeah, consumers like Enron.


Sun, March 20, 2005
Power struggle
TransAlta gets no help from Tories in shaking off taint of Enron scandal
By Neil Waugh -- For the Edmonton Sun

With friends like these, who needs enemies? TransAlta Utilities and the Alberta Tories have this relationship going. They're not exactly attached at the hip. But a lot of prominent PCs are on its board.

Former provincial treasurer - and reported heir apparent for the premier's job - Jim Dinning was an executive vice-president until he curiously resigned Jan. 1 to head up a small bank based out of High River.

Last week TransAlta's name came up in the legislature. This is not a good thing. Especially when it's linked with former Enron Canada president Rob Milnthorp and ex-Enron general counsel Mark Haedicke.

Haedicke, among other things, is suffering the wrath of ex-Enron workers who lost their jobs and pensions after he got a $750,000 bonus, days before the big power marketer went bankrupt. Enron is now facing charges that it rigged the California power market in 2000.

The Alberta Liberals went on the attack after they found what they claimed was a damning e-mail in the mountains of Enron files and transcripts recently released by the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

The document was called "Project Stanley" - the code name Enron execs invented to allegedly manipulate energy markets in California and Texas. And, if you believe the attorney general of California Bill Lockyer, honed their illegal craft, fixing the Alberta market in the early days of Ralph Klein's botched energy-deregulation regime.

'Low profile'

It talked about keeping a "relatively low profile until we settle Project Stanley." And the 2000 memo referred to "recent meetings" with the Alberta government and TransAlta. That sent the Liberals off on a fishing trip for what Grit Leader Kevin Taft says are 5,600 pages of Enron documents in the government's possession.

Instead of giving them up, the Tories naturally stonewalled. Unlucky TransAlta got caught in the crossfire. "The intent is to try and slander," yelped Alberta Energy Minister Greg Melchin. "We still are looking for evidence."

He sure has a funny way of going about it.

"Until a month ago I'd never heard of Project Stanley," said TransAlta legal affairs director Sterling Koch. (Although TransAlta was involved in litigation with Enron at the time.) But he sure has heard of Bill Lockyer. Probably too much.

On May 30, 2002, the crusading attorney general, on behalf of the "people of the state of California," launched a massive suit against TransAlta Energy Marketing Inc., owned by TransAlta but registered in Delaware.

In it he talked about the "skyrocketing electricity prices, widespread blackouts, utility bankruptcy and massive economic upheaval" that hammered his state in 2000. It alleged that the TransAlta spin-off "through unjust, unreasonable and illegal overcharges and price-gouging, received unprecedented profits at the expense of consumers, ratepayers, businesses and the state of California."

As you can see, Bill doesn't pussyfoot around.

In his latest quarterly report - after all the happy news came out - TransAlta president Steve Snyder gave his shareholders the latest Golden State update. The claims were dismissed. An appeal was denied last October.

A parallel investigation by FERC in June 2003 ordered TransAlta to "justify certain trading activities in California." A document filed with the regulator specifically asked TransAlta if it participated in Enron market-fixing scams like "Death Star, Load Shift, Get Shorty and Fat Boy."

TransAlta denied it.

Overcharge claim

"TransAlta does not participate in and has nothing to gain by doing these types of trades," Snyder said at the time. But the company is still arguing over $46 million that California power authorities claim TransAlta overcharged them.

"The courts have dismissed their claim," said Koch. But he might have spoken too fast.

"We're just trying to get our money back," California attorney general spokesman Tom Dresslar snapped last week.

The battle continues. With no help from the Alberta Tories.

Farmers Reject Phony Plebiscite

That should be the headline in the papers today, but it isn't. The headlines are full of government spin on their failed barley plebiscite.

A total of 62 per cent of just over 29,000 farmers who cast eligible ballots said they wanted the board out of the barley market altogether, or for the board to participate in a competitive market. Another 38 per cent said they wanted to maintain the status quo.

Farmers overwhelmingly rejected Chuck Strahl's plebiscite as it was not sanctioned by the Wheat Board. About 86,000 ballots were mailed out based on crop insurance data.

Now at least in some reports those ballots were as high as 89,000. That means if 29,000 farmers voted even with my terrible reputation at math that works out to one third voted not even fifty percent as the government claims.

Strahl said KPMG, the firm that handled the plebiscite for the government, made every effort to ensure only eligible votes were counted. Voter turnout was just over 50 per cent. Strahl said many eligible voters said they didn't bother to vote because they only sell their barley to feed lots, not the wheat board.

So if two thirds of prairie farmers don't vote that means they support the status quo.

The real number that supports the Conservatives opposition to the existence of the farmer owned producer coop; the Canadian Wheat Board they can only muster up amongst their Reform Party base in Southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, 15.2% of the total who voted. Not even the total who could vote.

Contrary to Strahl's math; where he combines pro-choice with anti-Wheat Board,and proudly announces that his side won with 62%, Wayne Easterly the Agriculture critic for the Liberals was justified in pointing out that the numbers could equally show support for the Wheat Board 87.2%. Since those that answered question number two wanted both choice and the Wheat Board.

As Neil Waugh points out in the Edmonton Sun;

Another 15.2% said get rid of the board altogether when it came to the barley business. Still, it was enough to carry the day.

In the four western provinces, where the CWB monopoly rules, the overall result saw only 37.8% back the so-called "single desk," while pro choice hit 49.4%.

But when the Saskatchewan numbers were broken out - where 15,327 farmers voted - 45% chose to extend the monopoly.

In Manitoba, where it appeared a boycott was in the works, 50.6% of only 3,703 barley producer cast ballots saying leave it be.

In B.C., the vote was 49.4% pro choice. But only 156 ballots were in the boxes.

Interesting that Waugh fails to note the Alberta number of votes, in his article.
Well in all the rest of the provinces, total votes other than Alberta; 19,186 That leaves Alberta with less than 10,000 votes and Waugh fails to break them down.

They were 9,881 total votes. It was in Alberta that the plebiscite got 15% support for getting rid of the Wheat Board, the same number as the national result. In fact all of Strahl's numbers are for Alberta.

They are not the reality of the prairie position on the Wheat Board.

Farmer support for Option 1 the Wheat Board was;

Manitoba 50.6%
Saskatchewan; 45.1%
B.C.; 42%

Farmer support for Option 2 market to Wheat Board or on my own;
Manitoba; 34.5%
Saskatchewan; 42.1%
B.C.; 49%

In Manitoba and Saskatchewan the majority of farmers support the Wheat Board, their farmer owned producer cooperative.

Only in B.C. is it the reverse, but the government in its desperation looks at percentages instead of core numbers. B.C. only had 156 votes compared to Manitoba and Saskatchewan's 19,0000 votes.

That's because the Conservatives included B.C. making this not a prairie farm vote but a Western one.

Just as Alberta's vote skews the numbers.

For Option 1: 21.4%
For Option 2: 63.4%

Prairie farmers face their battle to maintain their producer cooperative not with Ottawa, but with Alberta and its party in Ottawa.

The government asked three questions. Period. And there was no clear winner. The government has to resort to arithmetricks.

The reality is that 57,000-60,000 farmers abstained from voting, a boycott was called, and they did not vote in the governments fixed plebiscite. That is twice as many as voted, and a clear rejection of Strahl and the Alberta Reform Party Farm lobby.

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Sun Love In With NDP

Is subversive socialism creeping into the Sun Editorial Room. After all their new marketing slogan smacks of Bolshevism; Read Red. Red being their banner colour.

And they are saying nice things about Brian Mason and the NDP after Brian met with them yesterday.

When Mason appeared yesterday to talk to the Sun's editorial board he didn't seem to have any blood-sucking socialist fangs and wasn't wearing a red beret.

Instead, he wore a tie and jacket and patiently outlined a policy platform aimed at what ex-premier Ralph Klein dubbed severely normal Albertans.

Kerry Diotte, a transplanted Ontario libertarian, gushes again over Brian and the NDP.

There's long been an innate fear of socialism here and it has been reflected by the poor showing by NDP candidates who run federally and provincially.

That's why it's got to be frustrating for a guy like Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason, who's the most charismatic of the three major party leaders contesting the March 3 provincial election.

Which is why he falls into the revisionist right wing myth that Alberta fears socialism. Which is contradicted by the historical fact that Western Canadian Socialism was given birth here with the strikes of miners who belonged to the IWW in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. Again in 1919 with the founding Convention of the One Big Union in Calgary, during the Winnipeg General Strike, organized by the Socialist Party of Canada. And later with the founding of the CCF in Calgary in the 1920's, not as some mistakenly believe in Regina.. Albertans embraced socialism even in its later distributionist right wing variant; Social Credit.

Neil Waugh gushed this week over Brian as well.

There was nothing about a Liberal-style assault on the oilsands for Our Brian, clearly a friend of the working man and woman, or at least not for now. Heck, he even wants to charge a bitumen removal "barrel tax" to force oilsands outfits to upgrade their production here.

Then today Waugh joins in with a clarion call of pending class war because of Big Oil's finger puppet Ed Stelmach. Suddenly Waugh is sounding like more like Lenin than Ayn Rand.

That was all before Canadian National Resources Ltd.'s $2-billion oilsands overrun suddenly appeared to bite the Tories this week.

With only 10% of the Horizon oil sands plant at Fort McMurray still to build, the costs mysteriously soared 28% in what the company blurb called the "toughest, most labour intensive portion" of the controversial project controlled by Calgary billionaire Murray Edwards.

"Unfortunately, mid to late January and early February saw a significant deterioration of labour productivity on the site," company brass lamented.

The reason was "much colder than normal weather seriously curtailed activity."

Who knew that it sometimes hits -40 C at Fort Mac in the winter? When in doubt, blame the workers and the weather.

But it won't be CNRL shareholders picking up the extra $2 billion. Somebody messed up big time and tried to build the biggest piece of the project in brass monkey weather.

In all likelihood, Alberta taxpayers will once again bite the bullet.

Even under Stelmach's new royalty deal (a strangely forgotten part of the PC campaign), oilsands outfits still only pay pennies on the dollar until the massive plants are paid out. Then the royalty jumps to a more reasonable rate of 25% to 40%, depending on oil prices.

Energy department spokesman Jason Chance insisted that any additional costs "would have to be validated and determined whether they are appropriate. It's based on what the reality is."

The sweet deal CNRL got from the Tories for Horizon allowed the company to tear up the oilsands labour construction deal and broke the peace that ruled in the oilsands for the last quarter century. It touched off last fall's Hard Hat Flu walkouts.

This resulted in the "No Plan" Stelmach attack ads backed by the Alberta Building Trades Council.

These took a turn for the bizarre last weekend when the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees' brass, after "extensive debate," voted to kick in $300,000 to the TV spots, meaning government workers are now attacking their own work.

Meanwhile Employment Minister Iris Evans continues to sit on the probe into CNRL's all-fall-down tank farm, where two Chinese foreign temporary workers were crushed to death.

"The chickens are coming home to roost for Mr. Stelmach," Mason chuckled, calling for a "special unit" of government auditors to "validate and verify" CNRL's cost-overrun claims.

Or is Klein's political ghost now haunting Eddie's campaign bus?

Mason also met with the Liberal Edmonton Journal editorial board. And again a fair gushing ensued over the only charismatic politician in the race. Mason was the winner in the 2000 race, and the NDP has made the transition from being a decimated party in 1993 to rising from the ashes in 1997 to winning four seats in 2004. And in each of those elections the NDP was a new party with new directions and new leaders who appealed to the public.

Albertans should be grateful the competent, thoughtful, personable likes of Brian Mason is willing to fight the uphill battle, to make the case for New Democrat MLAs in the legislature at election time, and to stoke debate on issues such as health care each time the Tories introduce one of their numbered "ways" of challenging the public system.

Do the NDs have a place in the next legislature?

That's a decision voters -- in practice, Edmonton voters -- must decide as they balance their desire for change in government offices, their recognition that our new Edmonton-area premier already constitutes change from the Calgary-centric Klein past, and their admiration for stands of principle by people like Mason and his predecessors Raj Pannu and Pam Barrett.

But would this election be as valuable or as useful a forum of political renewal and debate without Mason's and the NDP's thoughtful perspective on issues?

It certainly would not.

The Edmonton media seems to have given Brian and the NDP an election bouquet of good wishes on Valentines Day.


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Careful Of What You Ask For


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Time For Public Auto Insurance

This decision couldn't have come at a better time. Once again the Tired Old Tories tried to pull the auto insurance companies fat out of the fire and in doing so of course passed a law that blamed the victims.

Taking a page out of the Republican handbook about tort law cases, and blaming trial lawyers, the Tories capped claims rather than doing anything about out of control profiteering by the insurance companies.

That law was tossed out last Friday. Already we could be seeing increases in insurance premiums while a public insurance program would actually save Albertan's hundreds of dollars per person.

The insurance industry has suggested that if the legislation is not eventually upheld, it could lead to a rate increase of $200 a year per policy holder.

Of course the Tories will appeal this decision wasting more taxpayers money and solving nothing but doing the bidding of their masters; the insurance companies. And it means they will try to kill it as an election issue. But they will be as successful with that as with their appeal.

A senior Tory official confirms that candidates have been sent a letter telling them they're not supposed to talk about the auto insurance issue since it's before the courts. (The Canadian Press)

It would have been a perfect political day for Stelmach, had a curious e-mail not arrived in my in-box.

The e-rocket was from "Alberta Progressive Conservative Campaign Headquarters" and PC candidates were ordered to "delete and destroy any copies."

In it the "Campaign Team" reminded them of last week's court decision ruling Ralph Klein's flawed auto insurance reforms "unconstitutional" and warned candidates they "must not comment on this decision."

It isn't hard to understand the political sensitivity over the goof, especially after the premier admitted yesterday that "there may be tremendous pressure on increasing rates."

Neil Waugh, Edmonton Sun.

The plaintiffs in the court challenge argued that the insurance industry in Alberta had manufactured the premium crisis by raising rates unnecessarily. They entered evidence into court that showed the insurance companies never lost money in the province; to the contrary, by the time the legislation was enacted in 2004 the insurance industry was well on its way to reaping record profits.

During the court case, Dennis Gartner, the province's superintendent of insurance during the reforms, admitted under oath that the government had no way of knowing how much money insurance companies were making.

After years of waffling, the Klein government finally acted on the controversy in 2004, imposing a $4,000 cap on soft-tissue-injury claims. Since then, personal injury lawyers among others have argued that the ruling -- seen as a sop to the well-connected private insurance lobby -- robbed many accident victims of their basic Charter rights.

Needless to say, the government disagreed, maintaining that its reforms helped all Albertans and didn't affect anyone's liberty. Furthermore, it rejected out of hand the notion that high premiums be tackled with a public auto-insurance scheme, ironically at a time B.C.'s conservative Campbell government was abandoning talk of privatizing the Insurance Corporation of B.C, having discovered that public insurance seemed to work best for taxpayers.

But last Friday, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Neil Wittmann exploded the $4,000 cap, deeming it unconstitutional. As well, he found the existing Minor Injury Regulation discriminates against a specific group of injured Albertans. Wittmann didn't mince words, either, summarily rejecting the government's contention that the legislation was designed to help victims.

Instead, he ruled, the so-called reforms unfairly sacrificed a single group of Albertans "at the altar of reducing insurance premiums."

Now, as anyone financially responsible for a teenager appreciates, the word "high" didn't do justice to premiums faced by some drivers under the old system. "Astronomical" was closer to the mark, and the relief spurred on by the 2004 legislation has been welcome. But the premium grid that did most of the work of changing such inequities is itself unlikely to be affected by Wittmann's ruling.

There will be no waiting period, as requested by the Stelmach government.

Alberta Finance has announced it is studying the ruling, but that shouldn't take long. As of today, the $4,000 cap is no more. Indeed, virtually every argument put forward by the cap-smashing plaintiffs was accepted by the court.

Without the law - and its rate-increase controls - in place the public faces the prospect of increased insurance premiums, Premier Ed Stelmach said Monday.

But opponents decried the government's stance, noting the ruling also clearly indicates that the insurance industry was enjoying record profits at the time and had everything to do with charging the public for bad long-term investments, said NDP Leader Brian Mason.

Mason's party has pledged to introduce public insurance if elected March 3, noting that the most recent Canadian Consumers Association study shows a public system like that in B.C. would save the average Alberta motorist about $400 per year.

"The premier can run from this, but he can't hide," said Mason. "He allowed an industry that was making record profits to run roughshod over the public and to deny injured Albertans their basic rights."

'SCREWED THE PEOPLE'

"Eventually this will come home to roost ... the government clearly screwed the people and took the side of big insurance over Alberta families."

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Our Pal Ed

Lame duck Premier Ed Stelmach is our pal says the Biggest Landlord in Canada....

"We are extremely pleased," whooped Boardwalk president Roberto Geremia.

"Though confronted with intense pressure from the media and opposition parties," he continued, "the provincial government has remained steadfast in its stand against legislated rent controls."

CEO Sam Kolias said Boardwalk was now "poised to generate significant gains," and reminded unitholders that "today's most exciting investment story surrounds our Alberta portfolio," which he described as "really hot."

And Edmonton in particular, where 32% of Boardwalk's apartment units are concentrated and the vacancy rate is running under 1%, is "poised to generate significant gains over the next coming months."

Then Kolias rolled out the happy numbers for the cheerleading stockies listening on the conference call.

Funds from operations were up 25% over the same three months in 2006. Distributable income per unit was up 27%. Rental revenues were up 15%, while net operating income of $51 million was up 19%.

Happy days are here again. And probably the most important stat of all was Boardwalk's "outlook and guidance" prediction that distributable income will climb from $1.87 to as high as $2.04 per unit in 2007.

"We're being thoughtful in the amount we are increasing rents," he continued.

"Although the market can bear more," Kolias sighed, "we do realize that our customers are the most important thing that we have."

H/T to West of the Fourth who discovered Neil Waugh is as Socialist.

Something I have pointed out over the past couple of years about Neil.

After you suffer thirty five years of an incompetent One Party State, socialism actually looks good.

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The Labour Shortage Myth

Shell has completed its Scotford Upgrader project. That means construction tradesmen will be looking for work. As Neil Waugh reports in yesterdays Edmonton Sun.

Celebration Time
But completion of $400M Shell project ends thousands of jobs

Willms talked about the "millions of hours of human effort" it took to build the plant over the last two years. But when the job is done the work is over. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers assistant business agent Wade Ashton informed me there are presently more than 2,600 guys on his list. The same thing is apparently happening at other hiring halls.

Truth be told the following comment is right on;

Oil sands projects by other companies have not been well budgeted, and costs escalated during construction, often largely because of poor organization by managers. CNQ drilling plans hit by rising costs

The Shell Upgrader at Scotford came in on time and on budget. And CNRL plans to do the same with its Horizon project. Since the begining of the Oil Sands companies like Bechtel and others constructing these large industrialized open pit mines, for thats what Tar Sands plants are, have deliberately run up operational costs. They have played fast and loose with construction costs because they know they can write it off as an expense paid for by the taxpayers of Alberta and Canada.

Canadian Natural has worked to avoid that fate. It has spent or committed $4-billion (Canadian) of the $6.8-billion it had budgeted for Horizon's first phase, and the project is on time and on budget.

Part of the company's strategy to keep labour costs down was to strike a deal with the Christian Labour Association of Canada, which has less stringent overtime rules, and is a rival to the traditional building trades unions that were protesting yesterday.

"We're not pleased at the course of action [Canadian Natural] has taken right from the start," Paul Walzack, executive director of the Alberta Building Trades Council, said in an interview before the protest. "We feel there's more than enough labour to take care of this project. And we feel they're jumping the gun drastically by sourcing labour from outside of Canada."

Canadian Natural has said as much as 30 per cent of 4,000 workers needed during peak construction next year could be foreigners, and recently signed a deal with an arm of Sinopec Shanghai Engineering Co. Ltd., which plans to bring in about 225 Chinese workers to help build Horizon. It was the first deal with a non-Canadian contractor. CNQ drilling plans hit by rising costs

Again the problem is "management" not labour. The labour shortage is a convenient fiction. As layoffs occur at Scotford and later next year at Joffery then labour becomes available for Horizon and other projects. As Waugh points out the problem is not labour shortages but lack of planning by the Klein Government. In other words the Klein Government has allowed and encouraged the conditions for cost over runs by shortchanging Albertans, cheating us of our royalties.

There's a serious break in the action in the Alberta's Tories deeply flawed oilsands strategy. They basically cut the bitumen royalty to pennies and said let 'er rip - without putting in place the necessary infrastructure or staging the projects to smooth out the boom-and-bust cycles.

Shell, of course, is the template the Alberta government should be following.

It's taking the resource from oilsands, to synthetic crude, to motor fuel to low-sulphur diesel with all the good-paying jobs staying right here in Alberta - rather than the U.S. Midwest or the Gulf Coast. Celebration Time

There is need for a long term planning for trades education. But like planning for Tar Sands development, the very idea is anathema to the Klein Tories, who take lazzie faire to mean hands off even necassary regulation for sustainable capitalist development.

The trades shortage can only be resolved by having a long term vision and plan. For instance increasing the amount of apprenticeships, which can be done directly through the union hiring halls instead of relying on employers. The AFL has already suggested this as well as tax breaks for hiring and training. The failure to provide for trades training in Alberta has been a problem for over twenty years, it is the failure of the Tory government in Alberta.

They dumbed down the trades, by creating a general high school diploma program, aimed at university qualification and for the rest of the student population there was no encouragement to take trades training or go into work related post secondary education. Which is why a university education is now equated with employability. Another reason that so called higher learning is now being proletarinized, that is students at university are attending in order to get employable skills. Something that was once the domain of NAIT and SAIT and post-secondary trades and college education. Trades enjoy renaissance among job seekers

Increasing the attractiveness of the trades to women will also solve the labour shortage problem, and it is encouraging to read headlines that this is so. But they remain part of the proletarianization of academic training, being nurses, teachers, business management, some in engineering and sciences. As in the trades where they are a minority in the traditional male trades, they remain in the pink collar ghetto, whether as teachers or as hairdressers, or as service workers; houskeeping, store clerks. Even when having post-secondary education they remain a cheap labour force, as the wages paid to day-care workers shows.

Record number of women at work [Globe and Mail]

Growth works well for women [Ottawa Sun]

So why is Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) saying it needs to import temporary construction workers from China and other countries. Because it has nothing to do with lack of labour and everything to do with union busting.

Shareholders Meeting Attracts Hundreds Of Union Protestors

CNRL is using this chimeric labour shortage to justifiy the outsourcing of labour to reduce its costs. Whether there is a labour shortage or not the company would still try and reduce its labour costs by using temporary workers, in this case foreign workers. Its all about profit not costs.

What the building trades unions have finally realized is their mis-placed campaign last year which was a xenophobic nationalist attack on temporary workers was misdirected. CNRL is the problem, not the workers they employ or not.

The Building Trades and the AFL now calls for giving these workers green cards, union rights and the potential to move here as immigrants. Something the IWW had already called for.Foreign Workers are Fellow Workers.

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