Danny needs more Fibre 3

I can hardly complete one series of transcripts - when the Premier is on somewhere else justifying his Political Patronage Persona(fied). Sue's Blog will complete a transcript on Danny's VOCM appearance as soon as we get through the NTV and CBC interviews.

I think his comments on VOCM may be the worst yet. Anything to get this through - anything it takes!

and now the Public Accounts Committee has voted down a motion to have the Public Accounts Committee investigate the deal!

Anyway Question 3 NTV interview

Fred:

Trevor Taylor – the Minister responsible for the file has said that you had removed yourself from the file and said to Cabinet when you’re talking about this I’m going to be out of the room because you knew that this was going to cause waves. Why not call for proposals though just to make it at least look as though – if nobody else was going to apply to do this- as the Minister has said – why not do it anyhow just to.

Williams:

Well first of all – twice when this first came up – ah and was about to come before Cabinet – I was the one who recommended that this go back for further scrutiny – just to make sure that everything was completely above board and that there was no problem with it. So that was in fact done.
Ah yaknow from our own perspective you only go for call to tender if there’s going to be lots of competitive bids out there. The players who could possibly have bid for this are all involved in that consortium – their all there – and of course this is something that has to be done on a timely basis – so this is the way to do it. As a matter of fact anybody else who could have been interested in this was actually approached and they were not interested – so you pretty well have covered all the ground that needs to be covered.
What I do find interesting about this is just like a week or two weeks before we as a government did the same process – the same kind of a procedure – and invested 15 million dollars in an investment with a New Brunswick company. Cooke Aquaculture was the typical Newfoundland and Labrador attitude – of we tend to want to attack our own – and find something wrong with our own being involved in an investment – however when a New Brunswick company comes in and government part yaknow partners with them and provides seed money for a good investment in the fishery nobody said a word – nobody said anything – and that’s what I find strange – that’s where just the raw partisan politics comes into it.
But on the other hand yaknow I don’t criticize the public for wanting to look at this – I don’t criticize others for wanting to look at it – it’s a fair question but I mean I can give the people of Newfoundland and Labrador an assurance that this is squeaky clean – and the Auditor General can verify it.
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I mean yaknow - to be quite honest with you....

Where to start with this one...First he claims he has removed himself from the process - then he goes on NTV to state clearly how he's been personally directing the whole fiasco. He's blind one minute - and the next he's 20-20 all over it.

The Premier's notion that he should only go to tender if there are "lots of competitive bids" out there simply trashes the whole idea of public tender. I for one am not going to stand by while the Premier determines a number - which is acceptable to him - that is satisfactory to bypass the tender system. Where is this authority in law? This is delusional and very very arrogant.

This notion that Canada's telecom industry consists of Aliant - Rogers - Persona - and MTS Allstream is not correct - and I don't know why the Premier is trying to mislead people with this notion - or if the Premier does not know the difference.

When the Premier says it has to be done on a timely basis - what does he mean? Timely for who? Where did the rush come from? If he was musing about it for a year - he should have shared this urgency - instead of trying to milk an outage to get this Political Patronage Persona(fied) by the people.

Then he changes and says all the people that could be involved were contacted and they all said no - what people - he just said they were all involved. Oh the others - how silly of me - anyway who was approached? Who approached these nameless others? What did they say no to?

Then the Premier takes up a new argument which brings Cooke Aquaculture into it. The first thing the Premier does is state the wrong investment amount. The News Release from his government says the Province is investing 10 million dollars - not 15 million as he said and repeated on CBC.

Then he has the audacity to compare this project on fibre optics to a fisheries project for the South Coast. Hey Premier - if you can tell me that you have not solicited proposals from the fishing industry - then either you are lying or you should quit. We have been in every country we can think of - at every fish show with a breathing person in attendance to drum up proposals for this sector. This can hardly be compared with this fibre optical illusion going on here.

As for eating our own - that happened when you allowed - for your own direct substantial personal gain - Cable Atlantic to be eaten and swallowed by Rogers. You were the one that benefited the most from the change in legislation to allow phone services for government to be awarded without tender. Was that your idea of economic development as well? MTS Allstream and Rogers are not our own. They are no different than hundreds of other companies in the telecom sector. COOKE WAS NOT YOUR BUSINESS PARTNER - NOR DOES HE SIT ON PROVINCIAL BOARDS - AT YOUR PLEASURE - THE PEOPLE DID NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT BARRY GETTING INVESTMENT EITHER - AND HE IS OUR OWN.

The fact that the Premier gives us assurance that this deal is squeaky clean is not good enough. First how would he know if he has removed himself from the file? Secondly - so what? Show us how it is squeaky clean by calling for RFP's. You are not elected to give your word - you are elected to govern. How many times in North America has that claim been made? Oh its okay - it's squeaky clean. I anticipate that if something was not squeaky clean - would you be likely to tell us?

If you believe that your assurance is satisfactory to questions posed - then eliminate all checks and balances in government - why have public tenders at all? Just have a look at it and once a year give us your assurances.