FPI deal possible, but no quotas for Rideout

After a weekend meeting with the principals, federal fish minister Loyola Hearn is still optimistic a deal can be done.

There just won't be any quotas under the control of the provincial government and Tom Rideout, right.

-SRBP-

Province to leave lucrative quotas with companies

I never professed to be a business person, Mr. Speaker, have not got a business clue in my body, never paid a payroll in my life, but even my elementary sense of business tells me there was something right about that whole process, Mr. Speaker.

Fisheries minister Tom Rideout, House of Assembly, May 1, 2007.

Deputy premier and fisheries minister Tom Rideout confirmed in the House of Assembly Tuesday that the provincial government is only interested in gaining control of Fishery Products International's groundfish quotas.

The lucrative quotas for shrimp and crab will remain with the company that purchases FPI's assets, likely Ocean Choice and High Liner.

Rideout explained the rationale in a news release:

"The top priority for our government is ensuring that maximum benefits are received," said Minister Rideout. "Unlike shrimp and scallop, which are primarily offshore factory freezer operations, a substantial component of the groundfish sector involves significant onshore employment through processing. Under current DFO policy, any Enterprise Allocation licence holder is not obligated to land their catch in the province and therefore is free to freeze at sea and send this product to other countries for processing. This is a tremendous threat to our province, and our ownership of these quotas will ensure that Newfoundland and Labrador continues to enjoy these benefits over the long-term."

The groundfish quotas produce the largest number of jobs in local processing plants, hence government's interest in them, even though groundfish is considerably less lucrative than the other quotas.

As Bond Papers noted earlier in the FPI debacle, the province is looking to ensure the maximum level of employment in processing plants, irrespective of the long-term financial viability of the operations in an industry that is already oversupplied with plants and plant workers. While Bond may have been more than a bit off in some of the other projections, in the long run that much was right: the groundfish quotas are being retained to make sure that the maximum number of people have sufficient work to qualify for federal financial assistance. That's basically the philosophy the provincial government followed the last time Rideout was fisheries minister and as much as there is evidence of the need for significant change in the fishery, Rideout's plan is to keep things much like they were.

In the legislature, Rideout admitted that he had never run a business and professed to have no specific knowledge of business. Perhaps that explains Rideout's efforts to prevent FPI from exporting undersized fish and why he is so anxious for the provincial government to retain quotas for groundfish, a portion of which simply cannot be processed economically in the province.

There's no small measure of irony - or is it hypocrisy - that for all the talking of retaining what is rightfully "ours" and for all the Premier's interest in FPI's American marketing arm, that portion of the company's portfolio will be sold off to a Nova Scotia company. For all the time Danny Williams and others spent accusing the current FPI shareholders and directors of plotting the destruction of the company, in the end, it was a combination of factors, including provincial government policy that led to the dismantling of FPI and exactly the situation Williams seemed to oppose.

On top of that, consider that changes to the FPI Act made last actually greased the skids. Most observers missed it entirely, and fish minister Rideout continues to spread the myth that the legislature must approve and breakup of FPI. Yet, as Rideout well knows, the power to approve any sale of FPI and its assets was transferred out of the hands of the individual legislators and handed to cabinet.

The deal is already done. And if cabinet hasn't blessed it yet, the crowd in charge are guaranteed to approve the sale at the earliest opportunity. That's why FPI share prices have jumped lately: there's a sign that the tortures are over and the valuable bits and pieces will be sold off.

The debate in the legislature on Bill Number One, already given first reading and so far unseen by the House, will do nothing except set up a new regime for a new company called FPI as already approved by cabinet. If cabinet didn't know the details of the arrangement, they would not have introduced the new FPI bill before any other piece of legislation in the new session.

The end result of this whole FPI mess is actually quite simple to see. A once-proud company has been rent. The marketing arm, which supported the province's fishing industry as whole, has now gone off to Nova Scotia hands. A local company has picked up some of the other assets - the lucrative ones - and the provincial government is stuck holding the poorest piece of the whole pie.

But they have the one which, to an old-fashioned politico like Rideout with nary a business clue, gives them the most political brownie points. What the provincial government actually gets of course, is a prolonged headache that comes from standing in the way of the shifts and changes needed in the fishing industry. All it took was two and a half years of agony for the ordinary workers at FPI, a considerable loss for those who, like Sanford Limited had invested in FPI planning to have it make money, and ultimately the solution it seemed no one in the province had wanted. Later this month, we will be without Fishery Products International, except in skeleton, and with its most lucrative component - the one that produced value for the industry as a whole - controlled by outside interests.

It would seem that Rideout and his supporters have a political clue comparable to his business one.

Danny loves Loyola

This 1989 clip from CBC coverage of the 1989 provincial Tory leadership convention shows Danny Williams speaking with Deanne Fleet about, of all things, the prospects of Loyola Hearn winning the convention. [The guy who posted it disabled embedding.]

Yes.

The Danny Williams.

Backing the Loyola Hearn.

With all his heart and soul.

If memory serves, one of the commentators - Greg Stamp - wound up working for the eventual winner Tom Rideout.

He asks Williams if he had any regrets at not running. In the pre-campaign days, Williams had criticized the nomination process saying the whole thing wasn't as open as it should have been, in his view. There was some apparent friction between Williams and Rideout.

How times have changed in so many ways.

When is a promise not a promise?

Well, according to the man at right, it all depends on who makes the promise.





When this man (left) - call him The Boss - makes a pledge, in writing no less, and on several occasions to reporters, it really shouldn't be taken at face value.

The Boss may be a lawyer and the legal issues involved - including longstanding provincial government policy - may be well known, but well, even if he says absolutely "I will do it", that really isn't something you can take to the bank.

And even in making the explanation that the promise made by The Boss really isn't a promise, the guy doing the Noddy impersonation manages to trip himself up.

The Boss did do a deal on trees, Noddy says. But he can't do what he appears to have committed to do in that typewritten thing that appears to contain a promise but in reality contains nothing at all.

Because somehow making a deal - entirely within provincial jurisdiction - on animals would somehow magically involve the federal government making a decision but at the same time making a deal on trees, also entirely within provincial jurisdiction, can somehow be done without involving people other than The Boss and his associate, Noddy.

Confused?

So is Noddy.

Obviously.

At least, Stephen Harper did something half-decent in place of what he promised.

The Boss hasn't even tried.

Excuses from a guy in a funny hat don't count.

Danny and the Moe Howard School of Diplomacy

[original 15 Oct 06; Updated 160800NDT Oct 06]

So much for kissing and make up with the federal government.

Offal News has as good a take on the weekend events at the provincial Tory convention as you will find.

No small irony that a guy who only five years ago made fun of the provincial Liberal government fighting with the federal Liberal government is now in a situation where he is fighting with everyone, big or small, Tory or heretic.

[Photo: Premier Danny Williams and finance minister Loyola Sullivan plan their next war with Ottawa in advance of the 2007 provincial general election. Not exactly as illustrated]

This is the New Approach, for sure.

Meanwhile, Canadian Press has reported on the weekend events (see below). For some reason, CP did not get any quotes on the Slander in Gander donnybrook from deputy premier Tom Rideout [Photo, right, exactly as illustrated]

Question: Is this the first time Premier Danny Williams has taken it upon himself to tell what went on in a private meeting only for us to discover later that what Danny said and what actually happened were two entirely different things?

Update: Here's the answer to the question. Danny Williams claimed Stephen Harper was prepared to consider so-called fallow field legislation for the offshore. Williams is looking for the legal power to force development of offshore fields. He raised the idea after failing to achieve a deal on Hebron.

CBC Radio is reporting this morning a statement from the Prime Minister's Office which rejects the idea. The PM never agreed to consider or think about it apparently. Take note of the reference in the CBC story to contracts fairly negotiated or something along those lines.

This seems like an oblique reference to the issues of bad faith bargaining raised here about Danny Williams' approach to negotiations with the oil companies. Steve doesn't likely read the Bond Papers, but he seems to be talking about the same issue and heading to the same conclusion about Danny.



Williams takes aim at Ottawa in drive for re election in Newfoundland
The Canadian Press
Oct 15, 2006

By Tara Brautigam

GANDER, N.L. (CP) _ Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams hopes to capitalize on a growing standoff with Ottawa in his quest for province-wide dominance in next year's provincial election.

Williams rallied his party at a weekend Progressive Conservative convention in Gander, with a fiery speech that drew a deep line between himself and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

The premier warned Saturday night that he would urge Newfoundlanders to vote against Harper in the next future federal election if the province loses out in a revised equalization formula.

Hours earlier, Williams and Harper met in an effort to resolve their differences over several thorny issues, including a revised equalization formula. But their discussion about equalization only further chilled relations between the two Tory leaders.

The meeting was "heated,"' one of the premier's staffers said Sunday. [Ed note: This likely means the Premier was shouting, as he is wont to do, while the other person is being calm and professional.]

Williams has made a political career of fighting the federal government.

In December 2004, he pulled down the Canadian flags from provincial buildings during talks for a revamped Atlantic Accord to give Newfoundland full protection against equalization clawbacks on offshore royalties.

In early January, the flags went back up, and an agreement was reached after marathon talks in Ottawa a month later.

"Fighting the enormous resources of the federal government and achieving a new deal on the Atlantic Accord is not easy, but that doesn't mean it's impossible,"' Williams told about 600 supporters Saturday, indicating he would step up his battle against Ottawa before his re-election campaign.

"Stay tuned, you might be into round two before this one is all over."'

Williams also warned the party not to take the Oct. 9, 2007 election for granted, a message echoed by party president John Babb.

"A quick clean sweep? Who knows?"' Babb said. "But from our point of view, we're not making any predictions."

The Progressive Conservatives can make big gains in the next election, observers say.

At least two polls this year suggested Williams enjoyed an approval rating above 70 per cent, despite a government spending scandal that led to the resignation of Ed Byrne, one of his top cabinet ministers, in June.

But the Liberals have slammed Williams for neglecting rural Newfoundland and Labrador, areas beset by waves of residents moving to Alberta for work because of mass layoffs from the forestry and fisheries industries.

Currently there are 35 Progressive Conservatives in the provincial legislature, 11 Liberal members and one New Democrat.

A byelection has been called for Nov. 1 to fill a vacant seat in the Signal Hill-Quidi Vidi riding in St. John's, where high profile criminal lawyer Jerome Kennedy will run for the Tories against NDP Leader Lorraine Michael.

The Liberals are not running a candidate.

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