"Historical occasion"

said the premier of the province and the president of Nunatsiavut Government of the Thursday joint cabinet meeting between the province and NG.
"My number one goal was to open up lines of communication and we have done that" said the president.

Maybe so maybe not but the provincial press, apart from the CBC, did not seem to give a rats arse about the occasion. I have not been able to find reference to the afore claimed historical occasion anywhere, not even the local CKOK radio.

CBC had small snippets on their radio On The Go show Thursday, and Here & Now a short piece on Thursday evening, but that’s it.

When pressed for some details the President answered in generalities, "we brought up transport, health, and yada yada issues" [paraphrased].
The premier was almost as evasive but did mention he brought NG up to date on the caribou situation.

The premier also boasted that his ministers have been visiting NG and Labrador quite extensively in the past couple of years, more than any time in the past twenty years.

Maybe so maybe not. If so then why was it necessary to meet now, it is five years since NG was formed. I know the province and especially NG are a tad somnolent, but five years? Plus what were the cabinet ministers and NG talking about with all this travel into NG these past years that is being touted.

All a big mystery, unless you’re are a big skeptic, it is nearing that time of year when some cheap shopping is on the minds of those who can avail.

A friend told me on facebook to “stop bragging about your cooking”.

On reflection

nope.

Wednesday was a busy one with one thing and another, then the Ranger came and after checking out the bill of ladings discovered our food order was on board, that added to the busyness.

My back being in the state it is Fran tagged along to help load the trailer and unload and put away back home. Only two loads but some heavy boxes.

So that was done successfully and the freezer is chock a block, good thing the Co Op forgot to send the chicken part of the order.

Something easy for dinner? Knocked up a really nice thick leek and yam soup, then warmed up a couple of whole-wheat/rye buns, thin layers of horseradish sauce, mustard, red berry/rhubarb relish. Then thin sliced cold prime rib toped with lettuce. As good as or better than any pub grub around. [note: not a shot at any local establishment, rather pub grub outside of Labrador].

Last evening we had this nice sweet fruity curry with the remainder of the prime rib roast along with chick peas and vegetables with basmati rice, blackened yams and brussel sprouts.

Weather been damp and foggy last few days, still warm for this time of year though.

Whales were frolicking in the Capital City Harbor recently.

That's not a harbor, this is a harbor.

Later:

Of course I am only joking about the two harbors differences, just like the new communications director for the provincial Liberal Caucus was joking when 20 months ago, as a private citizen and a business person he sent an email [in joke form] to the Director of Communications Office of the Premier.

Ho Ho Ha ha..

Later later:

This is how this whole brouhaha should have been handles in the first place. Nothing to do with the Liberals or the Liberal caucus so they should have kept mostly out of it.

The PC crowd come across as disingenuous at best claiming to be insulted for the people with mental illness, if that was the case the brouhaha would have happened back last year.

I sent an email to a friend in Germany yesterday; he received and responded to it while sitting in a Boeing 777 on his way to Myanmar. Bloody amazing in it?

Any way the email was about a guy he met here last summer, Noah Nochasak was in early stages of building a kayak.
Now low and behold Noah is now almost to Natuashish with the intent on paddling back to Nain as well.
We know this because a guy in Natuashish had tracked Noah on satellite GPS and put the positions up on his facebook site. The guy from Natuashish then went out to check if all was OK and found Noah at a cabin; there are some amazing photos up of the kayak and the guys on the facebook site.

So the end of the Lewisport to Goose Bay ferry was announced yesterday. I think it is premature what with the Trans Labrador Highway being quite a ways from being hard topped.

Of course with all the dollar amounts announced and re announced non, nada, zero, zilch, auka are earmarked towards replacing the totally decrepit mv Astron. At least she will not have to stop off at Cartwright and Black Tickle so that should speed things up a bit.

Then there is the mv Northern Ranger, what is her future? The ruling school of thought is that one new vessel will replace the two above boats. Still we see no news of what type of vessel is being considered.

I sure hope the notion of combining Nunavut into the Labrador coast run is kyboshed, it will only hold up moving forward with improving our transportation service.

It will make sense and be more economical when the road is completely hard topped and the road on the Quebec side becomes safer so that people can avail of the cheaper and larger variety of goods and services available in what is referred to as Mainland Canada, in other words; Quebec, Ontario, NS and NB.

Of course networks will have to be created and a certain negative attitude prevalent in Goose Bay towards the coast will have to change, but if all players work together for a change then these things can be overcome.

Newfoundland has held Labrador hostage for way too long, times are a changing but way too slowly.

Almost immediate update: I missed the mention of the Bond acting in an as needed capacity on the north coast run out of Lewisport. The MV Sir Robert Bond will be retained to provide winter ferry service across the Strait of Belle Isle and to supplement the North Coast freight service as needed. This winter, service via the MV Sir Robert Bond will be provided between Corner Brook and Blanc Sablon while the MV Apollo is on refit.

CBC Labrador morning had interviews with the minister of transport and a reaction from the president of Nunatsiavut that helped on elaborating this strange development.

I say strange fore several reasons; in the interviews it is clear that it will be at least another 5 years before any move is made to upgrade the service with a new vessel to the north.

The Bond used as a supplement will be an expensive proposition. With it being so large and the north coast only have two ports that can safely accommodate the larger vessel, those being Natuashish and Nain; the Bond will be doing more sitting at dock than steaming so to speak.

We can add to the puzzle by other statement in the interviews; seems the Bond will make a stop in Goose Bay on the way north if needed. The best I can gather from this is it will be to pick up freight for the north coast; it will not have freight to drop off in Goose Bay.

We also leaned from the interview with the president that Nunatsiavut Government has been and will be meeting with the province in assuring that the service is upgraded. No information of past meetings is available on the NG web site, nor will there be IMPO.

The sad reality of the weekend fire and death will just be evident by an empty block of land now.

Fast work demolishing and carting away the remnants of the house after the authorities announced they will never know the cause of the fire.

Very cool drab weekend flowing over into Monday morning frost.

The sad reality of the weekend fire and death is evident as you head down towards the airstrip and northern point. There were some people [official] sifting through the carnage around mid day yesterday, not an enviable job.

The police and volunteer fire brigade are usually the first responders with these incidents, after any tragedy the next on the scene are the people of the Nain Crisis Response Team who can get called out at any hour.

My memory may be fading but I think this is the first time that the volunteers and staff of the NCRT have been mentioned in a media story right after the incident.

No big precipitation but still quite breezy cloudy and ominous looking out there, a high high tide but not as high as one just recently.

The full moon did bring some tragedy to town [not blaming the moon just going along with all the myth stuff that comes out on full moons], another house destroyed by fire with an unconfirmed person perished inside.

My oh my.

Just back from the airstrip seeing Aimee off to Goose Bay, one month to delivery date.

Very fall'ish weather out there, chilly, drab hills, fog threatening to obscure them, gaggle of geese flew over heading north, not sure what that is about.

Later: Steps have been taken to hold Inuit Community Government elections, but in the Lake Melville area controversy still reigns as we move to holding a by-election to replace an ordinary member who was dismissed by the NG the assembly.

For the second time this week the NG first minister was on Labrador Morning, this time to answer concerns expressed Thursday that the voters lists in Goose Bay and North West River are woefully in disarray, or not up to date.There is no Podcast to link to for the second interview.

To his credit the first minister has spoken publicly on the issue, better a little late than not at all.

But the thing is the more we hear about voters list from NG the more confusing things become.

This time the concerns expressed are the lists contain deceased persons, people have moved from the area and are still on the list, people have moved into the area and are not on the list, people who have lost their ‘beneficiary’ status are still on the list, people who have gained their ‘beneficiary’ status are not on the list yadda yadda yadda.

According to the first minister it is not a NG priority [my words] to keep the voters up to date as NG does not have the resources to keep track of people, who die, move away move in, yadda yadda yadda.

The first minister said the onus is on the individual beneficiary, or the individual’s family in the case of deceased ‘beneficiaries,’ to inform the appropriate peoples within NG of any change in resident status.

So all in all a fine kettle of fish with the voter list within the land claims area and the upper lake Melville area.

I wonder could NG cross reference with the provincial and federal lists, at least they would get voters addresses, which seems to be another issue in Goose Bay. How does the feds and province handle all of the above issues with voters list fluctuating all the time, large banks of civil servants most likely.

At any rate the more one hears about voters list in Nunatsiavut the more questions arise.

Contrary to all the meteorologist predictions the sun is shinning here mid afternoon.

What would be your preference,trample by bike or trampled by horse.

Straight Pilot- Rough seas. Hard fellas for sure.

Marinated [24 hours] slow cooked [41/2 hours] pork spare ribs, some tasty boy.
Served with garlic onion leek double cooked two potatoes and asparagus.
The fruity white wine was the coup de grâce.


I am looking forward to things hotting up on the provincial political scene with this announcement. Craig Westcotte should add some spice to the very bland one sided rhetoric of late.

The liberals have been devoid of any spark since Yvon Jones announced her illness.
So lets the sparks fly asunder me old hardi's.

While on the culinary theme; the tiny town [not my words] of Iqaluit is to get not one, not two, but three Tim Horton's outlets.

Seems like overkill, but word is the a couple of the outlets will be kiosk style, whatever than means in the Tim's lexicon.

Nunatsiavut Government has finely broken the silence on the mistakes [balls up] made with the community voter’s lists and rolls which resulted in the recent cancellation of community government elections.

CBC Labrador Mornings Cindy Wall interviewed NG first minister on the issue yesterday. The first minister sounds embarrassed and sort of apologetic while at the same time covering up for others IMO.

The first minister clearly is blaming the smallness of the NG bureaucracy and the newness of the government for this misstep. I am sure there are many who would challenge the first minister on his hypothesis.

What with the decade or so getting ready for self government then the couple of years or so of transitionional government one could be forgiven in thinking maybe things like voters rolls and such would have been nutted down tight before any elections took place four years ago. Then there is the size of the civil service, some think it quite large given the number of constituents. Then we won’t mention the many other missteps that are not out in the public air waves.

To be fair to the present first minister I would hypothesis that the missteps took place under the previous

first minister, who unfortunately is now the AngajukKok for Nain.

Following on with the air fares and there high costs from the other day I have come up with the following:

Comparable distances of flights and fares within Labrador and those in Nunavik [Northern Quebec]. All distances are approximate and as the crow fly’s and all fares are return tickets available on airline web sites.

Nain to Goose Bay [368K] $856.94 on Air Labrador.

Kuujjuaq to Kangiqsujuaq [628K] $458.27 on Air Inuit.

Kuujjuaq to Scheferville [378K] $763.04 on Air Inuit.

Now some fares for trips Goose Bay out of Labrador and comparisons:

Goose Bay to Montreal via Wabush [1,393K] $1,651.21 on Provincial Airlines.

Kuujjuaq to Montreal [1450K] $1.938.39 in First Air.

Kuujjuaq to Montreal with Air Inuit $$2,383.50

St.John’s to Kuujjuaq via Montreal [3,069K] $2,532.61 on First Air.

Goose Bay to St. John’s [833K]; anywhere from $776.59 to $1,477.19 on provincial Airlines depending on when you fly and what type of class you choose.

Goose Bay to ST. John’s; lowest fare $1,005.98 with a myriad of fares upward depending on the class you choose, the routing, via Gander, Direct of via Halifax on Air Canada.

The above is a cursory look at some of the airfares available within and without Labrador. I am sure someone with more policy wankerism and data research and analysis experience could do a bang up job.

I do get the feeling though that all it will show is that fares within and without Labrador are comparable or lower than markets with similar populations and flight distances. .

There has been lots of talk about the high cost of air fares within the province again the last couple of days. Talk on CBC that is; yesterday on radio Noon Talk Back the guest was the mayor of Labrador City.
The callers ranged from the deputy mayor of Lab City to a lab West representative of a service organization to some folk from the Island complaining about the high cost of getting into Labrador to a business traveler from St. John’s who travels regularly to the North Coast to the regular stand by from Rigolet Richard Rich.

The guy from St. John’s claimed that a recent return trip to Nain cost his firm over $2, 200:00. I thought this a bit outrages and my be incorrect so I checked the Provincial booking site, low and behold a ticket leaving St.John’s this week and returning next week was quoted at just over $1,900:00. And I could not get the flight dates I wanted, they were booked up on the return.

Not surprising was the absence of any elected officials or senior civil servants of the various levels of government representing the peoples of Nunatsiavut or a representative of any service organizations representing the good folks of the same area.

Could it be that all the above mentioned travel on the publics dime and when on these free travel junkets those above mentioned folks avail of cheaper shopping opportunities, and then I believe they get double the baggage allowance on their return. Could it be that if one is not hurting personally then why bother sticking ones neck out to stick up for the proletariat and the unwashed, just a thinking aloud hypothesis of mine.

The guy from St. John’s did offer up some good advice though, research needs to be done, compare other similar markets to see how fares compare with getting into and within Labrador.
Having said that; be careful what you wish for; we will see.

The host of the show kept asking callers to come up with some suggestions on ways to lower air fares. No one did a very good job of that if they indeed did tackle the question. I think it unfair to ask the ordinary person to come up with suggestions considering the complexities of the air line industry.

The complexities were emphasized this morning when the new owner of Air Labrador was interviewed on Labrador Morning. When asked how the fares could be lowered Mr. Earl did not have any thing to offer except to say that in small population markets it is very difficult balancing your bottom line, so to speak.
When asked how the $5, 0000:00 to be put into air travel announce by the province could be used Mr. Earl suggested maybe some money could go into the coastal infrastructure like the waiting room and booking areas, they are way too small and with inadequate services. If tourism and business is to be encouraged then a lot of upgrading is needed. Not to mention fares lowered [my quote]
Apart from that it seems to be status quo at Air Lab in the short term.

One thing that sticks out to me during all this chatter: Encouraging another airline or subsidizing another airline to come into Labrador will not lower air fares in the long term. This has been proven time and again in all sizes of markets.
We have two air lines whose fares within Labrador are almost the same; Air Lab usually offers the lowest by a small amount from what I see.

It has been some time since we have had rain that caused run offs on the ground. Light rain all day yesterday and into the more serious stuff today. Not good for walking around but Siutik will play a role in whether we do or not.

Okalakatiget Society has a new Executive Director starting this week. OK has been without any stable leadership at the top for some time, by stable I mean anyone in the position for any length of time, not the stability of the people who were in the job or filling in over the past few years.

Sarah Leo is short on media experience but long on other management skills and has a reputation for using common sense and reasonableness in dealing with issues that will surely crop up.

One thing I hope the new management team will take a look at is introducing on line broadcasting for their radio programming. It should not be that expensive to set up pod casting or even a live feed and the skill sets are available, so why not do it as it is much in demand.

The vivid contrasting colors of orange, greens, reds and yellows on the hills are fast fading and blending into drab shades of browns and dirty greens, but it has been great while it lasted.
Still anomalous temperatures for this time of year, up in the high single and low double digits.


There is some controversy brewing in T Dot over the police handling of protesters and citizens during the G8G20 boondoggle earlier this year. In this video "officer grumpy" seems to be handling the bubble blowing girl out of all proportion to the situation at hand. The female officer seems to be handling the situation as it seemed warranted, even looking a little shocked at officer grumpy's actions at one time.
Clicking on the full version of the video gives more perspective of the day.

It was not a record high for the day [16 +] but the 10 + degrees of yesterday had most people commenting on the heat. Even the odd fly was out. The evenings have been very warm too, good for the old heating bills.

One evening last week CBC Here & Now had a piece by Jeremy Eton on the high cost of air travel within the province. This came about from a government announcement of a possible 5 million dollar boondoggle for the airline industry; I won’t tackle the absurdity of that plan but rather Jeremy’s story out of Labrador West.

Seems people are squawking about the high cost of air travel from Lab West to anywhere in the province, it was claimed in the story that air travel from Lab West to anywhere else was the highest in the province. I figure of a thousand dollars round trip Wabush to St.John’s was quoted.

Now I agree that air travel in the province is very high, but to claim that the fares from Lab West are the highest is the province? Nothing could be further from the truth {thank you Danny].

With just a little web searching it became clear that the North Coast of Labrador has much higher fares to anywhere else in the province than Lab West. Actually I thought it was a given and most people new that already, but nothing like getting it in black and white is there.

Some background; Wabush is approximately 64 kilometers further from St. Johns than Nain is, that is the difference Nain Goose Bay Wabush Goose Bay.
The North Coast is serviced by two airlines with multiple flights 6 days a week. Wabush is serviced by just one airline; you can go either east to the island portion or west to Quebec.

Return fares Nain Goose Bay -$856.94
Return fares Wabush to Goose Bay-$576.84.

That is less money for more travel miles. And Wabush has advanced bookings and travel is on Dash 8 or Saab 340 compared to Twin Otter service on the coast.

Wabush to St.John’s return in my search came to $1,225.20.
Nain to St.John’s came to $1, 523.38 advanced, $1,600.22 no advance booking.

Now if the government was serious about attempting to lower air fares across the board and fairly, not just in the high population markets, it could look at lowering or subsidizing or god forbid eliminating the taxes and surcharges. The taxes and extras on the Nain Goose Bay section come to $160 and change.

So the bottom line is: Nain has higher air fares than Wabush, if CBC Goose Bay had a reporter, or a capital of the universe based senior producer interested in covering coastal issues maybe we would get a mention on the evening news without it having to be alcohol related.

The zuper zecrete zociety [zzz] formally known as the Nunatsiavut Government is yet to release or update further information relating to the suspension of Inuit community governments [Icgs] elections. Not surprising for a zzz but not in keeping with any democratic process I am aware of or even in keeping with the stated aims and objectives of aforesaid zzz.

I have been able to piece together what I believe it may be all about, but then forgive me if I have it all arse up.

In the near future all Icg returning officers are to receive training so they can update the voter’s rolls and list in each community.

Seems the problem was the voter rolls and list did not comply with the Labrador Inuit Constitution, land claims agreement, and the ICG elections act.

It sounds to me like someone somewhere within the zzz failed in their fiduciary duties to pass on the aforesaid changes to the constitution to the Icgs. This is in keeping the code of silence within zzz, but contributes nothing towards open accountable governance.

The problem seems to be the two voters list, lists A and B. The general perception the majority of the people have is that list A contained the names of beneficiaries of the Land claims agreement. List B contained names of non beneficiaries living within the land claims area. That is in fact what Icgs were working with.

List A people voted for the mayor and five council positions and list B could only vote for one [or two in the case of Makkovik] dedicated council spots.

Now it seems that List A will contain not only beneficiaries but those non beneficiaries who lived in the land claims area prior to 1990. List B will contain those non beneficiaries who moved into the land claims area after 1990. Whether all those on the new list A can vote for the mayor is unknown to be at the moment, there are other gray areas but to many to go into.

I assume the usual rules pertaining to amount of time living in the communities prior to elections and other generic restrictions will also apply. Then again one should never assume when it comes to zzz.

Wow that mine rescue was something else, I may not have been transfixed to the TV but I did find the arrival of that capsule at the surface riveting TV.

Can anyone imagine the present head of Canada’s government waiting there all those hours and greeting each miner in such a manner?

Speaking of Canada, fourth in the medals count is not so bad, then again there is a lot of areas where elite athletes could be helped out, just ask Alex Bowman.

At least Canada was not beaten by Germany and Portugal this time.

Looks like everything is on hold media wise today, all eyes and ears are on the rescue of the Chilean miners, even Australia's domination of the Commonwealth Games will take a back seat, proper thing too as it has become boring, one little old country of 21 million taking all those medals.

If you look very close at the photo above you may see a dog, berry bushes, trees, rocks, water, moss. Then again maybe not.

As is usual when amongst the flora one stumbles upon some carnivorous fauna.

It is a beautiful star filled morning, unlike the weekend, which was mostly low overcast with intermittent light rain and a very fine mist at times. Fran wanted to go pick some more red berries, so with my back not being in good shape at the moment I decided to take some photos of the flora.

Close ups and some macro was the order, amazing how a dull day brings out the colors that still abound the closer you look.
It still amazes me how the flora and lichen attach themselves to the rocks and cliffs and survive and thrive.

Light snow overnight, took this photo pre light. It will melt but sure looks pretty out here.

PII-A is heading to a neighborhood near you.

Click on 'tracking of the ice island'.

Someone said “Enquiring minds want to know and are very curious”.

Well my mind, no matter its state, was on edge yesterday wondering about the latest from the NG.

I managed to garner a little information, very little indeed actually.

Seems that no one at the Nain Inuit Community Government was made aware of any pending troubles with the voters rolls and lists [I can only assume it was the same for the other four ICG], that includes staff and councilors.

No one from NG has been available to shed any light on the situation to date, nor has the NG chief electoral office been available to shed light.
Word is that NG people and lawyers have been in deep discussions at the assembly meeting in Hopedale this week. Coincidence or not the NG official web site has been down since early yesterday, not that it is updated very often, just thought I would mention that fact.

One bit of info coming my way is; there will be workshops and information sessions for the ICG returning officers, dates to be confirmed.

So the confusion reigns [nothing new there] because NG is unable, or unwilling, to set up proper information disseminating protocols. There is an old saying; ‘information is power’, NG hold to that saying like poo to a blanket.

Another bit of enlightened information for me is; the voters list for the council elections is the same as the one for the mayor [AngajukKâk]. So reasoning that out one could be excused in coming to the conclusion that if the voters list leads NG to null and void the recent call for council elections then the recent elections for AngajukKaks should therefore be null and void as well.

Super puzzling is this little fact from the press release: Inuit Community Councilors who are already serving through acclamation will no longer serve on the council.

Any decision made by a council containing a councilor serving through acclamation will be rescinded.

The incumbent councilors will continue to serve on the council until an election is held.

In NIC Governments case no elections took place; all councilors were acclaimed last month so how does an incomplete or disorganized voters list play a role? The fact is NICG have never had an elected council since the inception of IC Governments, so are all decisions and motions in this time to be rescinded?

Why has it taken four long years to come to the conclusion about voter’s lists?

Why has there not been an NG official or elected member available to answer questions on this very important issue?

Enquiring minds want to know and are very curious.

Well the Nunatsiavut Government got this one correct; heaving Max Blake from office was the only choice after his display of disrespect towards women and Inuit in general.

They still have to get a handle on the way they have dealt with the case of one member from Nain who has continually breached the code of conduct rules yet remains as ordinary member.

But then there is this very strange ruling. Without further information it leaves a lot of speculation, it leads one to assume that in the case of the Nain Inuit community Government it has been operating illegally since its inception.

All councilors of NICG have been in office due to either acclamation or have been appointed. Does this mean that all decisions and resolutions made by NICG over the last 4 plus years are null and void?

How does a government not get the voters list right before holding elections? Good thing they don’t have the combination to the nuclear rocket launchers.

Also, how does not having compiled the voters list correctly correlate with people not putting their names forward for consideration as councilors by the electorate, very strange indeed.

Still on the breezy side with gusts up to 87 overnight, very uncomfortable walking around yesterday with dust clouds hitting you way too often.

Still quite blustery winds here, getting up to 50 and sometime 60 clicks at times. The temperatures are an anomaly, only down to 8 for a short time last evening, they drop a bit at sunrise but then up they go to the low teens, quite warm for us this time of year.

Those Woodward Group oil tankers must have hard arsed hulls as they seem to be constantly in the news due to going aground. Hard arsed just like the founder of the company.

This is the third grounding this year for the Mokami, she ran aground 10 years ago in a run outside Nain also.

It is possible that tides and winds and uncharted waters played a role in all these miss-haps but it is also possible that other factors are in play.

For one the authorities should investigate the practicality and the common sense in allowing single hull tankers into Labrador and arctic waters.

The authorities should do a through investigation into why so many groundings from ships of the one company.

Ironic that another Woodward owned vessel with a not so glorious recent history was standing by to add assistance to the Mokami.

While still on the topic of hard arsed: this little loan/line of credit/corporate welfare gig must really kick unionized workers in the bollocks hard.

Hardly seems fair really what with the Vale workers on strike for 14 months and no end in sight. Governments are sure doing nothing to encourage a settlement, rather they are making sure the union and workers are beaten into the ground, hope all the workers remember that come election time.

The cooling trend was very brief, yesterday Nain was one of twelve spots in the province to have broken the record high for the day according to Ryan Snoddon Of CBC Here & Now.

With a high of 16 it felt very balmy, with no wind early the black flies were an issue but then the breeze picked up making for a nice finish to the day.

More fall color.

From Trouser lake to the west end of tow, the rock blasting and pipe laying for the new water supply continues.

Fall colors in full bloom.

The growing medium up here is less than a foot most places. This is also a very exposed area to westerly winds, hence the stunted growth of the trees and shrubs.
It is one of my favorite places near town.


Inukshuk overlooking Nain and Trouser Lake, the soon to be the towns water supply.