US Firm Wins R&D Contract for Seaspan Ships

Harper's Big Photo Op Doesn't Stand Up to Smell Test

Touted as a big job creator with long term, well paying jobs, the Seaspan contract for B.C. and Halifax is really a poor attempt to spin perception beyond reality. Firstly, Harper praised himself for being transparent and offering a hands off bidding process to prove that the government works above board and doesn't play favorites. Not quite. Quebec was shunned because only two locations were in the running.

In real terms, there are huge issues about the lack of planning in the whole deal.

Fiction: Canadian jobs
Alion engineering (a US engineering design company) won the contract for R&D of the Seaspan ships....so again Canada loses out!

Fiction: Skilled Jobs
People forget that shipbuilding is going to require the same sort of SKILLED workers that are already in short supply from coast to coast:

- Qualified welders
- Plate fitters & CNC machine operators
- Manufacturing Engineers & Welding Technologists
- Marine Engineers (designers)
- Riggers and Operators
- Machinists and Millwrights
- QA & QC people
- Industrial electricians

Where's the plan for training and encouraging young people into these trades and occupations?

A client in Western Canada who just received the permission needed to import ~100 welder-fitters from the Philippines. They've basically given up trying to find and train reliable Canadians for this work.

Fiction: Skilled Designers Needed

Korea and China produce thousands of marine engineers a year....so Canada will always be at a competitive disadvantage in this industry. Besides if memory serves me, Marine Naval Architectural engineers are one of if not the smallest group of PEngs in the country and many are older....so where are we getting the skilled designers?

Fiction: Long Term, Well Paying Jobs

Robotic welding machines can operate faster, more accurately, can simultaneously measure penetration and quality of welds and weld in different orientations. These machines require a minimum of highly skilled technicians to operate and maintain and can keep working 24hrs a day. Modern pipe bending machines can pre-bend pipe in 3D in a continuous manner, such that far fewer connections and welds are required and fewer pipe fitters. Proper engineering design coupled with modular building and technologies means ships can be built faster, larger, and require a much smaller highly skilled labour force. The reality is that IF Irving and Seaspan wish to remain competitive they will have to introduce these new technologies, and as such, fewer workers will be required.

So for all the pomp and grandstanding about jobs, it is likely that the NSBP will not result in the intended number of long term stable well paying jobs; rather fewer skilled jobs with many part time and indirect lower paying jobs!

Thanks @tempsperdu

Proviso: Cost Overruns and Federal Oversight

This week’s agreement “addressed things that both [government] ministers and concerned citizens of Canada have asked,” Mr. Whitworth said. “‘If we are going to put our support into these shipyards, what guarantees that the shipyards will perform?’”

To answer that question, the agreement also grants Ottawa unfettered access to shipyard accounting books for the life of the construction projects, a feature intended to head off cost overruns. (Globe and Mail)

The infrastructure is coming first. Watch for Canadian content on these jobs. And if the cost overruns occur? Legislation is at the ready to procure from less costly sources. S.Korea?

Transformative Liberal Policies

Transformative Liberal Platform

Journalists are presenting the Liberals as lacking in ideas, leadership, charisma. Isn't that the nature of Canadian politics? Maybe they're expecting the dog and pony show that is the GOP convention, or they'd rather just booze it up as they say during the coming gathering in Ottawa this weekend. Whichever way one sees it, the Liberals have the experience, the NDP's have a solid support amongst the unionized sector and the Greens' strength is growing amongst those who have jobs or who rely on the environmental well being for their livelihood.

Here are the issues as I see them.

Environmental Assessments are Mangled and Botched by Canadian Government

Environmental Law Site

It is commonly held that too much legislation is being rammed through Parliament without adequate consultation and the proper approval of members of the House of Commons who are left out of the back room machinations.  Ceres, an American organization  has very thorough podcasts about environmental actions and businesses wishing to work within an ecologically sound framework.

Ceres Mission Statement: 

Integrating sustainability into day-to-day business practices for the health of the planet and its people.

Reputable businesses know the parameters required by governments when setting up a business plan.  

Here is one particularly pointed podcast speaking to the issue of the importance of having a sound business partnership between industry and environmental law.

 
Re-Energizing America: How Passing Climate and Energy Legislation Can Keep the U.S. Competitive in the Global Race for Energy

Posted on May 25, 2010

In this episode, we speak with Kevin Parker, Global Head of Deutsche Asset Management, about the need for a strong regulatory environment that will spur energy investment here in the U.S. instead of sending investment dollars outside our borders.

Listen to this podcast

What went wrong with the Conservative government approach is very clearly outlined here:  WCEL
Too fast, too haphazard, delays due to not enough information provided by the company.  Sloppy.  Unprofessional all round. The amount of influence from large corporations to get access to oil, gas, land rights is not being adequately scrutinized with any criticism of resultant fallout on environment.

Done correctly, EA is more than a bureaucratic process. EA can be an effective long term planning tool to assist the government in making decisions that recognize environmental and societal values, identify alternatives for human uses of and development of resources, prioritize how resources are used within ecological limits and advance the kind of Canada in which we believe the majority of Canadians want to live.

It is safe to say that none of these processes or safeguards are being implemented in the planning stages for the tar sands.  The auditors report, the EA have recommendations, none of which have been met.  Evasion, postponement of accountability, and more legislation rushed and unfairly done is the strategy of this government.

Email your MLA or MP

Email your MLA or MP

Alphabetical List of MLAs with E-mail Addresses

Find your MP here.

Scandals and Coverups in Harper Government
source:  Dennis Gruending
Don't be fooled by Harper's religious cloak which he displayed prominently to sell Christmas to Canadians.  There are no ethics behind his false exterior but human rights violations galore.  Here's an excerpt from the above writer for context on the Beth Oda affair, the coverup and the significance of what was felt to be not worthy of conservative strategic importance - namely outing of criticism of tar sands by religious groups.

KAIROS is an inter-church coalition that has been around for a long time. It is well respected and does good work internationally, particularly on social justice and human rights issues. KAIROS also has a habit of speaking its mind on public issues. It has offered criticisms of Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. KAIROS has also raised questions about the rapid development of the tar sands in Alberta and of certain environmental and human rights practices of Canadian mining companies working in developing countries.

A similar unethical deal with Honduras, murder capital of the world, shows the extent to which Canadian mining interests have no boundaries for their investments.  Free trade is an oxymoron.  There is no free trade.  It comes with a proviso.  Free trade - our way - or no trade.

Source:  http://www.rightsaction.org/action-content/sweatshops-mining-tourism-free-trade-negotiations-canadas-involvement-honduras

Neighbor to the United States, Canada often escapes critical attention to its unjust global economic and political ventures.  However, Canada is making its complicit involvement in post-coup Honduras increasingly obvious through Canada's sweatshop, mining and tourist interests in the country.

Canada is a Plutonomy

Income Inequality
Journalists and financial reporters continue to assuage and appease the worried public by minimizing the damaged Canadian economy.  Andrew Coyne from MacLeans Magazine shows us graphs from Stats Can that indicate not such a wide spread between the years of 1980 to 2010.

What is less often heard is the massive amounts of funds not in circulation.


As of January first of this year, the last of five annual corporate tax cuts has been put in to affect to lower the rate a further 1.5 points to a total of 15 percent. That means that businesses will save an additional $2.85 billion this year. Through the third quarter of 2011 figures by Statistics Canada suggest Canadian business is squatting on more than $583 billion in Canadian currency and more than $276 billion if foreign currency. It seems those reserves have climbed 27.3 percent since 2007, back at a time when the Canadian economy was doing quite well for itself and the new corporate tax (then at 22.12%) cuts were announced. In fact, corporate taxes have been slashed by nearly half since 1990, when they were at 28%.  source:  404 System Error Blog