Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - September 05, 2013, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A13 " E ACH time one of us thinks ' I'll just stand aside and things will happen without me and I'll wait,' then he is helping this disgusting feudal system that sits like a spider in the Kremlin," said Alexei Navalny, often billed as Russia's top opposition leader, as he sat in a courtroom in Kirov in July awaiting conviction on embezzlement charges. True enough, but Vladimir Putin is not losing any sleep over it. The Russian president, hosting the G20 summit meeting in St. Petersburg starting today, has run the country as his private fiefdom for the past 13 years. The media obey orders, political opponents are jailed on trumped- up corruption charges, and individuals who dig too deep into the murky history of Putin's rapid rise to power ( Anna Politkovskaya, Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Shchekochikhin) die mysteriously of bullet wounds or poison. Navalny, a 37- year- old Moscow lawyer, rose to fame as an anti- corruption campaigner during the 2011- 12 protests against Putin because of his sharp, sardonic blog about Russian politics. He was then identified by the foreign media as the great new hope of the Russian opposition because he was hip, he was cool, he was everything Russian leaders, whether in power or in opposition, have traditionally not been. His new political prominence promptly attracted the usual statesponsored charges of corruption, and on July 18 Navalny was found guilty of embezzlement ( by a judge who has never issued a not- guilty verdict) and sentenced to five years in prison. But then something odd happened. The state prosecutor asked that Navalny be left free pending his appeal, which could take months. Navalny is running for mayor of Moscow in the election on Sunday. If he were in jail pending his appeal - the normal situation in politically motivated trials - he would have to drop out. Why is the state suddenly being nice to him? Because it wants him to run and lose - and it's sure he will lose. The opinion polls give Navalny just over 10 per cent of the vote, compared with more than 50 per cent for the incumbent mayor, Sergei Sobyanin. Navalny's presence on the ballot papers will lend some credibility to Sobyanin's re- election, Navalny's defeat will demonstrate how little popular support he actually has - and afterwards they'll whisk him off to prison. But why does Navalny have so little popular support? Why do Russians put up with being ruled by Putin, an autocrat who no longer steals public money himself, but whose colleagues and cronies all steal? ( Putin made his secret pile back in the early 1990s, when he was a rising politician in the first post- Communist city government of St. Petersburg.) Well, before Putin came to power in 2000 they put up with eight years of Boris Yeltsin, a boorish drunk who not only stole from the Russians ( as did most of his political allies) but also embarrassed them. Before that there was a brief interlude of honesty and sanity under Mikhail Gorbachev - but he is blamed by most Russians for all the bad things that have happened since the fall of the Soviet Union. And before that there was the Era of Stagnation, the last decades of Communist rule, when the state didn't murder its own citizens so much anymore, but everybody lived in relative poverty under a perpetual rain of brazen lies and endured the constant insults and petty criminality of an arrogant Communist elite. Fifty years in which the politicians who ran Russia have almost all been brutal, contemptible, or both. So the great mass of Russians have given up believing any politician could be honest, or anything could ever really change. Some urban sophisticates are drawn to Navalny's post- modern style and his relentless critique of the Russian political system, but even in large parts of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and almost everywhere outside the big cities, that sort of thing has no pulling power at all. Putin's macho style no longer wins him the old adulation either: A recent poll by the Levada Centre found nearly half of all Russians want him to step down at the end of his current presidential term in 2018. But they're not in any hurry about it, nor will they be unless global energy prices and Russian living standards start to fall. And Navalny won't be out of jail in time to run in the 2018 election anyway. Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries. 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Winnipeg Free Press Thursday, September 5, 2013 A 13 POLL �� TODAY'S QUESTION Would you wear a so- called smartwatch? �� Vote online at winnipegfreepress. com �� PREVIOUS QUESTION Does the departure of mosquito executioner- in- chief Taz Stuart bug you? YES 62% NO 38% TOTAL RESPONSES 3,385 Winnipeg Free Press est 1872 / Winnipeg Tribune est 1890 VOL 141 NO 289 2013 Winnipeg Free Press, a division of FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership. Published seven days a week at 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba R2X 3B6, PH: 697- 7000 BOB COX / Publisher PAUL SAMYN / Editor JULIE CARL / Deputy Editor Dear Editor, Manitoba's Minister of Conservation and Water Stewardship, Gord Mackintosh, has made baseless claims about the health and safety of pesticides that totally contradict the comprehensive health- and- safety assessments done by Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency ( PMRA), the federal body responsible for approving pesticides in Canada. Health Canada's PMRA evaluates all pesticides - whether " synthetic" or " natural" - before they can be sold in Canada. Whether these products are used on lawns or crops, regulators base their decisions on the best available scientific information. In addition, all registered products are required to be periodically reevaluated. Health Canada recently completed an extensive re- evaluation of 2,4- D, one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. It concluded: " Risks to homeowners and their children from contact with treated lawns and turf are not of concern," and " there is reasonable certainty that no harm to human health, future generations or the environment will result from use or exposure to the product." Quite simply, Health Canada does not approve any product for use it considers to pose an unacceptable risk to humans, including vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant women, or the environment. If any provincial government has a concern about a particular pesticide, the appropriate course of action would be to inform Health Canada, which can then do a special review. Many of the active ingredients used in pesticides formulated for urban use are the same ones used in pesticides designed for farm use. That is why Health Canada does not distinguish between urban or farm use when conducting evaluations; either the product is safe or it is not. Health Canada's position is you cannot have one health standard for urban populations and another, lower, standard for rural populations. And we certainly agree. Manitobans are getting mixed and contradictory messages about the safety of pesticides and they deserve better. The Conservation and Water Stewardship department should leave the human health and environmental safety assessment of pesticides to Health Canada, which is staffed with more than 300 professionals whose sole responsibility is to look at these issues. A ban on urban pesticides would do nothing to protect the health of Manitobans. It would simply rob urban residents of the ability to use federally approved tools to control pest infestations in their lawns and gardens, forcing them to use more expensive, less effective alternatives, turn to illegal products or abandon control measures on their properties altogether. As we've seen in other jurisdictions, such as Ontario, bans are cosmetic in nature. There simply aren't the resources available to enforce them and many homeowners turn to potentially dangerous homemade concoctions or illegally bring in pesticides from other jurisdictions. Polling in Ontario shows more than half of homeowners are unhappy with the ban and want it changed. We have every reason to suspect it would be a similar story in Manitoba if a ban were implemented here. The reality is pesticide policy should be driven by sound science, and science shows pesticides can be safely used. Let's not punish law- abiding Manitobans for using safe and effective products on their lawns. Canadian Association of Agri- Retailers and 12 other agriculture- based or lawn care companies. B RANDON - When 1,000 people attend an event in Brandon other than a Wheat Kings game, it's a big deal. When more than 1,000 Brandonites show up at the local airport to watch a plane land, however, it's really significant. With the arrival of WestJet Encore's Bombardier Q400 aircraft Tuesday afternoon, passenger air service has returned to Brandon with daily flights to and from Calgary, and the entire Westman region is celebrating. It has been 24 years since Canadian Airlines ceased daily service to and from the Wheat City and more than a decade since WestJet had a trial run of flights. It's a long drought that has forced Westman residents to make the long drive to Winnipeg, Minot or Regina for flights, often brpaving dangerous driving conditions. It has also affected Westman's ability to attract and retain businesses. Gord Peters, president of Brandon- based Cando Contracting, told the Brandon Sun " it's huge for Cando. We keep air service, we keep our head office in Brandon. Without air service, Cando won't survive in Brandon. We have 300 employees across Cando, across the country. It's a huge day for us." Brandon Chamber of Commerce president Craig Senchuk was surprised to see all the people at the airport to celebrate the inaugural flight. " I think it finally hit home that this is here, and here to stay as long as we support it and keep buying flights," he said. Senchuk makes a critical point - nobody should take this service for granted. WestJet is an employee- owned enterprise, in business to make money. If Westman doesn't fill the seats consistently, nobody should expect WestJet to continue a money- losing service. That point was at least implicitly confirmed by WestJet Encore president Ferio Pugliese, who stated " We're happy to supply air service where the demand supports it." Maintaining that demand will be a challenge, as there is no eastbound flight and the westbound flight does not connect through another city that would supplement passenger numbers. The afternoon departure time for the Brandon- Calgary flight will be a problem for those who need to make connections or attend meetings earlier in the day. The burden is on Westman to make this work, and the stakes are high. If this fails, it could be decades before the region gets another opportunity. The stakes are just as high for many local politicians. John F. Kennedy once wrote " Victory has a thousand fathers," and that describes the surprising number of elected and aspiring politicians basking in the glory of WestJet's arrival Tuesday. At the top of the list is Mayor Shari Decter Hirst, who drove from Brandon to Winnipeg to catch a flight to Calgary on Monday at city expense, along with three city employees, so they could fly back on the Tuesday flight. She emerged from the plane to the cheers of the crowd, with her arms raised in victory - a taxpayer- funded photo op. After three controversial years in the mayor's chair, including a citizen- led tax revolt, allegations of conflict of interest and a threat to assault a city councillor, Decter Hirst is hoping the return of regular air service will carry her to re- election a year from now. It's a plausible strategy, but there are a series of obstacles standing in her way, including the danger in taking credit for the work of others. WestJet's decision to restore air service to Brandon is a business decision, based on the company's own market research. The strategy can only work if WestJet is still flying in and out of Brandon a year from now, and that is contingent on ongoing passenger demand. Third, if any politician deserves credit for WestJet returning, it is recently retired MP Merv Tweed. The former transport committee chairman was a constant advocate for Westman air service and delivered vital airport upgrades that made the flights possible. It is an unusual situation, in which the viability of air service is intertwined with the economic future of the region and of its politicians. It will be a year before we know how it works out. Deveryn Ross is a political commentator living in Brandon. deverynrossletters@ gmail. com I N an Aug. 22 article in the Free Press , Manitoba Hydro president Scott Thompson defends Hydro's capital plans: " Our analysis demonstrates that continuing to develop our hydropower resources is in the best long- term interest of Manitoba Hydro customers and the province of Manitoba." The same article notes Hydro's vision and the NDP's vision are one and the same. They should not be. Hydro is supposed to be an independent Crown corporation, separate from the government. Regrettably, that is not the case. The NDP has chosen to treat Hydro as an arm of government. The Hydro board and now apparently Hydro's senior management have accepted this intrusion. Hydro writes off the opinions of critics of its capital plans by implying there can be no substitute for its own analysis. Unfortunately, this analysis does not stand up to any respectable level of scrutiny. Even an expensive media blitz has not convinced most Manitobans Hydro's planning is sound. There has been no logical explanation by Hydro why, in its submission for the Public Utilities Board's coming review, it bases its development plan on a projected annual increase in peak capacity requirement over the next 20 years of 76 megawatts when, in the past 20 years, peak capacity requirement has increased at only 40 MW annually. What, then, is the rationale for using an exaggerated 76 MW for annual growth in Hydro's planning? Further, critics ask: " What is the rationale for Hydro's projections in its 2013 annual report of export revenues of $ 16 billion over the next 20 years and $ 29 billion over the next 30 years?" Crunching these numbers reveals Hydro is projecting growth in annual export revenue averaging $ 800 million over the next 20 years and $ 1.3 billion over the 10 years beyond that. The reality is annual extra- provincial revenue peaked at $ 827 million in 2006 and has decreased consistently each year since then. Hydro's annual report admits that, for the year ended on March 31, 2013, it had declined precipitously to $ 353 million. To use Hydro's current overstated export revenue projections is to ignore the trends and the underlying causes for those trends. The problem with Hydro's projections is they have not been adjusted realistically since the market crash of 2008 and the discovery in the U. S. ( and Canada) of new ways to access previously difficult- toextract natural gas, a competitor to hydroelectricity in Hydro's U. S. energy market. There is really no basis to selectively choose, as Hydro frequently does, short- term recoveries in the price of natural gas in what is always a volatile market and to write off the longer- term trend of decreased prices for natural gas and decreasing export revenue from hydroelectricity. Hydro's development plan is also unrealistic because its projects fit a pattern of exceeding cost estimates. The Wuskwatim generating facility and associated transmission line was approved at a cost of $ 900 million. It was completed last year at $ 1.8 billion. Wuskwatim, trumpeted by both Hydro and the NDP as a groundbreaker because a First Nation community holds an option for a 33 per cent equity position in the facility, is losing more than $ 100 million a year. Hydro is now re- negotiating its agreement with the Nisichawayasikh Cree Nation because the original agreement, predicated on a sharing of profits, no longer makes sense. Wuskwatim will be a losing proposition for at least the next 20 years. The cost of the re- negotiated agreement has still not been reflected in Hydro's development plan. There are many other reasons to question the basis for Hydro's development plan but these few examples illustrate why critics ask questions and doubt Hydro's claims about the soundness of its plan. The critics know more than Hydro is willing to admit publicly. They know now, for example, Bipole III, which the minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro insisted as recently as two years ago would not cost Manitobans one cent, will have to be paid for by Manitoba ratepayers beginning in 2017 when it comes into service. On reflection, most Manitobans know that, in a paradoxical sort of way, the minister was right. It won't cost us one cent, it will cost a lot more. Garland Laliberte is dean emeritus of the faculty of engineering, University of Manitoba, and vice- president of the Bipole III Coalition. Putin's last decade GWYNNE DYER Regulated pesticides safe, effective GARLAND LALIBERTE What Manitoba Hydro's critics know DEVERYN ROSS Photo op takes flight Brandon mayor hopes return of air service lifts her profile Mayor Shari Decter Hirst waves as she departs the first WestJet Encore plane from Calgary to Brandon Tuesday. BRUCE BUMSTEAD / BRANDON SUN ARCHIVES A_ 13_ Sep- 05- 13_ FP_ 01. indd A13 9/ 4/ 13 8: 57: 40 PM ;