The position of Deputy Minister of ND&M has been vacant since last Summer when the previous Deputy left and took another job with the government of the Yukon (Deputy. Min. Energy Mines and Resources). So the MNDM under Minister Gravelle is effectively rudderless (until 5 January 2015). The ship was sailing under autopilot, leaving the Minister to improvise.

If Premier Wynne really wanted a meeting with PM Harper to talk substance then this vacant position should have been fiureaucralled (by Dep. Min. De Launay) as soon as it became vacant, so that the new head (of the staff) of that ministry could have cobbled together specific proposals for him and Minister Gravelle to discuss with Minister Rickford...paving the way for a meeting between Premier Wynne with PM Harper.

Since PM Harper is a movie buff, Wynne could offer to take him out for a movie in a local cinema. Even though the PM would normally go to a movie alone watching light hearted romance-comedy movies such as "Crazy, Stupid, Love" to clear his head from all the political cobweb, the PM could perhaps make an exception if the invite came as "a movie and popcorn" ...and during the chit chat just slide in a $1B request for the RoF. The PM might come back with: "only 1 billion dollars? can you make use of 2?", then that would be a dilemma for the Premier. What to do, what to do?...Ah, just say YES, and thank you.

Strategy: Be prepared (put together a proposal for prior discussion with PMO), be nice (movie or dinner invite) and don't take any Minister along, especially the one in charge of the RoF. LOL!

In fact, all this does not have to wait until 5 January 2014. Discussion could start now between Ontario and Minister Rickford (give the new Deputy Minister 2 days to put a RoF proposal together). If the proposal looks reasonable (no need to have it 101% right), then this could result in a meeting between Premier Wynne and PM Harper, even before X-mas.

goldhunter