Amendation, or is that an E.

I asked to be corrected on the amount NG members receives as a constituency allowance. Well I was. I am told that the amount is $5,000.00 annually.
As one wag put it, that’s a lot of photo copying. All members on the coast live no more than several minutes walk to any constituency house hold.

That travel time would but cut substantially in winter if they had a dirty big new 15 grand snow mobile. I’m not saying that is what the allowance may go on, but they should be able to afford one what with them voting themselves a 15 grand pay rise [awhile back] to be spread over five years.

Added to that little bit of self serving ness is the fact that at this last sitting {earlier this month} the honorable members voted them selves a 3% increase to offset pension contributions. I here that front line workers did not receive the same largess, not that they really need it and too many do not earn it.

Another thing that is increasingly talked about, all be not in the right places, is what seems like the increased travel by ministers, members and staff. One could be forgiven in thinking that with the government now formed for some while travel would be coming down, or at least minimized.
There are modern forms of communication now, teleconference, video conference. An audit would be good to identify how many meetings take place in Goose Bay, St. John’s etc that only lasted for several hours or less but necessitating travel time of 2 to 3 days, hotels meals, cabs, all adds up.

Another wag offered up, “now that there is a government body in the area why cant other ministers and civil servants of other governments travel into NG”. Good bloody question wag.

Ooops, the chickens are restless.



Well have to get ready for the second day of pre-commissioning @ the NMC. Turns out it was more NOT READY than all were led to believe. May be able to work something out so the anxious staff of OKS can move in sooner rather than another unknown length delay, should know by this morning.

I find it rather calming when people with degrees and years of specialist background do not have much more of a clue as to what is going on than I do. But I still lean something every day and things I have known for years are re-enforced, one is, to be a good liar you have to have a good memory. Or perhaps in some cases it's; the memory is going and one will not own up to it. Either way it can cause difficulty with one with Irish, Welsh, Scottish blood lines.

Now I am a great fan and supporter of CBC [radio] and public broadcasting, but this sort of thing is flying in the face of what public broadcasting represents IMO.

Correction to a correction. My corrector would like to be corrected on the Constituency Allowance allowance issue.

Assembly members for the North Coast receive $3,400.00 annually. Assembly members from the Lake Melville region receive $5,200.00 and Assembly members for the Canadian constituency receive $52, 000.00 annually.

Eligible expenses: Public meetings. Advertising of public meetings. Translation of public meetings. Mileage.

So we know what the allowance has not been spent on in many cases.