Fisheries Products International - the flagship of the Newfoundland and Labrador fishery. Well that's appropriate - FPI is gone - the fishery is gone. So Danny what exactly are you going to do to prevent John Risley from winning this bet?
This company was unusual for a reason - it had legislation associated to it for a reason. Primarily because the people invested millions into this company when it bailed out a number of private processors in the past.
Risley and a couple of home grown "business people" sucked the life out of the company and a few communities while it was at it. What did our politicians do? Nothing - in the same way they have done with all matters related to the wild fishery.
The Premier - a fighter by his own description - didn't even leave his corner. The Leader of the Opposition - came our of the corner - took a look at the opponent - spewed a couple of slurs - shook hands and walked back to the corner.
Let's look at the tape:
Danny - business person - law office - cable business - oil and gas
John - business person - cable business - fisheries guru
John wins - 6 losses 0
Danny wins - 0 losses 6
Marystown - Fortune - Harbour Breton - legislation - legislation - and now the sale.
Meanwhile the emergency fisheries summit - all for show - produces nothing in real terms for the communities and families leaving the province - leaving their homes - leaving their communities.
Where is the leadership - where is the vision for the wild fishery? There is none! And this is killing our province - what happens by the way when one removes a backbone from something?
Meanwhile - Ottawa - unchallenged - takes their big Canadian feet and walks all over the people in our rural regions - and Danny does? Nothing!
What have we been reduced to? Fish meal? No not even that - that will go the aquaculture sector. This tiny percentage of what the renewable wild fishery is - held out like a lighthouse in fog - the way to find your way home.
Homing pigeons - too few fish - too many fishers - to few fish - too many plants - not enough fishers - too many fishers!!!!
Will we get a retirement program? Will we get make-work projects? Will we qualify for EI? Will we be forced to take pay cuts? Will we be forced to move to Alberta? Will we work for Ches Penney or John Risley here - Nova Scotia - PEI? Will we pick apples in Nova Scotia or pick up a hammer in Alberta?
Wat should we look forward to? In 10 years you might be able to live in Newfoundland and Labrador. In 5 years we will need immigrants to run our fish plants. John Risley - Ches Penney - and Bill Barry can lower wages then - keeps us competitive with China????
Then there are the quotas - the quotas of non-existent fish - the quotas of the unrecovered groundfish stocks - the quotas of unknown holders - the quotas sucked up by foreigners before we ever see them - who owns the quotas? What quotas?
Who owns the boats - who holds the mortgages - what are the hidden prices between harvester and processor? Who has small boats - what do small boat owners do? Is there a cartel? No there is not a cartel? Risley wants to destroy his competitor - no he does not - yes he does...Is there a conflict? What is the conflict?
Bill Barry can't take over Harbour Breton without government approval - but does anyway - get out the paint!!
What is a Fisheries Ambassador? What will this person do? Represent non-existent fish? Why do we ignore Gus Etchegary? Why? Is he not a patriot? John Risley will tell us the truth and Gus won't? Why are the people who are most publicly passionate about this issue - not directly involved in the fishery? Are the fishers worried that by speaking - the community could suffer? What about the Great Northern Peninsula? Oh Ramea - Oh Burgeo - Oh Bonavista - where are we going?
There are no leaders - in the union - in the government - in the official opposition - a people in crisis - communities disappearing - our young people leaving.
All in silence!
Remember the day when we as people could and would march with our fishers and plant workers - when we would demand with them - some real action on this precious renewable resource.
Are we fishing too much crab and shrimp? Are we doing that because the groundfish stocks are ruined? What will the market do? Is there a glut? Will China wipe us out with our own fish?
Shame Shame Shame - on us all - but especially our leaders - we must not follow them to extinction. Is there anything I can say or anybody can say - to make you look - peek up over your blankets - and see the devastation that is our wild fishery?
And now the suggestion by Danny - ah let the market rule! What market - what fish? What players? Doug House spending years and aload of our cash easing us into the collapse of our rural communities.
Danny suggesting that perhaps plant workers should accept a wage roll-back - then when that does not work - suggest that immigrants can come in and accept the pennies the Barry's - the Penney's and the Risley's of the world want to offer.
This is a disgrace Williams - Reid - Efford - Hearn - Sullivan - Crosbie - Cashin - May - McCurdy et al. and yet you are our humble servants - yeah right. There's no question you have the brains to keep people duped - controlled - minimized - disheartened - ready for surrender. What big men you are - what a job you have done. You the "wise men" of the East - followed the wrong star did you?
Boot them out - each and every one that has failed our fishery - our people - our communities - our province. People - Cut Bait - let them go before they haul you overboard for good.
You leaders who hang pictures of John Kennedy in your offices and quote him in your speeches. I have a suggestion - stop idolizing Kennedy - Gretsky - and Alberta and hang a picture of a coastline in Newfoundland and Labrador depicting a fisher pulling a hand-line and respect your heritage your culture - your economy and your people.
4 comments:
we have no leaders,we never did in govrenment or our union.I am a member of the ffaw and all they ever did for me was make sure they got my union dues,the government has cut our quota,s so much that we maybe have to work 3 weeks to catch it... what to do the rest of the year???? I have never been on a make work project in my life,never needed to and contray to what some people think i am not living high on the hog on u.i. i get very little because we don,t make enough money anymore.I'd love to have a job where i could work year round cause i tell you most of us fisherpeople get very little or no sleep at night,most of us are at the end of our rope,the government should listen to you ahd gus but that would mean thay would have to get off their butts and do some hard work... i say its not gonna happen.you keep up the good work.maybe us fisherpeople should get together and hire you to sue the federal government,they are the cause of all this misery.thx
How does Ottawa "walk all over" rural parts of the province. If anything, they're the only level of government investing anything outside of the overpass.
I feel for Alice above, but when there's too many fisherfolks and not enough fish, and not a single politician or union leader to address that fundamental issue, the outcome is entirely predictable. 5000 more people need to leave the fishery. Sorry folks. May not sound popular, but that's just the way it is. Or we can all go back to working out of rowboats and only taking a hundred pounds a day out of the water, and processing it with nothing more than knives, salt and block ice.
It's the 21st century. Time to save what we can.
Isn't it fortuitous that the Auditor General's report should appear right now at a time to detract attention from the ignominy attending the death of our great fisheries industry.
The Risley/Crosbie gang deftly placed the noose 'round the neck of FPI; it needed but someone to spring the trap - an executioner, and for that they found a most capable hand in the person of Derrick Rowe. O yes, Derrick got his thirty pieces of silver and then some. And where is Derrick now? I can tell you where he is not. He's not shoveling snow in his driveway, nor is he worried about not getting enough stamps. Here, the scavengers are moving in , snarling and yapping, over the remains of the victim: the choice bits having already been lugged off by the jungle lord.
Historically, the political system in Newfoundland has always been infested with low lives, so much so that it's become pretty much the norm, and our people have learned to cope simply by ignoring the buggars and carrying on with their lives. There was always the fisheries to see them through, thick or thin. But what now! As long as there was something remaining from the devastation wrought by the feds and the complicity of our own self-serving "Members", there was hope. Now, the last vestige of what ramains of their life sustaining inheritance is being handed over into the hands of a predator.
Hyperbole??? Read this from the pen of John Risley:
[FPI's current board is waging a campaign of fear.
We realise that FPI's strength and potential is derived from its strong partnership with the communities and people of Newfoundland. We do not intend to close any of FPI's processing plants in Newfoundland or otherwise. On the contrary, we are committed to reinvesting and enhancing these facilities. Suggestions made by Mr. Young that we intend to shut Newfoundland-based operations are scare tactics of the worst kind, and are absolutely untrue.
Mr. Young claims that he can predict that in the future we will not do what we say. It defies reason that the likes of John Crosbic, P.C., O.C,, Q.C. and the other prominent and respected business leaders from Newfoundland who comprise the majority of the proposed slate of directors would be intent on presiding over actions detrimental to their communities.]
John Crosbie, and the rest of that pack of thirteen that moved in for the kill do anything that would not be first and foremost in the best interest of our fisher folk....... Come on, be serious!!!!
Lloyd - It is all about the stories politicians spin, and how we the electorate are spun by those politicians. After all it is the spindustrial revolution. That is method by which politicians of all stripe have keep things non-transparent for 30 plus years. It has been going on since the Nixon era.
I hope that is not what is going on here with our fishery. Matter of fact, I think some group in this province has to take out a class action law suit against both levels of government on behalf of our fish resource..
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