The Battles

(PPP’s = Public Private Partnerships)

Richard Florizone was Vice-President of Finance at the University of Saskatchewan during a period of unprecedented over-spending.

2012-05-07 Letter to U of S, Board of Governors.  Who is responsible for Debt situation?

EXCERPT:  The finances, roughly:

• $95 million debt
• Borrowing capacity maxed out
• A $10 million shortfall in the current operating budget, upgraded to $12 million
• $15.5 million deficit for 2012-13
• a potential shortfall of $20 million to $40 million annually by 2016.  Upgraded two weeks later to $44.5 million.
• $600 million needed for repair and maintenance of the existing buildings
• No money to finish the interior of some of the new buildings

Prior to looking at how Florizone is rewarded, also consider this excerpt from the posting  2009-10-10 Corporations at the Universities. Selling Out. Richard Florizone and UDP. Nuclear at the University.

Excerpt from item #4:

I observed the loss of integrity again, repeatedly, through the Uranium Partnership Development (UDP or “NUKE”) Panel struck by the Government of Saskatchewan and chaired by Richard Florizone, Vice-President of Finance of the University of Saskatchewan.

More than 2,000 citizens heard the lie from Florizone that the acid rain problem in Canada has been solved.

The public meetings were about nuclear reactors.  Why was Florizone even mentioning acid rain?

Understand the relationship between the tar sands (acid rain production) and “small” nuclear reactors which are to be developed under the “Uranium Development Partnership”.  (Actually, the “small” reactors have already been developed in the U.S., in Japan and elsewhere.  Whatever is done in Saskatchewan will build on that. The University is a vehicle through which to get the “small” reactors up and running.)

Huge amounts of electricity are needed for the large electrical diodes that will heat the far underground to get the tar to the point where it will flow.  It is projected to take more than 3 years of 24-hour heating just to get the first tar on the Saskatchewan side of the border flowing.

Imagine the vast quantities of electricity (heat) needed by the tar sands producers.

The increase in acid rain from tar sands processing continues , and will continue, unabated.  Since it was first identified that some areas  of northern Saskatchewan (downwind) are already past critical load limits (CCME Report, 2005) there has only been EXPANSION of the tar sands.  The Government is sitting on the updates on how bad the acid rain problem now is.

It is very convenient for the industry to have the Vice-President of the University tell us all that the acid rain problem in Canada is no longer a problem because we are so smart we fixed it.  It’s about the use of lies (propaganda)to remove obstacles. to tar sands expansion.

Further, Florizone led the public to believe that we were being consulted about the whole uranium/nuclear question, including whether or not there would be a nuclear studies centre of excellence at the U of S.

While he was doing that, he had to know that the Canadian Centre of Nuclear Studies at the University was already  established.  In the “On Campus News”, July 17, 2009 the Vice-President of Research, Karen Chad was interviewed.  She said that the Centre has been in operation for more than a year.  (Link no longer valid http://www.usask.ca/communications/ocn/09-july-17/2.php.)  The decision had been made and implemented.

The mandate of the Canadian Centre of Nuclear Studies at the U of S includes research into “power production” and radioactive waste disposal (“safe storage” as she calls it).

Call a spade a spade.  Richard Florizone is not the kind of role model acceptable at the University.  We pay his salary so that our children have a centre of learning, where people search for truth.  They should not be taught that lies and deception are just part of the way we do business.

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A brief bio of Florizone is at  2011-04  The University:  Are We Living in a Brave New Academy?   The Conditioning Centre. See  item 10.  NOTICE OF MEETING CONTAINS BIOGRAPHY OF FLORIZONE

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Richard Florizone rewarded?

The StarPhoenix June 14, 2012

University of Saskatchewan vice-president Richard Florizone will be seconded to World Bank Group’s International Finance Corp. for six months, beginning July 1.

The agreement was signed between IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and the university.

“Creating this unprecedented partnership with this leading global institution advances our growing prominence as a globally engaged university and enhances our capacity in public policy areas – finding new ways to finance infrastructure development – areas of critical importance to both Saskatchewan and developing countries,” university president Peter MacKinnon said in a news release Wednesday.

Florizone, the VP of finance and resources at the university, will act as a senior adviser to IFC Advisory Services in Public-Private Partnerships in Washington, D.C.

The prestigious secondment is the first undertaken by the World Bank Group with a Canadian university.

The World Bank Group is an international organization of 188 member nations that fights poverty by offering developmental assistance to middle-income and low-income countries.

Florizone’s work will focus on a study of past public-private partnership transactions, as well as providing support for several IFC projects in developing countries.

“With a growing need for infrastructure construction and renewal around the world, effective ways of financing these critical public works is increasingly important,” Florizone said.

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