Month: February 2006

AG Wraps Nunavut On The Knuckles

Mulder

Being tied up in my new job, I must have missed this release by the Auditor General’s Office. On Feb 21st, Sheila Fraser’s office gave Nunavut a wrap on the knuckles with regard to their financial reporting. Three things from the news release stand out quite clearly.

1 – “Financial management is certainly stronger now than when Nunavut was created,” says Ms. Fraser in the report’s preface. “However, overall, financial management is weak and fragile. It has not adequately reduced the risk of error, bad decisions, or fraud.”

2 – Ms. Fraser calls for strong solutions. “The government could continue to try small changes as it has done for the past six years,” she says. “However, this approach has not worked so far, and there is no reason to believe that it will work in the future.”

3 -The report contains three key recommendations to strengthen financial controls and improve Nunavut’s financial management. According to the report, the government needs to

  • close gaps in its accounting systems;
  • review its accounting structures, including the physical location of staff—centralizing accounting functions to deal with the root causes of poor financial management; and
  • develop training programs that will give Land Claims Agreement beneficiaries the opportunity to become professional accountants and prepare for senior financial management positions

If I didn’t know better, Sheila Fraser, with her penny pinching ways, is trying to seduce me through the Auditor Generals office!! (shhh, don’t tell my wife)

Profound Statements Were Not Limited To Rothstein's Dialogue

Mulder

Marshall Rothstein was wonderful on the stand. Maybe it had something to do with the overall feeling of the whole Ad Hoc Committee reviewing him, but I think a lot had to do with the fact that it was Canadians questioning Canadians. I would liken us to the good cop in the infamous “good cop, bad cop” scenario.

One of the most interesting things said was not uttered by the new Marshall in town, but was instead uttered by Rob More, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Justice.

Rothstein had been asked about his feeling on the Ad Hoc Committee itself and referred to it bringing transparency and education to the masses. Mr. More said in his opening remarks that he would go so far as to say that Canadians already have learned more about Rothstein through the process than they likely have about any other Justice on the highest court in the land through any previous nomination process.

This was why I was excited about the vetting. I, like most Canadians, am a pretty friendly decent person. Canadians play well with others, (in general). So for those who were concerned with the degradation of the process can be happy to know it did not happen.

If you haven’t found a good breakdown of the Ad Hoc committee, OttawaCore has a bulletized version of the vetting online.

Carp Mountain Revisited – A Councillor And A Mayor Reply

Mulder

In followups to my posts here and here, I have received additional responses.

First from Peggy Feltmate, the councillor for my own Ward in Kanata.

Thank you for your message regarding the proposal to expand the Carp Road Landfill. Like you I am concerned about what this will mean for Kanata and other nearby communities.While it is the provincial government that have the power to stop or approve the landfill expansion, I do feel that the City needs to be speaking out about potential problems.

In response to a request from my council colleague Janet Stavinga, Waste Management agreed to extend the deadline for comments on the terms of reference for the Environmental Assessment from March 20 to May 12. This will provide more time to highlight the problems with the proposed expansion of the Carp Landfill.

City staff have also agreed to bring forward a report providing information on the impact of the proposals for the Carp Landfill. The report will provide an opportunity for city council to take a position. The report is scheduled to come before Planning and Environment Committee on April 25.

I will be supporting a strong response from the city and I will be encouraging my council colleagues to do the same.

Because the final decision on whether the Carp Road Landfill will be expanded will be made by the provincial government, people need to be letting the provincial government know how they feel. If the provincial government feels that people in Ottawa don’t care or that they can escape blame for the decision, then the province is more likely to allow the landfill to expand.

It is worth contacting both our Member of Provincial Parliament and the premier. Norm Sterling can be reached at 1-888-253-1171, 1-800-267-1020 or norm.sterling@pc.ola.org. Dalton McGuinty can be reached at Dalton.McGuinty@premier.gov.on.ca.

There is also a community open house on the proposals for the Carp Landfill next week in Stittsville. It is a change to get information and voice your concerns. Details are:

Community Open House:
Waste Management proposes expansion of Carp Rd. landfill
Wednesday, March 1
6 – 9 pm
Presentation at 7 pm, followed by Q & A session
École élémentaire catholique Jean-Paul II (gymnasium)
5473 Abbott St, Stittsville

Sincerely,

Peggy

I have to commend Peggy for her response. It was both thorough, informative, and tells me a lot about her view on this subject. I have a slight issue with her wording “I will be supporting a strong response from the city and I will be encouraging my council colleagues to do the same.” This expression does not make it clear to me that Peggy is against the expansion. I would normally assume with all the surrounding information that she is against it, but I emailed her for clarification anyway.

The second response I received today was from Mayor Bob, himself.

Thank you for your email concerning the landfill site in Carp.

The Carp landfill is privately owned and operated by Waste Management of Canada Corporation.

Waste Management Corporation is preparing an environmental assessment on providing additional disposal capacity at the Carp landfill site. The City of Ottawa does not approve the terms and conditions set out in the environmental assessment. This responsibility lies solely with the Provincial Ministry of the Environment, which determines when and how members of the public like yourself can voice your thoughts and concerns about WM’s plans to expand the capacity of the landfill site.

Thank you again for your email.

Jacques D. Larouche
Assistant to Policy Unit
Adjoint à l’unité des politiques
Mayor’s Office/Cabinet du Maire
City of Ottawa/Ville d’Ottawa.

I realize this response is from his Assistent to Policy Unit, but compared to Peggy’s, this response says nothing except the City does not approve the terms and conditions set out in the environmental assessment Waste Management is providing. Thanks for the slough off Mayor Bob. You must be conceding the election in October with chintzy responses like this.

Hillier Willing To Escort Tim Horton's Kahuna To Afghanistan

Mulder

Well, the hype surrounding getting a Tim Horton’s in Afghanistan is growing. The Ottawa Sun had a poll on it and now General Rick Hillier is speaking about it.

American troops in Afghanistan have access to fast food from Pizza Hut and Burger King, but the Canadians can’t get fresh Timbits.Hillier says it would be a big morale-booster to have a coffee shop in Kandahar.

“I invite the CEO of Tim Hortons to come with me to Afghanistan and see the powerful implications that would come from that.”

The company said in a statement that it’s working with the Forces on having its products available in Afghanistan.

H/T to Blue Blogging Soapbox.

Vetting And Sweating: It Should Be Part Of The Supreme Court Justice Nomination

Mulder

I am pleased to see that we are going to vet Marshall Rothstein as part of his nomination for Supreme Court Justice.

If Stephen Harper hopes to move the agenda forward with elected judges, then we, the public, should pay very close attention to things like this. It is our best chance to see and understand what the opinions are so we can better vote for or against certain nominees down the road.

I think personal life questions are not necessary, and should be avoided. But I do believe, as does Phantom Observer, that justices need to speak to their past decisions and to prospective future ones. This is the whole point of them being judges and us electing them. The majority can determine what they feel is best. We won’t always win, but at least we would know where they stand on things like abortion, same sex marriage, etc as far as interpretation in our constitution.

Hopefully, it goes well for Rothstein tomorrow. He, apparently, has good credentials and is well respected in both the Conservatives and the Liberal parties, as well as with the legal community, in general.

Kilrea Concurs With My Assessment Of Municipal Election Landscape

Mulder

When I predicted Alex Munter’s entry in the Ottawa Municipal Elections would split the left wing vote, I didn’t know Terry Kilrea would agree with me. But it is good to know my hunches can be right.

Mr. Kilrea believes that with Mr. Munter in the race, the center/left vote will be split between his rivals and he stands a good chance of becoming Ottawa’s next leader.

“They’ll split the vote,” Mr. Kilrea said yesterday. “Alex is going to take the left votes that would have gone to the mayor. Anybody voting for me will not vote for Alex Munter. There’s only one place for him take votes from, and that’s the mayor.

“Alex is a younger carbon copy of the current tax and spend mayor, but he’s more left, and Ottawa can’t afford Alex Munter.”

Some Feats Deserve To Be Applauded

Mulder

I must say, when I saw this picture in my email box I became very suspect about it being a hoax. So I did some digging.

Six years, 500 million euros, 918 meters long Now this is engineering!This is a channel-bridge over the River Elbe and joins the former East and West Germany, as part of the unification project. It is located in the city of Magdeburg, near Berlin. The photo was taken on the day of inauguration. To those who appreciate engineering projects.

Here is the original photo I saw.

wasserstrasse-magdeburg2.jpg

I typed the town name, Magdeburg, from the email into my Google Earth, and lo and behold, I saw channel after channel of waterways. So I looked at the likeliest direct crossing water and came up with this.

wasserstrasse-magdeburg.jpg

If you look carefully, you can see the crossing point going east west. It appears to be two white strips on either side as I believe this satellite photo was taken during the construction phase.

I then found some supporting maps on various German websites, including this one which exactly maps on to my Google Earth. Here is the clearest.
wasserstrasse-magdeburg3.jpg

For posterity, here is a side view of the bridge I found at a German waterway construction site.

wasserstrasse-magdeburg1.jpg

I was first amazed by German technology when a friend of mine had a piece of permanently shaped wire that you could bend and when heated with a match sized flame, returned to its’ original mold. I was about 9. Things like this bridge just reinstill my faith in the technology and interest in it that Germans have.

I just wanted to give some Kudo’s to our G8 partner. It is well deserved for this one.

Supporting links:

Waterway Cross Magdeburg – Wikipedia

WasserstraBenkreuz Magdeburg – Official Canal Site (I think)

Canal Bridge Magdeburg – dillinger.de website

Preview Comment, Email Post and Trackback All Fully Operational

Mulder

Just an FYI for those posting here.  I have corrected problems with the trackback feature of the site.  I have also added a feature to allow you to email the post you are on to a friend and included a preview comment feature as well.  I have refrained from adding Chaptcha which is the funny letters many sites ask you to fill in on the comment page.  This security feature is there to prevent unwanted automated posting by spam commenters.  I will retain the right to turn it on should spam get excessive on this site.

Shake Rattle and Roll In The Nations Capital

Mulder

Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.  Tonight at 8:39 pm EDT, we had an earthquake in Ottawa.  I’m serious.

I was sitting here and the walls started shaking.  I jumped up because I am more used to a big thump when the kids get a bit over rambunctious.  Cookie looked at me bewildered and said “What was that??”  I told them I thought it was an earthquake, but put my shoes on and went outside to see if any big construction vehicles were rolling up the road.  A jet flew over, but it was way to high.

I went back inside and asked the kids what time it was.  8:40 pm.   Colbert felt it in south Ottawa too.  On his site he points people to the Earthquakes Canada site.  And sure enough, one was centered 7 km north of Thurso, Quebec and registered a 4.5.

For those who aren’t aware, Thurso is about 80 km East of Ottawa.