In the House of Assembly yesterday, Premier Danny Williams talked about changes to the legislation governing Fishery Products International to tackle, among other things, ensuring that a majority of the board of directors at FPI are from Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Premier also expressed concern that two of the directors were planning to chop up the company and sell off its bits and pieces.
Anyone passing familiar with the FPI Act knows that:
1. There is already a requirement that a majority of corporate directors come from this province; and that,
2. There is already a provision that prevents the sale of all or substantially all of the assets of the company. This was the section Danny used to screw around with the income trust proposal. It's there. He knows it works.
So why the puffing and posturing yesterday?
Could be that he wanted to appear to tackling an issue despite having no plan to address FPI.
Could be that Danny was responding to political pressure by throwing out some ideas.
Could be, as well, that he wanted to create another FPI controversy to distract everyone from the changes to the Hydro Corporation Act, Bill No. 1, which was revealed yesterday on the House of Assembly website. The implications of this small piece of legislation are far greater than FPI could ever be.
