Post by ferryfast admin on Jun 7, 2011 10:16:03 GMT -5
Shipbuilding bonanza: We aren’t entitled; we have to earn it
By DAN LEGER
thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1247063.html
Mon, Jun 6 - 5:44 PM
What’s good about politics these days? Not much perhaps, but there is this: politicians rejecting politics, of all things, as a way to allot billions of dollars in federal spending. Impossible, you say. You might be right.
Yet in recent days, we’ve seen two senior Conservative ministers warning against political interference in Ottawa’s decision on a new shipbuilding program. The National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy is a $35-billion industrial bonanza that will richly reward two Canadian shipyards and the economies in which they’re based. It’s down to yards in Quebec, B.C. and Nova Scotia.
The biggest contract could mean thousands of jobs and a jump in economic activity in Halifax, if Irving Shipbuilding wins the bid. It could lift the province’s economic growth rate by 2.4 per cent and benefit companies across Canada. It will make some people rich.
Because there’s so much on the line and so much potential for manipulation, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the decision must be free of politics. He wants a "fair and transparent process" in which politics "has no place," according to his office.
Then Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose got out the barge pole, for lobbyists. She said bid companies have been asked not to hire lobbyists to muck about in "a process that is completely arm’s-length of politics."
So the federal government is going to spend $35 billion and the decision on who gets the benefits will be politics-free? Wow. When’s the last time that happened, Magna Carta?
Premier Darrell Dexter is skeptical, saying early on that he fully expected MacKay to defend Nova Scotia’s interests at the cabinet table. The premier later softened that by saying he was confident the process would be fairly run. Later again, he pointed out there are still many lobbyists in Ottawa.
But Dexter is pretty clear: He expects Nova Scotia’s only representative in the federal cabinet to defend local interests. The premier didn’t fail to point out the Irving bid is the only one from a Canadian-owned company.
And it’s not just Dexter. New B.C. Premier Christy Clark had barely been sworn in when she came out swinging in support of the shipyard in Vancouver. She’s going to Ottawa to lobby in person, as Dexter already has done.
The third bid is from nearly bankrupt Davie Yards in Quebec. And, fellow Canadians, we all know there’s never any political funny stuff at the intersection of Quebec’s interests and Ottawa’s cash, right?
Even the official Tory line got muddled when Senator Mike Duffy told News 95.7 he found it "interesting that Halifax thinks it can have all the cream without ever voting Tory." He probably thought he was being witty.
Whatever, let’s play along and go with the line that MacKay and Ambrose are using: that politics won’t dominate the contract deliberations. Even the possibility of that should give pause to folks here who are pounding the table for the Irving shipyard.
Here’s some unsolicited advice: Let’s not rattle on about what we’ll get from the big contract. Let’s make an honest case on what a good deal Canada gets by choosing the Halifax bid. Let’s agree right now the Irving group should win the contract by guaranteeing it can produce the ships on time, on budget and with unassailable quality assurance.
Anything short of that is nothing more than special pleading and entitlement. We don’t "deserve" the contract. Arguing that Nova Scotia should get the work because we need it is just as bogus as Duffy’s implication that voting Conservative should make the difference.
The Irving shipyard should win the lead contract based on its capabilities, its record of building naval ships, the investment of its owners and their sincere commitment to deliver value for money for Canadians. There is no other fair and just measure by which these contracts should be awarded.
It might be that MacKay and Ambrose are running interference for an inevitable political decision by the federal cabinet. But Halifax should take their cue and argue its case on the merits for Canada, and never be tempted again by assumption and entitlement.
( dleger@herald.ca)
Dan Leger is director of news content for The Chronicle Herald. The views expressed here are his own. Dan is on Twitter: @dantheeditor.
By DAN LEGER
thechronicleherald.ca/Opinion/1247063.html
Mon, Jun 6 - 5:44 PM
What’s good about politics these days? Not much perhaps, but there is this: politicians rejecting politics, of all things, as a way to allot billions of dollars in federal spending. Impossible, you say. You might be right.
Yet in recent days, we’ve seen two senior Conservative ministers warning against political interference in Ottawa’s decision on a new shipbuilding program. The National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy is a $35-billion industrial bonanza that will richly reward two Canadian shipyards and the economies in which they’re based. It’s down to yards in Quebec, B.C. and Nova Scotia.
The biggest contract could mean thousands of jobs and a jump in economic activity in Halifax, if Irving Shipbuilding wins the bid. It could lift the province’s economic growth rate by 2.4 per cent and benefit companies across Canada. It will make some people rich.
Because there’s so much on the line and so much potential for manipulation, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the decision must be free of politics. He wants a "fair and transparent process" in which politics "has no place," according to his office.
Then Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose got out the barge pole, for lobbyists. She said bid companies have been asked not to hire lobbyists to muck about in "a process that is completely arm’s-length of politics."
So the federal government is going to spend $35 billion and the decision on who gets the benefits will be politics-free? Wow. When’s the last time that happened, Magna Carta?
Premier Darrell Dexter is skeptical, saying early on that he fully expected MacKay to defend Nova Scotia’s interests at the cabinet table. The premier later softened that by saying he was confident the process would be fairly run. Later again, he pointed out there are still many lobbyists in Ottawa.
But Dexter is pretty clear: He expects Nova Scotia’s only representative in the federal cabinet to defend local interests. The premier didn’t fail to point out the Irving bid is the only one from a Canadian-owned company.
And it’s not just Dexter. New B.C. Premier Christy Clark had barely been sworn in when she came out swinging in support of the shipyard in Vancouver. She’s going to Ottawa to lobby in person, as Dexter already has done.
The third bid is from nearly bankrupt Davie Yards in Quebec. And, fellow Canadians, we all know there’s never any political funny stuff at the intersection of Quebec’s interests and Ottawa’s cash, right?
Even the official Tory line got muddled when Senator Mike Duffy told News 95.7 he found it "interesting that Halifax thinks it can have all the cream without ever voting Tory." He probably thought he was being witty.
Whatever, let’s play along and go with the line that MacKay and Ambrose are using: that politics won’t dominate the contract deliberations. Even the possibility of that should give pause to folks here who are pounding the table for the Irving shipyard.
Here’s some unsolicited advice: Let’s not rattle on about what we’ll get from the big contract. Let’s make an honest case on what a good deal Canada gets by choosing the Halifax bid. Let’s agree right now the Irving group should win the contract by guaranteeing it can produce the ships on time, on budget and with unassailable quality assurance.
Anything short of that is nothing more than special pleading and entitlement. We don’t "deserve" the contract. Arguing that Nova Scotia should get the work because we need it is just as bogus as Duffy’s implication that voting Conservative should make the difference.
The Irving shipyard should win the lead contract based on its capabilities, its record of building naval ships, the investment of its owners and their sincere commitment to deliver value for money for Canadians. There is no other fair and just measure by which these contracts should be awarded.
It might be that MacKay and Ambrose are running interference for an inevitable political decision by the federal cabinet. But Halifax should take their cue and argue its case on the merits for Canada, and never be tempted again by assumption and entitlement.
( dleger@herald.ca)
Dan Leger is director of news content for The Chronicle Herald. The views expressed here are his own. Dan is on Twitter: @dantheeditor.