Harpers Crimilization of Canadians Is A Bad Investment

The Harpocrites right wing law and order agenda, though as la scandale Bev Oda shows the government itself is not above breaking the law, is typical right wing sturm and drang signifying nothing except a growth in the institutional prison industry.

The Harper Conservatives are under fire for their extraordinarily expensive legislative initiative, Bill S-10. Among other things, it seeks to spend at least hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers dollars on prison building, in order to impose a mandatory minimum term of six months in jail for anyone who grows more than six marijuana plants. Most Canadians, experts and non-experts alike, have criticized the proposal as costly and counter-productive, noting that it will imprison individuals who are mostly non-violent and who sell to willing adult consumers.

The cost is in some dispute. Correctional Services Canada estimates an increase in prisoner numbers of 3,400, requiring 2,700 new spaces, at a cost of $2-billion.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page, thinks that lowballs the price tag. His office puts the increase in prisoner numbers at 4,200, at a cost of $1.8-billion for facility construction and an additional $3-billion a year for operations and maintenance. He suggests that by 2015/16, annual prison expenditure will have increased to $9.3-billion from the current $4.3-billion.

As a result the costs incurred will continue to balloon from lowballing by the government. And if the American experience tells us anything as we can see from the report below, the facts are that prison expansion is a drain on the public purse, with no rehabilitative or crime reduction consequences!

But let us not let the facts get in the way of a political ideology. After all these Republican Light Harpocrites are nothing if not panderers to American right wing ideology. An ideology that is the politics of fear.

Reason and the facts once again show that a policy of increasing the length of criminal sentences does nothing except expand the prison population, increasing costs to the public purse.

The growth of the corrections sector has other impacts. A number of rural areas have chosen to tie their economies to prisons, viewing the institutions as recession-proof development engines.
Though many local officials cite benefits, broader research suggests that prisons may not generate the nature and scale of benefits municipalities anticipate or may even slow growth in some localities. Record incarceration rates can have longer-term economic impacts by contributing to increased income inequality and more concentrated poverty.
Economic Impacts of Prison Growth
Suzanne M. Kirchhoff
Analyst in Industrial Organization and Business
April 13, 2010
Congressional Research Service
7-5700
www.crs.gov
R41177

P3 The Unvarnished Truth

The overall lessons from the case studies suggest that the prognosis
for future P3s is somewhat pessimistic. Governments have generally
found it difficult to effectively reduce their financial and budgetary
exposure. Furthermore, in some cases, governments have faced
significant increased political risk rather than reduced risk as they had
hoped. At the same time, their for-profit private sector partners have had
difficulty making adequate rates of return, although this is a tentative
conclusion as they have usually had incentives to publicly emphasize
losses.
In some respects, the somewhat negative findings are not surprising.
The public and private partners in P3s inevitably have conflicting
interests (Teisman & Klijn, 2002; Trailer et al., 2004). Studies have
shown that in other contexts with similar conflicting interests, such as
mixed enterprises that are jointly owned by private shareholders and
government, the result can be “the worst of both worlds”, achieving
neither high profitability nor worthwhile social goals (Eckel & Vining,
1985; Boardman & Vining, 1989). In sum, while the allocation of
decision-making and risk-sharing in P3s can vary widely, if decisionmaking
authority and financial risk-bearing are not appropriately and
clearly matched, incentives will be misaligned and effective outcomes
are unlikely. This raises the question of whether governments can learn,
individually or collectively, to adequately specify contract conditions and
institutional conflict resolution mechanisms ex ante so that the past is not
a prologue for the future.

SNC Lavilin Building Prison In Libya

The Harpocrites failure to rescue Canadians from Libya, follows on their failure to rescue Canadians in Egypt.

My husband and I were two of the many Canadians left behind at Cairo airport that evening when the Canadian evacuation flight left half full. The airport was in chaos, the conditions rapidly unsanitary and embassy staff next to impossible to find. Had staff at the Canadian embassy answered the phone, or at the least put on a voice mail message directing Canadians to the correct terminal, much of the chaos could have been avoided and the plane to Frankfurt would have left full.

However, during business hours, the voice mail message said the embassy was closed (it was not, as we learned later; some Canadians had managed to get to the embassy through Tahrir Square that day) and the only voice mail message said: “for an update on avian flu, press 8.” Avian flu? What about an update on how to access Canada’s voluntary evacuation flight? How difficult could that have been?

Incorrect information was given to our tour company with the result that while we were in terminal 4 with no information and no embassy staff and no way to contact them, the plane was leaving from terminal.

The Harpocrite government has so emasculated our Foreign Affairs department that when emergencies arise abroad we are beholden to others to rescue our own people.

Now it is revealed that Harper's reluctant sanction speech on Friday night may have more to do with SNC Lavalin, headquartered in Montreal, than with principles. In fact SNC Lavalin is building a prison in Libya, a prison which the dictator would have used to continue to illegally detain his opposition and torture them, but heck we only build it, we don't care how its used.

One Canadian engineering company confirmed Friday it was forced to halt work on a new prison in Libya and evacuate its workers after the security situation collapsed.

Montreal-based international engineer SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. reported it had begun work on a $275million jail in Tripoli under a contract with the Gadhafi government.

The prison contract was not publicly announced, though it is mentioned in the company's coming annual report, said Leslie Quinton, vice-president of corporate communications. It is one of thousands of projects the company is working on, she added.

Read more: http://www.leaderpost.com/news/Evacuation+sparks+confusion/4352074/story.html#ixzz1F7rkmLPw

Another reason for the Harpocrites reluctance to sanction Libya, would be that of course this prison like the prisons they propose is a P3, private public partnership. And guess who will be building the new prisons the Harpocrites will need once their tough on crime bills pass...why can you say SNC Lavalin.

After all SNC Lavalin is the also the contractor responsible for maintaining government buildings in Ottawa, while also supplying our troops in Afghanistan and American troops in Iraq with weapons systems.

Canada's SNC-Lavalin company that was at the centre of a headline-grabbing bribery scandal in Kerala is now under scanner at home for allegedly overcharging in government building maintenance. Canadian Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose Thursday ordered an independent auditor to review a building maintenance contract given to SNC-Lavalin after allegations that the company charged $1,000 to install just a doorbell and $2,000 to buy two plants. The Montreal-based company has a $6-billion, multi-year contract to manage 320 Canadian government buildings.

The firm manages a number of major buildings in Quebec and Ontario, including the CBC broadcast centre in Toronto and Complexe Guy- Favreau, a sprawling federal government building in Montreal.

ProFac, a division of Montrealbased SNC-Lavalin, also maintains several provincial government buildings in Alberta and Ontario and helped to build Camp Julien, a Canadian military base in Afghanistan.

KANDAHAR, January 11, 2009 — Today, the Honourable Beverley J. Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, launched the next phase of Canada’s Dahla Dam Signature Project in Afghanistan. She met in Kandahar’s Arghandab Valley with the Governor of Kandahar, Tooryalai Wesa, and representatives of the SNC-Lavalin/Hydrosult joint venture, the firm selected to lead repair efforts to Dahla Dam.

It is a Quebec company, a province that the Harpocrites need to get votes from. And it is a private monopoly engineering management firm that benefits from preferential government support. If the government sells off Atomic Energy Canada, SNC Lavalin could be a contender.


In other words a private corporation that benefits from public funding for private profit, while imposing its own management over public access to public buildings we pay for.....

Locked doors at the Yukon’s federal building signal it is now under the management of a Quebec-based multinational.

“I tried to get in the back door yesterday, but it was locked,” said a longtime employee on Thursday.

SNC-Lavalin ProFac was awarded the property management contract for the Elijah Smith Building on August 1st.

The corporate construction giant has offices in 30 countries and is working in 100 different countries around the world.

In 2004, SNC-Lavalin was given a $1.5-billion property management contract to maintain 319 federal buildings across Canada.

Its recent property management contract for the Elijah Smith Building is not part of that deal.

SNC-Lavalin is taking over a lot of federal buildings across the country, said Elijah Smith commissionaire Michael Roy, when asked about the recent changes.

SNC-Lavalin’s decision to lock the back door was made “to control access,” he said.

The multinational is also planning to shut down the public bathrooms and take out the public phone, said Roy, confirming reports the News received from other disgruntled employees.

Leaky LEED

A LEED rated Green School in Halifax is suffering from a leaky roof, toxic VOC's and boiler maintenance problems only a year and a half after being built. Green buildings may not be as energy efficient as they claim to be. Using recycled materials and putting sod on the roof is asking for trouble, predominately water seepage. Perhaps more efforts should have been put in to the boiler system instead of making the school a modernist penitentiary.

Security cameras, panic buttons, washrooms without doors and extra-wide halls designed to prevent conflict between jostling individuals: Is this a new Canadian super-max penitentiary?

Far from it. Welcome to Halifax's Citadel High School, likely the safest educational institution in the country.

Too cool for school at Citadel High
Temperature drops to 11 C as repairs are made to heating system pipes
By TASLEEM MAWJI
Thu. Oct 15 - 4:46 AM

" border="0"> Citadel High School students were sent home Wednesday after the school board decided it was too cold in the school because repairs to a heating have not yet been completed. (Christian Laforce / Staff)

The Halifax regional school board finally concluded Wednesday that 11 degrees was too cold for studying at central Halifax’s only high school.

A faulty steam pipeline under Summer Street that heats Citadel High School — and has been under repair for months — still wasn’t working in the morning when the temperature dropped in the city.

Parents were first told to bundle up their kids and send them to school anyway, but the board eventually decided to send students home later in the morning.

One parent was upset that the school board had not made a clear decision earlier and that the $31-million school, built in 2007, was having more problems.

"They’re certainly working as quickly as they can," said Cathy MacIsaac, a Transportation Department spokeswoman.

"The delay was related to receiving the pipe and the pipe is on its way."

Her department is overseeing the work.

Heating issues have closed the school before. Earlier this summer, workers tried to find out what was wrong with the pipeline.

The province found that a high water table in the area was creating problems for the pipes that heat the school.

Cold water in the soil was making it difficult for the pipes in the heating system to work properly.

Repairs were needed. They included waterproofing manhole covers, replacing valves and replacing the piping itself.

Ms. MacIsaac said that the repairs are almost done and that the specialized piping should arrive today.

Installation work should take about three to four days.

"Our staff are working with (the school board) to try and put in some temporary heating so the teachers and students can get back in, in a comfortable environment," she said.

School board spokesman Doug Hadley said an external boiler will be temporarily connected to the building’s hot water and in-floor heating systems. Six heating units with fans will also be brought in.

Mr. Hadley said the school board would be in contact with parents Wednesday night, but the plan was to have the school open Thursday morning.

Citadel High School replaced St. Patrick’s and Queen Elizabeth high schools as part of a $400-million provincial program to build and renovate schools around Nova Scotia.

The school has experienced a number of problems since its completion, including poor air quality and leaky roofs.

The repairs on the steam pipe will cost about $200,000.

Ms. MacIsaac said that at least a portion of the cost is likely to be covered by a contractor’s warranty.

Heating fails at new Halifax school

Last Updated: Tuesday, September 29, 2009 | 12:52 AM AT

CBC News

The underground piping system that heats Citadel High School in Halifax is out of commission for the second time in less than a year.

Officials with Nova Scotia's Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal said ground water is leaking into nearby manholes and causing the pipes to leak steam.

"They don't work as efficiently as they should," Lindsay Mills said Monday.

The $25-million high school, which opened in September 2007, is designed to be heated with steam generated at a nearby hospital and directed to the school using underground pipes.

The same underground system, running from the QEII Health Sciences Centre, also heats the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History.

Neither building, however, is getting heat from the steam transfer system.

"We are looking into that to figure out the origins and what really went wrong," Mills said.

Crews have dug three pits in the area as they try to make the piping waterproof and replace manholes and steam fittings.

Mills said the problem, which will cost an estimated $225,000 to fix, first surfaced last year when a leaking pipe sent steam billowing out of a manhole for several weeks.

She said the repairs should be complete by late October, and consultants will determine who will pay for those repairs.

Halifax's 16-month-old Citadel High School has a leaky roof.

School officials used buckets to catch the water as it dripped through the ceiling above the gymnasium on Thursday.

"At that point it was dripping not in any great amounts but coming in in more than one area," said Shaune MacKinlay, spokeswoman for the Halifax regional school board.

MacKinlay said the building is still under warranty so the board won't have to pay for repairs.

Contractors were expected to go to the $30-million school on Friday to fix the roof.

Citadel High opened in September 2007.

One of the highlights of the school is that it adheres to the international Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards for sustainable, green benefits.

Some of its environmental features include:

-- Rainwater collected to flush its toilets
-- Reused building features from the two schools it replaces and the one that was demolished to make way for it
-- Retained as much green space on site as possible
-- Waterless urinals
-- A reflective roof with part of the roof covered with grass
-- Exceeding the energy code requirement for insulation R value
-- Steam from Infirmary boiler plant is used to heat the building and water

What is LEED?
The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ encourages and accelerates global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of universally understood and accepted tools and performance criteria.

CASE STUDY ON STEEL RE-USE PERFORMANCE BASED SOLUTION FOR CITADEL HIGH SCHOOL

“We really wanted to not have a traditional ceiling in the classrooms,”
says Cotaras. “The exposed beams and deck make the
classrooms feel taller. Plus, there’s a three foot savings from floorto-
floor adding a cost savings to the envelope of the building.”
Fowler Bauld & Mitchell’s design also eliminates the need for
horizontal ventilation ducting at each floor. Instead, vertical ducts
drop into each classroom from a ventilation distribution system
located in a spine running along the building’s rooftop. This also
reduces the cost of the construction.
Citadel High School is the second project where Fowler Bauld &
Mitchell has used exposed beams. The Nova Scotia Community
College in Stellarton that they designed in 2004 was a 5,575 m2
renovation and expansion project (see Advantage Steel No. 23,
Summer 2005). Similar to Citadel High School, exposed steel
beams/steel decking were painted and lit with suspended lighting.
“Although Citadel High School uses some of the same structural
design elements such as exposed beams, it is a much bigger project
than the Community College,” says Cotaras. “Not only is it threestoreys
instead of two, its also all new construction and not a renovation/
addition. This is the first time exposed steel has been used
in this way for a new building in Nova Scotia.”
Fowler Bauld & Mitchell’s design for the school uses steel beams
instead of joists. These will not only be stiffer, but will allow for a
clean open-ceiling approach and a reduction in the overall height.
According to the company, this will save cladding costs and helps
justify the more costly beam approach.

Two Tier Alberta Redux

The Stelmach government made several announcements this week concerning seniors. All of them are about their plan to end universality and create a two tier system of seniors service.
Alberta seniors who can afford it to be able to buy extra care
Ironically one of those announcements backfired.
Seniors won't pay for braces, artificial limbs
seniors earning more than $21000 were going to be required to pay part of the cost of the devices that had been free.
And while the government quickly backtracked claiming that it was all a miscommunication, it wasn't. The government is giving with one hand and taking away with another.
Alberta opening doors to for-profit drug providers for seniors
As of January 2010, the Stelmach government will eliminate its universal Alberta Blue Cross benefit for the province’s elderly and replace it with a new income-based system that opens the door to “private, for-profit health insurance companies,” says Elisabeth Ballermann, president of the Health Sciences Association of Alberta (HSAA/NUPGE).
So despite the backpedaling on one miscommunication, the reality is that the government does not have a leg to stand on when it says it is improving seniors care in the province. It is introducing two tiered seniors care. And with that can two tiered health care be far behind?
David Eggen, executive director for Friends of Medicare, said the government's move to charge well-off seniors jeopardizes the universality of health care. "We're very concerned about all the Albertans targeted for increases," Eggen said. "Seniors should be upset after they have been paying into the system their entire lives and then the rules change."
And while the government is claiming wealthy seniors can pay for more care services the reality is that in B.C. such programs have hurt those who cannot afford it. B.C. like Alberta has promoted P3's.
PORT ALBERNI — On Wednesday of this week it was reported that the former residents of Cowichan Lodge are now paying more at the P-3 Sunridge Place. When the Government fired all the workers at Cowichan Lodge and forced the residents to leave a publicly funded facility and move into Sunridge Place, VIHA and the Government promised no extra fees and better service. The extra costs are reported by one patient to be approx $300 per month. This is how the private part of the partnership makes money. They have to charge for “extras” that used to be covered in the main costs at the publicly funded facility. The government may be still paying the same amount per patient, but the company can’t make a profit on that unless they slash wages, lower services and increase “user fees.” This equals less care and more costs for our retired elderly workers and their families. Is this what we want for our parents or ourselves? With many seniors’ loss of assets due to the market downturn these extra charges are even more mean spirited than usual.

See:
Two Tier Alberta
Medicare Calgary Style

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Neo-Cons Have No New Ideas

The neo-con federal government of Harper and Flaherty have no new ideas, just the same old ideology. After lambasing Harper for his flip flop on the deficit, and his denial that Canada is in a recession, Don Martin in his column today says;

"Be it campaign deception or denial, having tens of thousands suddenly face the loss of jobs, savings and perhaps their homes has twisted Harper's old beliefs into policy pretzels. For this Conservative government, the age of ideology is over -- technically and realistically."

Unfortunately Don the Conservative Government has not given up on its neo-con ideology as we witness in this announcement by Jim Flaherty.

Flaherty aims to boost economy with P3 projects
Ottawa wants to build billions of dollars of bridges, hospitals and other infrastructure as a way to lessen the blow from the financial crisis, finance minister Jim Flaherty said Monday.
Speaking at a conference in Toronto, Mr. Flaherty said investments in infrastructure will be "a key part" of the government's strategy to stimulate the economy.
But some observers say there's a problem with the plan. The government wants to deliver the projects through so-called public private partnerships (P3) where projects are built and financed by the private sector but according the government's requirements. But while the P3 model has gained acceptance in much of the world, there is rising concern that the credit crunch has made it almost impossible to finance new P3s.
Because of the financial crisis, finding willing lenders has become a lot more difficult and when they can be found the cost of capital for even triple-A borrowers is much higher than even a few months ago, said Alban de La Selle, a senior executive at Dexia Credit Local SA, a leading European bank.
"Lenders [on infrastructure projects] have become significantly more cautious," according to a recent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. "... infrastructure finance raising is likely to be challenging for some time to come and the business risk of these transactions is certainly higher."
But the financial turmoil may have thrown a monkey wrench into the mechanics of P3s by making the financing so much more difficult.
Mr. de La Selle said one way to overcome the problem would be for the government to provide the financing itself. Since governments are among the few players that can get the benefit of lower borrowing costs, that advantage could be brought into play in doing P3s, he said. For their part, the private sector partners would guarantee to repay the debt.

So instead of the government funding infrastructure projects, the Harpocrites want to fund the private sector to do it for them. Ironically currently P3's in Canada are funded by public pension money, there are very few private P3's.

The Harpocrites had an opportunity to build a P3 project; the National Porttrait Gallery but they canceled it last week.

Earth to Flaherty,hello we are in a recession if not a depression and companies are hoarding capital not spending it. So instead of expanding the public sector the government will be choosing winners and losers in the private sector to build infrastructure. And these companies will promise to repay the debt, which will only happen if they survive this depression. Throwing good money after bad.

And he made his announcement at a conference on P3's sponsored by the right wing business lobby the Fraser Institiute.

So much for the Harpocrites abandoning their neo-con ideology, even in this recession they scramble to keep faith with the right wing ideology that got us in this mess in the first place.

Speaking to a Fraser Institute dinner, the finance minister committed to increased spending by Ottawa, if it is needed. Flaherty stressed at the luncheon the importance of infrastructure spending by the federal government, notably in partnership with the private sector. He announced $1.25 billion in startup funding for P3 Canada Inc., an entity that will work on public-private projects.
Thank goodness for this opportune recession, even if it is still "technical," as Finance Minister Jim Flaherty insisted at a downtown conference yesterday. If it weren't for whatever it is, nothing would get done.
The legacy of good times lasting more than a decade is a mountain of unfunded priorities for public spending. It took recession, or perhaps only the vivid perception of it, to focus government attention on what it should have undertaken years ago.
Focus is too soft a word to describe the sudden conversion of our former fiscal conservatives to counter-cyclical spending. Yesterday, a previously dismissive Mr. Flaherty let the world know he was jumping into the pothole business with both feet.
Infrastructure spending "will be a key component of our future success," he told a conference on public-private partnerships, and a "key component" of his government's planned economic stimulus. Although ideological conservatives may worry about burdening future generations with unsustainable debt, real Conservatives are now committed to spending their way out of recession.
And nobody is cheering louder than the crowd that brought us collateralized debt obligations and credit default swaps. With the market for such innovative products seized up worse than a rusty Ford, government has become the only source of cheap credit for anything. Ergo, everybody loves infrastructure. Well-dressed converts flocked to Mr. Flaherty's speech yesterday like contrite sinners to a revival meeting.
Instead, governments should activate construction projects that are already on the drawing-boards, and have been waiting for funding. Canada's infrastructure suffered much depreciation during the fiscal restraint of the 1990s, and did not catch up in the balanced-budget period. The wear and tear are showing.

SEE:
Your Pension Plan At Work
A Critique of P3's From The Right

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Nepotistic Boondoogle

The idea perhaps originated in the PMO after last election. Being a minority government who knew when King Stephen might get kicked from office. So lets find a legacy project for Steve. And viola what should appear on the horizon but the National Portrait Gallery. And as I pointed out here suddenly it was being moved out of Ottawa, lock, stock, and special atmospheric preservation equipment, to the Calgary riding of the PM.

Until last week when the whole idea was shelved, cause Calgary no longer looked like a shoe in for best P3 deal.

In a scathing editorial in the National Post entitled Portrait of Incompetence it is all made painfully clear. The P3 bid opened up to other cities was a mere fient, the fix was in for Calgary, until Edmonton put in two bids both lower than the Calgary costs.

The thoroughly depressing history of the project has been covered exhaustively -- but here is a capsule summary. Sheila Copps' original 2001 brainwave for a permanent centre at the old U. S. embassy in Ottawa ran headlong into cost overruns, belt-tightening in the national capital district and a new Liberal regime that was none too keen on building an expensive legacy for its leading critic. Paul Martin's government vacillated, and when it was ousted by the Conservatives, they seized upon the opportunity, first engaging in backdoor negotiations to find room for the gallery in downtown Calgary, and then opening the whole thing up to private-public bids from major cities across the country.
Edmonton threw a spanner in the works by coming up with not one but two bids that would have been extremely easy on the public purse; this led to the deadline being quietly extended so that Calgary could improve the terms of its proposed deal. Meanwhile, Ottawa's partisans put on a full-court press, arguing chauvinistically that the right place for a national gallery could not possibly be anywhere but the national capital. These master logicians told an ostensibly pretty story about the Portrait Gallery serving as a locus of educational tours of the capital, but failed ever to mention the real truth -- that in downtown Ottawa the building would probably remain a poor cousin to Parliament Hill, the National Gallery, the Museum of Civilization and other competing sites. The nation's capital Ottawa may be, but not many schools can afford to send children on the week-long field trips that the city perhaps deserves.

And speaking of Shelia Copps she has her own take on this mini-boondoogle.

The decision of Stephen Harper's Conservative government to cancel the National Portrait Gallery was a smart move to get out of a poorly conceived plan to build the museum as a public-private partnership, says former Liberal heritage minister Sheila Copps.
"I think that was a bit of a way of getting themselves out of a pickle that they'd created," Copps said Saturday. Heritage Minister James Moore announced on Friday that the gallery would be cancelled.
Moore said none of the proposals submitted by developers in a nationwide competition was acceptable and the government must act prudently in a time of economic instability.
But Copps said she didn't buy that excuse.
She described the competition as "poorly thought-out" and a "no-win" political situation that would pit the losing cities against the government.

This was always about Calgary. It was a sop to Encana, and the ideology of P3's. Encana of course is the company that Gwyn Morgan used to run. Harpers old political/business pal whom he tried to get appointed as the newly created Federal Government Appointments Commissioner after the 2006 election. But that too failed to pass. And like the National Gallery cancellation the post of Appointments Commissioner was never filled.

Encana was also a victim of the Harpocrites about face on Income Trusts so having the National Gallery in Calgary built by Encana was simply payback.

This was about moving a National Gallery to Calgary to show that political power had shifted west, to the Petro Bay Street of Canada. It was also about selling off the Gallery to Encana. Thus Canada's National Portrait Gallery would have been the Encana National Portrait Gallery of Canada.

The new Conservative government killed that project in 2006 and tried to forge the EnCana deal. When that failed in the face of withering criticism from Ottawans and others, the government resorted to the bidding process. Now cities across the country have spent money preparing bids and $11 million has been wasted renovating the U.S. embassy location. The machinations surrounding the gallery have been a sorry display of government inefficiency and inept politics.

Once again the neo-con ideology of Privatization bites the bullet.



tags;
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Pallins Pipeline 2

As I posted here previously the Alaska pipeline being built to transfer oil and gas south into the Gulf Coast refineries is being built by TransCanada Pipelines. Which originally was created by C.D. Howe and the Liberal Government and included the Alberta Socreds provincially created pipeline. Private capitalism which would not take a risk then took advantage of crown corporations created by public infrastructure funding. As taxpayers in Canada we have always funded big projects, like the railways and Air Canada, only to hand them over to private business interests when they were successful. Today you and I still pay for the privatization of our public infrastructure. Because that is the history of economic development in Canada, state capitalism for private benefit.



Ernest C. Manning was premier for 25 years. He was the wilful leader who walked the narrow path between powerful ideological opponents on the left and the right.
The socialists hordes in 1955 -- OK they were the Liberals and the CCF (today's NDP) - took 40 per cent of the popular vote in the election and wanted more government ownership of the oil industry.
Manning held the day with his 46 per cent of the vote -- and 37 of 61 seats.
The oilpatch capitalists, on the other extreme, tried to maximize their profits during the post Leduc oil boom that began in 1947.
Manning fought them off, too.
And Manning's government created a unique pipeline company in 1954 that was neither government owned, nor the profit-making tool of the international oil companies. It was called the Alberta Gas Trunk Line and is today part of TransCanada Pipeline.



In 1956, C.D. Howe forced the plan for the Trans-Canada Pipeline, a gas pipeline from Alberta to central Canada, through Parliament but paid heavily when the Liberal government lost the next election and he lost his seat.C.D. Howe retired from politics in 1957 at the age of 70.





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C.D. Howe Canada's Grand Poobah

There is great irony in the fact that one of Canada's foremost establishment right of centre think tanks the C.D. Howe Institute which often promotes a neo-con agenda is named after one of Canada's foremost Pooh-Bahs of State Capitalism.

Grand Poobah is a term derived from the name of the haughty character Pooh-Bah
in Gilbert and
Sullivan's The Mikado. In
this comic opera,
Pooh-Bah holds numerous exalted offices, including Lord Chief Justice,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Master of the Buckhounds, Lord High Auditor, Groom
of the Back Stairs, and Lord High Everything Else. The name has come to be used
as a mocking title for someone self-important or high-ranking and who either
exhibits an inflated self-regard, who acts in several capacities at once, or who
has limited authority while taking impressive titles.

Enter Pooh-Bah.

NANK. Ko-Ko, the cheap tailor, Lord High Executioner ofTitipu! Why, that's the highest rank a citizen can attain!
POOH. It is. Our logical Mikado, seeing no moraldifference between the dignified judge who condemns a criminal todie, and the industrious mechanic who carries out the sentence,has rolled the two offices into one, and every judge is now hisown executioner.
NANK. But how good of you (for I see that you are anobleman of the highest rank) to condescend to tell all this tome, a mere strolling minstrel!
POOH. Don't mention it. I am, in point of fact, aparticularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamiteancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you thatI can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomicglobule. Consequently, my family pride is somethinginconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering. But Istruggle hard to overcome this defect. I mortify my pridecontinually. When all the great officers of State resigned in abody because they were too proud to serve under an ex-tailor, didI not unhesitatingly accept all their posts at once?
PISH. And the salaries attached to them? You did.
POOH. It is consequently my degrading duty to serve thisupstart as First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Chief Justice,Commander-in-Chief, Lord High Admiral, Master of the Buckhounds,Groom of the Back Stairs, Archbishop of Titipu, and Lord Mayor,both acting and elect, all rolled into one. And at a salary! APooh-Bah paid for his services! I a salaried minion! But I doit! It revolts me, but I do it!
NANK. And it does you credit.
POOH. But I don't stop at that. I go and dine withmiddle-class people on reasonable terms. I dance at cheapsuburban parties for a moderate fee. I accept refreshment at anyhands, however lowly. I also retail State secrets at a very lowfigure. For instance, any further information about Yum-Yumwould come under the head of a State secret. (Nanki-Poo takes hishint, and gives him money.) (Aside.) Another insult and, Ithink, a light one!

The C.D.Howe Institute flies in the face of the endeavours of Howe, who as Minister of Everything, oversaw the development of public and crown corporations in Canada. Federally funded, not joint private public partnerships, which of course would have demanded private capital to develop. With the victory of neo con agenda in the ninties promoting privatization of public and government infrastructure the C.D. Howe institute gave establishment legitimacy to the efforts of other right wing lobbyists and thnk tanks like the Fraser Institute and its east coast doppleganger; the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies , and the newly minted Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The C.D. Howe Institute
(formerly the Howe Research Institute), is a nonprofit policy research
organization established in 1973 by a merger of the Private Planning Association
of Canada, formed in 1958, and the C.D. Howe Memorial Foundation. It is located
in Toronto. Its principal source of funding is the fees contributed by a
membership that includes corporations as well as individuals with a background
in business, the professions or academia. The institute's staff is responsible
for the preparation of the annual Policy Review and Outlook and various other
publications on topical issues. The institute also commissions leading
researchers (academics for the most part) to write papers and monographs on a
wide range of topics such as fiscal and monetary policy, trade policy, social
policy, the environment, federal-provincial relations and constitutional reform.
Although the main focus of the institute's research program is the economy, the
range of topics it has covered over the years is very wide and occasionally
extends to non-economic issues such as culture and ethnicity.

The right wing agenda saw public policy as moving from the State capitalizing public services and infrastructure and moving towards selling off those assets to deal with its debt and deficit crisis. Public good was now replaced with state funding for private profit. Howevere now that we face the economic melt down that this ideology resulted in we will see if this think tank of Canada's establishment changes it's tune. Why do I find that unlikely.

C.D. Howe Institute
Benefactors Lecture, 1997

D.G. McFetridge
Professor and Chair,
Department of Economics,
Carleton University
Toronto, October 22, 1997
Sponsored by Dofasco Inc.

The formation of public policy can be viewed from a number of perspectives.
Some see it largely as the outcome of tradeoffs between contending
interest groups; policy changes reflect nothing more than the ascendancy
of one interest group over another. To others, including the
C.D. Howe Institute, ideas matter. A good idea, well explained, can
overcome the power of even an entrenched interest group.
If ideas do matter, there is certainly merit in bringing the evidence
on the economic benefits of privatization to public attention. Privatization
is about more, much more, than selling off the bus company. It is
about institutional design, and in some countries (New Zealand, for
example) it has involved considerable reflection on just what should be
expected of government.
What we have come to call privatization is part of a larger process
of institutional change involving commercialization, contracting out,
and regulatory reform as well as the sale of state-owned enterprises to
the private sector. The literature on this process is vast but of uneven
quality.

The evidence on conventional contracting out, especially by municipal
governments, is unambiguously positive: it reduces the cost of
providing the services involved. There is more skepticism and less
evidence on the consequences of contracting for social services and for
the joint supply of infrastructure and services (public/private partnerships).
These instruments are likely to present serious—but not necessarily
insoluble — contract design problems. They may require the
government to be an active and strategic purchaser in ways not envisaged
by privatization zealots. Nevertheless, the potential economies,
especially in the accumulation and use of knowledge, make continued
experimentation worthwhile.
With respect to the entire process of commercialization, regulatory
reform, and the sale of state-owned enterprises to the private sector, the
weight of the evidence to date is that it has been beneficial. The precise
contribution of the change in ownership to the gains that have resulted
from the process as a whole is difficult to identify. One can argue,
however, that privatization is an essential part of the process in that it
provides the impetus for commercialization and makes regulatory reform,
especially regulatory forbearance, possible.
Whether or not privatization is a necessary part of the process, once
commercial objectives have been adopted and regulatory reform has
allowed competition or potential competition to exert its disciplining
force, there is little, if anything, to be gained from continued state
ownership — provided that the government sells its interest at a price
equal to the present value of the income it might expect to derive from
continued ownership.
Although the international experience with process ofcommercialization,
regulatory reform, and privatization has been favorable and
there are good conceptual arguments for privatization itself, the case for
individual privatizations must still be made on the merits. The body of
existing evidence is not so strong or so detailed that it can be taken to
imply that, say, the province of Saskatchewan would necessarily realize
significant economic benefits from privatizing its electric power or
telecommunications utilities.
The theoretical and empirical literature on privatization reminds
us to remain open to the potential benefits of employing decentralized
market or market-style incentives in place of hierarchy and command
and control. The ongoing international experimentation in institutional
design has been worthwhile and is clearly worth pursuing further.
The literature also teaches that privatization is frequently not about
pushing a button and getting less government. Unless the political
forces that brought about government intervention disappear (and they
may in some cases), privatization will be about getting different government,
rather than less government. It may involve catering to a different
set of interest groups or catering to the same interest groups in a
different way. It may involve the same or similar political activity
in different forums. It is often not simply a matter of opting for the
invisible hand.

C.D. Howe - "Minister of Everything" - Biography of C.D. Howe

C.D. Howe was a cabinet minister for 22 years, first in the government of Mackenzie King, and then in the government of Louis St. Laurent. Nicknamed the "Minister of Everything," C.D. Howe was forthright and forceful, and more interested in getting things done than in policy. He mobilized Canada for World War II, turning the Canadian economy from one based primarily on agriculture to one based on industry, and after the war turned it into a consumer economy spurred by veterans.

Career Highlights of C.D. Howe:
created a national air service, Trans-Canada Airlines (later Air Canada)
created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as a Crown corporation
created the National Harbours Board
restructured the debt-ridden Canadian National Railway (CNR)
established the St. Lawrence Seaway
established Canada's nuclear industry
initiated the Trans-Canada Pipeline
Professional Career of CD Howe:
Engineer
Taught at Dalhousie University in Halifax
Businessman - designed and built grain elevators
Political Affiliation:
Liberal Party of Canada
Riding (Electoral District):
Port Arthur (Ontario)
Political Career of CD Howe:
C.D. Howe was first elected to the House of Commons in 1935.
He was appointed Minister of Railways and Canals and also Minister of Marine. The two departments were soon combined into the Ministry of Transport. C.D. Howe oversaw the reorganization of Canadian National Railways, and the creation of the National Harbours Board and Trans-Canada Airlines, the forerunner of Air Canada.
In 1940, C.D. Howe was appointed Minister of Munitions and Supply in charge of war production for Canada. As head of the War Supply Board, and with the authority of the War Measures Act, C.D. Howe created a huge rearmament program using "dollar-a-year men," business executives called to Ottawa to reorganize the economy. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which created more than 100 aerodromes and landing fields and trained over 130,000 airmen, was one of the results.
In 1944, C.D. Howe was appointed Minister of Reconstruction, and then Minister of Reconstruction and Supply, and began turning the economy toward consumer needs.
C.D. Howe became Minister of Trade and Commerce in 1948.
In 1951, with the growth of the Cold War, C.D. Howe became Minister of Defence Production as well as Trade and Commerce and oversaw the growth of the Canadian aircraft industry.
In 1956, C.D. Howe forced the plan for the Trans-Canada Pipeline, a gas pipeline from Alberta to central Canada, through Parliament but paid heavily when the Liberal government lost the next election and he lost his seat.
C.D. Howe retired from politics in 1957 at the age of 70.

C. D. Howe
C. D. Howe was known for getting things done.
That made him exactly the type of leader Canadians needed to channel their domestic energies into military might during the Second World War.
Clarence Decatur Howe is best remembered as Prime Minister Mackenzie King's right-hand man. When King decided to meld responsibility for railways, marine transport and civil aviation into one powerful Ministry of Transport in 1936, the prime minister put Howe in charge.
Not only did Howe's achievements in transport help ready Canada's transportation systems for the massive load they would have to carry during the war, but the transportation policy expertise he acquired left him well-prepared to direct the all-important Ministry of Munitions and Supply during the war.
Howe was, as he put it, a "Canadian by choice." A carpenter's son, he was born in Waltham, Mass., in 1886, moving to Canada in 1908 to teach civil engineering at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He later established a consulting engineering firm that specialized in grain elevators.
King brought Howe into politics in 1935 and he immediately began to cut a swath through bureaucracy, refusing to be bound by tradition and red tape, seeing himself much more as an implementer than a policymaker.
Howe was particularly interested in establishing a strong Canadian presence in the growing field of civil aviation.
He was instrumental, before and after the war, in establishing or expanding Trans-Canada Air Lines, the National Harbours Board, Canadian National Railways, the St. Lawrence Seaway, the TransCanada Pipeline and even the CBC.
Canada's first Minister of Transport took over a Canadian transportation system that was fragmented and outdated.
He centralized the administration of ports and reformed the debt-laden CNR, increasing efficiency and accountability that would be so important during the war.
Unemployed workers of the "Dirty '30s" were mobilized to build airstrips across the country and Trans-Canada Air Lines, Air Canada's predecessor, was established as a Crown corporation.
All these measures helped to pull the country's transportation network out of the Depression, preparing it for the incredible challenge that it would face in 1939-45.
When Canada entered the war in September 1939, Howe retained the Transport portfolio but was also asked to take on Munitions and Supply.
One of Britain's first requests was that Canada play host to the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, which would train nearly 50,000 pilots and groundcrew by war's end.
Howe left Transport to concentrate on Munitions and Supply in July 1940, but continued to prod the transportation sector for the extraordinary performances he was demanding of other Canadian industries.
Before the end of the war in 1945, railway traffic had tripled in Canada as food, munitions and other war supplies were rushed to Atlantic ports.
Howe was criticized for forging ahead with little regard for costs, but the results he engendered soon silenced his critics. Costs wouldn't matter if the war was lost, he told colleagues, and in victory, costs would be forgotten.
The war, of course, was won and the relentless energy of Canada's first Minister of Transport played a major role in the victory.
Canada's other wartime ministers were P. J. A. Cardin, 1940-42; J.-E. Michaud, 1942 - April 1945, and Lionel Chevrier, April 1945 - June 1954.

SEE:

Right Wing Environmentalists

The Real Story of Alberta's BSE Crisis

The End of Public ACCESS

CKUA History of a privatization putsch

Canada’s Billion Dollar P3 Boondoggle

Social Insecurity- The Phony Pension Crisis

Laundry Workers Fight Privatization

Legacy Of The Ralph Revolution

Private Vs. Public Monopoly

P3= Public Pension Partnerships

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Fraser-Institute, C.D.Howe, C.D.Howe Institute, Pooh-Bah, Mikado, Canada, right-wing-think-tanks,

Nova Scotia Imitates Alberta 2

In another example that the old neo-con ideal is not dead yet, Nova Scotia like Alberta is once again looking at P3's as a solution to long term funding of infrastructure. Despite its failure in that province previously. And like Alberta, which has a labour boom while Nova Scotia has a labour deficit, the costs will rise because of scarcity of labour. Those costs will be passed on to taxpayers if not now then over the life of the P3 agreement.

Once hailed as the new vision of the right, privatization, P3's and contracting out have proven to be a billion dollar boon-doogle and not a solution to rising costs. They are in fact simply taxpayers paying private companies to provide services that make them profit, by cutting wages and providing poorer quality, and they end up costing us more in the long run. It looked good on paper, but as with most of these ideas from the seventies they have proven their time has come and gone.

In fact in Canada it is your and my pension funds that paying for these P3's. So we get screwed twice as taxpayers.

Nova Scotia Throne Speech eyes privately funded roads, bridges

The Canadian Press

November 22, 2007 at 1:33 PM EST

HALIFAX — Nova Scotia's Conservative government has opened the fall session of the legislature with a Throne Speech promising a return to public-private partnerships in constructing roads, schools and other facilities.

In a document entitled “Throne Speech for the New Nova Scotia,” the government says it has learned from the mistakes made when a previous Liberal government introduced the P3 concept that built 30 schools in the 1990s.

The government says with a $12.4-billion debt, it has to find ways to reduce the costs of building and maintaining public roadways and buildings.

The speech estimates the province is facing a long-term bill of $8-billion to build and maintain infrastructure.

The document also says a new department will be created that is focused solely on the environment, along with a new Ministry of Labour and Workforce Development to help deal with a shortage of skilled labour.

The government is also promising new education standards with primary attention paid to mathematics and literacy and says it will continue a freeze on university tuition with more reductions planned.

SEE

Nova Scota Imitates Alberta

Find blog posts, photos, events and more off-site about:
Alberta,Canada, Pierre J. Hamel, P3, public-private-partnerships, neo-con., Rodney MacDonald, infrastructure, economics,
P3, privatization, public-private-partnerships, Canada, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, FCM, Government, scandal, Nova Scotia

Your Pension Plan At Work

We may end up owning an airport in New Zealand. I can't wait to retire and visit.

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The Canadian state pension fund said on Wednesday it would make a partial all-cash offer for NZ's Auckland International Airport Ltd (AIA.NZ: Quote), a week after the company rejected a previous offer.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board said it would offer NZ$3.6555 a share for up to 40 percent of Auckland Airport shares valuing the company at around NZ$4.5 billion ($3.5 billion). CPPIB said Auckland Airport shareholders encouraged it to bid again, after the board rejected the previous proposal as too risky.

Shares in Auckland Airport, 23 percent owned by two local authorities, closed on Tuesday at NZ$2.91, having traded between NZ$2.06 and NZ$3.50 over the past 12 months.

($1=$1.29)

In response to a stinging snub from the board of New Zealand's largest airport, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has fired back with a plan to take its partial takeover offer directly to shareholders.

After a months-long friendly process in which the Canadian pension fund manager was given ample access to Auckland International Airport Ltd.'s books, its board put out a surprising and sharply worded release last week quashing the CPPIB's bid.

Four of its five members voted against the offer for up to 49 per cent of the company. The revised all-cash offer is valued at $1.8-billion New Zealand ($1.3-billion Canadian) for 40 per cent.

Alongside its concern about the level of debt involved in the partial privatization, Auckland International's board also took an unusual poke at the expertise level of the $120.5-billion (Canadian) pension fund manager, which is considered by many to be one of the world's most sophisticated investors in infrastructure.

The CPPIB's second wind, however, has come from institutional investors including the airport's largest, the Auckland City Council.

The council owns a 12.75-per-cent stake and has encouraged the pension fund to continue on with its plan.

"We are really going down this route because shareholders have lobbied us to find a way to opine on the proposal," Mark Wiseman, CPPIB senior vice-president, private investments, said in an interview.

The airport's other large shareholders include the Manakau City Council, the city just south of Auckland in which the airport is located, along with infrastructure investors Macquarie Bank of Australia and New Zealand's Infratil Ltd.

Actually this is another case of public sector funds being used as a P3 Public-Public-Partnership. Privatization by another name,except all the investors are publicly owned institutions or pension funds. Ironic that.

Privatization of infrastructure is now being paid for by public funds. No capitalist is willing to invest in long term infrastructure. Not private equity companies or Hedge Funds. So while neo-cons promote the myth that private capital is willing to invest in public infrastructure the reality is that it is workers pension funds, public funds that are used to rescue the public sector and the commercial private sector investments in infrastructure.

Canadian pension plans, Australian bank to acquire Puget Energy

A multinational consortium lead by an arm of Australia's Macquarie Bank and including three Canadian public-sector pension plans is acquiring Puget Energy (NYSE:PSD) amid continued infrastructure investments by major Canadian pension funds seeking more lucrative returns to pay pensions.

The deal values the U.S. utility company at US$7.4 billion, including $3.2 billion in shareholder capital provided by the consortium, $2.6 billion in existing debt that will be assumed and $1.6 billion of newly issued debt.

In addition to Macquarie, the consortium includes the Toronto-based CPP Investment Board, British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and Alberta Investment Management.

"PSE is Washington's oldest and largest energy utility - it is a strong, stable company with a growing customer base in a market that has displayed consistent demand over time," Christopher Leslie, chief executive of Macquarie Infrastructure Partners, stated Friday.

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 1, 2007) - RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust ("RioCan") (TSX:REI.UN) today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2007.

Financial Highlights

RioCan reported net earnings for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 of $35,917,000 ($0.17 earnings per unit basic and diluted) as compared to net earnings of $41,763,000 ($0.21 per unit basic and diluted) for the three months ended September 30, 2006. For the nine months ended September 30, 2007, RioCan reported a net loss of $32,790,000 ($0.16 loss per unit basic and diluted) as compared to net earnings of $120,377,000 ($0.61 per unit basic and diluted) for the comparable period in 2006.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2007, rental revenue was $160,559,000 as compared to $145,339,000 for the three months ended September 30, 2006. Rental revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2007 was $483,824,000 versus $429,291,000 for the comparable period in 2006.

FFO for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 was $76,029,000 ($0.36 per unit) as compared to $72,533,000 ($0.36 per unit) for the three months ended September 30, 2006. For the nine months ended September 30, 2007, FFO was $227,120,000 ($1.09 per unit) as compared to $209,440,000 ($1.06 per unit) for the nine months ended September 30, 2006.

RioCan's Consolidated Financial Statements, Management's Discussion and Analysis and a Supplemental Information Package for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2007 are available on RioCan's website at www.riocan.com.

FFO is a widely accepted supplemental measure of a Canadian real estate investment trust's performance and should not be construed as an alternative to net earnings or cash flow from operating activities determined in accordance with Canadian generally accepted accounting principles. RioCan's method of calculating FFO may differ from certain other issuers' methods and accordingly may not be comparable to measures reported by other issuers.

Portfolio Stability

At September 30, 2007:

- Portfolio occupancy was 97.6%;

- 65.1% of rental revenue was derived from properties located in Canada's six high growth markets (including and surrounding Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver);

- 82.6% of annualized rental revenue was derived from, and 83.1% of space was leased to, national and anchor tenants;

- Approximately 49.7% of annualized rental revenue was derived from its 25 largest tenants; and

- No individual tenant comprised more than 5.7% of annualized rental revenue.

Development Activity

With over a billion dollars at cost of ongoing developments, project activities remained strong throughout the third quarter as RioCan continues to focus on its development program. At the end of the third quarter, approximately 8 million square feet was under development, of which RioCan's ownership interest was approximately 3.4 million square feet. Third quarter highlights include:

- Oakville, Ontario - RioCan Centre Burloak, located at the intersection of Burloak Drive and Queen Elizabeth Way, is a 552,000 square foot new format retail centre anchored by Home Depot (retailer owned), SilverCity Oakville Cinemas, Longo's and Home Outfitters. This joint venture with the Canada Pension Plan ("CPP") Investment Board is 100% leased with approximately 92% to be occupied by national and regional retailers.

Construction is well underway and store openings are now being phased-in. A number of retailers have recently opened for business including Home Depot, Nike, Sony and Tommy Hilfiger. Additional retailers opening by the end of 2007 include SilverCity Oakville Cinemas, Suzy Shier, Guess, La Vie En Rose, Reitmans, Le Chateau, Urban Barn, Benix & Co., Bowring and many more. Other retailers such as Longo's, Home Outfitters, Urban Planet, Kitchen Stuff Plus, Structube, Solutions, Kelsey's, Montana's and Swiss Chalet will be opening in 2008.



- Edmonton, Alberta - Construction is ongoing at RioCan Meadows, another development joint venture with CPP Investment Board. Upon completion, this 502,000 square foot new format retail centre will be anchored by a Real Canadian Superstore (retailer owned) and Home Depot. Some retailers that recently opened for business include Winners, Dollarama, TD Canada Trust and Wok Box. Additional retailers opening later this year and in 2008 include Petsmart, Reitmans, Laura, Scotia Bank and Swiss Chalet.

- Calgary, Alberta - Also moving towards completion is the construction of RioCan Beacon Hill, a 788,000 square foot new format retail centre featuring shadow anchors Costco and Home Depot, both of whom are open for business, as well as Canadian Tire and Shoppers Drug Mart, both of which are expected to open in spring 2008. This joint venture with Trinity Development Group Inc. and CPP Investment Board boasts a number of national retailers, many of which are already open for business, including Winners, HomeSense, Royal Bank, Linens 'N Things, Golf Town, Michaels, The Shoe Company, Mark's Work Wearhouse, LaSenza, Thyme Maternity and Sport Chek. Additional retailers such as EB Games, Telus and Bell Mobility are anticipated to open later this year.

However what remains lacking is shareholder control of our pension funds. Without that we have no checks and balances on how our funds are being used, for instance if jobs are cut at the airport which are not in our interests or those of the workers affected.

Or in the case of affordable housing our pension funds are being used for commercial real estate investments instead of creating affordable housing in overheated markets.

While institutional funds, as our public pension funds are called in the investment industry, cry for more control over the boardrooms of the companies they invest in, we the owners/shareholders of these funds have no say in their boardrooms.

This is an issue the labour movement and civil society needs to address soon.

Canada says G7 to discuss state investment funds

Group of Seven finance ministers will discuss the need for more transparency by state-backed investment funds in a meeting on Friday and will likely mention the issue in their final statement, a Canadian government official said on Tuesday.

Ministers from the world's richest nations will gather in Washington on Friday to discuss the global economic outlook following this summer's credit crunch as well as possible regulatory changes for financial market players.

But sovereign wealth funds are also high on the agenda and will be the subject of an "outreach session" with non-G7 members Friday evening, said the official, who declined to be named.

Although they are not new, these funds have grown in number and size in recent years as the central banks of oil-rich Middle Eastern countries and countries such as China, which have huge reserves, invest in riskier assets in search of higher returns.

The main concern in Canada and other countries is that not enough is known about the huge capital flows from these funds, which can create imbalances in the global financial system. The funds need to be guided by clearly stated market-based principles to assure the countries hosting their investments that they are not motivated by anything other than economics, the official said.

At a special meeting that will also include China, Korea, Kuwait, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, Canada will hold up its Canada Pension Plan Investment Board as a model of accountability that could be adopted by state-owned investment funds. Norway's state fund is another model.

The CPP Investment Board is responsible for investing pooled pension assets worth C$120.5 billion and operates at arm's length from the government, with an independent board of directors. It undergoes external audits every year and tri-annual reviews by government authorities.

It is required also to hold public meetings periodically and to disclose its investment performance on its Web site.

Charge higher CPP premiums to firms without pension plans

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is launching a campaign to change Canada Pension Plan rules, requiring employers without workplace pension plans to pay higher Canada Pension Plan (CPP) premiums.

The extra money would be used to pay higher CPP benefits at retirement to workers who do not have a workplace pension plan.

NUPGE outlined the proposal at a recent conference attended by more than 300 union representatives and leading pension policy experts. The event was arranged by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), which brings together affiliated unions with a combined membership of more than three million members.

NUPGE is one of Canada's largest unions, representing 340,000 public and private sector workers across the country. Collectively, the NUPGE members participate in pension funds with combined assets of more than $100 billion.

The union recently released a research report identifying an alarming decline in pension coverage in Canada. The report revealed that the percentage of the Canadian workers covered by a pension plan declined from 46% in 1991 to 38.5% in 2005.

Employers lack incentives to provide pensions

Larry Brown, NUPGE's national secretary-treasurer, says Canada now provides few incentives for employers to create pension plans, despite the obvious social and economic benefits of doing so for workers and for society in general. In fact, disincentives exist to discourage employers from setting up their own plans, he said.

Brown says employers with pension plans now pay exactly the same CPP premiums as those without plans. At the same time, they assume legitimate administrative costs and requirements set out in pension legislation, including funding obligations and reporting and actuarial evaluations, he said.

“Employers have a moral obligation to their employees to provide decent pensions, but our system does very little to encourage this behavior. Instead, it subjects employers who provide pensions to necessary but often complex legislative requirements,” Brown notes.

"Why should an employer assuming the burdens and obligations of providing a pension plan pay the same CPP premiums as employers who do not?" he asks.

“We don’t think that makes sense and we’re launching a campaign that calls for an extra payment to the CPP from those employers that don’t offer a workplace pension plan,” he says.

"We are saying that employees should receive improved CPP benefit coverage during any years they work for employers without a workplace plan, and those benefits should be financed by additional CPP premiums collected from employers who do not offer pension plans.”

Brown says this would create an incentive for employers to provide pension plans. "They would pay for a workplace pension plan, or pay higher CPP premiums. Either way, they would be required to meet their moral obligations to their employees”, he said.

SEE:

Vencap

AIM High

P3 Myth Busting

Infrastructure Collapse

Fire Sale

Dumb and Dumber

Public Pensions Fund Private Partnerships

Golden Parachutes

Your Pension Dollars At Work

P3= Public Pension Partnerships

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Alberta, Heritage Trust Fund, LAPP, Alberta Investment Management Corporation, Canada, Pensions, P3, public-private-partnerships, OMERS, CPP, Ontario-Teachers-Fund, OTF, Canada, investment, infrastructure, VenCap, shareholders, economics,