BUILDING WALLS AND BRIDGES....MAYBE !

Tensions along the North American borders, the 'de facto' stalled talks involving Mexico, Canada and the United States over the North American Free Trade Accord (NAFTA), and an increasingly, somewhat hostile, and surely dysfunctional American Administration; add these to a grid-locked Congress and Government, and none augur very favourably to support the construction of new international crossings and / or the infrastructures and facilities which they require and demand.

 Meantime, all of a sudden along the International Border between Northern Maine (USA) and the Province of New Brunswick (Canada) it seems that no one noticed, until recently that is, that the 100 year old 1,500 Ft steel-span bridge over the St. John River was falling apart. (Figures, eh ? - S'tie !)

Politicians are like High School students waiting until last minute to start cramming, in this case 'scrambling' for a quick fix - The Edmundston / Madawaska International Bridge is the life-link which joins the local economy. The American owned Twin Rivers Paper Company operates mills in both countries of the community and the busy bridge links the company's Pulp and Cardboard mills in Canada to its Paper and Packaging Labels manufacturing mills in the USA.  Alas...the international bridge's deteriorating span has forced a 5 Tons weight restriction on vehicles crossing since last October, and the bridge is too old to fix. - Wait ! - There's more : Since 9/11 Canadian Federal authorities have spent multi-millions of dollars to build new and crucial border inspection facilities at the bridge and there is absolutely no appetite to relocate them - In fact that has been made crystal clear to all concerned.  The opposite is true on the American side where the border post dates to near the end of World War 2 and needs to be replaced. Trouble is the current bridge approach on the USA side is way too small to accommodate the mandate from Homeland Security.

 

The "locals" have come-up with a 'made at home' proposal to build a new bridge on the Canadian side where the existing border infrastructure exists, and north up river about 1/2 mile where there would be room to build a new USA Border post. Accordingly the new bridge would be diagonal across the river, and about twice as long as the current 100 year old span...and somehow they expect to be granted authority to proceed and build between 2020 and 2022.  Well, wait until the upper levels of governments and echelons of the bureaucracy on both sides of the 'divide' get hold of this nose stretcher ! - May I digress ?

 

 

It's 14 years since the Government of Canada proposed building a new bridge across the Detroit River to link Ontario and Michigan and (essentially)  replace the (now) 87 year old privately owned 'Ambassador Bridge' over which $2-Billion of trade (The most anywhere in the world) crosses the International Border every day.  It's 6 years since, out of sheer frustration and no doubt hoping to score political capital, the Government of Stephen Harper created the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority to manage the (fiction of the)  'Gordie Howe International Bridge' - So far that corporation has spent close to $ 1/2 Billion (Canadian Dollars) and there ain't no bridge ! - President Obama said OK to the bridge if Canada pays for the USA Border Post in Detroit ($250-Million) - We Canadian have also offered an Interest Free loan of $250-Million to Michigan so they can pay their share...The State Legislature said: Umm... No Thanks !

 

Wait ! There's more : American Billionaire Matty Maroun owns the Ambassador Bridge and he's been offering for at least a dozen years to build a new bridge AT HIS OWN EXPENSE - Guess what ? - Very quietly late last summer, Mr. Maroun's company outmanoeuvred the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority and received a permit from the Trudeau Cabinet to plan and build a new bridge next to the 'Ambassador' as long as the Ambassador Bridge is torn-down within 5 years of the new one becoming operational . There's much speculation now on both sides of the border these days that 'Gordie Howe' will not see the light of day.

 

Perhaps the elected officials of my home town should give Mr. Moroun a call - He's in the Detroit Phone Book.

 

PUDGY AND THE DONUT DUDE

Just as the planet teeters perched at the abyss of "Debtpocalypse" - Pundits, critics, economists, political scientists and politicians are all adding their own perspectives and interpretations to the $14 + Trillion hell-hole the United States of America has dug itself into.

On the other hand, conspiracy theorists are slightly more pragmatic in their approach to our world's financial mess: They blame the "Bilderberg Group" and its alleged diabolical plot to impose the planned economy of a world government dominated by capitalism.

If one subscribes to the hype the "Bilderbergs" (Who met most recently in St. Moritz, Switzerland on June 9 to 12) are the modern day economic equivalent of the Knights Templar famous for protecting the pilgrim routes during the Crusades of the Middle Ages and the mythical guardians of Jesus' Holy-Grail. In 2001, Denis Healey a former British Chancellor of the Exchequer and a founding member of the Bilderberg Group fueled the controversy telling an interviewer: "To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair. Those of us in Bilderberg felt we couldn't go on forever fighting each other for nothing...so we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing."

There are roughly 130 members in the secretive Bilderberg Group all of whom are people of influence drawn from western Governments, politics, finance, industry, labour, education and communications. If they were public, most names would be quite familiar including (Until just recently at least) I.M.F. Chair, Dominique Strauss-Kahn who has since become pre-occupied with more other personal matters...I digress!

The "Bilderbergs" have met at least once in Canada at the exclusive Brookstreet Hotel in Ottawa's deep west end in June of 2006. The Brookstreet and it's private golf-course are owned by Welsh born billionaire (and very private) Terry Mathews a mainstay of the high-tech world of Silicon Valley North located in the Ottawa suburb of Kanata. The presence of Henry Kissinger at the Brookstreet conclave sparked unprecedented attention from south of the Canadian border in the United States. Since that meeting proponents of the aforementioned Bilderberg Conspiracy have included the ultra-right wing John Birch Society, political activists Lyndon Larouche; and past heavy-weight wrestler,former Governor of Minnesota and TV host Jesse Ventura who devoted the entire episode of December 30, 2009 of the television series "Conspiracy Theories" to the Bilderbergs.

Three years after the 1954 founding of the Bilderberg Group, Canadian soil did however play host to the historic Pugwash Conference hosted by another billionaire, Cyrus Eaton, on the northeast coast of Nova Scotia. Shadowed by the unprecedented arms race of the Cold War, the "great-thinkers" at Pugwash promulgated a manifesto opposing nuclear weapons.

If Bilderberg is 20th Century "passe;" virtually a stone's throw from Pugwash, some wannabees and surely many others who are members of the exclusive Bilderberg Group have been meeting now for about a decade behind the gated doors of the exclusive Fox Harb'r Resort in Wallace, Nova Scotia. They are the guests of the former Premier of New Brunswick, Frank McKenna, now Deputy-Chair of TD Bank; and the resort's billionaire owner (yes, another one); Ron Joyce, the brains behind and co-founder of "Tim Hortons'"! What's known of the guest list there is that it has included former British PM, Tony Blair (on Friday last), and former American Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush Sr., and George W. Bush. Other notables who have attended include British Prime-Minister John Major, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and hockey superstar Wayne Gretsky.

In addition to his current duties with the Toronto-Dominion Bank Group, Premier McKenna is also a former Canadian Ambassador to Washington. I note that this past weekend as he was hosting Tony Blair and all the other private guests behind the Fox Harb'r Gates, Malcolm Bricklin who played a significant larger than life role in the history of New Brunswick was nearby to see: "Bricklin - The Musical". McKenna succeeded Richard Hatfield as N.B. Premier in 1987. The musical on stage at Fredericton's Playhouse recounts the relationship and much of the myth between Hatfield and Mr. Bricklin. The late Premier was both bedazzled and befuddled by the fast talkin' American entrepreneur and the magic of his gull-winged sports car. The contrasts are striking: Mr. Hatfield, a bon vivant, partied hard with the likes of Andy Warhol and Truman Capote at Regine's and Club 54 through his premiership years. Along with the bright lights of those long forgotten Manhattan discos, the bright orange colours in the Fredericton musical's decor bear witness to significantly different times.

Sadly none of which leaves much of a glimmer of any significant world conspiracies being played-out. We'll just have to find our own way out of the morass.

REALITY CHECK

When Atlantic Canada's four provincial Premiers met in southeastern New Brunswick a few days ago they came-out resolved to ask the Federal Government for more transfer funds. Although Prime Minister Harper did promise in last month's Federal election campaign to maintain a steady level of transfers; I'm guessing given Ottawa's deficit budget measures that any "new" money is not soon to flow down towards the east coast.

Residents in two of the Atlantic Provinces will go to the polls in provincial elections this fall; Prince Edward Island on October 3; and Newfoundland & Labrador a week later on October 11. The get-tough posturing with Ottawa over transfer payments to the "have-not" may be good fodder for provincial politics but quite likely to fall on deft ears federally, in particular in those two jurisdictions which voted overwhelmingly against the Harper Conservatives in the May 2nd Federal encounter. And, from the perspective of the other three Atlantic provinces, though they may be envious of Newfoundland's recent offshore oil wealth, it probably doesn't help the "one-size fits all" argument favouring increased transfer funds from the Feds either.

Lest I digress: Flush from his majority win in Ottawa Mr. Harper has promised to pass his budget; scrap the long-gun registry with its 250 jobs based in Miramichi, New Brunswick; deliver on his omnibus "get-tough on crime" agenda; and kill subsidies for political parties - while at the same time chopping more than $4-Billion per year in annual spending. In addition to massive Federal job cuts, experts predict that means painful reforms to the Employment Insurance Program and (you guessed-it) Equalization payments to the provinces.

When Statistics Canada's April inflation numbers were published at week's end no one, least of all New Brunswickers, were surprised that theirs was the highest in the land: A reflection of the usual "sin tax" increases foisted on them by the Progressive-Conservative government of Premier David Alward in an effort to stave-off provincial bankruptcy. Sadly the same measures contained in the province's March provincial budget played a significant factor in a double-whammy which resulted in the loss of 2000 full-time jobs and kicked the provincial un-employment rate to more than 10 Percent.

The trend was in sharp contrast to the rest of Canada with a national unemployment rate of 7.6%; which added nearly 60,000 jobs in April. Commenting specifically on the New Brunswick situation a senior economist with the research think-tank Conference Board of Canada described Premier Alward's austerity measures as..."necessary to address the inevitable long term impact of crumbling finances."

Across North America less than 7% of the population has in savings more than the $500,000 which is estimated to get us through our "Golden-Years." In reality 63% either don't know how much they have; or admit to having less than $25,000 in savings. And; that same Conference Board of Canada predicts that specifically New Brunwick's aging population will scuttle any long term potential growth for at least the next generation. In North America, economic growth is set to ease overall as "Baby Boomers" retire. Pretty much since the end of the great sailing ship era of the 19th Century Atlantic Canada's problem has been to retain it's young workers. I was a product of that great migration west 45 years ago. It is a migration which has shown little sign of moderating over the past 5 (or more) generations.

In demographics alone, New Brunswick already has less than one young person entering its workforce for every person leaving it. And; that does NOT account for the 41.4% of provincial students surveyed a year ago who indicated that would be "likely" or "very likely" to leave their native province in order to find work. Despite noble efforts to turn around its provincial fortunes, New Brunswick's economic problems will only get worse. That's the reality of the Boom, Bust and Echo cycle of the post war euphoria of the mid-20th century which demographers have been warning about since the halcyon days of the "sixties".

For reasons theorists and economists may debate for decades; it's happening first in one of the country's smallest regions...but New Brunswick's slow agony into economic chaos should be a clarion call to every other region of the North American Continent that we are poised for, and headed down the same path. If magic somehow produces an effective remedy to the woes that ail my native province; it will be an experiment to watch, and a lesson to be learned.