Consultation or Confrontation

Consultation or Confrontation, those are the words being spun by Conservative Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, in his current media blitz leading to the latest round of NAFO discussions. Great alliteration huh, can’t you just picture those Ottawa spin doctors sitting around, sipping latte’s and trying to come up with that catchy phrase? A phrase intended to placate the public about their mishandling of the fisheries and to stick in our collective mind like such other keepers as “Make my day” or “Where’s the beef?”, which, by the way, are my thoughts exactly. Where the hell is the beef in that statement and when will Mr. Hearn or anyone else in Ottawa go ahead and, “make my day”?

Of course the fisheries minister’s plan is consultation rather than confrontation, but I’m sure I didn’t need to tell you that. Just the fact that Ottawa feels the need to feed Canadians a catch phrase about how they plan to either slow down or speed up the destruction of North Atlantic fish stocks says it all doesn’t it? I say speed up or slow down the destruction because if you’re like me, a long hard look at the results to date leaves me wondering exactly which it is they’re trying to accomplish.

When Loyola Hearn sat in the opposition benches he knew what needed to be done and, though you would never say it, he knows it now. Custodial management of the fisheries and Canadian control of the Grand Banks was, and is, the only solution. Now that he’s gotten the big job, like his predecessors, Mr. Hearn seems to feel that talk is the best course of action. Sorry Loyola, but the time for talk is over. That foreign fishing ship has sailed.

For decades Atlantic Canadians have watched a once vital and vibrant resource dwindle and die. For just as long we’ve heard politician after politician promise to resolve the issue of over fishing through NAFO and for as many years those discussions have done nothing to improve the situation. In fact they may even have done more harm than good. Today there are hundreds of foreign ships raping the Grand Banks while, as local comedic talent Buddy Wasisname said about the state of the fishery, “since the moratorium we been feeding Kraft Dinner to the gulls”.

I know the truth, the fishers know the truth and Loyola Hearn certainly knows the truth, even if he won’t admit it these days. Simply put, NAFO is a useless organization made up of greedy countries all looking for a piece of the pie when it comes to the fishery off our shores. Talking about protecting fish stocks today is not going to get Canada any further than it got us over the years and that’s a fact. During the election campaign, the Conservative party and Mr. Hearn specifically, promised to invoke custodial management if elected. So what happened? Come on Loyola, stop the BS and do your job!

Eventually, and perhaps sooner than the Conservatives would like, another election will be rolling around the corner. Mr. Hearn had better not expect to come back to Newfoundland and Labrador telling everyone about his great accomplishments in the fisheries portfolio. He shouldn’t expect to come back with renewed talks of taking control of our waters and invoking custodial management. No Mr. Hearn, you’ve already played that card and you don’t get to play it twice. In fact, don’t come back to the province at all unless you are willing, before the road to the next election campaign even begins, to send some navy ships out to the Grand Banks, invoke custodial management and start firing at anything out there that floats.

The people of Atlantic Canada are watching you very closely Mr. Hearn and you can bet that commentaries like this one will continue to become more and more common as the next election approaches. The time for talk is over. The time for action is now. Get some gun boats and send them forth before it’s too late. It’s time to start blowing some boats out of the water and it’s time to start representing your people to Ottawa rather than representing Ottawa to your people.

INCO Employees Back Miners at Voisey's Bay

Hat’s off to the Steelworkers at Inco’s processing plants in Thompson, Manitoba and Sudbury, Ontario, who have publicly vowed to back mine workers at the Voisey’s Bay mine site by refusing to process any ore concentrate shipped from that location until the strike there is settled.

Just a few days ago, Ray Goldie a spokesman for Inco, said the company was not concerned about their bottom line and was in fact “cleaning up in the marketplace” because they had shipped enough nickel concentrate from the mine prior to the strike to supply their operations long enough to wait out the union. Well think again Ray. You may have plenty of ore but it isn’t going to do you much good if the fine folks working at your smelters refuse to process it.
Talks are currently at a stand still and it was looking more and more like Inco was willing to leave workers out in the cold and basically starve them into submission. It is hoped that this move by Steelworkers at the two primary smelters where Voisey’s bay ore is processed will bring an end to the standoff.

Currently workers at the mine are reported to be making as much as $30,000 less per year than their counterparts in other Inco operations in Canada and the benefit packages provided to workers at the Newfoundland and Labrador operation are sub standard. Adding to these insults is the fact that employees are expected to endure sort of treatment while having to put up with the obvious travel and employment dangers inherent in working at a remote location.

Once again, I’d like to offer a hearty thank-you to the fine folks at both the Thompson and Sudbury operations. Even though their employers may feel that the folks in Newfoundland and Labrador are nothing but second class citizens to be used as a cheap source of labor, apparently Inco’s workers do not and are telling the company exactly that. Good on you!

Highway Robbery

Promises, promises, promises, like the hot steamy air emanating from a candidates mouth during a cold winter election campaign, they rise on the prevailing winds for a brief moment before drifting away on a wisp of vapor. Such is the case with the promises made and the promises broken by Ottawa’s new conservative elite.

On a national level the big issue is the back sliding Canada’s PM has been doing over his promise/preference to remove non-renewable resource revenues from the equalization formula. While that’s undoubtedly a hot button issue in resource rich and economically poor Newfoundland and Labrador, it isn’t the only broken, or at least delayed, promise that so easily dripped from Stephen Harper’s well fed maw while jockeying for every possible vote down east last Christmas.

During the election campaign the future PM also promised to cost share the paving of the Trans Labrador Highway. As a result of that promise the cash strapped province budgeted millions to cover its share of the effort. To date the feds have yet to pony up one red cent even though the Combined Councils of Labrador, a group of municipal town leaders, has been pushing for them to do so. The Trans Labrador Highway, which consists of mainly gravel road, has been a major thorn in the side of the area for decades and is a danger to anyone using it.

In addition to the highway robbery being committed Harper’s little band of rogues, other promises such as re-instituting the weather center at Gander Newfoundland and posting a rapid response team at 5 Wing Goose Bay, in Labrador, have not yet been fulfilled. At this point people are starting to wonder if they will ever see any movement on these files or if they will remain dead until magically appearing once again only when the nays beat the yeas in the House of Commons and the election trail heats up once more.

I know where I’d place my bets.