Failure to plan strategically is strategically planning to fail

Lorraine Michael is shocked:

NDP Leader Lorraine Michael (Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi) says she is shocked that plans for a pre-trial detention centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay have been quietly shelved by government. Michael uncovered this information during a review of budget expenses in an estimates committee meeting for the Department of Justice this morning.

“I am shocked this initiative, as recommended by the Citizen’s Representative, has been put on hold without any announcement,” says Michael. “We were not told there would be a delay or that the centre would not be built. Now today we discover that there was no money in this year’s budget.”

Of course there wasn’t – it was in last year’s budget:

Unprecedented Investment in Labrador through Northern Strategic Plan

Budget 2009 provides a more than $135 million investment in Labrador through the Northern Strategic Plan (NSP), reaffirming the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s commitment to improve the health and well-being of all Labradorians.
"This government continues to invest in Labrador and its people like no other government in history," said the Honourable John Hickey, Minister of Labrador Affairs. "In the face of challenging economic times, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is forging ahead and making smart, strategic investments in Labrador and its people."

[…]

Today’s announcement of funding under the NSP includes the recently announced $130 million stimulus package to increase economic activity and improve infrastructure in Labrador. This investment is part of an approximate $800 million package for new and ongoing infrastructure projects in Newfoundland and Labrador for the 2009-10 fiscal year and over $4 billion over the next several years. Labrador investments in the stimulus package include: $19 million for a new francophone school in Happy Valley-Goose Bay and new K-12 schools in Port Hope Simpson and L’Anse au Loup; $9.5 million for construction of the new College of the North Atlantic campus in Labrador West; $5.5 million in new and ongoing funding through the Municipal Capital Works programs; $4.7 million for continued funding for the new health care facility in Labrador West, and, $2 million for the construction of a new pre-trial detention centre for women and youth in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

And it was already been planned — strategically and Labradorly, no doubt — in the budget before that:

Government Continues Strong Commitment to Labrador Through Northern Strategic Plan

The Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador (NSP) continues to demonstrate that by working together, citizens, government, and communities can achieve positive change.

[…]

The Department of Justice has dedicated significant funding to issues of importance to the people of Labrador. Key investments include:

• $300,000 for the planning and design of a pre-trial detention centre in Happy Valley-Goose Bay for youth, women and those who suffer mental health illness;

The Northern Strategic Plan’s connected to the stimulus package.

The stimulus package’s connected to the new pre-trial detention centre for women and youth in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.

Oh, hear the word of Our Dan!

Ms. Michael shouldn’t be shocked. Sure, she’ll probably have her name and title dragged through the mud, again, for daring to, y’know, oppose the government.

But the original “Northern Strategic Plan” is silent on the detention centre issue. Why?

Simply because the issue of women and youth in custody in Labrador didn’t erupt onto the public radar until six months after Our Dear Northern Strategic Plan was launched.

Despite having been added to the Plan — at least for the purpose of budget-period press releases, budget speeches, and vacuous Ministerial statements — in 2008 and 2009, the actual construction of the new facility is not included in the recent NSP update document, past press releases notwithstanding.

On the other hand, and quite curiously, the update proudly includes “Plan and design a new holding facility in Happy Valley–Goose Bay for youth and adult women” as a commitment that is complete.

It’s rather hard to “hold” someone in a facility that is planned or designed, rather than built.

And it’s frightfully easy to claim “completion” of a commitment, when you downgrade your commitment from construction to planning and designing, retroactively.

Sorry, sorry – on a go-backwards basis.

So Lorraine Michael is shocked.

She should also be appalled – appalled that Danny Williams-Government, when faced with a political fire in Labrador, pours a cold bucket of Northern Strategic Plan on the flames, and hopes that the fire goes out.

There is nothing strategic, or planned, about this political McGuffin.

As usual, they are making it up as they go along.

Vivisecting the Living Document (III)

Back during the 2007 provincial election campaign, then-Liberal leader Gerry Reid included in his platform something he called the "Building Labrador Fund", which would be specifically devoted towards a massive infrastructure and public works program in Labrador.

Premier and PC Party leader Danny Williams poo-poo'd the idea, saying Gerry Reid would "bankrupt the province!" Much attaboy-Danny ensued, especially after Reid consciously wore the criticism as a badge:

"He said we were going to bankrupt the province. Well, then, let's bankrupt it, if that's the case," Reid told a rally.

The Building Labrador Fund, according to the then-Liberal platform, called for expenditures in Labrador of $1-billion over a period of ten years.

Danny Williams-Government, on the other hand, is now in year four of its pompously-styled Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador, which, according to officially-sanctioned bumpf, is valued at $250-million over five years.

That is to say, the difference between Gerry Reid's "bankrupting the province", and Danny Williams' whatever it is Danny Williams is doing, is $50-million per year once you annualize the putative Building Labrador Fund and the shell-game Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador over their respective terms.

In other words, the difference between Gerry Reid's "bankruptcy" plan on the one hand, and Danny Williams' "repackage stuff government does or would do anyway" plan on the other, is a knife-edge margin of just 0.67% of the province's entire budgeted gross expenditure for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Vivisecting the Living Document (II)

The original Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador, released in April 2007, was curiously silent about air ambulance services.

So were the Budgetosity 2007, 2008, and 2009 press releases.

So was the Ministerial Statement releasing the Progress Report on March 25th, even though said Progress Report included “Provide operating costs for a new Air Ambulance (2009–10)” on its “list of commitments that have been added since the release of the Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador document in April 2007.”

Said Progress Report, rather conspicuously, omits to note the air ambulance service review, whose existence was alluded to as early as December 2009.

Coincidentally, it was earlier on that same day, March 25th, that the Minister of Health, whoever that is, announced the relocation of the air ambulance base from St. Anthony to Goose Bay.

It would be another four days before Budgetosity 2010 made any pretence that the move itself was part of the Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador.

Danny Williams-Government: making it up on a go-forward basis.

Vivisecting the Living Document

If nothing else the latest chapter in the – you have to say this in your best James Earl Jones voice — Northern. Strategic Plan. For Labrador deserves one of this corner's irregular awards for special achievement in sycophancy. Its "Progress Report" drops the phrase "Williams Government" ten times in the space of 52 bloated PDF pages.

The report was released with only a little fanfare last month, which is perhaps why a whole-lotta-fanfare tour is now about to start, with astonishingly little advance public notice for such an open and accuntable government. The tour was announced yesterday, starts today, and continuing until whenever they get around to doing Labrador West.

The whole NSPL is a strange exercise on many levels, right from the name. Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador. As opposed to, what? Southern Strategic Plan for Labrador? Northern Strategic Plan for Newfoundland? Someone desperately needs an editor if even this corner is disturbed by their prolixities and redundancies.

And it's described as "A Living Document" which, translated from the Dannese, means, "We make it up as we go along." And don't think you're being spun here; the — James Earl Jones voice, again, people — Progress. Report. comes right out and says it:

Below is a list of commitments that have been added since the release of the Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador document in April 2007.

The rest of it is made up almost entirely of things that Danny Williams-Government, or, for that matter, Roger Grimes-Government or Danny Dumaresque-Government or Ed Byrne-Government would already be doing anyway. And don't think you're being spun here; that's what the label "Continuous" means, when attached, as it is, to so many of the meticulously planned strategies in the Northern Strategic Plan.

For that matter, that's what all of Danny Williams-Government's "strategies" and "plans" are: catalogues of stuff the government is doing, would be doing, or ought to be doing anyway, gussied up in bloated PDFs and, in conformity with official fetish, "rebranded".

What isn't, runs the gamut from the platitudinous:

Continue to support and consult with the Labrador representatives on the Agriculture Policy Framework Industry Advisory Committee, and continue to work with agricultural organizations in Labrador

to blatant political and emotional blackmail:

Review Labrador isolated commercial customer electricity rates, with a view to introducing a comparable rebate when the Lower Churchill project is sanctioned for development (2010–11)

Cf. the 2009 "Gros Morne or health care, your call" play. Is there any reason why that can't happen even in the absence of sanctioning of the imaginary Lower Churchill project? The not-so-subtle-message: Don't rock the boat. Loves ya. Danny.

There's also a lot of other wierdness in the Progress Report if you bother to examine it closely. For instance, here's an example of a Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador committment which has been kept:

Continue to financially support the Labrador Winter Games Funding of $500,000 has been allocated for the upcoming games in 2010.

Even though the good Minister released the Progress Report on March 25th.

The closing ceremonies of the 2010 Labrador Winter Games were held almost two weeks before, on March 13th. Either the release of the Progress Report was significantly delayed for reasons totally unrelated to a certain medical procedure performed in Florida in February, and then rushed into production; or perhaps the 2010 Labrador Winter Games were upcoming, but on a go-backwards basis.

Take as well, for example, the following claim:

Of the 13 commitments under the theme Transportation, 92 per cent of the commitments scheduled for completion have been accomplished. One commitment regarding the Labrador Transportation Plan remains ongoing.

The translation that implies, of course, is "yes, there's that one little Labrador Transportation Plan committment outstanding, but other than that, we've accomplished everything else."

Clever, what? Yes. And blatantly untrue. Or, if you prefer, Nothing Could Be Further From the Truth. If you bother to go back and read the original Northern Strategic Plan for Labrador, it also plans, oh so very strategically, to:

vii. Finalize decision on central airport for Southern Labrador
viii. Consider options for the Nain Airstrip

Both of which things, in the nature of transportation, do not appear in the breathless list of accomplishments or near-accomplishments, but are relegated to the anterior part of the document, in the Progress Report's catalogue of stuff Not Complete.

For that matter, the first of those was the subject of some partisan to-and-fro last summer, which is all the more remarkable now that, nearly a year later, we learn that Danny Williams-Government hasn't actually made any final decisions on the very matter which had the dearly departed Trevor Taylor in such a lather.

For the record, and for the interest of anyone planning to join Ministers Hickey and Pottle for the very informative "update" sessions, the first of which starts just a few hours from now at noon in the Masonic Lodge in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, here is the entire catalogue of "Not Completes".

Additional but uncatalogued examples might yet be found by referring back to the original Northern Strategic Plan

Not Complete

Recruit a Land Survey Inspector position in Happy Valley–Goose Bay to help improve service delivery to the public

Provincial Energy Plan Implementation: Study to evaluate alternative energy sources for isolated diesel communities

Provincial Energy Plan Implementation: Energy Efficiency pilot project in coastal Labrador

Construct a new facility for the Francophone school in Happy Valley–Goose Bay

Ensure Labrador sites are utilized in offering parttime Adult Basic Education courses as required
Expand Family Justice Services and Court Services in Labrador to address needs in the region, particularly coastal and remote communities

Research and conduct a feasibility assessment on specialized criminal justice responses for Aboriginal people, with a focus on Sheshatshiu

Negotiate Land Claims and self-government agreement with the Innu Nation

Research and conduct a feasibility assessment on specialized criminal justice responses for Aboriginal people, with a focus on Sheshatshiu [Yes, it's incomplete twice]

Complete Phase III of the Trans Labrador Highway (2009–10)

Finalize decision on central airport for Southern Labrador (2009–10)

Consider options for the Nain Airstrip (2010–11)

Fund road upgrades in L’Anse au Clair (2010–11)

Evaluate options for the provision of two new ferries for the Labrador Straits ferry route that would provide year-round service pending ice conditions (2011–12)

Complete hard-surfacing of Phase I of the Trans Labrador Highway (2011–12)

Work with the Nunatsiavut Government to develop and implement a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for northern Labrador and also implement relevant aspects of the Provincial Climate Change Action Plan (2005) (2009–10)

Complete conservation projects for Labrador in support of the Natural Areas System Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador (2010–11)

Monitor and assess impacts on caribou and inland fish species along the Trans Labrador Highway (2011–12)

Formulate integrated long-term management plans for the significant wildlife populations (big game) of Labrador that incorporates social, cultural and economic objectives (2011–12)

Conduct a reassessment-inventory of Labrador populations of Peregrine Falcons (2011–12)

Conduct a Rare Plant Survey in Labrador (2011–12)

Assess the status of inland fish species in Labrador regarding the effects of climate change on the populations specific to species which have an opportunity for development such as Lake Trout, Northern Pike, Brook Trout and Char (2011–12)

Support Labrador Craft Marketing Agency to develop training activities designed to preserve traditional arts and crafts skills and encourage new producers (2009–10)

Work with the Nunatsiavut Government to develop a cultural centre for Nain (2010–11)

Fund renovations to the Wabush arena (2010–11)

Complete hard-surfacing of Phase I of the Trans Labrador Highway (2011–12)

Evaluate options for the provision of two new ferries for the Labrador Straits ferry route that would
provide year-round service pending ice conditions (2011–12)

Improve distance education by increasing Reliibility, providing more support for students, and increasing course variety as appropriate (2009–10)

Construct a new facility for the Labrador West campus of College of the North Atlantic (2009–10)

Construct a new school in Port Hope Simpson (2009–10)

Develop a communications and awareness campaign to promote the benefits of living and working in Newfoundland and Labrador (2009–10)

Develop a Youth Retention and Attraction Strategy to counter the impacts of youth out-migration in Newfoundland and Labrador (2009–10)

Support labour market challenges through the work of the Provincial Immigration Strategy (2009–10)

Construct a new school in L’Anse au Loup (2010–11)

Poverty Reduction Strategy-Improving Access to Early Intervention Services (2009–10)

Poverty Reduction Strategy-New Family Resource Centre in Labrador in Happy Valley–Goose Bay (2009–10)

Continue to explore meaningful ways to increase and improve early learning and child care services (2009–10)

Fund new positions to support a traveling clinical mental wellness team in Labrador (2009–10)

Ensure new health centre in Labrador West includes capacity for mental health service (2010–11)

Complete construction of the long-term healthcare facility in Happy Valley–Goose Bay (2009–10)

Conduct assessment of housing needs and address off-reserve housing needs by allocating funding under the federal off-reserve housing trust and ensuring access to provincial low-income housing programs (2009–10)

Fund road, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer upgrading in Labrador City, including extension of water and sewer system to the new hospital and College of the North Atlantic sites (2009–10)

Extend water and sewer services in Port Hope Simpson (2009–10)

Extend water & sewer services in Charlottetown (2009–10)

Fund renovations to theWabush arena (2010–11)

Water and sewer replacement in Happy Valley–Goose Bay (2010–11)

Fund engineering design work for water and sewer extension in Mary’s Harbour (2010–11)

Contribute to the development of a sewage treatment plant for Happy Valley–Goose Bay (2010–11)

Review Labrador isolated commercial customer electricity rates, with a view to introducing a comparable rebate when the Lower Churchill project is sanctioned for development (2010–11)

Develop new water supply system for Inuit Community of Nain (2011–12)

Undertake a feasibility study to consider the challenges and barriers to providing 911 services in Labrador (2011–12)

Conduct assessment of housing needs and address off-reserve housing needs by allocating funding under the federal off-reserve housing trust and ensuring access to provincial low-income housing programs (2009–10)

Develop a Land Use Plan in conjunction with the Nunatsiavut Government (2010–11)

Work with the Nunatsiavut Government to develop a cultural centre for Nain (2011–12)