23 September 2009

Marine service facility in land-locked town gets free gift of taxpayers cash

Rolls-Royce marine is establishing what is touted  - by the provincial government but not the company - as a $10.5 million service centre in Mount Pearl.

Other Rolls-Royce marine service centres are located right next to the ocean, usually with wharf facilities as part of the complex, like the 40,000 square foot facility in Galveston, Texas or the 21,000 square foot plant  in Seattle, Washington.

Mount Pearl is land-locked.

Unlike the other Rolls-Royce service centres, the new one in Mount Pearl is actually quite far from the major shipping locales or construction yards where one might think it would be easier and cheaper to repair Rolls-Royce engines.

Of the great sea-faring cities of the world,  of all the great maritime cities of modern times, Mount Pearl isn’t a name that comes readily to mind.

So what exactly will these 36 employees be doing, one wonders.  Neither the news release from the company nor the one from its government benefactor gives any real indication.

Very odd.

But nothing is quite so odd as the idea of a multi-national company establishing a facility valued at 10 million bucks that needs a few hundred thousand – completely interest free – that they don’t even have to pay back to the public purse.  Supposedly this money will help defray the cost of equipment and training.

$500,000 against $10, 000,000.

Something doesn’t add up. 

-srbp-