Natural resources minister Kathy Dunderdale answered a question yesterday on the offer the provincial government made for Star Lake.
Here’s her answer:
Mr. Speaker, some time ago Abitibi Bowater informed the Province that it was considering selling its Star Lake asset and invited the Province to make a bid. The Province through Nalcor did that, Mr. Speaker, and the bid was not accepted, in part due to an agreement they have with their shareholder on Star Lake who has the right of first refusal. It was certainly clear to us that Abitibi really was not interested in selling that asset to the Province. We made a fair bid, it was not accepted and we have moved on. It was not a matter of any great consequence, Mr. Speaker, and we were not trying to hide anything from anybody in terms of our discussions around the expropriation. It was completely new discussion at that point in time.
As a rule, when someone volunteers something that is not directly related to the question – especially if it is a denial - then you can safely assume this is a sensitive issue. Yu might even believe that the denial isn’t the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
You could even believe that, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth than the denial.
That’s why this bit of Dunderdale’s comments sand out. They don’t fit. They are unnecessary and they are a denial of something that hasn’t been said, at least in the House.
… have moved on. It was not a matter of any great consequence, Mr. Speaker, and we were not trying to hide anything from anybody in terms of our discussions around the expropriation. It was completely new discussion at that point in time.
Odd are that the expropriation had a whole big bunch to do with that experience. So big a bunch and such a gigantic portion that until February, Dunderdale and her boss hadn’t said boo about the whole affair. The rest of us learned of it about February 20.
And of course, the fact is that Dunderdale’s department was and is trying to hide everything about the expropriation. Bond Papers readers already know that.
In fact until yesterday, the department wouldn’t even confirm the expropriation process. Even then it only got a one liner in a news release that also looks suspicious, suspiciously like an attempt to appear to be doing something in the midst of a local political crisis.
Yesterday, was also the first time Dunderdale gave any accounting whatsoever of her secret mission to Ottawa, an issue we pointed out when it happened, over a month ago.
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