No matter how you slice this, any severance pay going to former AbitibiBowater employees in Newfoundland and Labrador will come out of taxpayers’ pockets.
"Any cheque that is going to be passed over to Abitibi in compensation for the assets that basically have been expropriated through legislation will have to take into consideration severance…”
Williams said it could mean the government cutting a big cheque to AbitibiBowater, and the company uses that money to pay the severance, or the government could deduct the value of the severance payments from the compensation and then send that money directly to the employees.
Two questions:
1. Why are taxpayers going to be on the hook for something the company would or should have been paying anyway?
2. If that’s the case, why doesn’t the government just cough up the cash and then sort it out with AB later on, rather than leave the workers hanging?
BTW, the CBC story that extract comes from got its headline all wrong. There’s no ultimatum involved at all.
AbitibiBowater chief executive David Paterson is likely rubbing his hands together in glee since now he won’t have to worry about paying out severance to the local workers. Danny’s gonna pick up the tab for him.
At the same time, the government’s energy monopoly gets the assets at a cut rate with none of the power being earmarked for industry in central Newfoundland.
AB wins.
Nalco wins.
Who loses?
Just think about it for a second.
-srbp-