NL Legislature Determined to Protect Public Interest

Today I’d like to offer the entire Newfoundland and Labrador legislature, both government and opposition members, my heart felt congratulations for their combined efforts this week.

By working together to quickly enact legislation intended to secure the people’s water and timber rights from Abitibi-Bowater, each of the Province’s elected members have shown that they can indeed work together in a non-partisan way for the betterment of the Province, when the situation calls for it.

Perhaps their federal counterparts in Ottawa would do well to learn from this fine example.

On Tuesday the Williams government presented the Abitibi expropriation bill to the opposition members, met with them to discuss its contents and all parties worked together to move the bill through 3 readings, the committee stage and royal ascent. All of this was accomplished in under 5 hours.

That process spoke volumes about the ability of all the parties to put aside their partisan differences and work together for the greater good of the people they represent and for that they deserve a pat on the back.

The bill, which will see the Province expropriate all water & timber rights as well as any power generating facilities held by Abitibi once that company closes its last remaining mill, is something that had to be introduced to ensure that the company could not simply walk away from the Province and continue to retain control of valuable provincial resources.

Unfortunately the logic and importance of the effort put out by the Newfoundland and Labrador legislature is something that appears to have been lost on some Central Canadian quasi-news agencies and corporate mouthpieces.

Apparently some of these highly paid shills think the Province should have simply allowed Abitibi-Bowater to close its mill operations, throw a thousand people out of work yet sell or even retain the valuable natural resources of the Province so nobody else could have access to them.

Globe and Mail journalist (and I use the term journalist very loosely) Konrad Yakabuski even decided that the time was right to break out the “Danny Chavez” rhetoric once again and to slam the province for ensuring that its resources are not sold off to the highest bidder so Abitibi could continue to profit from the Province even after it has closed its doors.

In his commentary Mr. Yakabuski, who comes across as being very upset that Abitibi will not be able to sell those assets to pay down debt, attacked the Williams government for “Bludgeoning” the company.

He went on to say that this legislation will, “sour any sensible business person with an eye to investing in the province…”.

The position taken by Mr. Yakabuski leads this writer to wonder where his pay cheque comes from or if he is truly that obtuse.

In a feeble attempt to justify his attack Mr. Yakabuski wrote in the Globe that while, “It is true Abitibi has been so stingy with new capital that the mill might have been doomed by its obsolescence. But the hydro assets are still valuable. Abitibi had been counting on them to ease its own financial difficulties.”

Go figure.

Personally I can only say that it’s about time the Globe took another shot at Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Ontario based paper hasn’t taken a good shot at Williams or the Province for weeks now and this fact alone had almost convinced me that the Premier had slipped into the same sort of complacent “giveaway” mentality that has plagued the Province’s leaders since entering Confederation.

I guess my worries were unfounded.

Now that Canada’s national rag is on the attack again (as long as “national” means Central Canada) I’m more convinced than ever that the provincial government (all parties) must be doing the right thing on this file.

Mr. Jakabusi’s editorial attack makes me wonder what the Globe’s reaction will be should the Ontario government decide to take similar steps with Abitibi. Already the legislature in that province is expressing deep concern about the company’s plans to sell off similar assets there and are meeting with mill workers to gather their input.

It would be interesting to see the Globe’s spin on something like that.

“Sour any sensible business person with an eye to investing…” indeed.

As one letter I received from a reader just this morning so eloquently pointed out:

“Someone should remind the Globe that when it comes to attracting business the Ontario elite have no room to talk."

"What was it Jim Flaherty said about Ontario, "It is the last place anyone would want to invest."

"Meanwhile Newfoundland and Labrador is now a "Have" province while Ontario is a "Have Not."

"Newfoundland and Labrador has a (1.3 billion dollar) surplus, Ontario is running a deficit."

"Newfoundland and Labrador has record car and home sales, Ontario's sales are in the toilet."

"Oil, gas and other companies are investing in new activity in Newfoundland and Labrador all the time including during this economic downturn."

"It seems to me that the folks at this Ontario based rag have very little right to tell Newfoundland and Labrador how to deal with corporate interests."

Well said, well said indeed.