Just when everything was settling down, the brute force expropriation of AbitibiBowater assets has stirred everything up again.
Lord Haw Haw of Brownenvelope is back on the airwaves praising his former employer to the hilt and taking issue with anyone who suggests that maybe the Premier might be acting a little rashly. Then at the end of the two hours of blindly praising his former employer, Lord Haw Haw proclaims that people shouldn't blindly praise leaders.
The man lampoons himself every day and seems blissfully unaware.
The airwaves of Lord Haw Haw's afternoon laugh-fest and the morning talk show were crammed with every manner of worshipper praising the expropriation. Then again, most of those were just the usual suspects spouting the usual pap.
Meanwhile, outside Newfoundland and Labrador, people wonder what the heck is going down in Hooterville.
Again.
Well, here are a couple of points to ponder:
1. No one should doubt what would have happened in 2006 if the provincial government had the legal power to expropriate offshore licenses. That's the time the Premier fumed about expropriation. Too many people laughed the whole episode off as a big bluff.
2. Since the provincial government can't expropriate the offshore, the oil industry is resting easy. Hibernia, White Rose and Terra Nova are salted away. The companies wrestled huge concessions from the government on Hebron. There's nothing for them to worry about.
3. Other companies on the other hand are probably not sitting quite so pretty. Kruger, Vale Inco, Wabush mines, IOCC. They all are likely checking their legal agreements with the provincial government. Some of them might even start discussions to secure whatever guarantees they can against precipitous actions by the provincial Crown. If the provincial government is prepared to use the extreme solution up front to strip the carcass of a dead project, no one would blame those companies for wondering what might happen to a troubled one.
4. IOCC and Wabush Mines might want to take another look at their power contract and the whole Twin Falls Company. The last time this issued was raised - in 2006 - the Premier raised the completely false idea of sweetheart power deals and resource giveaways to bludgeon to death any suggestion the companies could avoid paying commercial rates the next time the deal came up for renewal.
Here's an extract from the post on that issue back in early 2007:
In early October, the feisty Premier warned Iron Ore Company of Canada - owners of the other mine in Labrador West - that they could expect to pay commercial rates for electricity once the current agreement ended. Williams likened the IOC/Wabush Mines power purchase deal to the Hydro Quebec giveaway on the Upper Churchill presumably knowing full-well that his comparison and the truth were two completely different things.
Presumably the same thing applied to Wabush Mines. You can imagine the talk: Forget the low cost power, boys, sez Danny. No more give aways. Maximum benefits to the province or take a hike.
And since Williams had flatly rejected a power deal in public, there was no way he would back down.
-srbp-