UPDATED: Williams accuses Quebec of trying to scuttle power cable from Labrador

From VOCM News:

N.L. premier accuses Quebec of trying to scuttle power cable from Labrador
August 12, 2010

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Premier Danny Williams of Newfoundland and Labrador is accusing Quebec of trying to scuttle a plan to get surplus power from the province to Nova Scotia.

His government and Nova Scotia are trying to get funding for a subsea cable from Labrador across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Cape Breton.

He says both provinces have applied to the federal infrastructure program for help as a public-private partnership project.

Williams says he's been told that Quebec has sent a letter to Ottawa objecting to the application.
He says Quebec has no place sticking its nose in the affairs of Atlantic Canada.

UPDATE:

The Globe and Mail is reporting today that:

Nova Scotia Energy Minister Bill Estabrooks said he learned of the objection from his staff.

“It disappoints me that Premier Charest would stoop to this level. He's out of line,” Mr. Estabrooks said.

“Mr. Charest, stick to your own business. Advocate positively on behalf of your province or region and don't put down another province or region for a purely political reason.”

Neither Mr. Charest or Natural Resources Minister Nathalie Normandeau were available to comment on Thursday.

But Quebec Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier, speaking on behalf of the government, said sending the letter to Ottawa is simply a matter of Quebec sticking up for itself.

“It's not putting our nose in any other province's matters,” Mr. Fournier said in a telephone interview.

“The fact that when a province asks the federal government to pay for transmission lines when Quebec or others paid by themselves, it's an unequal treatment of one province over the other.”

Mr. Fournier said sending the letter to Ottawa was necessary and his province's position is reasonable.

Web Talk has a question for Mr. Fournier: Why would Quebec consider transmission lines within a province to be the same as an undersea cable between provinces? Clearly they are not.

Since Ottawa controls the oceans inside the 200 mile limit (note how they control the fish stocks, oil, etc.) then it is natural that the provinces would expect any development outside provincial jursidiction (in other words under the ocean) to involve Ottawa. Perhaps when Quebec decides to run an undersea cable someplace (if they ever do) they should also contact Ottawa about having them pay a portion of the cost, until then perhaps he would be better advised to stick to his own business and butt out of the business of others.

Speaking of "subsidies" for power, hell Quebec residents have had their power subsidised by Ottawa and the Canadian taxpayers for decades.

They have the lowest power rates in Canada, why? Well, partly because of the cheap power they suck out of the Upper Churchill but also because they don't want to raise them and don't have to.

Hydro-Quebec is a Crown corporation owned by the government of Quebec. If they raised power rates to what most of us would consider to be "normal" levels it would increase the profits of Hydro-Quebec and in turn show up on the balance sheet of the Quebec provincial government. Those additional revenues would be deducted from Quebec's federal equalization payments. So they keep the rates low and still provide top notch government services by using equalization.

How's that for a power subsidy?

Clearly Mr. Fournier and his cabal of idiots are doing what everyone in Newfoundland and Labrador has come to expect from the Quebec government - Meddling for their own benefit at the expense of other provinces in Canada. Certainly nothing new in that.