NEW INDUSTRY FOR NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR
A LOOPHOLE MANUFACTURING PLANT
A LOOPHOLE MANUFACTURING PLANT
This plant will employ 5 people on the 8th floor of the Confederation Building for at least another year - contract to be reviewed October 2007. Interested parties should submit their resumes including media, political, and cheerleading experience.
The truth is the Premier did not point to a clause in the agreement or wording contained in a clause. It is possible - however - that he made a new one up. How Danny gets away with things like I'm gonna try to strengthen the contract - or it's a bad deal - or I'm gonna try and speed up the project - is beyond me. The media must be able to read a 40 page agreement - and then a couple of pages of legislation.
The Premier has not specifically referenced one clause of the agreement or any part of legislation which governs the agreement. Yet the fallacy of "it's a bad deal" continues. The Premier is either extremely ignorant or misleading the people - yet this behavior can continue without any real challenge to his statements. Well I guess we can count Roger - however he is even wrong with the dates he uses and frankly that's not good enough either.
In the middle of all this VBN agreement discourse (if you can call it that) the Premier is successfully skirting the issue that the "we got it - we got it" agreement on the Accord is seriously flawed. That is incredible and just goes to show what information the electorate is presented with from election to election.
Here are Danny's quotes from Bill's show yesterday:
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"But I did have some specific concerns about their commitments and there was wording in the document that basically indicated that if for a technical or environmental or financial reasons ah INCO felt that the project wasn't appropriate to move forward in a certain way or in a certain place then it wouldn't happen."
"And now we find it's not going in Argentia it's going to ah yaknow to Long Harbour - so that shows that the Agreement wasn't tight enough to keep it in Argentia - ah I just wanna make sure for the people of Long Harbour that if yaknow if they get a commitment to go that it go there that they not go through what the people of Argentia-Placentia went through - because the people in those communities - on speculation - are gonna spend money to gear up for this great big plant that's gonna happen in their community - now it hasn't happened we'll find the people in Long Harbour are now gonna gear up ah on the basis that their gonna have yaknow some real prosperity in their community - which is what we want - but I just wanna make sure that this company yaknow holds to their commitments."
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Now let's deal with reality Danny.
You will not use any information to back up your rhetoric - however - I will use the contract and the law to back up my facts.
The Voisey's Bay Development Agreement relative to Argentia and building the Processing Plant in the Province.
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Section 4.6.4
The Proponent shall establish the Processing Plant at Argentia unless environmental conditions at Argentia would make it not economically feasible to establish the Processing Plant at Argentia and, in such circumstances, the Proponent shall locate the Processing Plant at another site in the Province.
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This clause is clear and certainly advises any individual or company that wished to invest in the area - that ultimately this site might not be chosen. This can be said of any type of investment - the onus is on the investor to research the opportunity and weigh the risks and benefits.
Further it appears the company has tried to mitigate the loss to Placentia by attempting to place the Processing Plant in a neighbouring community versus Labrador - Stephenville - or Central all of which have brown zones.
There are benefits to using brown zones when establishing new industrial facilities in that it avoids taking a pristine area and polluting it - however some brown zones have environmental problems which have to be addressed as a new project moves forward.
In the case of Argentia - there are significant concerns regarding what may be found when proceeding to construct a massive facility. INCO and the Province desired an indemnity from the Feds - not for responsibility of clean-up costs but for time lost in the event there were significant problems. Let's say the Processing Plant completion was delayed for two years while the Feds cleaned up the mess - who was going to pay for lost employment - both on the island and more importantly Labrador?
The Province could have forced INCO's hand (I will show you how later in the post) but by doing so they also risked the Province's economics on the project. Danny simply wants to be the good guy in a situation where a bad guy does not really exist. Danny wants the project to fail so he can say - I told ya so!
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Article 1.9 of the Voisey's Bay Development Agreement entitled "Governing Law and Choice of Forum" - states:
This Agreement shall be interpreted in accordance with the laws in force in the Province, subject to any applicable federal laws and for all purposes this Agreement shall be treated as a Newfoundland and Labrador contract. The Proponent irrevocably submits and attorns to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Province.
Now that we have established that the damn thing is subject to our laws - let's see what we can do if we want to (under the law)
This section is from the Mineral Act
Purpose and order
31.1 (1) For the purpose of this Act, mineral and mineral ores in the province are considered to be an exhaustible resource which need to be conserved and utilized in a manner which maximizes the benefit for the province, its population and economy or for regional economic development.
(2) The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may, where it is of the opinion that as a matter of public convenience or general policy it is in the best interest of the province, order a person holding a lease issued under section 31 to complete primary production, in whole or in part, in the province, of a mineral or mineral ore extracted or removed under that lease, and may vary or rescind that order.
(3) The Lieutenant-Governor in Council may by order exempt the holder of a lease from completing primary production, in whole or in part, in the province, on those terms and conditions as may be prescribed by that order and may rescind that order.
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Now Danny use your imagination - cause you are blessed with imagination - and see what you could do under this law - to cause INCO to maximize the economy of let's say the Argentia/Placentia region.
The only way INCO or as of today CVRD can get out of building a processing plant for THE CONCENTRATE in this province is if YOU GIVE THEM AN EXEMPTION.
Now mind you - I can actually see you doing this if it means you can say the contract is full of LOOPHOLES AND I TOLD YOU SO!
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PREMIER PUT A REALLY BIG SOCK IN IT OR PRODUCE SOME COUNTER ARGUMENTS TO WHAT I AM SAYING BY REFERENCING CLAUSES IN THE AGREEMENT AND/OR APPLICABLE LAWS.
CAN'T DO IT CAN YA - I MEAN YAKNOW TO BE QUITE HONEST WITCHA!
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