Budgets, Smelters and Power Lines - A Weekend Hodgepodge

UPDATE: February 3, 10:28 AM - Finance officials confirmed for the grits yesterday that Newfoundland will lose $1 billion over three years. Liberal finance critic John McCallum says the province has been unfairly penalized, unlike Nova Scotia and Manitoba where Ottawa has agreed to cushion the blow from the equalization changes.

For anyone who refused to believe it in the past it seems the message for Newfoundland and Labrador is clear today: The Province is not treated the same as other provinces in Canada. There is no equality when it comes to Newfoundland and Labrador.


UPDATE: February 2, 5:45pm - Liberal MP Todd Russell has decided to toe the party line and vote in favor of the federal budget even though it will cost his Province nearly $1.6 Billion Dollars.

Russell says he won't be breaking party ranks and voting against the budget. He says while he doesn't want to see the province adversely affected by the budget, there's strong points to be made for solidarity under the party's new leader, Michael Ignatieff.

It seems another elected MP from Newfoundland and Labrador has decided that his standing in his party is more important that his constituents or his Province.

It’s been a pretty hectic week on the political and business both in Newfoundland and Labrador and in Ottawa.

After tabling a so called economic “stimulus” budget that actually will result in the Canada’s newest province, which incidentally has the highest unemployment in the Country, being penalized to the tune of $1.5 Billion dollars.

The reaction of anger exhibited by both the Province’s Premier and the general population in Newfoundland and Labrador, though frowned upon by the Central Canadian media, was no less than should have been expected under the circumstances.

As Premier Williams noted, taking this offshore oil offset money away from Newfoundland and Labrador is the equivalent of the budget taking $22 Billion a year away from Ontario.

The day after the impact of the budget was made public it was uncovered by a reporter in Nova Scotia that the Prime Minister, knowing full well that the budget would impact both Nova Scotia and NL, quietly arranged an agreement with Premier Rodney Macdonald to ensure that his Province would not suffer any losses.

Later in the week Premier Williams held conversations with all six Liberal MPs from the Province as well as with the Liberal leader, Premier Rodney Macdonald , Premier Ghiz of PEI and Quebec Premier Charest, who is not pleased with a new cap on equalization (a separate issue but one also introduced in the latest budget).

As a result, at time of writing, Williams has said he has the support of the Premiers he’s spoken with. Three of the six Liberal MPs from the Province have said they will vote against the budget if changes are not made to rectify the situation, even if it means expulsion from the party.

The Liberal leader has yet to publicly state his position or any actions he plans to take on the budget issue or with his NL caucus members.

Currently three NL MPs have not stated their position on the issue. Those MPs are Sibon Coady, Gerry Byrne and Todd Russell.

Neither of these MPs have been available for media interviews over the past day or so. They appear to have gone underground.

This might lead one to believe, based on their current silence, that they have decided to toss their lot it with their party rather than support their province.

Considering that Ms. Coady was recently been named by the Hill Times as "an up and comer" and both Russell and Byrne were recently named to the Liberal shadow cabinet the possibility is not that far from a possibility.

In addition, both Russell and Byrne represent ridings that are considered Liberal strong holds that are safe and secure.

Depending on their decision over the next few days and the direction taken by their party these MPs may find that in Newfoundland and Labrador there is no safe seat.

UPDATE: 4:00PM - MP Coady has decided to back her Province and publicly stated she will not support the budget if the issue is not rectified.

The two MPs who have not voiced their position can be contacted at the following email addresses:

Gerry Byrne: Byrne.G@parl.gc.ca
Todd Russell: Russell.T@parl.gc.ca

On a brighter note, Vale Inco has entered into an agreement with the Newfoundland and Labrador government to begin construction of its new smelter in Long Harbor. Concerns were raised earlier this week when an documents that were supposed to be completed by the company at the end of December were not filed even after the company was given an extension until January 22 of this year. At that time shipments of ore to smelters in other parts of Canada were halted and rumors were beginning to surface that the project might not move forward.

On Thursday the Premier announced what he is calling an “enhanced” agreement and said the delay was a result of completing that agreement.

According to the government the new development will take 14 months longer to complete but the final smelter will be larger than first anticipated and will create more employment and local benefits that the original contract.

On another high note, the Province’s energy corporation has begun moving forward with plans for an undersea cable that will allow power from the Lower Churchill to be used on the island.

The corporation is about to begin the environmental process in preparation for development of the line.

This line is expected to permit the province to mothball the oil powered generating plant and become a greener energy province. The line would also serve as the first link in exporting power through the maritime route to Nova Scotia or New Brunswick should the province choose that option rather than relying on the ability to freely access markets through the Province of Quebec

Nova Scotia Makes Secret Side Deal - NL Gets Budget Shaft

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and independent economist Wade Locke, has determined that the federal budget will cause Newfoundland and Labrador to lose approximately 500 million each year or $1.5 Billion over 3 years.

This comes at a time when the economy is already sputtering to hang onto life and the province is forecasting multi-year deficits which will be compounded by another half a billion a year thanks to this latest move in Ottawa.

The expected loss comes as a result of changes about to be introduced to the O’Brien formula and Atlantic Accord arrangements forced on the province by the Harper government. Changes which touched off the province’s ABC campaign during the last election.

Now the federal Conservatives have again changed the calculations unilaterally.

Premier Williams says he sees this move as a direct attack on Newfoundland and Labrador. Credence was given to this allegation today when reports surfaced that Nova Scotia Premier, Rodney MacDonald, has entered into a secret side deal with Ottawa to ensure that his Province will not be affected by this latest unilateral change to the Accord, leaving Newfoundland and Labrador the only Province of Canada adversely affected.

When asked by Randy Simms of VOCM radio if the six Liberal MPs from the Province plan to support their leader in voting for the budget MP Judy Foote responded that she will support the budget because her party has determined that “Canadians don’t want an election. They want us to get the job done…we have to do something and it means getting on with the job.”

Left unsaid was the fact that in “getting the job done” Ms. Foote and the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal caucus plan to do so on the backs of their constituents.

Perhaps Ms. Foote and her Liberal colleagues from the province might do well to remember the legacy left by Conservative MPs Fabian Manning and Loyola Hearn when they opted to toe the party line over the Accord rather than standing up for their province when the time comes to stand up in the House of Commons.

Even if the budget passes an election is likely within a year. Voters in Newfoundland and Labrador have already seen to it that no Conservatives were elected in the last election and they may well decide that the future is one where not only blue, but red as well, are no longer a part of the Newfoundland and Labrador election palette.

UPDATE January 30, 2009 - 2:03 PM NL Time:

News reports are surfacing that MP Scott Simms will vote NO on the budget in its current form.

Still no word from MPs Sibon Coady, Gerry Byrne or Todd Russell.

Will they stand with their constituents or will they decide to toe the party line in Ottawa instead?

UPDATE January 30, 2009 - 11:17 AM NL Time:

Thanks to the letters, phone calls and emails of constituents in the province Liberal MP Judy Foote has decided to support her province and vote NO on the budget if changes are not made to rectify this issue.

Here is an email I recieved from Ms. Foote today:

Thank you for getting in touch. I really appreciate hearing your views.

Let me put your mind at ease. For me, doing what is right for our province is to vote against this Conservative budget which I will be doing.

One of the problems in Ottawa is getting people to understand the seriousness of the situation.
I can talk until I am blue in the face but what I needed was hard evidence that the views I am expressing are real and represent the thoughts of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

As a result of my comments on Open Line yesterday morning I now have that hard evidence.
While I could have gone on open line and asked for e-mails and telephone calls to get your views, that could have been viewed as being contrived.

By laying out the options available to the NL MPs it generated the correspondence I needed that there is no question the people of Newfoundland and Labrador want their representatives to vote against the budget even that means sitting as independents.

I will be voting NO.

Judy

News reports today indicate that Avalon MP Scott Andrews has also decided to vote NO in support of the Province's position.

Author's Note: Web Talk encourages everyone to contact the Province's Liberal MPs and express their feelings over this issue. Anyone wishing to do so can contact them at the following email addresses:

Scott Andrews: Andrews.S@parl.gc.ca

Gerry Byrne: Byrne.G@parl.gc.ca

Sibon Coady Coady.S@parl.gc.ca

Judy Foote: Foote.J@parl.gc.ca

Todd Russell: Russell.T@parl.gc.ca

Scott Simms: Simms.S@parl.gc.ca>

NL Challenges Qubec over Provincial Border

A document has been filed by the Newfoundland and Labrador government with the joint environmental review panel assessing a Quebec Hydro plan to develop three new projects on the Romaine River.

The documents identifies the provinces concerns with the process and the maps being used in the process which depict the head waters of the Romaine River as being inside the province of Quebec. The document was filed on November 27th 2008 but only came to light this week when it was discovered by local media.

A number of times in the past I’ve raised the issue of the Quebec government’s insistence that a large swath of the Labrador portion of Newfoundland and Labrador actually belong to them.

Maps displaying portions of Labrador as belonging to that province have been in wide spread use in Quebec for decades and are still in use today.

Not only are official Quebec provincial maps depicting a part of Southern Labrador as falling under Quebec jurisdiction but in addition to official electoral boundaries maps, tourist maps, mineral claims maps and those produced by Quebec Hydro including the erroneous border, Official Canadian Armed Forces maps depicting the Quebec patrol area now include that area of Labrador as well.

This ongoing attempt by Quebec to claim territory clearly belonging to Newfoundland and Labrador has been a concern for this writer for some time. I know that I, and others, have brought it directly to the attention of the Newfoundland and Labrador government on several occasions.

I don’t know how others have faired when it comes to getting any kind of response from official channels but I can tell you that I’ve had no response at all.

I’ve always felt that this problem is one of those “sleeper” issues that nobody in power seems to be concerned about but which can, and probably will, turn out to be much larger and far more important than most people realize.

Perhaps that concern is about to be confirmed. Only time will tell.

In the submission the government of Newfoundland and Labrador claims the border is “invalidly depicted”, and expresses deep “concern” about not being consulted by either Hydro-Quebec, the government of Quebec or the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency over the issue.

Among other concerns, including the depiction of a non-existent maritime boundary drawn through the Strait of Bell Isle, the submission also notes, "…the headwaters and entire watersheds of the Romaine and the four other major Quebec North Shore rivers appear, incorrectly, to be within Quebec."The submission by the Province requests that these inaccuracies be addressed before any assessment is completed and that issues related to potential environmental impacts inside Labrador be fully addressed.

The document officially presented on behalf of the government of Newfoundland and Labrador appears to be a major departure from its past practice of ignoring Quebec’s boundary claims and is in direct contrast to Premier William’s comments just over two years ago.

At that time Mr. Williams told the St. John’s Telegram, “I don't even understand why it's being raised ... the boundary is not an issue for us. Every so often it will come up on a Quebec map showing the border being wrong, but from our perspective it's not a concern.”"I wouldn't even raise it - by just raising it, with all due respect, even doing articles on it just acknowledges maybe there is an issue here, in the minds of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians."

This about face begs the question, why has Premier Williams, long viewed as standing up for his province, as ensuring “no more giveaways” and who has nurtured an image throughout Canada that he is willing to take on the biggest of the big, not more proactive on this issue?

It also begs the question of whether or not the government of Newfoundland and Labrador is finally challenging Quebec over this issue at the request of the Premier or in spite of him.