39 Replies to “Sheila Leggett’s Never-ending Make-work Project”

  1. Ms. Leggett has found a way to extend her pay package by 2 years, maybe longer!
    The powers that be should have capped total expenditures for these hearings and put a 1 year time limit on finding a resolution.
    As it stands now, these hearings could delay the pipeline 3.5 years.
    That is NOT acceptable…NO decision anywhere about anything should take 3.5 years, thats plain and simple milking of the system because they can.!!

  2. Ezra just keeps on getting better and better with time. A couple of years ago the illegal activities of the watermelons would have only been mentioned on blogs like SDA, but now people can see them on their TV sets and I’m sure that rage against watermelons is growing daily. I predict a rather short lifespan for the current totally incompetent moron who’s in charge of the hearings.
    PMSH could also help out by enacting strong new environmental regulations for northern BC which would prohibit Native Indians in remote areas from using gasoline or other deadly petroleum based products as spilling any would have a huge impact on the fragile ecosystem. The risk of a tanker truck overturning is just too great to be allowed. After a few months of having to make do with horses, canoes and walking I suspect that suddenly there would be far less opposition to a pipeline across the province from this group.

  4. Loki, good idea.
    How about locating the hearings along the propsed site? There would be two venues for each location. Those presenting in favour of the pipeline would be modern (heated in winter) facilities. Those against woud also be in similar facities, to the extent that no oil or gas was used in the manufacture and transport of materials, in construction, or in heating. I envision log cabins or hide tents with a smoky wood fire inside.
    Similarly those making a presentation against the pipeline would be required to travel from their homes and back without the use of any oil or gas.

  5. …”but they’re not actually producing anything.” On the contrary, Ezra, they’re producing obfuscation. By delaying and raising the costs on the productive portion of society (in this case, the oilsands industry) they’ll ensure that less of the resources are ever developed. This is regardless of whether the “pipeline ban” or “save the snail darter” or “save the XYZ, the last ecosystem of it’s kind in the world! (because each ecosystem is actually a one-of-a-kind)” because their actions always raise the costs of production, meaning that the the project must factor these extra costs in when determining how much to develop. Higher costs to develop mean that only high grade (or lower strip ratio, or “richer”, they all mean basically the same thing across different deposit types) areas will be developed.

  6. William, the CEAA legislation indeed allows time limits to be placed on the various stages of an environmental review. However, the Act also requires that those wishing to be heard must be heard. It’s always been a central flaw in the Act.
    The Act also provides funding for those wishing to participate, with the allocations to be determined by the review panel. There are criteria, but the ENGOs are thoroughly expert in making sure that their funding applications meet these criteria.
    In short, government legislation really matters, and this abomination has been a national statute for about 20 years, with average Canadians utterly ignorant of and blind to its effects. A comparison done about 10 years ago showed that of a basket of 15 countries Canada had the worst, most unpredictable and unreliable environmental assessment legislation in place.
    Worse still, it’s a duplication of process. CEAA approval doesn’t give the proponent permission to do anything. All CEAA does is make a report to the responsible Minister. Licencing of the pipeline is another whole process entirely. Canada is unique in this regard.
    Loki, CEAA is not and never has been principally about environmental protection. It’s principally about public consultation. No, she’s not an incompetent moron. All of this is deliberate. It’s long been apparent that CEAA itself is used as a way of blocking projects the ENGOs don’t want simply by delay of process.
    This is precisely what happened to Ontario Hydro’s Demand/Supply Plan in the early 1990s when it was reviewed under the similar provincial legislation. The Rae government inherited it from the Peterson administration. They didn’t want the plan to go through because it called for new nuclear reactors. So they let the ENGOs gum up the works.
    There are severe limits to what the government can do. The law requires that these panels be independent in nature, and everything that this entails. What Harper will be most unwilling to do is give the Liberal or NDP opposition any kind of wedge issue with which to attack the government, such as interfering in an independent process. In short, we can’t expect very much unless there is a very large pushback by Canadians against such a long drawn-out process.
    And that large pushback is nowhere in sight.

  7. I wanted to send to PM Harper and the Hon. Joe Oliver the link to this item by Ezra but couldn’t figure out how to do it! It doesn’t seem to be one of the featured videos at SunTV.
    This is truly preposterous and obscene, that so much taxpayers’ money is being paid to opponents — many of them foreign — of the Gateway Pipeline. I thought Canada was a sovereign nation, so how can government appointees be rewarding non-Canadian interventionists without their actions being considered treasonous?
    Why is Leggett going to hear over 4000 submissions to her Commission, if not simply to prolong the gong show, in order to ensure her mega-salary for as long as possible? What kind of Commissioner, worth the title, allows every submission made to his/her Commission? Leggett’s job should be to make decisions about keeping the number of submissions to a manageable number. Obviously, not doing so enhances her power and her money-making capabilities.
    This needs to stop. She and her Commission (sic) are like a runaway horse which wouldn’t bother me in the least except that she’s wasting and abusing taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars.
    Enough, already.

  9. “In short, we can’t expect very much unless there is a very large pushback by Canadians against such a long drawn-out process.
    And that large pushback is nowhere in sight.”
    Does this suggest that the opponents have already won?
    Meanwhile:
    Russia is building three pipelines, in Chechnya, Far East and in Northern Europe.
    http://english.ruvr.ru/2012/01/24/64496506.html

  10. This is a boondoggle just like Treaty negociations in BC. How many treaties have been signed in 20 years? One/Two. Native leaders and their appointed counters each get paid at least $300 per day plus expenses to sit at a table for years talking about process. WHo would ever want a resolution to that cushy gravy train.
    IMO native leadership has been corrupted by the bureacracy that lives off the Indian Act to the detriment of most natives and the taxpayers who support this ripoff.

  11. The hearings in Edmonton heard from the Samson and Enoch Bands which are nowhere near the pipeline. I assume they are looking for cheques. Interesting because the Samson and Enoch Bands are two humoungous oil producers. What a$$holes, wanting to landlock their wealth thereby reducing the price. Cutting off their nose to spite their face.

  12. The hearings are a sham and a gross waste of our taxdollars, she should be fired and the hearing shut down.

  13. The only thing an environMENTAList produces daily is criticism and the other stuff. They take great glee is ruining someone else’s chances at making a living, feeding their families and PRODUCING something for a progressive society. These parasites have to be shunned, laughed at and pissed on every chance we get. There would be no hydro-dams, roads, anything a productive decent society takes for granted if these clowns had been around throughout history to the degree we must tolerate the fools now.

  15. Where is, Milton Born With A Tooth? How can these hearings proceed without that fountain of knowledge Milton at the table. Milton was an indian saviour here in southern AB back when the Old Man dam was built, he caused untold trouble and with his moronic sidekick Martha Kostchuck from Rocky Mtn House they cost the treasury a lot of money for nothing.

  16. Good on Ezra exposing the parasites in the Alberta government and the “environment industry”.
    None of this madness and waste would have been possible without the government enablers in the Alberta PC caucus. Alnerta needs a large broom this spring.

  17. Parasites, exactly. Same with the safety “industry”.
    Paying someone to say “watch your footing” over and over is ridiculous. Meanwhile the idiot is stumbling around without a hardhat. (one example, of many)
    Part,and parcel, of the same bunch of control freaks as this environmental review.

  18. I’m sure the P.M. is aware of what’s happening, but if not, the next time one of those envelopes comes begging for money for the Conservative Party,
    or I get one of those regular phone calls begging for more, they will be hearing about this issue, along with the issue of RCMP coming and getting rifles that they have decided they don’t, now, like.

  19. These hearings have become farce. How long will PM Harper tolerate this gong show? He should fire Leggett now. It is clear that she is either biased or incompetent for allowing these hearings to be hijacked by the anti-progress nutters. Both are reasons to punt her to the curb.
    And what the hell is with these government grants to groups so they can oppose this project, which the government supports? Are they crazy?

  20. Ezra nailed it with the second parasite class that feeds off the core oilfield industry within the industry. A third class also exists in every Alberta oilfield city/ town, they come from all walks of life and are generally the cast offs from all over Canada.

  21. Come on everyone, look at the bright side – what would all these parasites, I mean folks, would be doing for work now if this wasn’t around?
    Look at all the spin offs – hotels are booked, catering companies, limo’s, new cars. Just another way to keep the economy going.
    Time for a group hug!
    /sarc

  22. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion – when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – you may know that your society is doomed.
    Ayn Rand

  23. It is not called the Silly Service for nothing.
    The twit running this scam should be nominated for the Most Useless Canadian Federal Civil Servant in a money & time wasting role.
    I know where I would start to shrink the civil service.

  24. I quit sending money to the CPC. Tell them everytime they call, “when that cesspool at CBC is cleaned up talk to me.”
    If I wanted Liberals opinions to matter I would have voted Liberal.
    Contact you M.P., this shit is ludicrous.

  27. The way I look at it, 5000 speakers at 15 minutes each is 1250 hours. put in 10 hour days, 5 days a week and you are done in 25 weeks.
    The committee can send out times to appear and if you do not confirm within 2 weeks, you lose your spot.
    If you don’t confirm your attendance at the start of the week you are scheduled for, you lose your spot.
    If you confirm and fail to attend you get billed for the committee’s time.
    Should clean up the process a bit.

  28. Fiddle:
    The left are control freaks, complete and total control freaks.
    Know why the left doesn’t like the right? Because they are.

  29. when you get a fund raising call from the CPC it some kid in a call center making 9 bucks an hour, telling him off does do any good. If you really want results call your MP directly, the kid in the call center cant even pass on the message.

  30. This is the true cost of socialism. Canadians love their commons. Every resource decision is a circle-jerk instead of a market transaction. If an enlightened BC government had privatized all the contentious forest campaign targets of the 80s and 90s, the market value of those transactions alone would have sucked out all the cash that those ENGOs and their corporate sugar daddies now have to screw the Oil Patch. Instead they used processes which are being replicated as above securing park status of billions in forest and land assets at pennies on the dollar. Private investment in lobbying, intimidation, thuggery, and stacking public processes as above has the effect of massive leverage and results in destruction of economic rent on an obscene scale.
    If we had true conservatives in power (or a rational education system) they could privatize the pipe line route and auction it off in one chunk. Guess who could raise enough capital to buy it? Not even George Soros could compete with that kind of economic rent generating capacity. The sales revenue could be used to pay down provincial debt.
    Indians should have their reserves deeded into individual private properties and be given an invitation to join the rest of humanity with no more status as racially segregated, entitled, institutionalized and ghettoized historical curiosities.

  31. I’m on the Dogwood Iniative mailing list(for now anyways) and sent them this question;
    ” Quick question,Are we against medium size tankers,or even small tankers? Thanks,Willy.”
    Their response;
    “Our concern is specifically bulk crude supertankers exporting Alberta crude. Domestic oil tankers supplying coastal communities are excluded in our petition. While it’s can still be a concern it’s a different discussion.”
    The bold type is mine,the bad grammar is theirs.

  32. On this subject! PMSH please check with Defence Minister MacKay for the meaning of C.D.F. This transends the political delaying process a prudent step by step for change establishes.
    Your step by step approach, supplemented by the financial crisis establish recognition in the Mandarin class the separation bluff for Quebec will not work any longer. The Mandarin class are also convinced now if the separation bluff is not a bluff then the West of Canada or (I should say west of Quebec). It’s Ce’st la vie.
    It is now time to use C.D.F. to rein in the CINO individuals placed in positions of extreme Tax payer support.
    Do not allow the Aboriginal Department to become established as the Indian Affairs Department with only a different name. You know the department, where the incompetent legacy children of high level bureaucrats are placed when they cannot effectively meet the need to actually perform in another department.
    If anyone reading this rant does not have a military connection, then one can interpret C.D.F. by using Common for the C in the acronym and replace the two word D.F. part with the one word Sense. Cheers;

  33. They should ask for people who support the pipeline to sign up and just cross off one 10-minute anti presentation for every supporter that signs up.
    Provided they give the supporter list the same level of scrutiny as the original list, I’m sure SDA could have this farce of a hearing shut down in an afternoon. Problem solved. Get to building!

  34. Sheila Leggett’s Never-ending Make-work Project
    She’s becoming the poster girl of empire building ,with job security by individual fiat.
    Time Harper got rid of this parasite.
    This is the ultimate Bureaucrat at work.
    Her sort is why our taxes are ever increasing.

  35. Paying progressives out of the government coffers to protest a capital project? I don’t think Ayn Rand herself could have dreamt up this scheme as a work of fiction. In the words of a true Canadian, Fire Them All!

  37. I meant to post this on the US electric battery company bankruptcy thread, but it applies here too! Liberal looters all.

  38. Follow the Money, Follow the Money, Follow the Money!
    By the way, anyone familiar with BC’s never-ending Treaty Negotiations are very familiar with Leggett’s motivations to keep things running as long as possible! 🙁

  39. Loki at January 26, 2012 6:50 AM – everything that you said – in capital letters.
    What were those people doing smoking in a public place? Where are the smoke aunty freaks? Smoking is illegal in all closed public spaces in Edmonton. This is fact. Sooo why are ‘some’ people allowed to smoke in an enclosed public space? Someone should be hired to go in there and have an allergy attack . This is flaunting the law of Alta. Where is the HRC, where are the police, where is WHO, where is Johnson and Johnson (the nic pills boys/gals)? What about the children? Abomination piled on abomination.
    Bravo Ezra – out of the ballpark!!!

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