Talk is easy when it isn't your money

Fisheries commissar Tom Rideout had a stern warning for financially troubled Fishery Products International (FPI) as the company works to sort out its difficulties and return to profitability.

"I'm telling them and I've told them, don't go coming banging on my door for approvals to ship 60 per cent of their groundfish quotas out of this province. It's not on," Rideout said.

"And if that means you crumble, you crumble."

Commissar Rideout didn't give any suggestion of what might happen if FPI goes bankrupt in such a scenario. Here's a hint: the last time Rideout was the fisheries commissar, FPI and a bunch of other companies were bailed out with public money.

Talk is easy, Comrade Commissar, when the money you toss about isn't your own.