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17 January 2006

Santa Paul answers Danny

Last but by no means least is Paul Martin's response to Danny Williams' pre-Christmas letter to Santa.

Some of the questions were answered by the deputy prime minister in a separate letter.

It has the greatest level of detail of the three letters and the most specific responses in most categories.

Martin also commits to improving weather forecasting in the province and moving the Canadian Ice Service to Gander. That works out to be a commitment to move over four times the number of jobs to Gander as lost in the relocation of weather forecasting.

On the Hibernia shares, the Prime Minister states that sale of the shares is not a federal government priority at this time.

On the Lower Churchill, the PM reaffirms his commitment to assistance, but not in the way the Premier wants. That is, the PM doesn't commit to a federal loan guarantee that would allow the province to build the entire project on its own. The estimated cost of $3-5 billion would count against the province's debt load in that scenario.

Danny's response?

The responses from Mr. Martin are clearly not as definitive as some of those from Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton. This is disappointing from the provincial government'’s perspective;...
Adding more jobs to Gander is not as responsive as giving the premier exactly what he asked for even if what he asked for is less.

Go figure.

But hey, don't take my word for it.

Put aside any partisan biases and evaluate the letters on their individual merits.