Bruce Monkhouse said:
Ex_coelis,
I didn't really want to phrase it like this but with your "rant on" I guess I won't feel guilty about asking with all this,
[We have 500,000 people, and:
,,why can't "your" province be run in the black?
One would think with all this "stuff" you have, life should be easy street.......or is it much easier just to blame others for "your" mis-management?
Bruce,
I'm sorry for the rant, I had just finished reading too much about this and sorta let loose. I should say that my experiences in the CF left me at many times filled with Canadian pride, and I really do hope we can work out our place in Canada, I just hope it is a more equitable one. I guess I was particularly upset with comments I read in the national press about Williams 'desicration' of the flag, something which no Newfoundlander should or would support, but which wasn't done (a commisionairre removing and folding the flag isn't desicration, it's just taking it down). I support the Premier because his actions, while over the top perhaps, got the issue raised in many places. Martin made a promise, and he should stick to it. I think Canadians should see that Newfoundlanders see our oil as our chance to break out of the funk that we've been in for years, and are not ready to see Martin blubber his way out of fulfilling his promises. The fact that the talks took place in Winnipeg, and without the prior knowledge of the Minister of Natural Resources told most of us that the talks were a sham, and I agree with Williams for being a man and walking out of them with his pride intact.
About the points specifically....
+Hibernia, White Rose, Terra Nova + more oil [Feds vs. transfer payments, the crux of the current issue]
+Voisey's Bay nickel [Owned by INCO, who want to process the Nickel in Subdury, removing potential NF jobs from the mix]
+Churchill Fall's hydroelectricity [oh boy, :
bad deal signed by Smallwood (the king of the bad deals) , should have received federal support for a review, tried it a few years ago (Tobin) blocked by Quebec, go figure]
+Airspace (NavCan collects cash on virtually all flights between Europe and the US/Canada, as the _all_ pass over Newfoundland (my Newfoundland includes Labrador).
[Airspace revenue is federal $, not provincial]
+Forestry. [no idea really, way outside of my knowledge]
+Fresh water which flows to the sea. [again, the feds said we can't sell it, due to NAFTA]
+A formerly great fishery, largely traded away largely on Ottawas watch. [Foreign fishing rights and $ goes to the Feds, DFO's decisions often fly in the face of the NF inshore fishery].
+more[/u]
I listed those issues to say that Nflders are wondering how it is we have these resources, yet have so little to show for it. My point is that for most of this, the money doesn't flow to the province, it goes to Ottawa, who them sends us transfer payments, we then get labelled in the national press as a bunch of layabouts who contribute little, but take a lot. When the real math is done, it just ain't so. Were the province to be able to properly benefit from some of this, we might not have the basket-case reputation we seem to have.
I don't mean to insult anyone, I just wanted to educate people as to where the discontent flows from. Nobody likes being a basket-case.
Best regards.