A letter to Minister Joan Burke

Copy of Letter to Minister Joan Burke from a former mill worker....

Joan,

Why are you against the consultants that CEP 1093 brought forward? The meeting in St. John's was not a direct result of your input but a combination of Ken Thibeau and Tanya Hawco who worked hard over a couple of weeks to make this meeting happen! Scheduling can be a nightmare but it was overcome with their perserverance and not yours!

These consultants brought forward a plan, need I remind you, and you stood in the House and said that they wanted to be hired to develop a plan! These men have already put in alot of time and energy and money with 4 proponents on the table and you danced around every question that Eddie Joyce asked you in the house regarding this very important issue! One thing I would like to know is why are the government now so interested in being the real estate agent for Abitibi? You said in the House that if there was anybody interested in the mill then they can come to the government, we are open for talks! Well, HELLO, there are people interested in the mill site and you have turned your back on the same people that elected you by refusing to hire the consultants! You even said in THE WESTERN STAR, 2 weeks after the story of the India Company talking to government officials and showing interest in the Stephenville mill, that if there was anybody out there interested, we (the Government) were willing to talk! What's up with that? What government officials were talked to in the first place? Was it on the municipal level, provincial level, or federal level? Can you find out and perhaps get talks going from there?

I can't help but wonder what the agenda is regarding the mill here! We have a fairly new mill just waiting to be torn down and you as our representative are doing nothing about it! Oh and don't lay that same line on me as you did Eddie Joyce about how the Honorable member makes it seem as if you haven't been working with the people of Stephenville! You have been, but not in the capacity as you should be! It should be embarrassing for you and your government when a member of the opposition from another district has to fight for the people of Stephenville against our own member who was ELECTED to REPRESENT us! I say it should be, but you really do have thick skin and I know that you're just waiting for enough time to pass in hopes that everybody will forget! Well Joan, I won't forget and I'm sure there will be others that won't forget when election time comes!

By the way, when it comes to Dr. Nazirs' report, I wonder who the third party was that was interested in the mill! Most of the report was blacked out and looking at the Articles used in doing so, section 20, I believe, refers to protecting any third parties! But wait a minute, I thought you guys went world wide with this and there was nobody interested! If that is true, then who are you trying to protect? If you take away section 20 then surely we should be able to see at least another 10% of the report! That would give us 20% then and maybe a chance to see what was really done! Dr. Nazir has a lot of credentials backing him up and I'm not trying to take anything away from him! He is an educated man but he was the wrong man for the job! He should have been hired to do the forestry review or maybe he will be! Our consultants were the guys that should have been hired by Government back in February! This mill would be close to reopening instead of being close to decommissioning!

Everybody knew that Abitibi had no intentions of selling! Surely Dr. Nazir knew this as well! How could he market this facility to it's true potential knowing this? The answer is that he couldn't! He spent more time trying to negotiate between Abitibi and the Union than he did in finding a potential operator! Hardly seems like the money was well spent, doesn't it! Is that why this government is holding out on hiring our consultants because they don't want to come across as making the same mistake twice?

Abitibi, being the good corporate citizens, are doing whatever they can to help us! What a crock of bull. If they want to turn this site back to it's natural state then a perfectly good Linerboard mill will suffice. That was what was here when they came here and that is what should be here when they leave! They wouldn't spend $200,000 last year to keep the place running, but now they're willing to spend upwards of $70 million to tear the place down! Let's not forget the millions of dollars that Abitibi was making by selling the excess power from Star Lake and Grand Falls! They wouldn't even transfer any of that to Stephenville, but instead chose to cry wolf to you guys for a power deal, which you gave them! These are the good corporate citizens everybody talks about!

In closing Joan, there are alternatives and there is a real possibility of this mill running again! Don't turn your back on us anymore and dance around the issue, but rather, embrace it and run with it, and put up at least half the fight that Anna Thistle did for her people! Maybe then we'll see the light of day, but for now, we are all in the dark and will continue to be in the dark until you come clean on this very real and important issue! We need to know what the motives are for your silence? Only then will we be able to understand where you're coming from?

Sincerely,

Brian Prosper