From the Memory Hole, episode infinity at this point

From a front-page report in the St. John's Telegram of August 15, 2009.

In light of certain other recent developments, it's almost as if there was a pattern or something.

Briefings only oral for OramNo paper trail outlining issues in Health department
Rob Antle

It has a budget of $2.6 billion and is responsible for ensuring the well-being of more than half a million residents of Newfoundland and Labrador, but the Department of Health and Community Services says it does not have a single scrap of paper or e-mail provided to brief incoming minister Paul Oram about his new job. 

The Telegram made a request under provincial access to information laws for any briefing materials provided to, or prepared for, Oram.

The request included paper and electronic records.

The response? Nothing. 

Oram said in an interview he prefers verbal briefings. 

"I didn't ask for any briefing notes," the minister said. "To tell you the truth, I don't get much out of briefing notes. I get more out of people sitting and talking to me about what we've got to do."

The name of the game is blame

A little over a month and a half ago, Paul Oram (DON'T SUE!) was taking responsibility for the Flowers Cove fiasco:

My decision's final. I've said that from the beginning.

Now — despite the limited tactical advantage of having a convenient fall guy named Paul, and a fall guy (Paul guy?) who, equally conveniently, is now out of politics — the official narrative is that the entire cabinet was responsible. Oram's replacement, Jerome!, telling the CBC Here and Now audience Thursday night:

... Minister Oram was only the messenger here. The decision was made by cabinet. So it's the full cabinet that was responsible. As for being hung out to dry, our intention is to do what's best for the people of this province, and all I can say, is that when I became health minister, we re-examined the situation, we looked at it, and we determined that the right thing to do was to restore these services.

Of course, on Thursday Happy Day, Danny was only the messenger here, right?

To recap:

First, Paul Oram took responsibility for Flowers Cove.

Then, the health board had the blame assigned to them.

By October, Paul Oram was getting the blame back — even from outside the political fence.

And now the entire cabinet is donning their finest hair shirts, and flagellating themselves down a stand-in Via Dolorosa on Tea House Hill. They all did it.

All of the cabinet, including rural MHAs, were in on the decision to cut rural health care. Et vos, Patty Pottle (Torngat Mountains), Joan Burke (St. George's—Stephenville East), Darin King (Grand Bank), Charlene Johnson (Trinity—Bay de Verde), Tom Hedderson (Harbour Main), Kevin O’Brien (Gander), Jerome! Kennedy (Carbonear—Harbour Grace), Susan Sullivan (Grand Falls-Windsor—Buchans), John Hickey (Lake Melville), and Clyde Jackman (Burin—Placentia West)?

About the only thing left now is for the Premier to announce that he was just "kidding" about the whole clinic announcement in August.

Hands off

BondPapers asks:

Odd that Paul Oram backbencher had no trouble with his wife’s picture and name being in a Labrador newspaper when she and her husband travelled to Labrador west talking about opening a new personal care home in the area. Anyone got a picture of that to share for posterity?

And labradore obliges:

This is a saved-down version of a photo by Peter Genge which originally appeared on page 4 of the October 15, 2006 issue of the late Labrador West news weekly, 53 North.

Remember that date.

It portrays, left to right, fellow care home owner Gerry Kirby, Karen Oram, and Paul Oram, late Minister of Health until the glare of scrutiny by the nefarious media got to him.

The accompanying article, by Peter and Ngaire Genge, was entitled, "One Step Closer to Lab West Seniors' Complex".

The article opens:

Completing yet another step towards a modern seniors' complex for Labrador West, developers Karen and Paul Oram were in the region this week to meet with prospective clients and crunch final numbers. "The magic number is fifty," says paul. "We can plan for expansion later, but, to invest the $2.5 million to begin the project, we need fifty residents."

Karen and Paul Oram curently own and operate two other personal care homes, in Glovertown and Gambo, with 52 and 53 beds respectively.

It continues:

The Orams' [sic] came to Labrador West with a vision and a draft for a facility, but that's already in revision.

[...]

Says Paul [Oram], "Luckily for us, my father is in the construction busines. He's worked on our other project and could lead the construction work here. That would help with cost effectiveness, but there are certainly differences in the costs of material and the availability of construction personnel here compared to other locatoins, all of which has to be taken into account."

[...]

Says Paul [Oram], "Government will provide the same subsidies here as they will in Clarke's Beach or Gambo. [...]"

[...]

Says Paul [Oram], "Certainly, the final disposition of a site for the hospital will have some real influence on our choices."

[...]

Says Paul [Oram], "We have to weigh a lot of factors before where we decide we'd want to locate the facility."

When the Bad Bad Media Man first reported on then-Minister Oram's business CV in July, Oram said:

"I have been hands off for a number of years now — in fact since 2003 — and ... I have sought legal council to decide the [what] best step is to take," Oram said. "But I can assure you at the end of the day that I will comply and I will ensure there is no conflict."

The year 2006, the year in which the photo and article above were published, is generally believed to have come after 2003 — assuming, of course, that both dates are according to the same era of reckoning.

Less than two weeks later, the Bad Bad Media Man reported that, with the Commissioner of Members' Interests and former President of the PC Party finally back from holidays, he had received, and would be complying with, the Commissioner's recommendations.

And the next day, two more Bad Bad Media Men — though not quite as bad as the Really Bad Bad one — reported for a Quebec daily newspaper:

Paul Oram continued to act as an owner and director of private companies after being appointed to cabinet in the fall of 2007, according to corporate records filed in provincial registries.

Three months later, Paul Oram could no longer be accused of any public conflict of interest, having settled the issue decisively by resigning his public posts as MHA and Minister of the Crown. In his departing shriek he flayed the media:

Let me give you an example, David [Cochrane]. You know, first when I became a minister, it was my business interests … plastering my wife’s name all over the television, and my father’s name all over the television. Is that appropriate? Well I guess the media thinks it is. I’m fair game, but I don’t think my family are. That played a huge role in terms of where they’re coming from, and it’s been a rough time for them, in terms of issue after issue after issue. Quite frankly, I’m not going to expose my family to that anymore, and I’m going to move on. It’s been a good go, but the time has come to move on.

This would be, presumably, the same wife whose name and face his appeared next to his, and the same father whose name he dropped a reference to, in the Labrador West papers three scant years before.

Huge difference, David

In his final scrum, Paul Oram’s screed against the nasty, nasty media — by which he means the CBC — does not go unchallenged. The consequences are hilarious:

COCHRANE: Doesn’t that cut both ways? Do you read what you and your cabinet colleagues and your caucus colleagues say about other politicians in Hansard? Some of the nastiest comments I’ve seen in my twelve years of politics have happened inside that chamber, where the media is not allowed to go. So you want to talk about a civil tone in politics and how the media is hurting peoples’ families, don’t politicians have to look at how they treat each other, and how they treat their families, too?

ORAM: Huge difference, David, in what happens inside that House and what happens on the airwaves when families can listen to it and watch it, you know, and —

COCHRANE: It’s broadcast live on TV

ORAM: — and the fact of the matter is that everyone knows what happens in the House of Assembly, and it’s a tradition, it’s always been, the heckling and things like that. We also know that at the end of the day politicians walk across the corridor and we shake hands and it’s just the reality of it. And to even suggest that that is even close to what we’ve seen in the media in the last little while, is absolutely silly, you know.

COCHRANE: You have a double standard?

ORAM: No it’s not a double standard.

COCHRANE: How is it not a double standard?

ORAM: It’s not a double standard, David.

COCHRANE: I’ve even here had the Premier say things about Lorraine Michael that are far worse than anything a reporter has ever said about you.

ORAM: Well, I can tell you right now, that from my family’s perspective, that what they have seen, and I can speak for my family, what they have seen said is what they see in the media. It’s not what they see in the House of Assembly. And they watch the House of Assembly as well. But what they see in the media is what really hurts them.

For the benefit of the Oram family, here are some classic moments in recent House of Assembly history which they may have missed, and which constitute a “huge difference” from what the meanies in the media have said about various Orams:

April 27, 2004:

CHAIR: Order, please!

MR. T. MARSHALL: I say the same thing to the hon. member there. Since we have been here that is all we hear from you guys over there, nothing but personal attacks. Come on! We are here to do the business of the Province. We are here to do the business of this place. Come on, raise the tone of debate.

CHAIR: Order, please!

MR. T. MARSHALL: Stop this yelling and screaming and nattering over there. You have been nattering since the day we got here. You are nothing but nattering naysayers of negativism.

May 18, 2004:

MR. PARSONS: Mr. Speaker, we are all aware - and you are certainly aware - that whether or not the use of a particular word is or is not unparliamentary can vary from time to time, depending upon the circumstances, the tone that was used at the time that it was uttered. I think it is quite clear, Mr. Speaker, that the use of the words - I have checked in Beauchesne here, I do not see the specific words two-faced here, but there are certainly lots of incidents in Beauchesne where that type of wording, saying that someone’s actions and behaviour is two-faced, certainly causes a negative connotation and is unparliamentary. I think the Premier should withdraw that remark as being unparliamentary.

PREMIER WILLIAMS: I actually withdraw that remark, Mr. Speaker, that the Leader of the Opposition is, in fact, no-faced.

April 20, 2005:

PREMIER WILLIAMS: Now, having said that, there is a double standard. What happened in your Cabinet when things were discussed, when your brother was a negotiator for CUPE? What about when things were discussed concerning Abitibi and forestry, when your brother or brothers were working with that organization? What happened when the hon. gentleman from Twillingate & Fogo was Minister of Education and his good wife was a teacher, and he did allocations? What happened there?

May 1, 2006:

MR. TAYLOR: I say to the Member for Grand Falls-Buchans, if she did work for every year, seven years, what did she do? Send the crew in? What, did she send her brother in with a wheelbarrow and a shovel, Mr. Speaker? That must have been what she did, because over seven years you would think that she would have had most of the work done, if that is it. She didn’t spend it on the Trans-Canada in that district, because if she did, the number one priority -

May 2, 2006:

CHAIR: Order, please!

MR. SULLIVAN: A point of order.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

MR. RIDEOUT: Oh, what an idiot!

CHAIR: Order, please!

May 9, 2006:

MR. RIDEOUT: Mr. Speaker, it seems to me that the Leader of the Opposition has developed an awful thin skin over recent days. You cannot say a thing to him. You cannot remind him that he is whistling past a graveyard, that the sky is not falling, as he hopes it is. When you remind him of that: Oh, you are attacking him personally, you are upsetting his feelings. I called him a sooky baby the other night, Mr. Speaker, he just about hit the ceiling. The hon. Leader of the Opposition from time to time acts like a sook, asks questions like a sook, and when he asks questions like a sook, he will be responded to like a sook.

May 18, 2006:

MR. WISEMAN: It is one thing to accuse us of not understanding, but to take the House out of order, no respect for the Chair, and be a sook in the process -

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. WISEMAN: - because she does not want to be quoted out of context.

I won’t read the rest of the garbage that she said, but I want to conclude by reading the last point that she made -

November 20, 2006:

MR. JOYCE: (Inaudible).

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, the hon. the Member for the Bay of Islands is nattering over there. I think someone should tell him to go drive the fire truck down in Humber Arm himself.

December 11, 2006:

MR. HICKEY: (Inaudible).

MR. JOYCE: I say to the Minister of Transportation and Works, you cannot tell me to shut up. I am in no meeting where you can tell me to shut up. You cannot do it. I am in this House of Assembly. I am going to speak in this House of Assembly and you cannot tell me to shut up.

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

May 17, 2007:

MR. RIDEOUT: I would not ask the hon. gentleman for fresh air, Madam Chair, let alone leave. If I do not have the ability to suck it in myself, I would not ask the hon. gentleman for it. He got sooky with me a couple of days ago because I accused him of interrupting during Question Period. Well, it was not him at all, I apologize. I finally have an opportunity to apologize. It was the Member for Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair, but somehow or another I am sure that in the background that I heard this gruffly, melodious voice that I can only associate with the hon. gentleman from Bay of Islands. It was not a singsong, I can tell you, but it was enough to trigger, in my memory, that it was him.

May 31, 2007:

MR. JOYCE: (Inaudible).

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, would you get something from Beauchesne and throw it at the Member for the Bay of Islands?

SOME HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear!

MR. T. MARSHALL: Mr. Speaker, we have a company in my district called 3 T’s. Here we have the 3 N’s: the nattering nabob of negativism.

Three strikes and you're out

In a James McLeod report in today’s Telegram, another of MUN’s political scienticians, Matthew Kerby, without any obvious sense of irony, speculates as to the “three strikes” which may have led to the meteoric fall of Paul Oram:

The first strike against Oram was conflict-of-interest controversy about his former career owning personal-care homes, which emerged mere hours after he became health minister.

The second strike, Kerby said, was the revelation that upon taking over the government's biggest department, Oram had declined any briefing notes.

By the third, and final strike - the ongoing controversy about service cuts in Lewisporte and Flower's Cove - Kerby said Oram had become "damaged goods."

It must be a relief to the Eighth that these are the strikes against.

After all, there are, and never have been, any other real or perceived conflicts of interest lurking around the cabinet table; Paul Oral was the only cabinet minister who minimizes his ATIPpable paper trail; and he alone inflicted political own-goals on Danny Williams-Government to the point where he became damaged goods.

Notes from a scrum (VI)

Some more parting thoughts from Paul Oram, rebuffing a friendly reminder from the CBC’s David Cochrane:

ORAM: First when I became Minister, it was a business interest. It was plastering my wife’s name all over the television, and my father’s name all over the television. Is that appropriate? Well, I guess the media thinks it is. I think, y’know, I’m fair game. But I don’t think my family are. That plays a huge role in terms of where they’re coming from. And it’s been a rough time for them, y’know. There’s issue after issue after issue, and quite frankly I’m not gonna expose my family to that anymore...

COCHRANE: Minister, that story you’re talking about there, was because of conflict of interest laws that exist because of connections between politicians and their families.

ORAM: David! There were no conflicts of interest. Very clear. The Commissioner of Members’ Interests was very clear, every time that you ever asked the question, or anybody ever asked the question, was there any conflict of interest? None. Zero. Never.

You tell ‘em, Paul Oram!

You were totally cleared by the Commissioner of Members Interests, who, despite the unusual omission in his official bio, is the former president of the PC Party.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. None. Zero. Never.

Notes from a scrum (V)

Paul Oram has some parting thoughts for the assembled ink-stained wretches and faces for radio:

People need to remember, the media needs to remember this, that it’s alright for you to tear the strip off a member or minister, ‘cause that’s what we go into this racket realizing it’s going to happen, but my little girl is home sittin’ down listen [sic] to the radio, watching the television. And responsible reporting is something that needs to be looked at.

You tell ‘em, Paul Oram.

“Responsible reporting” is something that needs to be looked at.

Just like in Venezuela.

Reading the entrails

Himself today filled a vacancy in his cabinet which was created just hours before, yet left open a vacancy that was created two weeks ago:

Premier Danny Williams also announced today that Dianne Whelan, Minister of Municipal Affairs, will serve as acting Minister of Transportation and Works effective immediately.

This would probably fall under the rubrique of what a certain notoriously negative person calls "serial government".

At least the Acting Minister of Highway Happiness is well placed to regain her former crown.

Meanwhile, such nice words written about that nice Mr. Oram:

"I thank Paul Oram for his tireless contribution to the public service and wish him the best in all his future endeavors," said Premier Williams.

Oddly enough, there have been no such nice words, let alone well-wishes, written about Trevor beTraylor.

Hasty, hasty

Last night, Paul Oram attended a hastily-organized event in Buchans.

This morning, Paul Oram attended another hastily-organized event.

Who wants to be a Minister?

Less than a month ago, the Minister of Health had locked in his answer to the pleas coming from Flowers Cove and Lewisporte:

On Friday, Health Minister Paul Oram issued his response to protests over his plan to cut services.

"My decision's final. I've said that from the beginning," he said.

The "final" decision, cryptically announced on August 31st, included the "Flower’s Cove health centre will also operate on a 12-hour basis" piece.

Then, Trevor Taylor resigned. A by-election looms in the very district which includes Flowers Cove. So Minister Oram seems to have decided instead to phone a friend. Or, perhaps, a friend decided to phone him:

Health Minister Meets with Community Leaders to Discuss New Clinic in Flower’s Cove

The Honourable Paul Oram, Minister of Health and Community Services, met with regional community leaders yesterday (Thursday, October 1) to discuss operational and design work for construction of the new health clinic in Flower’s Cove. Minister Oram has indicated that the new clinic will contain holding bed capacity to enable 24-hour operation as is currently provided. The minister also reiterated that there will be no changes to ambulance services.

Next lifeline: ask the audience?

Ask and it shall be given you

An extraordinary excerpt from an interview Dorothy King of the CBC West Coast morning show did with Paul Oram the day after he did a core-dump of this year's batch of letters from the health authorities:

KING: Mr. Oram, what's to be gained by releasing these internal documents?

ORAM: Well, again, the public asked for the documents. When I made a statement in the House of Assembly that there was a particular letter that came from Central Health, and we wanted to ensure that the people understood that it was correct, that there was a document that came back to us with options — which is done every year, by the way, it's been done for years and years and years — that contained options for the regional health authority to move forward and to balance their budget. So, because the public wanted to see these documents, wanted us to, I guess, prove that the document actually existed, we did release that document. And then from that, of course, we felt with the, again, the request that came in from the media, we felt that because we released the Central document, that it would only be appropriate to release the other documents as well.

KING: Are there any further documents to come?

ORAM: Well, no, there's not, I mean, I gave everything out yesterday, and it's open, it's accountable, and it's what government did in terms of budgeting, it's what government did in terms of services for NewfoundlandLabrador.

There you have it. All the public or media have to do, if they want to see documents, is ask for them.

Everyone by now knows the perils of not asking.

So, by way of experiment, what would happen if the public or media asked for past years' editions of the letters which Minister Oram tells Dorothy King have been "done every year... for years and years and years"?

No further comment

Once upon a time, there was a Health Minister who released some information late on a Friday, even though that’s a Very Bad Thing when Other People do it. They should be shot:

"This is about people's lives … They have a right to be told," Williams said. "They have a right to be told in a proper manner. There has to be proper disclosure; there has to be someone there to answer questions. It's not something you do at the tail end of a Friday afternoon."

The Minister’s people told the handful of late-working reporters who called that “would have no further comment to make on the matter”, which, again, is a Very Bad Thing when Other People do it.

Stung by the comparison with those Other People (Who Should Be Shot), the Minister used the excuses that he was asked to release the information, and wanted to get it out right away, and besides, it was all so self-explanatory.

The Minister also pledged to release further information, presumably not on a Friday afternoon. And sure enough, it wasn’t.

Newfoundland and Labrador's government has yet to deliver on a promise to release documents about health-care spending to the media.

Earlier this week, Health Minister Paul Oram told CBC News he would have his department release a letter it sent the Central Health regional authority last February asking for ways to reduce health-care spending.

"I've asked my officials to put that information together and we'll release that without any issue at all," said Oram on Monday, Sept. 14.

CBC News hasn't received it.

Eventually, openness reigned. And not late on a Friday afternoon:

“Today, I am releasing the letters provided by the three other health authorities and the email from the department in which the info was requested,” said the Honourable Paul Oram, Minister of Health and Community Services. “Each year the regional health authorities submit information for consideration by the department. I would like to reassure the general public that government is not considering the other cost saving options at this time.”

The end? Not quite. The Information Machine is a hungry, hungry hippo. And hippo wants to be fed, again. But the information hogs are not inclined to feed the hippo:

Newfoundland and Labrador's health minister is refusing to release a list of communities affected by a freeze on the purchase or installation of new X-ray equipment until a review is complete.

The reign of openness was brief, and, just like late on a Friday afternoon, the Minister will have nothing more to say:

"Once the review is complete, we will release the list of equipment and the associated decisions for each one," wrote a Health Department official in an email to CBC News Sept. 30.

The official also wrote that Oram had no further comment.

Openness, it seems, moves in a circular motion. A very tight circle.

What about at some other time?

PS, Paul, when you say:

I would like to reassure the general public that government is not considering the other cost saving options at this time.

It isn't terribly reassuring to end the sentence with the phrase, "at this time".

It's especially not reassuring when you recall what you told the House of Assembly scant days ago:

MR. ORAM: Mr. Speaker, we were very upfront in telling people that we are now doing an assessment of all X-ray and labs throughout the Province. As we know, the Cameron report was very, very clear in its recommendations that we had to look at laboratory services. I can tell you now that we are assessing every particular site in Newfoundland and Labrador. The assessment is not complete yet but when it is complete we will certainly be back, and we will certainly be making announcements as they become available.

And:

MR. ORAM: Mr. Speaker, this is an ongoing process. We are looking and assessing all laboratory and X-ray services throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. We will be talking to physicians. We will talk to whoever we need to talk to, to gain information as to what needs to be done in terms of looking at the way that we deal with X-ray services and lab services in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The fact, however, remains, Mr. Speaker. That if you look at the Cameron report and you look at recommendations such as number fourteen and number sixteen, you will see very clearly that the Cameron report talks about laboratory services and how we have to look at ways to enhance and change the way we are doing laboratory work, and laboratory work and diagnostic imaging usually go together. So we have to look at both of those particular services as we go through the Province and look at it. This assessment is ongoing and we will continue to assess it. In fact, the assessment of any type of service within health care is an ongoing process that continues forever, I say, Mr. Speaker. So we will continue to assess the services and make a decision based on that.

[...]

We have made no decisions as to where we are going to be going next. We have said very clearly we are doing a complete assessment of all laboratory and X-ray services throughout this Province. We will continue to do that. When the time is right, when we see fit, and when we see that there is a savings or we see that there is a quality of service that can be enhanced, then we will make that announcement at that point in time. We will not be making announcements in the House of Assembly, Mr. Speaker, just based on a whim.

The unkindest cut

Out on the west coast of the nation, the Premier cuts a ribbon.

Meanwhile, far away on the east coast of the nation, the nominal health minister cuts his intestines out.

This what you signed up for, Paul?

Wiseman puts Provincial money into fluids lab

Image source.

Not that kind of fluids lab.

"Strategic Technical Service" for the oil industry. Think "blood lab" — only for crude oil

That's $500,000 worth of Provincial money that former Health Minister Ross Wiseman is doling out to a private company in St. John's. Non-repayable. And astonishingly, We aren't even getting an equity share for all that trouble.

That amount, incidentally, is enough to pay for two and a quarter years worth of the public x-ray and laboratory services that current Health Minister Paul Oral is cutting in Lewisporte.

Hi, Wade!

Paul Oram, the Self-explana-Tory

Paul Oral is appalled:

"Quite frankly, I'm appalled that someone would even make that comparison," he said. "We're talking about two separate issues altogether. What we released Friday was essentially information trying to reassure people that what I had said in the house of assembly was correct information. I was asked to release that information. I got the information together. I didn't want to sit on it. I wanted to get it out right away."

...

Oram said he didn't speak with the media last Friday because it wasn't necessary.

"It wasn't that I wasn't available," he told CBC News Monday. "I didn't see any point in commenting. I thought it was very, very self-explanatory that this is exactly what we had said, and what I had said, in the house of assembly."

Not his department

It would appear that Paul Oral, he of the freakishly large memory, may not be quite so infallible after all. Andrew Robinson reported in this week's Gander Beacon:

Health minister Paul Oram said briefing notes referred to in an interview with The Beacon shortly after he took over the health and community services portfolio in early July were not prepared for him.

Last week, CBC News were told by the Department of Health that no briefing documents or notes were prepared for the MHA for Terra Nova District after he left the business portfolio to look after health. CBC used access to information laws to make the request.

In a telephone interview with The Beacon conducted the same week he was announced as the new health minister, Minister Oram said he had briefing notes on his desk waiting for him to go over.

"I'm sitting at my desk here now with, I don't know, maybe 24 inches of briefing notes and books and everything I have to go over. So there's a load of work here to do - there's no question about that. I just need to get brought up to speed, and I've had individuals in my office this whole day in fact briefing me on the department."

You would think someone of Paul Oral's powers of recollection would remember that the briefing notes weren't his own. (So, whose were they?)

So, he either didn't remember — human fallibility being why they invented writing, Minister Oral — or he did remember, but, contrary to His Dear Premier's solemn vow, he wasn't being very open or accountable.

Which is it?

Empty cupboards

From the Ministry of Truth, a report about the Ministry of Business:

Province Attractive To Business
July 6, 2008

Interest in Newfoundland Labrador as an attractive place to do business is growing. The Minister Responsible for Business, Paul Oram, says wherever he travels there is a great buzz about this province being a fantastic place to do business. Oram says there are a lot of companies inquiring about the potential to do business here, especially with the economy booming as it is now. Oram says oil continues to drive the economy, but he also sees great opportunities for growth in areas like Ocean Technology; Information Technology; the fishery and agriculture. He stated all of this will benefit rural areas of the province.

OK, so now we can add to the lexicon of the economic Potemkin village not only those old chestnuts "opportunities" and "potential", but now we shall all grow fat and happy on a steady diet of "buzz" for dessert.