Newfoundland and Labrador Political Pot Pourri

The NDP have gained 16% in the provincial polls to 23% overall under Alison Coffin's leadership in three months according to a September poll by Narrative Research (the new name for CRA). The Liberals are down 4% to 42% while the Cons have dropped 10% to 32%. 

It's bad news for the Progressive Conservatives and good news for the New Democrats, as a poll released Tuesday finds that support for each party has changed notably — in opposite directions — since the May provincial election, even as more than a quarter of voters remain undecided.

The telephone survey by Narrative Research found that support among decided voters was at 32 per cent for the Tories, down 10 points from May 2019 and at the lowest levels seen since February 2018, when the party polled at 33 per cent.

In the other direction, NDP support was also a level not seen since it was 24 per cent in February of last year, with 23 per cent of decided voters polled telling Narrative they backed the Alison Coffin-led party provincially. That's up 16 points over the last three months, compared with the support of just seven per cent of voters in May polling.

Meanwhile, the governing Liberals' support largely held steady, with 42 per cent of decided voters in the poll saying they support the party, down slightly from 46 per cent in May 2019 and 45 per cent in February 2019.

In Newfoundland and Labrador, 27 per cent of voters are undecided, five per cent don't plan to vote in the next provincial election, and three per cent would not reveal their party support, according to the results, which are based on a sample of 800 adult residents of the province polled between July 31 and Aug. 25. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/poll-narrative-rese...

Premier Dwight Ball will resign as soon as a new Liberal Premier is selected.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s premier has announced he is stepping down after more than four years leading the province.

Dwight Ball said in a video released Monday that he has asked the president of the provincial Liberal party to convene a leadership process to choose a successor “at the earliest opportunity.”

Ball, who was re-elected with a minority government last spring, said he is resigning to live a “more private life” with friends and family in Deer Lake.

Ball, 63, said he will stay on as premier until a new leader is chosen and will continue to represent the Humber-Gros Morne district in the legislature until the next provincial election.

He said he decided to start the leadership process now given his government’s minority status and the unpredictability of the next election date.

The premier said he will continue overseeing budget preparations and will prioritize protecting ratepayers from the cost overruns of the Muskrat Falls hydro dam.

His announcement Monday comes one week after a joint announcement with Ottawa that the two governments would rewrite the financial structure of the beleaguered megaproject on Labrador’s Lower Churchill River.

Currently priced at $12.7 billion, the dam has come to represent one-third of the province’s net debt since it was sanctioned in 2012.

The dam is set to produce more power than the province can sell, and its existing financial structure would have left electricity ratepayers on the hook to make up the difference starting in 2021.

Though last week’s announcement was light on specifics of the new model that will redirect benefits of the project to ratepayers, Ball vowed again on Monday that rates would not rise above current levels. ...

Ball came to power in 2015 after serving as leader of the official Opposition since 2012, and he has presided over difficult economic times in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The province entered 2020 facing a bleak financial forecast. Auditor general Julia Mullaley reported late last year that the province’s net debt is higher than it’s ever been and cautioned that the government “is not living within its means.”

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/newsalert-n-l-premier-dwight-ball-t...

The downfall of Dwight Ball has been building for a while. Under Newfoundland law, an election has to occur within a year of a new Premier being chosen.

Dwight Ball couldn't seem to stop scoring on his own goal. Throughout last fall he had to defend moving former senior Liberal staffer Carla Foote into a position at The Rooms, the provincial museum and archives, sans competition.  ...

Instead of a fresh start in the new year, he faced a new controversy: a fat contract for a deputy minister-turned-oil and gas consultant.

Behind the scenes, multiple sources say cabinet and caucus members were frustrated with the premier's performance and his inability to handle scandals of his own making.

"Every leader has an expiration date. Dwight Ball just reached his," one cabinet minister told CBC News after Ball announced Monday evening that he was stepping down as premier.

Just last week, when Ball made his big announcement on keeping electricity rates low, there was another sign of waning support: only a few cabinet ministers showed up, with some of the heavy hitters — Transportation Minister Steve Crocker, Health Minister John Haggie, Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation Minister Bernard Davis, and Municipal Affairs and Environment Minister Derek Bragg — all absent. ... 

Rumours of Ball's resignation aren't new; they started early in his tenure as premier. He underestimated the backlash from his first budget that hiked taxes and fees and cut libraries. Some in the public would never forgive him.

Multiple sources inside his own caucus say Ball never really regained the public trust. Less than a year ago the public returned him to power, but with his wings clipped atop a minority government. After that, he kept stumbling from scandal to scandal.

Leaving now saves Ball from facing a June leadership review — one he knew would be tough. Caucus and cabinet members were not-so-quietly expressing their desire for him to leave. Liberal executive members loyal to Ball tried to get the party to delay the vote, to give Ball more time, but they failed. Ball had a choice: fight a battle or leave on his own terms. He chose the latter. ...

Who's next?

The Liberal party is expected to lay out the process today, but the unofficial race has already started.

Some inside the cabinet have already ruled it out, with Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady and Minister of Fisheries and Land Resources Gerry Byrne insisting they won't run.

One name is already seen as a front-runner: Andrew Furey, an orthopedic surgeon better known for his philanthropy. He founded Team Broken Earth, which helps provide medical care to developing countries. Furey has never held elected office but comes from a political family. His father, George Furey, is currently speaker of the Senate.

Insiders say he also has the backing of former premier Brian Tobin, who was helping him get ready for a run even before Monday's resignation. Furey told CBC news on Tuesday morning he is interested in throwing his hat in the ring, but would not speak further to the matter, adding he needed to discuss the issue with family and colleagues. 

From inside the party, Minister of Justice and Public Safety Andrew Parsons is well-liked, but is dealing with serious family health issues that sidelined him from the House of Assembly last fall and will keep him from running for the top job. ...

The now outgoing premier wants his replacement to be chosen soon.

In his address, he said he wants a new leader to put a stamp on a spring budget, due out in only two months.

That will mean a quick race or a delayed budget.

Under a law brought in by the PC government under Danny Williams, an election will have to happen within a year of a new premier taking office.

Even if the budget passes this spring — not a guarantee for a minority government — an election is coming.

Coalitions don't usually work out well for the junior partner, in this case the NDP if it were to join one, as the larger party tends to get the credit if things go well and if things go badly, all coaltion parties take the hit. I think it would be better if the NDP became the Official Opposition to a Liberal-Conservative government, so that when its support wears thin, they have a chance to win.

The Liberal party will pick a new leader on May 9th. 

 

The Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador will select its new leader on May 9.

Party president John Allan says the call for nominations for leadership candidates, which opened Monday, will remain open until March 6 at noon.

The leadership convention is set for May 8-9 in St. John's. It will follow the same preferential ballot system used in 2013 wherein each registered voter shall be asked to rank the candidates in order of preference, from their first choice to their last choice. 

Each candidate will be required to pay a $25,000 nomination fee, starting with a $15,000 payment due when the nomination form is being submitted.

Only a few people have publicly — but not officially — declared an interest in taking over for Premier Dwight Ball, who announced his resignation last week. Among them are businessman and former Liberal leadership candidate Paul Antle, Dr. Andrew Furey and businessman Dean MacDonald.

https://www.thetelegram.com/news/local/newfoundland-and-labrador-liberal...

There is no surprise in the latest Narrative Research (formerly CRA) poll showing Liberal support dropping 5% to 37%. Furthermore, dissatisfaction with the Liberal government has risen from 42% in November to 55% today while satisfaction is down 12% to 40% leaving the Liberals overall at -15%. The PC's and NDP are both up 2% to 35% and 26% respectively, while the Greens received 2%. The NDP's Coffin at 22% (up from 12% just before the May 2019 election) is now only 8% behind Premier Ball in best premier and 5% behind the PC's Crosbie. 

A majority of Newfoundland and Labrador residents now express dissatisfaction with the performance of the provincial government led by Premier Dwight Ball, according to a recent survey conducted by Narrative Research. In fact, more than one-half of residents (55%) express dissatisfaction, up notably from 42% in November 2019. Only 40% (down 12% since November) are satisfied with the government’s performance, reflecting the lowest satisfaction level since the last election. (Note nearly all data collected by Narrative Research was collected prior to Ball’s resignation announcement.)

In terms of decided voter intentions, the Liberals hold 37% of the vote (down from 42% in November), closely followed by the PCs, who are at 35% (compared with 33% in November). The New Democratic Party is at 26% (compared with 24% in November). The relatively new Green Party holds 2% of decided voters.

One-quarter of eligible NL voters are undecided (26%), while 1% do not plan to vote in the next provincial election, and 3% refuse to state which party they support.

On the question of leadership, Ball remains the preferred choice as premier (30%), closely followed by Ches Crosbie (27%). The gap between the two was 13 points in November 2019, but has now narrowed to just three points. Alison Coffin is preferred by 22%. Ten percent of voters voice no preference for premier, while 11% prefer none of the party leaders.

https://narrativeresearch.ca/satisfaction-with-premier-balls-government-...

Liberal Andrew Furey is the new Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, doubling the vote obtained by John Abbott.

Orthopedic surgeon Andrew Furey is premier-designate of Newfoundland and Labrador, after winning the provincial Liberal leadership race on Monday evening. Furey was the frontrunner from the beginning, with the backing of outgoing Premier Dwight Ball's entire cabinet. In voting results announced Monday evening in St. John's, Furey doubled the only other candidate, longtime civil servant John Abbott, with about twice as many points.

In his victory speech, Furey promised to be "frank and transparent," and called on all MHAs to work together to address the dire problems staring down at the province. "Together we can emerge from this crisis as a stronger, more caring, more passionate and more diverse Newfoundland and Labrador," he said.

Furey, who has never run in a political race before, said he hasn't given any thought to asking anyone to vacate their seat, but said he will run for the first seat that becomes available.

About 21,000 votes were cast in the leadership race, despite the fact that more than 34,000 people had registered. The final tally of votes cast is less than the 2013 Liberal leadership campaign, even though more people registered to vote in 2020.

Furey has never held office before, and doesn't have a seat in the provincial legislature. Furey, though, is politically connected. He is the son of Senate Speaker George Furey, a longtime Liberal organizer, and the nephew of former provincial cabinet minister Chuck Furey. ...

The leadership race started in February with Premier Dwight Ball dropping a bombshell announcement during the evening news of his intention to resign. ...

Ball's decision to resign came amid growing scandals within his caucus such as former Municipal Affairs and Environment Minister Perry Trimper's inadvertent "very racist" voicemail to Innu Nation staffer Dominic Rich, the hiring of Carla Foote — without competition — to a top job at The Rooms and subsequent investigation into then-Tourism Minister Christopher Mitchelmore'sinvolvement, the hiring of Gordon McIntosh to a $350,000 contract with Nalcor Energy — also without competition — and the saga of a harassment claim set forth by then cabinet minister Sherry Gambin-Walsh which saw the removal of then-Liberal MHA Eddie Joyce and cabinet minister Dale Kirby. ...

Furey will also inherit other problems, such as the province's troubling financial situation, which has since worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing push to bring the overbudget Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project online. ...

Over the course of the race, Abbott remained on the attack, twice raising concerns about how Furey formed his contact list, a list that resulted in a convicted murderer getting an invitation to Furey's campaign launch. The two men also went to battle over health care, with Furey accusing Abbott of not doing enough to fix the system while he held his senior position in government.

Before the final tally was announced, Abbott said he wanted an independent review of the voting process. He said many of the voters his team tried to contact had died before the leadership race began, or were wondering how they even ended up on the voting list at all. ...

Abbott told reporters he intends to run for the Liberals in the next election, and said he is willing to meet with Furey about his future. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/abbott-furey-libera...

Further increasing the chance of an early election is the follwing Newfoundland law: "Newfoundland and Labrador, unique amongst the nine provinces and two territories which have adopted fixed-date election laws, requires that new premier appointed to office before the close of the third year in the life of a House of Assembly advise the Lieutenant Governor to call an early general election within 12 months."  (https://parliamentum.org/2020/02/18/newfoundland-labrador-must-by-law-ho...)

IMO this puts further pressure on the Newfoundland Liberals to go this fall before being trapped into an election as the one-year deadline nears next year. 

Once again the Trudeau government is speaking out of both sides of its mouth as it changes offshore drilling rules in Newfoundland in order to make it easier for the fossil fuel industry to meet them and then proclaiming that the industry must live up to those standards while environmental organizations complain about the changes.  The Liberal government has also excluded new drilling from environmental assessment there. This has become even more important with the announcement of the discovery of oil in two new places in the Newfoundland offshore. 

Canada’s environment minister defended government regulations Wednesday related to the impacts of oil drilling off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson told the House of Commons environment committee that “all drilling projects must respect high environmental standards” after a Bloc Québécois MP raised questions about a government rule change meant to help industry.

Monique Pauzé asked Wilkinson about the Liberal government’s announcement in June that it was excluding individual exploratory offshore drilling projects from having to undergo a federal impact assessment. 

That change was touted by the government at the time as lending a helping hand to Newfoundland and Labrador's offshore oil industry, which has been battered by the pandemic’s economic toll as well as low global oil prices. Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan said it was the “number 1” request that “business and investors” had been asking for. ...

Last week, energy company Equinor said it had discovered oil in two locations east of St. John’sfollowing an exploration drilling campaign. Newfoundland and Labrador's oil and gas industry group called the discoveries, which Equinor made with partner BP Canada, an “encouraging” sign for business “at a time when encouraging news is needed.”

Environmental groups have raised concerns about the government’s exploratory drilling exemption. WWF-Canada, Sierra Club Canada Foundation and Ecology Action Centre have said a larger regional assessment of the impacts of exploratory oil drilling off the province’s coast was “flawed” and so cannot be used as a basis for allowing individual exemptions.

One of Canada’s marine refuges, the Northeast Newfoundland Slope is also east of St. John’s. The 55,000-square-kilometre section of the ocean is important for biodiversity since it contains fragile corals and sponges that help out other marine life by acting as spawning grounds or nurseries, according to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

“In your documents, you talk about biodiversity of oceans,” Pauzé asked Wilkinson in French. “You excluded important offshore drilling projects from environmental assessments ... is there not a contradiction in terms of what the government’s saying?” ...

Equinor's two discoveries appear to have been made to the southeast of the marine refuge's southern tip based on location data sourced from the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board and the fisheries department.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/11/05/news/environment-minister-de...

Liberal Premier Dwight Ball  called the 2019 election early in order to avoid his own public inquiry testimony creating large political re-election problems for him. Neither Ball's government nor the loyal opposition Progressive Conservatives  looked good at the public inquiry looking at their handling of the Muskrat Falls debacle that has left Newfoundlanders facing a future of skyrocketing electricity rates and enormous environmental damage. Calling the election early helped him stay in power with a reduced number of MLAs and aminority government but did not remove the Muskrat Falls albatross. In the end he resigned. 

Muskrat Falls continues to be an enormous finanical and environmental risk to Newfoundlanders as this May 2019 article illustrates. Unsurprisingly, indigenous people have been left to face the extremely dangerous risk of methylmercury poisoning, a neurotoxin so dangerous the World Health Organization ranks it among the top ten chemicals of public health concern, by Liberal and Conservative governments. 

When the Muskrat Falls hydro dam on Labrador’s lower Churchill River floods an area twice the size of the city of Victoria, methylmercury will immediately start to contaminate the food chain as microbes feed on inorganic carbon stored in flooded soils and vegetation, setting off a sequence of events.

The pricetag for the project had doubled to $12.7 billion with another $4o0 million now being added due to Covid-19 construction days pushing the bill over $13.  This was about to lead to a doubling of Newfoundland's hydro rates and leaving Newfoundland with a crushing debt load as of December 31st,  until the Trudeau government stepped in today to waive debt payments temporarily. However, this does not solve the problem, only delays it and at best may shift some of the costs onto federal taxpayers. What a mess. 

I expect the new Liberal government to call an election in the early spring before all the still unsolved problems become apparent and while the Covid-19 halo still shines. 

The federal government is again saying it will take steps to make Newfoundland and Labrador's Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project financially stable — including waiving immediate payments due from Crown corporation Nalcor Energy — but there are few exact details on how the project will affect the province's ratepayers. ...

Debt and financing payments owed by Nalcor, which operates the Lower Churchill project in Labrador, will be delayed. Since the project isn't yet regularly producing power, Ottawa has temporarily waived the payment obligations to "help reduce immediate financial pressures on Newfoundland and Labrador," according to the release. The province would have been on the hook to pay $844 million, $780 million of which would have been due by the end of December and added to the provincial debt, Furey said. ...

A long-time critic of the project said Thursday's announcement contained little new information and was short on details of how exactly the federal government will help. "I really thought it was a nothing-burger," said Ron Penney, chair of the Muskrat Falls Concerned Citizens Coalition. "I thought we'd get a very big Christmas present, but instead all that we got was setting out the federal negotiating team and the objective of the exercise, but nothing really practical in terms of how the problem is going to be resolved." ...

Penney said he thinks Ottawa becoming a stakeholder in Muskrat Falls is "the only solution to this problem," referring to the potential doubling of hydro rates due to the cost of the project. 

The deferral of hundreds of millions of dollars in payments that were due this month is a "very minor step" in addressing the financial strain of the project, he said. "I'm not minimizing that, it's important for this fiscal year, but this is a 50-year problem," Penney said. He said there's no way residents can afford to pay a doubled electricity bill next year and he's worried a major financial burden will fall on generations to come. 

"I'm concerned about my children and grandchildren."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/muskrat-falls-newse...

ETA: And now here is the Furey agenda in all its full glory. Too bad he couldn't see it coming during the election and only realized how bad the situation was when the Greene "Big Reset" report that was delayed and delayed again when the election that Furey was in such a hurry to hold had its own Big Reset due to Covid so the people never got to vote on the austerity Furey agenda. Of course there was not planned out this way. It just happened in such a convenient way in terms of not having any detailed questions on what was coming during the election. It's strange how Furey couldn't see what was coming when, in his own words, ""This situation predates the pandemic and it has been compounded exponentially by Muskrat Falls."

And how convenient to propose all of this in a video and take no questions and give no specific details of how it will be done. A true master politician.

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey says the province's financial circumstances are unsustainable and the total provincial debt of $47 billion is an unbearable load for residents.

In a video released Thursday evening, Furey offered his full thoughts for the first time about the recently released, and blunt, Moya Greene report, which outlines the province's dire fiscal situation.

"Our province is spending more than we have. We are borrowing just to pay interest on what we owe. Over a billion dollars a year with nothing to show for it. Our credit card debt is out of control," Furey said.

Furey touched on a number of highlights from the report, from his appointed economic recovery team, including the need for the provincial government to quickly rein spending in to match revenue, and the fear of losing control of the province's future if nothing is done.

The premier said "urgent actions" include:

• Raising taxes on people "who can afford it."
• Reviewing public sector salaries and eliminating bonuses.
• Evaluating the future of Nalcor and the province's future position in oil equity.
• Investing in technology innovation and the green economy.
• Amalgamating health authorities.
• Reaching a new deal with Memorial University.
• Examining "the purpose of a school district that continues to keep empty schools open."

The premier provided no specifics about how the provincial government would implement the actions he mentioned. Furey also didn't take questions from the media Thursday evening, but has scheduled an availability for Friday morning.   ...

Memorial University political science professor Russell Williams called Furey's statement "surprisingly vague," adding that it's not clear what Furey is specifically planning to do with the report's recommendations. "Some of those vague areas were made worse, obviously, by the fact that there was no opportunity to ask him questions about it afterwards," said Williams.

Williams also said it's not clear what Furey meant by "a new deal with Memorial University. I have no idea. There's some recommendations about that in the Greene report, but the premier hasn't really said what he means by that," said Williams.

"I think if I was to boil to one simple point, this was a huge missed opportunity for the premier to actually tell us either what he thinks about the substantive recommendations in the Greene report, or to tell us what his plan is for a process going forward as to how he's going to choose what to implement." 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/andrew-furey-pert-r...

The following article discusses how Premier Furey set in motion his austerity plan. The article notes "If such a deep austerity plan can be implemented in Newfoundland and Labrador, it will be attempted in other provinces in the years to come."

The pandemic has thrown the budgets of governments across Canada into the red as they increased spending to protect their populations from COVID-19 and expand the social safety net, while the economy slowed and revenues declined. But not every province was in the same situation heading into the pandemic, and for Newfoundland and Labrador, despite successfully managing the spread of COVID-19 for much of the past year, it appears the time of reckoning has arrived.

Last October, just two months after taking over the leadership of the governing Liberal Party, Andrew Furey appointed the Premier’s Economic Recovery Team (PERT), chaired by Moya Greene, and tasked it with crafting a plan to “respond to the Province’s immediate fiscal challenges and plot a new course forward.” 

On May 6, the PERT delivered its report, and recommended a harsh austerity plan that includes deep cuts to provincial spending and the handing of more power to the private sector. If implemented, Greene’s plan will forever alter life in the province. It draws from long-discredited ideas about public spending and the role of government that make it feel like it belongs in the ’80s or ’90s. There is no positive future if Furey chooses to go down this path. ...

In 2014, oil prices collapsed, leaving a massive hole in the provincial budget right as construction was starting at Muskrat Falls. In the following years, the project that was once hailed as key to the province’s economic future brought it to the edge of bankruptcy after the cost soared from an estimated $6.2 billion in 2010 to more than $13 billion in 2021. 

A public inquiry’s report released in 2020 found that while elected officials made bad decisions, executives at Nalcor, the provincial energy company created to oversee the project, had held back details about cost increases and was plagued by bad management, among a range of other issues.

On Mar. 20, 2020, as the country was in lockdown, Furey’s predecessor, Dwight Ball, sent a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau laying out the state of the province’s finances. Ball wrote, “We have no other recourse to raise the necessary funds to maintain the operations of government, including our health-care system, especially at this critical time.” 

It was in that context that Furey tasked Moya Greene, and a panel dominated by local businesspeople, to develop a technocratic plan for the province’s future.

https://readpassage.com/the-big-reset-proposes-deep-austerity-for-newfou...

 Here is just a sample of the recommendations in Moya Greene's 338 page Big Reset austerity report to Premier Furey, giving him exactly what he was looking for. 

The Provincial Government should:

•   Bundle and sell all or a majority interest or create a long term concession in its motor vehicle and registry of deeds system;

•   Revise legislation to require that all unregistered land be registered within eight years. After this period, all unregistered land would revert to the Crown;

•   Sell all or a majority interest in the Newfoundland Labrador Liquor Corporation, and review how the Provincial Government taxes alcohol; and

•   Sell Marble Mountain ski resort and related assets.

The Provincial Government should:

•   Reduce its core expenditures by five per cent, with no expenditure growth for six- years;

•   Reduce its operating grants to Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic by five per cent per year over six years, for a total reduction of 30 per cent;

•   Reduce its operating grants to the Regional Health Authorities by 4.15 per cent per year over six years, for a total reduction of 25 per cent;

•   Reduce administrative costs for the K-12 system and allocate these additional funds to classrooms, to support the teaching of math, technology, science, computer science, and the promotion of entrepreneurship;

•   Reduce operating grants to Newfoundland and Labrador Housing and Legal Aid bytwo per cent; 

•   Reduce operating grants to other government agencies by 20 per cent.

The Provincial Government, working with public sector unions, should develop a new compensation package. Key elements should include:

•   Pensions to be converted to a collective defined contribution plan in three years3;

•   Measures to reduce the payroll base, such as a four-day work week for certain

  positions and creating seasonal positions targeted at peak demand periods;

•   Wage freeze;

•   Alternative service delivery models; and

•   Development and promotion of work-from-home policies.

  In the event that a negotiated settlement is not possible, the Provincial Government should use legislation that will be effective. ...

The Provincial Government should redefine its role in the economy, the services it offers and how these services are delivered, with a focus on accelerating new technology adoption. The private and not-for-profit sectors should deliver services where appropriate. ...

Government must look critically at its current approach to determine which services it should continue to provide, which services it can discontinue, and which services, existing or future, could be offered by the private or not-for profit sectors. Many services offered by government can be delivered in a different way; some may be more responsive if customized for local needs. ...

Many Provincial Government services could be offered by private and not-for-profit sector enterprises more effectively and at lower cost. Moving some services to the private and not-for-profit sectors could create new businesses. ...

This expertise can then be exported to other parts of Canada and the world and help build a larger market base for local businesses. ...

• Raise capital through the following measures:

o Offer transmission and distribution assets to the private sector to either own or operate;
o Offer the sale of island generation assets to the private sector;
o Sell the Provincial Government’s oil and gas equity interests when oil prices increase; and
o Sell the Bull Arm Fabrication Site, currently owned by the Oil and Gas Corporation; ...

• Apply any monies raised from electrical and oil and gas assets to rate mitigation, the provincial debt, and the Future Fund; ...

The Provincial Government should:

•   Review its petroleum royalty and local benefits structures in 2021-22 to ensure they encourage exploration and development of new activity in the offshore, with net-zero targets wherever possible;

•   Request the Federal Government reinstate the Atlantic Investment Tax Credit for offshore petroleum projects and for green mining projects; ...

The slow and laborious government processes faced by businesses are often referredto as “red tape.” No one is suggesting that governments should make decisions that are unsafe for people or the environment, but governments need to make quick decisions.The Provincial Government’s decision making is not competitive with other parts of theworld that develop oil and gas assets. The Province must remove the red tape associated with development in all sectors.  ...

The regulatory framework for oil and gas has slowed progress, and the Province has not always been a good partner. ...

To ensure that Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador have a regulatory approach competitive with the rest of the world, the Provincial Government should work with the Federal Government to:

•   Streamline regulatory processes to improve timelines and adjust regulatory approaches that make Newfoundland and Labrador uncompetitive; and

•   Give direction to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) that the development of the offshore area is a priority function and offshore management must be consistent with the principles underpinning the Atlantic Accord.

To ensure that Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador have a regulatory approach competitive with the rest of the world, the Provincial Government should work with the Federal Government to:

•   Streamline regulatory processes to improve timelines and adjust regulatory approaches that make Newfoundland and Labrador uncompetitive; and

•   Give direction to the Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB) that the development of the offshore area is a priority function and offshore management must be consistent with the principles underpinning the Atlantic Accord.

The Provincial Government should encourage mining exploration through:

•   Expansion of airborne geoscience surveys in priority areas of Newfoundland and Labrador;

•   Increased funding for the Junior Exploration Assistance Program;

•   Commencement of work related to geotechnical information with Québec, as provided for in the 2018 bilateral agreement with Québec; and

•   Implementation of a five per cent provincial flow through shares mechanism to attract new investment.

The Provincial Government should: streamline the regulatory decision-making processes for aquaculture licences and site approvals; ...

1. The Provincial Government should:

   •   Promote investment opportunities globally and with local entrepreneurs to increase lumber production, value-added manufacturing, and alternative heating technologies, such as biofuels, wood chips, and wood pellets;

   •   Review the forest royalty and fee regime to maximize access to forestry resources; ...

1. The Provincial Government should:

   •   Streamline the administrative structure by eliminating the two school districts with a goal to spend less on administration and reinvest that money directly at the school level;

   •   Place program administration within the Department of Education and adopt a shared services model for HR, IT, payroll, maintenance, etc.;

   •   Ensure principals, vice principals, and other supervisory staff are not members of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers Association (NLTA);

   •   Dissolve volunteer school boards and replace with one volunteer Provincial School Advisory Council. This Provincial Council will be connected to existing School Advisory Councils to link parents, families, and communities more strongly to the school system to enhance collaboration and greater accountability;

•   Change school opening and closing hours to an eight hour day for teachers so that they can use some non-teaching time during the work day for professional upgrading and collaboration; ...

The province provides a high level of subsidy to Memorial University and CNA andkeeps tuition rates low. Given the province’s fiscal situation, the cost of the post- secondary education (PSE) system must be addressed. ... 

Newfoundland and Labrador’s current level of investment in its PSE institutions is not sustainable. As an example, immediate efficiencies could begained by consolidating the province’s three nursing schools into one. The Provincial Government should create one nursing school for the province.

Being known as the “cheapest” university in Canada carries the implication of it beingthe lowest quality. Nothing could be further from the truth. Memorial University could deliver the same or better outcomes if PSE funding came from other sources. ...

The Provincial Government should institute a moratorium on building new long-term Care facilities; ...

The Provincial Government should: review the current structure and consolidate the four Regional Health Authorities into one; ...

The Provincial Government should: modify programs to eliminate disincentives for individuals to take-up employment opportunities when they become available; and revise funding programs based upon analysis, with a focus on partnering with community-based organizations to ensure responsive program and service delivery that is efficiently and effectively customized for real and changing needs and has measurable outcomes. ...

The Provincial Government should:

•   Increase all personal income tax rates by one percentage point and introduce tax credits for the lowest income group to offset the increase;

•   Increase the corporate income tax rate by two percentage points;

•   Increase the HST by one percentage point and consider expanding the base;

•   Increase the gasoline tax by 1.5 cents per litre;

•   Increase the payroll tax by 0.5 of a percentage point;

•   Increase the tobacco tax by 5.5 cents per cigarette; and

•   Increase fees and fines by 15 per cent;

https://thebigresetnl.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/PERT-FullReport.pdf

 Here's more on Furey's austerity program as outlined in the Big Reset report by Moya Greene he comissioned: classic austerity with a touch of green added to it.

Greene, who is best known for privatizing the British postal service, has proposed an austerity program that combines political and social reforms with a far-reaching economic restructuring plan premised on slashing state expenditures, across-the-board fee and tax increases, privatizing public assets, and breaking public sector unions.

“The Big Reset,” according to the report, proposes “a transformational plan for Newfoundland and Labrador that attempts to tie all aspects of the economy and society together to meet some of the biggest challenges and opportunities ever faced by the province.” ...

The six-year plan is anchored in a proposed shift to a green economy based on offshore oil, hydropower, mining, technology, and hydrogen within 20 years. It also proposes restructuring the education system to encourage jobs in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sectors, modernizing governance of both Memorial University (MUN) and College of the North Atlantic (CNA) while reducing operating grants, and amalgamating all four Regional Health Authorities into a single entity and reducing their operating grants by 25 percent. ...

“Spending is out of control,” Greene writes. “The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is facing an unsustainable fiscal situation that requires immediate action.” Her refrains are familiar: “[T]he fiscal challenges are entirely of the province’s own doing,” the report says, and “expectations placed on government have to be more realistic.” ...

Including both the gross debt of the Province itself alongside its Crown corporations—Nalcor Energy, the Newfoundland Labrador Liquor Corporation, and Atlantic Lottery Corporation—the Greene Report pegs provincial gross debt at roughly $44.5 billion. (This does not include the nearly $3 billion in new borrowing for 2020-21.) ...

Reflecting on the experience of the 2016 Budget—when protests across the province erupted following the introduction of an austerity budget—the Greene Report notes that “the election cycle hampers mapping long-term visions and the decision-making to support them.” 

A number of remedies are proposed for this. One major recommendation is mandatory balanced budget legislation for all departments, public institutions, agencies, boards, and commissions—with a percentage of ministers’, deputy ministers’, and assistant deputy ministers’ compensation withheld to ensure that departments and other entities meet established targets. This would also include “an external advisory group of experts established to review annual budgets.”

Significantly, the Greene Report proposes that the provincial government must renegotiate compensation packages with public sector unions. The “key elements” it demands are converting pensions “to a collective defined contribution plan in three years” on the model of the United Kingdom; “measures to reduce the payroll base, such as a four-day work week for certain positions… a wage freeze; alternative service delivery models; and development and promotion of work-from-home policies.” 

Greene writes that “in the event that a negotiated settlement is not possible, the Provincial Government should use legislation that will be effective.” ...

The report itself acknowledges that “The Big Reset” will rest on the shoulders of the upcoming generation. 

“It is unreasonable to expect the next generation to fund the current system,” Greene writes. “Newfoundland and Labrador’s systems must change in order to address the poor outcomes and high spending across so many areas.”

In a plan to provide more ‘efficient’ healthcare, the report recommends merging the four regional health authorities and expanding the use of telehealth and distance medicine. It also recommends reducing operating grants to health authorities by roughly 4 percent per year as part of the six-year plan. 

The proposed operating grant reductions to MUN and CNA would include the provincial government creating a single nursing school for the province, and having CNA develop technology upgrade programs. Included is the suggestion that the post-secondary institutions establish a joint “Centre of Excellence in Green Technology,” which would be financed in part by the province’s Future Fund.

These grant reductions should total $103.9 million over the next six years, with MUN shouldering most of the cuts, the report says. The projected loss to MUN would be $82.3 million by 2027. “A reduction in funding will likely result in higher tuition,” Greene writes. ...

According to the report, immigration retention is one of the key factors in the province’s plan to lean towards STEM employment (and industry), and future immigration programs could be tailored to target high-skilled individuals in this area. 

“The Provincial Government needs to act and demonstrate that it is focused on its finances,” Greene writes. “With a thoughtful, balanced, and well-developed implementation plan this province should be successful in the global competition that is underway for the billions of private sector dollars of capital redirected to green projects, technologies, and creating a forum of expertise.”

The report proposes a 2:1 ratio of expenditure reduction to revenue increases. Despite proposing to sell public assets, slash expenditures, and raise taxes and fees across the board, Greene was emphatic that “this is not an austerity program.”

Some of the “modest” tax raises recommended are increases to the tobacco, gasoline, and payroll tax, as well as an increase to the HST of one percentage point. All personal income tax rates would be increased one percentage point, with an introduction of tax credits for the lowest income group to “offset the increase.” Fees and fines would be increased by 15 percent. The corporate income tax rate would increase by two percentage points. 

Wealth taxes are also proposed, with an annual tax of one percent on “wealth exceeding $10 million or an agreed upon threshold.” The report also recommends implementing a minimum property tax on all residences outside of incorporated municipalities, and a separate tax on second residences (outside of the primary residence) valued at $100,000 or more. A tax on luxury vehicles was proposed too, with exemptions for electric vehicles. ...

It proposes reducing operating grants to MUN and CNA by 30 percent over six years; reducing operating grants to the Regional Health Authorities by 25 percent over six years; “[reducing] administrative costs for the K-12 system and [allocating] these additional funds to classrooms to support the teaching of math, technology, science, computer science, and the promotion of entrepreneurship;” reducing operating grants to Newfoundland and Labrador Housing and Legal Aid by two percent; and reducing operating grants to other government agencies by 20 percent.

“The Big Reset” also recommends the province privatize a number of its other assets in whole or in part. It suggests bundling, and either selling or creating, other long-term concessions in its motor vehicle and registry of deeds systems; selling all or a majority interest in the Newfoundland Labrador Liquor Corporation (as well as reviewing how the province taxes alcohol); and selling the Marble Mountain ski resort and all related assets.

https://theindependent.ca/news/politics/pert-pushes-big-reset-for-nl/

As I noted in the last post, what is happening in Newfoundland with their grooming the population for more severe austerity measures reminds me of the Chretien and Martin Liberal governments. Part of how they could implement austerity measures far more severe than those of the Mulroney Progressive Conservatives was in part of the public that if the Liberals, as opposed to the Conservatives, are doing this the situation must be really bad. 

 A Newfoundland and Labrador Furey Liberal government implementing austerity must be mean the situation is horrendous. After all, these guys are Liberals, just like Chretien and Martin. The Trudeau Liberals wouldn't do this after the next election, even with the record deficits thanks to Covid. They couldn't possibly be going to do it again, could they, just like Chretien and Martin led a whole Red Book of promises and then implemented austerity.  

This 2015 article tells us how the Liberals under Chretien and Martin implemented austerity. 

How exceptional is Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his crop of Canadian conservatives? For not just large- and small-l liberals, but also some leftists, the last decade has been an aberration — particularly compared to the alleged synthesis between responsible government and economic expansion that occurred during the 1990s. Yet while both public and elite consensus has shifted even further to the right since the ’90s, too often Harper and the current Conservatives are portrayed as an anomaly rather than a continuation.

The ultimate irony of the last two decades of austerity may be that Harper’s Conservatives have been able to rest comfortably on their laurels because of previous attacks on working-class power and livelihoods, even temporarily increasing public spending to save a system in crisis.

While the 1980s had laid some of the groundwork in Canada, the Right’s counterrevolution was not as successful as it had been under Ronald Reagan in the US or Margaret Thatcher in the UK. It was up to Canada’s Liberal Party, the centrist, “natural governing party,” to cement it.

In his 1994 budget speech, Paul Martin — then the finance minister, later the prime minister — encapsulated the Liberal message:

It is now time for government to get its fiscal house in order. For years, governments have been promising more than they can deliver, and delivering more than they can afford. That has to end. We are ending it . . . Over the next three years, for every one dollar raised in new revenues we will cut five dollars in government expenditures.

The subsequent austerity drive was one of the most severe in the Global North, and remains the foundation for the Right’s strategy of death by a thousand cuts. ...

As the 1993 election approached, Canada was just starting to exit its longest recession since the Great Depression, and elites faced the prospect of both populist right-wing upstarts in the West and separatists in Quebec gaining popularity. The mass media stepped in and set a centrist tone, asserting the need for a new “responsible” government. As the Wall Street Journalwarned Canada would soon become a “banana republic,” more than a million Canadians watched a panicky episode of the investigative news program “W5” about New Zealand’s debt.

With the disintegration of the ruling Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals, led by Jean Chrétien, won a resounding electoral victory.

The economic environment the Liberals inherited was a product of the tight monetary policy carried out in the late ’80s. Modeled after Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker’s high-interest approach during the early Reagan years, it was intended not only to dramatically cut inflation, but to restore power to capital. Unemployment jumped from 7 percent to 11 percent. What’s more, the public debt accumulated during the elevated-interest-rate era, as well as during the 1990–92 recession, provided a pretext to reshape Canada’s public sector.

On issues of the economy, much in the Liberals’ 1993 campaign platform was developed with the help of private-sector experts. Billionaire Paul Desmarais Sr, on good terms with large segments of the political class, including both Chrétien and former Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, was a mentor to Martin and left his imprint on economic policy of the time as well.

A consensus developed that economic and employment growth on their own would not be enough to get Canada out of the recession. On the other hand, the Liberal experts were not in favor of the restrictive zero-inflation experiments that briefly held influence in the Conservative Party. Thus, monetary policy could be loosened, but the screws would have to be put to fiscal policy in order to make Canada more “competitive” — in other words, to make labor more pliant.

The monetary loosening that followed the early ’90s recession pushed interest rates downward and spurred lagging investment and profits. Low rates also meant the Canadian dollar depreciated against its US counterpart, jumpstarting a lagging export sector. Both profits and investment rose as a percentage of GDP through the late ’90s and 2000s, all the way up to the 2008–9 crisis.

Similarly, starting in 1993 and ending only in 2008, Canada consistently exported more than it imported, accumulating a current account surplus, primarily with the US. Canada was thus further integrated into the US-led global surplus recycling mechanism that Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has called the “Global Minotaur.”

This economic pattern paralleled the integration of Canadian elites with their US counterparts. NAFTA, signed in 1992 by Mulroney and implemented in 1994 under Chrétien, was not a case of the US imposing its will on Canada, but rather of large sections of capitalist elites across the continent securing their common interests over the working class in both countries.

Free trade reconfigured coalitions within elites as well as between them and the Canadian state. Of course, some sectors were negatively impacted, but in general the agreement was a win-win for continental capital: rationalized supply chains not only cut costs but put more workers in competition with each other.

This was the context in which the Liberals began their cutbacks, initially quick and deep. A greater share of government expenditures redirected towards debt repayment created additional false scarcity of funds for direct spending. Spending on federal government programs and transfers to provinces, cities, and individuals fell by over 5 percent of GDP from 1993 to the turn of the millennium. Spending growth did not just slow: absolute expenditures decreased.

Reduced fiscal transfers to provinces put the squeeze on local governments. Since the 1990s, Canada has seen provincial governments — not just governed by Liberals and Conservatives, but also by New Democrats — impose austerity further down the line. Since provinces are responsible for many basics like health, education, and welfare benefits, shrinking transfers have further eroded the working class’s social wage. Privatizations, workfare schemes, tuition increases — all were applied (unevenly) across the country.

Overall, the sharp turn to austerity created a more punitive welfare state. While Canada’s economic growth in the mid to late ’90s fed off that in the US, the character of its reforms was also in line with the Clintonite agenda. There was a similar push to create conditions for business expansion even less encumbered by working-class demands. A major strategy was an attack on the social wage. ...

One major social program that is the responsibility of Canada’s federal government — and provides a good example of the transformations wrought by austerity — is unemployment insurance. The Liberals ate into the real value of benefits and made eligibility requirements more restrictive. While just over 80 percent of Canada’s unemployed received jobless benefits during the early 1990s, this percentage fell to about 45 percent by the early 2000s. Most unemployed workers no longer received any benefits. ...

The OECD’s measure of real unit labor costs grew at an average rate of just 0.5% per year between 1993 and 1999 and 2.1% in the first decade of the 2000s, both down from an average of 6.6% over the previous two decades.

Decreased labor costs were reflected in stagnant real wages for most workers throughout the ’90s and 2000s. The depreciating Canadian dollar further cut into wages with higher prices for imported consumption goods. Finally, the social wage provided by public programs and transfers fell under Martin’s austerity budgets.

How was austerity mitigated once the ’90s boom ran out of steam? In short, debt and housing wealth. The fall in government borrowing as a result of Liberal deficit-fighting was offset by a rise in household borrowing, reducing the public debt but increasing private debts. (Rolling back the welfare state means more people borrow to stay afloat and spend more on basic services.)

As in many parts of the world, including the US and the UK, Canada’s housing sector took off after the 2000 bust. This divided the working class. For those who owned homes, housing became a crutch, a valuable asset to borrow against or downsize, making up for the lower social wage and stagnant incomes left after the ’90s expansion. For those who did not own a home, rising prices and rents became a further source of daily struggle. ...

The 1990s in Canada are often held up as an example of “expansionary austerity” — austerity that is not only accompanied by but causes growth. If this sounds a bit nuts, it is. In fact, even economists from the International Monetary Fund have thoroughly debunked the idea: the growth that occurred during most of bouts of “expansionary austerity,” including Canada during the Liberal-led ’90s, would have happened anyway.

Indeed, crediting austerity for sparking Canada’s 1990s growth ignores several factors: first, Canada benefited from strong US expansion, especially given the strength of export growth; greater integration through NAFTA only solidified how closely Canada followed the US boom of the mid- to late ’90s. Second, fiscal austerity was accompanied by an aggressive monetary loosening that resulted in low interest rates and a depreciation of the exchange rate; alongside more flexible labor policies, these improved profits, investment, and growth. Resource booms also played a role in driving wage growth and reducing unemployment in some regions. ...

The austerity implemented by the Liberals, starting with the 1994 budget, helped shift the political consensus sharply to the right. The Conservatives, riding a wave of public resentment against the Liberals due to corruption scandals, were first elected to a minority government in 2006. After five years of governing with the tacit support of the Liberals, the Conservative Party finally gained a majority in 2011.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/04/canada-austerity-stephen-harper-conse...

Another Liberal party that often failed to get a full critical analysis of its real agenda and its implementation of austerity is the Ontario Liberal party. While the Liberals did implement some social issue reforms, there was a continuity in many ways with the Ontario Progressive Conservative regime on the fiscal side of the ledger. 

Hmm. There, looking at this series of Liberal governments, seems to be a pattern forming here. 

There is an emerging orthodoxy, rooted more in fiction that fact, that the 15-year regime of the Ontario Liberals somehow swung the ideological and policy spectrum sharply to the left. But this is a gross misinterpretation of actual history. While the Liberals did indeed implement a hodgepodge of policies that might selectively register as 'progressive', their time in power was never about a wholesale repudiation of the Common Sense Revolution but rather about deepening and extending it in ways that were more palatable to a public increasingly fed up with the uncompromising and aggressive style of their Conservative predecessors. In other words, it was continuity, not change, that defined the Liberals time in power.

Those at the centre of this historical reimagining are increasingly recasting the Liberals time in government as an extreme left interregnum inconsistent with the 'progressive' conservative values of Ontario. They point to all day kindergarten, the expansion of prescription-drug and dental benefits, the subsidization of tuition fees for some postsecondary students, proposed pension reform, modest increases to high-income earners' taxes, changes to labour legislation, and some investments in new infrastructure and social programs as key illustrations.

But these new investments barely made up for inflation and population growth, let alone a reversal of the fiscal legacy of the Harris Conservatives....

Through their first term (2003-07), modest savings were made through the privatization of services formerly covered by OHIP like chiropractic therapy, physical rehabilitation and optometry exams. The McGuinty government also spearheaded the expansion of private health care clinics, introducing a graduated health care premium that ranged from $60 to $900 per year depending on income level. But this was the calm before the storm.

The "crowing irony" for the Liberals was that after a decade in power they had succeeded in cutting the size of government down to when they had taken over from their Conservative predecessors.

As the tailwinds of the 2008 recession swept across Ontario, the Liberal government responded with a plan outlining a decade of austerity. The major policy plank of this program was the Open Ontario Plan (OOP), which called for, among other things, tax relief, the privatization of public assets and services, and wage concessions from public sector workers. To give a few examples, the general corporate income tax (CIT) rate was cut 28 per cent, the preferential small business CIT rate was cut 36 per cent, and the tax rate on the first $37,106 of personal taxable income was reduced by more than 16 per cent, while those earning up to $80,000 per year saw a tax cut of 10 per cent. Altogether, tax cuts during this time eroded some $500 million in annual revenue generation making Ontario's tax regime among the lowest across the OECD.

The omnibus Open for Business Act introduced over 100 amendments to legislation across ten ministries whose stated objective was to create a more competitive business climate. The Liberals solicited CIBC World Markets and Goldman Sachs to come up with a plan to monetize the province's $60 billion worth of public assets. The idea behind "SuperCorp" was to combine Ontario's Crown assets, including nuclear power plants, power generation facilities, 29,000 kilometres of electrical transmission and distribution lines, six-hundred plus liquor stores and gaming operations.

The Liberals also established the Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Servicesheaded by former TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond. The Commission recommended cuts deeper than those of the 1990s followed by the sale of public assets and privatized service delivery. In following through on some 80 per cent of the Drummond Commission's recommendations, the Liberals eroded an additional $300 million in public revenue by 2015-16. The "crowing irony" for the Liberals was that after a decade in power they had succeeded in cutting the size of government down to when they had taken over from their Conservative predecessors. ...

Kathleen Wynne emerged as new party leader and Premier of Ontario, positioning herself as the "social justice" and "activist" premier against the old guard. In practice, however, much of the Harris-McGuinty legacy continued. Public-private-partnerships proliferated, even though the Auditor General found that Ontario could have saved up to $8 billion through traditional public procurement. Premier Wynne launched a blue-ribbon panel headed by president and former CEO of TD Bank, Ed Clark, to advise the government how to privatize public assets such as the OLG and LCBO, which together bring in more than $4.5 billion annually.

Catching her own party off guard, Kathleen Wynne kickstarted the asset sell-off with Hydro One, which was estimated to bring in close to $750 million in annual public revenue. Under Wynne's plan, the Liberal's sold-off 60 per cent ownership stake bringing in roughly $4 billion in one-off monies while maintaining a 40 per cent public ownership. The FAO found that the sale of Hydro one was roughly equivalent to five years of continued public ownership. ...

Far from progressive public policy, it has been tax cuts and austerity that has prevailed in Ontario over the last decade.Little wonder then that Ford and Co. have stoked the fires of deficit hysteria given the reluctance of the Liberals to deal with the revenue side of government expenditures. The reality is that when it comes to the provinces context matters, perhaps more than anywhere else in the world.

2018's election saw Wynne herself boasting that Ontario was now "the leanest government in Canada" when it came to per capita program spending. What wasn't mentioned though was that among the provinces, Ontario was dead last when it came to per capita public revenue, second smallest when it came to the per capita size of Ontario's public sector as measured by employees, and second-lowest in North America (after Alabama) when it came to corporate tax rates.

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/carlo-fanelli/progressive-liberalism-ontar...