The attitude of disinterest, boredom, annoyance and/or anger of many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians toward the fishery, fishermen, and plant workers is a mistake.
The politicians from all parties have played a very partisan and dangerous game with the people of our province as it relates to this resource and bureaucrats both provincially and federally have made it worse by juggling death versus dealing with the continued problem.
The fishery is our history and should be our future - but in order for that to be the case a number of things have to happen.
1. Our history in the fishery must be fully and publicly disclosed and discussed so that all people in our province can learn to respect, value, and protect this vital renewable resource.
2. An injury has occurred and our province - communities and people - are the injured party. We need to assess the injury, determine the party/ies that caused the injury, value the injury, and then do what is necessary to achieve compensation for the injury.
3. Based on the compensation arrangements the province must move forward to develop plans for recovery, science, enforcement, community, environmental and the future.
4. Further these plans must be broken down to include; immediate actions, medium term actions, and long term actions. One to fifty years would be appropriate.
5.The province must desist making new arrangements with "processors" that want to export raw material and must move toward harvesters co-ops and redevelop a marketing division for products either processed or unprocessed of this resource.
The "rationalization" of the fishery which government and others claim is occurring is nothing more that a desperate response to a disastrous situation which has yet to be dealt with properly. Each and every week we are hearing of the closure or downsizing of plants and facilities and communities losing their primary employer.
This is not a sustainable answer to what will bring economic disaster.
Dr. Phil Earle and Gus Etchegary are not sounding the very loud alarm bells for no reason and these retired individuals are not as passionate as they are without reasoned concern. They are as worried as you should be.
The moratorium of our stocks began in 1992 - this caused a massive upheaval in this resource sector and we lost about 80,000 people from our workforce and most from our province altogether.
We should have experienced significant recovery by 2002 and should have been on our way to sustained recovery. This according to the people responsible for managing the resource.
We all know this did not happen and now we are in 2012 - with no reasonable end in sight.
To alleviate the loss of our ground fish sector - we increased the catch of our shellfish. We all know this is not a good thing and eventually will cause further catastrophic consequences.
Despite the catch increase in other species - thousands of people were removed from this fishery and no doubt hundreds of our rural communities have suffered.
Throughout this mess - the kingpins of the fishery needed to maintain and grow profits - so fisheries policy has revolved around keeping them afloat. The latest of course is to give them stocks without the necessity to process. This has resulted in further losses to the people in general but the continued wealth building for those already so endowed.
If you can get your head around the problem it equates to a loss of a billion dollars a year plus the loss of people, loss of communities and devalued assets.
Try and consider the following. Let's say you lost your job in St. John's or Metro - no doubt you would feel the pinch and be worried about your next paycheck - just like the people displaced on the Burin Peninsula. Let's add that you had been at the same job for 20 or so years and have invested in things like a house or property. If you went to sell that asset in St. John's Metro you would enjoy an increase in the value of your asset upon sale. Now for one moment put yourself in a rural community that has just lost it's only significant employer - and then you needed to sell your house. You would suffer major losses as the equity you built would disappear - as the market was no longer there for resale.
Also consider that with the low unemployment rate in St. John's Metro - you may be able to find another job to make ends meet - while the person in the rural community would not have that option. In your case you may be able to keep your home - or sell for a profit and downsize - whereas the person in the rural community would have to sell their property, move and not even have the option to rent out their home - NO Market.
Some of the more fortunate ones in the affected community may be in a position to retire - thereby staying in their own home - that is if they are not still indebted. Let's say they can stay in their own home and actually live another 20 or so years. What services will remain where they live? What will they do with no family remaining in the community? None of these issues are a problem in St. John's Metro - YET.
You see the losses resulting from a collapsed fishery will hurt us all. The worst is yet to come - if we do not fix the problem.
This is only the tip of the iceberg.
For those who are still in their productive work life - the choice will be to move away and find work elsewhere. Where will they pay tax? What will happen with their children? Will they ever come back? Will we lose a significant number of our next generation? If we do - who will pay for the seniors left behind? Who will pay for the increase in personal care home usage? Who will pay the medical bills of an aging population besieged with chronic illnesses - more prevalent in Newfoundland and Labrador?
Then factor in all the boomers who moved away 20 years ago when the fishery first collapsed. Many of these people will return home upon retirement after having paid all their taxes to another province. That places an increased burden on a taxation system that did not receive the benefit of their taxes for the past 20 years. How will these shortfalls be covered?
What about resettlement? You know that government is always looking at that when their finance gurus are explaining the problem mentioned above. Are we going to resettle 100 or more communities? How much will that cost? Where will they move to? If we pick 5 regional centres and move them all there - what will be the increased burden on those cities or towns?
If not resettlement how does government pay for the upkeep of thousands of kilometres of roads - deteriorating badly? How does government afford to keep reasonable health services in those communities?
Now let's talk about the taboo - OIL - what happens when that oil is gone? When will it be gone? What will happen to our cities and regional towns? We have lost two mills, mines, and may lose our last mill. We will have no oil sector and the fishery will be dead.
I will guarantee one thing - if the future plays out as discussed above - the leaders - our politicians of the present day will not be around. They may retire in Florida on the lucrative pension we provide them. They may move to a - then recovered Ontario. Their children will be provided for. Kathy Dunderdale may huff and puff every time her choices are questioned - but she WILL have a pension.
Our biggest problem is that our politically based system is very similar to a quick-buck corporation - concentrate on the now - the next few years - the next election. Unfortunately they see this as their job instead of being the keepers of our future.
If we build Muskrat now - there will be lots of jobs now and make them look good. Unfortunately there are no measurable numbers of long term jobs but there is certainly measurable long term debt. So while the shareholders of Emera will enjoy increased profits through guaranteed returns - we the owners, the taxpayers and ratepayers will suffer.
Our system of immediate political rewards, needs, and votes is also costing us at the Federal level. Right now - I am convinced that Stephen Harper can strip our province of every benefit of "con"federation - and Dunderdale will let it happen as long as the loan guarantee carrot exists.
We need vision and we need it now.
We need leadership and we need it now.
We need a plan and we need it now.
We need action and we need it now.
These games - childish political games - played by incompetent, disinterested, and/or partisan people with an need to satisfy the next polling period - will destroy us.
These politicians who through their own words, excuses, and frustration cause you and me to detest the fishery with them.
You think you can afford to not care about the fishery? Think again.
Showing posts with label Dr. Earle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Earle. Show all posts
Friday, May 11, 2012
Thursday, March 01, 2012
Dr. Phil Earle responds to Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield
Below please find a response to Federal Fisheries Minister - Keith Ashfield from Dr. Phil Earle
First what does “..we are time and again being out-performed by smaller countries with less access to the resource” refer to? Are you talking about NAFO countries that fish on our shelf, such as Spain? If it is, the answer is Spain has one of the largest fishing fleets in the world which is subsidized nearly a billion dollars a year by the EU to fish around the world.
Further if you and the DFO are inferring that we should therefore increase our efforts to catch more fish it would be a totally wrong conclusion. Our ground fish stocks have never recovered and are at an all-time low of less than 10% of historic healthy levels. We need to stop the fishing destruction that is occurring at present so the stocks can be allowed to recover. That includes the fishing inside our 200 mile EEZ and that of NAFO fleets fishing on the nose and tail of the grand banks.
Quote, “everyone is demanding change in how we manage the resource.” This is a non-specific remark that can be taken in a range all the way from more of the disastrous federal government’s mismanagement that has, and is destroying the resource to reducing government involvement in management while letting more influence in management from improved, prudent, scientific input like is done in other successful countries like Norway and Iceland.
“Canadian fishermen remain among the lowest earners in Canada.’ This is because the bulk of our resource and its profits are in the hands of a few powerful, wealthy people who own processing operations, and own quotas which your government gave to them. They operate factory freezer trawlers which have taken thousands of jobs away from inshore fishers while they send unprocessed fish away from our shore planets, giving jobs to foreign nation. Many harvesters’ licences are owned or contorted by corporations so that fishers working at sea have been squeezed out of their incomes by the need of companies to increase their profits.
There are people, such as doctors and dentists and the like, living on the main land who have never stepped on the deck of a boat who own fish quota’s, they receive millions of dollars a year from royalties on fish being caught. There is only so much profit that can be taken out of each season of fishing, if large percentages of this limited profit is taken by such ‘outsiders’ there is less and less for our fishers and plant workers.
Consider that in 1992, the year of the moratorium, our NL fishery was worth some $350 million and today it is near $900 million but yet our situation is worst then in 92 as we are losing more jobs and plants, fishers and coastal communities. So it’s easy to understand why our fishers are among the lowest earners in Canada, it is just economics 101. You can understand that can’t you?
“Canada’s fishery is becoming a smaller and smaller player on the world stage. We are no longer seeing the abundance of fish that our country enjoyed in the past, so we can no longer rely on the quantity of this renewable resource to create economic prosperity; better management practices are required. Our government has been making strides in helping the fishery.’
Our fishery is smaller because the bio mass of our fish is at an all-time low, the stocks have been destroyed are not allowed to recover because of mismanagement of the federal government. Your government wants to create economic prosperity for the elite few who now control the fishery.
The only way you can create further economic prosperity for anyone from our depleted, dying resource is for less and less peoples and corporations to take more and more of the less and less fish. You know what that means don’t you. In 10 years there will be no fishers, no plant workers, no comminutes in coastal NL and lastly no fishing corporations..because there will be no more fish.
Your government has been making strides in one direction, not in the direction of helping the fishery, but in the direct of destroying it, destroying our treasured heritage and our coastal communities, our maritime culture and our family structure. That is a Fact!
In 62 years of confederation you have taken away our spirit fish, by giving it indifferently to foreign countries, denied its access from our coastal people, and allowed cooperate greed to privatize and garbage can our legacy. You and you alone, the federal government of Canada, have destroyed the spirit of my people, whose ancestors were once the greatest fishermen in the world, the greatest sea people that ever lived.
”We must find ways to make the fishery more valuable, profitable and respectful of the resource for future generations.” If by value you mean the economic success of a few large processing companies there will be no respect of the resource, the fish stocks that god gave us, and in a few short years it will be no more. Your concern for “future generations” in that case is not just hollow, political, empty words they are the insensitive, thoughtless comments from a government who conducts themselves with absolute power, that have corrupted it absolutely.
Your corruption of power and ego is so complete that not only will it destroy the opportunities of our “future generations” of children; it would destroy that of your own children. Take a bow to the world Mr. Ashfield; take one for Canada to the world!
And as for the World Bank suggesting what we should do with our fishery for more money, they have a great record of being concerned for the global economy and the plight of the world starving peoples, who are in the 100's of millions. Their 100's of billions in profits and 100's of millions of dollars for salaries to their CEO’s really show how concerned they are for incomes of subsistence fisheries and laborers all over the world. They are concerned because it’s off the backs of labor industries that they cream off their billions, all on the backs of the struggling poor. Take another bow to the world Mr. Minister, for figuring out that you can squeeze out a few more million for the rich by abusing the lives of the fisher people.
All this ”.. means more jobs and more economic growth in our coastal and rural regions.”
The audaciousness of this remark is beyond my ability to express. How dare you write a letter and say such a thing about our fishery and to my people, and put it in our paper the telegram. You talk about more jobs and more economic growth in our coastal communities when you and the federal government are directly responsible in 20 years for destroying our families, fishers and fisheries jobs by the 10's of thousands.
Dear Minister Ashfield, March 1/2012
Part 1
I would like to respond to your letter in a step wise
manner, and I would like for you to answer my comments for the people of this
province.
First what does “..we are time and again being out-performed by smaller countries with less access to the resource” refer to? Are you talking about NAFO countries that fish on our shelf, such as Spain? If it is, the answer is Spain has one of the largest fishing fleets in the world which is subsidized nearly a billion dollars a year by the EU to fish around the world.
Further if you and the DFO are inferring that we should therefore increase our efforts to catch more fish it would be a totally wrong conclusion. Our ground fish stocks have never recovered and are at an all-time low of less than 10% of historic healthy levels. We need to stop the fishing destruction that is occurring at present so the stocks can be allowed to recover. That includes the fishing inside our 200 mile EEZ and that of NAFO fleets fishing on the nose and tail of the grand banks.
Quote, “everyone is demanding change in how we manage the resource.” This is a non-specific remark that can be taken in a range all the way from more of the disastrous federal government’s mismanagement that has, and is destroying the resource to reducing government involvement in management while letting more influence in management from improved, prudent, scientific input like is done in other successful countries like Norway and Iceland.
“Canadian fishermen remain among the lowest earners in Canada.’ This is because the bulk of our resource and its profits are in the hands of a few powerful, wealthy people who own processing operations, and own quotas which your government gave to them. They operate factory freezer trawlers which have taken thousands of jobs away from inshore fishers while they send unprocessed fish away from our shore planets, giving jobs to foreign nation. Many harvesters’ licences are owned or contorted by corporations so that fishers working at sea have been squeezed out of their incomes by the need of companies to increase their profits.
There are people, such as doctors and dentists and the like, living on the main land who have never stepped on the deck of a boat who own fish quota’s, they receive millions of dollars a year from royalties on fish being caught. There is only so much profit that can be taken out of each season of fishing, if large percentages of this limited profit is taken by such ‘outsiders’ there is less and less for our fishers and plant workers.
Consider that in 1992, the year of the moratorium, our NL fishery was worth some $350 million and today it is near $900 million but yet our situation is worst then in 92 as we are losing more jobs and plants, fishers and coastal communities. So it’s easy to understand why our fishers are among the lowest earners in Canada, it is just economics 101. You can understand that can’t you?
“Canada’s fishery is becoming a smaller and smaller player on the world stage. We are no longer seeing the abundance of fish that our country enjoyed in the past, so we can no longer rely on the quantity of this renewable resource to create economic prosperity; better management practices are required. Our government has been making strides in helping the fishery.’
Our fishery is smaller because the bio mass of our fish is at an all-time low, the stocks have been destroyed are not allowed to recover because of mismanagement of the federal government. Your government wants to create economic prosperity for the elite few who now control the fishery.
Part 2
Continuing the same practices that you have created in the
past for giant corporations that has destroyed, and is, and will totally
destroy the rest of the resource in the future if you continue in the manner
you are implying in this letter.
The only way you can create further economic prosperity for anyone from our depleted, dying resource is for less and less peoples and corporations to take more and more of the less and less fish. You know what that means don’t you. In 10 years there will be no fishers, no plant workers, no comminutes in coastal NL and lastly no fishing corporations..because there will be no more fish.
Your government has been making strides in one direction, not in the direction of helping the fishery, but in the direct of destroying it, destroying our treasured heritage and our coastal communities, our maritime culture and our family structure. That is a Fact!
In 62 years of confederation you have taken away our spirit fish, by giving it indifferently to foreign countries, denied its access from our coastal people, and allowed cooperate greed to privatize and garbage can our legacy. You and you alone, the federal government of Canada, have destroyed the spirit of my people, whose ancestors were once the greatest fishermen in the world, the greatest sea people that ever lived.
”We must find ways to make the fishery more valuable, profitable and respectful of the resource for future generations.” If by value you mean the economic success of a few large processing companies there will be no respect of the resource, the fish stocks that god gave us, and in a few short years it will be no more. Your concern for “future generations” in that case is not just hollow, political, empty words they are the insensitive, thoughtless comments from a government who conducts themselves with absolute power, that have corrupted it absolutely.
Your corruption of power and ego is so complete that not only will it destroy the opportunities of our “future generations” of children; it would destroy that of your own children. Take a bow to the world Mr. Ashfield; take one for Canada to the world!
And as for the World Bank suggesting what we should do with our fishery for more money, they have a great record of being concerned for the global economy and the plight of the world starving peoples, who are in the 100's of millions. Their 100's of billions in profits and 100's of millions of dollars for salaries to their CEO’s really show how concerned they are for incomes of subsistence fisheries and laborers all over the world. They are concerned because it’s off the backs of labor industries that they cream off their billions, all on the backs of the struggling poor. Take another bow to the world Mr. Minister, for figuring out that you can squeeze out a few more million for the rich by abusing the lives of the fisher people.
All this ”.. means more jobs and more economic growth in our coastal and rural regions.”
The audaciousness of this remark is beyond my ability to express. How dare you write a letter and say such a thing about our fishery and to my people, and put it in our paper the telegram. You talk about more jobs and more economic growth in our coastal communities when you and the federal government are directly responsible in 20 years for destroying our families, fishers and fisheries jobs by the 10's of thousands.
Part 3
What you, and the federal government, are advocating in this
letter will destroy our coastal way of life. Our NL soldiers fought in the great
wars for Canada and the free world. Fought to protect their children’s, and
their children’s children democratic rights as written in Canada’s ‘Chartered
Bill of Rights’. If there is an ounce of decency anywhere in the halls of
parliament or in the hearts of any person or member who works there I ask for
it to be used to do the duty they have sworn to do. Administer to the costal
people of NL, and their fishery, the principles so outlined in our bill of
rights. Save us from the impending future genocide of our coastal way of life.
You asked for my engagement in this letter, of how we can
better manage our Fishery for the future and how our coastal people can improve
and save their lives. I have given you my honest answer to the best of my
ability, so help me god.
Will you answer these questions for my people? The fisher
people, the sea people of NL?
Philip Earle
B.Sc., M.Sc., M.D
Philip Earle
B.Sc., M.Sc., M.D
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Loyola Sullivan and his "messiah’s fisheries salvation"
Please read below a response by Dr. Phil Earle to Loyola Sullivan's address to the NL Employers' Council.
The Sullivan's presentations this week, at the Newfoundland
and Labrador Employers’ Council’s annual awards luncheon and appearances in the
media, has been nothing but public deception. L Sullivan’s speech
preposterously pontificated the salvation of our fishing industry and our
fisher people. His pronouncements are nothing more than that of a personal,
brain locked, cooperate philosophy, one which is destroying our Fishery.
The knowledge that explains the truth in the facts of the references that Mr. Sullivan used to support his messiah’s fisheries salvation of "the only way forward in the fishery’ ' is to modernize it the way I'm telling you', is not the saving of our fisheries future but it’s result will be, if followed, it’s tragedy. This is a destructive corporate philosophy,.. and efforts must be made to try and dissuade the influence it may have on Minister King and our government, dissuade them from giving what’s left of our resource over to OCI.
Imagine the audacity of saying that they know how to save and improve the fishery when they are directly responsible for closing numerous plants in 5 years, pitting our coastal people against each other...Marystown against Fortune, the trawlermen against trawlermen, saying members of the union are at odds with their union leaders. All the while they are sending fish out of here not processed, giving value added jobs by the thousands to elsewhere, and wanting all they can get to be FFT processed or given to Asia raw.
They have pitted industry people against each other, say that the government is harming them and the industry, and that we have an attitude in the province, of fishing like we did in the past and it is holding us back, all of which will destroy the Industry! The fact of it is what they are doing, from their powerful position in the industry, will lead to its total collapse... if.... our governments continue allowing them to rule the roost.
If OCI is allow to dictate the future of how we harvest and process our fish at home, in 10 years they will be out of business themselves, as will the industry as we know it. All that will remain will be the royalties they will receive from having Spanish fleets, and the like, fish their quotas. That is if there is anything left.
Imagine saying our government is not letting them compete with the rest of the world, when it has been their style of ineffectual competing which is destroying the stocks, harvesters, plant workers and their coastal way of life.
The knowledge that explains the truth in the facts of the references that Mr. Sullivan used to support his messiah’s fisheries salvation of "the only way forward in the fishery’ ' is to modernize it the way I'm telling you', is not the saving of our fisheries future but it’s result will be, if followed, it’s tragedy. This is a destructive corporate philosophy,.. and efforts must be made to try and dissuade the influence it may have on Minister King and our government, dissuade them from giving what’s left of our resource over to OCI.
Imagine the audacity of saying that they know how to save and improve the fishery when they are directly responsible for closing numerous plants in 5 years, pitting our coastal people against each other...Marystown against Fortune, the trawlermen against trawlermen, saying members of the union are at odds with their union leaders. All the while they are sending fish out of here not processed, giving value added jobs by the thousands to elsewhere, and wanting all they can get to be FFT processed or given to Asia raw.
They have pitted industry people against each other, say that the government is harming them and the industry, and that we have an attitude in the province, of fishing like we did in the past and it is holding us back, all of which will destroy the Industry! The fact of it is what they are doing, from their powerful position in the industry, will lead to its total collapse... if.... our governments continue allowing them to rule the roost.
If OCI is allow to dictate the future of how we harvest and process our fish at home, in 10 years they will be out of business themselves, as will the industry as we know it. All that will remain will be the royalties they will receive from having Spanish fleets, and the like, fish their quotas. That is if there is anything left.
Imagine saying our government is not letting them compete with the rest of the world, when it has been their style of ineffectual competing which is destroying the stocks, harvesters, plant workers and their coastal way of life.
I get this image of our fishery... of a sock you missed in the washing machine, which is in the machine the next time you go to wash...a little squeezed up ball at the bottom and you reach in and take it out ....a cold, wet, bedraggled item. Our fishery is this beat up overlooked trashed out piece, of what was once part of something much, much larger, but is now something uncomfortable to touch or be involved with. And we have made it that way.
I hope to god, for the sake of our children and grandchildren that our government sees through this insanity of the ‘running of our fishery’ by the corporate book of modernization and success...because that will be, if permitted, the ruining of the fishery through the monopoly of greed and the insatiable wants of self.
Mother Nature has protected our fish stocks for eons, saving them from
predations, diseases, shifts of temperatures and currents, the ice ages and the
drift of continents ...but in all her wisdom she is not able to save our fish
from fools. Only governments can do that.
Phil Earle
Monday, February 13, 2012
A Tribute to Burton Winters - by Dr. Phil Earle
I just received the following in the comments area of Sue's Blog.
This is a very touching tribute to Burton Winters and explains how this young man from Labrador has united our Newfoundland and Labrador soul.
After reading this tribute please visit the facebook group PRESS HERE
Phil Earle
Carbonear
This is a very touching tribute to Burton Winters and explains how this young man from Labrador has united our Newfoundland and Labrador soul.
After reading this tribute please visit the facebook group PRESS HERE
The Hero
Tribute to Burton Winters
After I hear your name all sound disappears, after I see your picture, your boyish grin and the exuberance of your eyes, my mind becomes blind to whatever my eyes are seeing. So deep have you touched me, moving the spirit of love, unfettered, within my soul, that my worldly senses are erased, wiping away the ignorant, temporal, conditioned knowledge of ‘myself’.
So great was your desire to be with those you loved, to succeed upon a journey that, unknown to you, was endless. Undaunted by the kilometers of the ice and snow, by the darkness and the cold, by the time in the loneliness of nowhere, you came face to face with the truth of your own soul. You became one with the birth place and source of your, and mans, greatest character. One with that bit of the energy of spirit that was your own, that energy of spirit who’s totality is universally pervasive and eternal.
Your struggle will never leave our hearts now, we are your people now, we are your family because you have made us so. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador, we love you in our souls. Your surrounding outward journey into trial and suffering lead you inwardly into yourself, where we know you found strength, self-reliance and courage, just as our forefathers did in making this wild, inebriate place our home.
It is sad that your life and the exuberance of your spirit has been taken. But we know that even though you did not make it back to tell us about what you learned through the pain and suffering you felt out there in that great loneliness .......it has been shown to us by your undaunted courage and determination. The purest qualities of any hero who has ever lived on this planet.
You, Burton, who you were and what you did will never grow old, just like our boys at Beaumont Hamel in the First World War, because the actions of heroes are always beyond
the element of time.
RIP ‘ole son’, RIP. Love ya.
After I hear your name all sound disappears, after I see your picture, your boyish grin and the exuberance of your eyes, my mind becomes blind to whatever my eyes are seeing. So deep have you touched me, moving the spirit of love, unfettered, within my soul, that my worldly senses are erased, wiping away the ignorant, temporal, conditioned knowledge of ‘myself’.
So great was your desire to be with those you loved, to succeed upon a journey that, unknown to you, was endless. Undaunted by the kilometers of the ice and snow, by the darkness and the cold, by the time in the loneliness of nowhere, you came face to face with the truth of your own soul. You became one with the birth place and source of your, and mans, greatest character. One with that bit of the energy of spirit that was your own, that energy of spirit who’s totality is universally pervasive and eternal.
Your struggle will never leave our hearts now, we are your people now, we are your family because you have made us so. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador, we love you in our souls. Your surrounding outward journey into trial and suffering lead you inwardly into yourself, where we know you found strength, self-reliance and courage, just as our forefathers did in making this wild, inebriate place our home.
It is sad that your life and the exuberance of your spirit has been taken. But we know that even though you did not make it back to tell us about what you learned through the pain and suffering you felt out there in that great loneliness .......it has been shown to us by your undaunted courage and determination. The purest qualities of any hero who has ever lived on this planet.
You, Burton, who you were and what you did will never grow old, just like our boys at Beaumont Hamel in the First World War, because the actions of heroes are always beyond
the element of time.
RIP ‘ole son’, RIP. Love ya.
Phil Earle
Carbonear
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Dr. Phil Earle weighs in on OCI and Exporting Policy
Dear Minister King, Jan 31/2012
At a time when both you and the Premier have made comments recently, pertaining to what power or right our government has on influencing NL companies which export our resources, I would like to communicate my concern on our practice of exporting raw and partially processed fish to foreign markets.
No doubt in some situations it would be appropriate for private companies to export raw, or otherwise partially processed products, out of our province. In this situation the company makes a profit, provides some jobs here and generally adds to the GDP of the province. However it is a totally different situation for the province, our government, our GDP and our people if the bulk, or large amounts, of these resources are shipped in this manner.
An example of this point is unfolding right now in our mining industry with the opening of the new mine in Labrador, where one company bidding for the contract, wants to ship out raw ore creating 200 jobs, and another who wants to produce concentrate pellets here creating 1700 jobs. The value added jobs and economic input into the communities of Labrador by our processing of the ore , may not provide the company with a big % of profit, but it will have multiple, far reaching positive affects into the future of the province, even after the mine is gone.
The fisheries equivalent to this situation is the shipping out of our unprocessed and partially processed fish to China and EU countries, such as that which our province is now facing with the OCI. Naturally a company that ships out some raw fish, gets a high % of profit, creates some jobs and adds some value to the province. But shipping out the bulk of our resource in this manner destroys many more jobs then it creates, creates little, or zero, value added affect for our coastal communities and province.
On the other hand a company that processes ashore and then sells to higher end market’s in places like the USA and UK would create 100's of processing and value added jobs, and add over all wealth to our communities and our province. This over all increased value, provided to our people, would further input and strengthen our infrastructure, support and lift our coastal towns and spirit.
Dr. Phil Earle
At a time when both you and the Premier have made comments recently, pertaining to what power or right our government has on influencing NL companies which export our resources, I would like to communicate my concern on our practice of exporting raw and partially processed fish to foreign markets.
No doubt in some situations it would be appropriate for private companies to export raw, or otherwise partially processed products, out of our province. In this situation the company makes a profit, provides some jobs here and generally adds to the GDP of the province. However it is a totally different situation for the province, our government, our GDP and our people if the bulk, or large amounts, of these resources are shipped in this manner.
An example of this point is unfolding right now in our mining industry with the opening of the new mine in Labrador, where one company bidding for the contract, wants to ship out raw ore creating 200 jobs, and another who wants to produce concentrate pellets here creating 1700 jobs. The value added jobs and economic input into the communities of Labrador by our processing of the ore , may not provide the company with a big % of profit, but it will have multiple, far reaching positive affects into the future of the province, even after the mine is gone.
The fisheries equivalent to this situation is the shipping out of our unprocessed and partially processed fish to China and EU countries, such as that which our province is now facing with the OCI. Naturally a company that ships out some raw fish, gets a high % of profit, creates some jobs and adds some value to the province. But shipping out the bulk of our resource in this manner destroys many more jobs then it creates, creates little, or zero, value added affect for our coastal communities and province.
On the other hand a company that processes ashore and then sells to higher end market’s in places like the USA and UK would create 100's of processing and value added jobs, and add over all wealth to our communities and our province. This over all increased value, provided to our people, would further input and strengthen our infrastructure, support and lift our coastal towns and spirit.
Dr. Phil Earle
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Let's Revisit 2007 and FPI - Why do we ask Questions?
Sue's Blog posted the following in 2007 just after the deals were cut to slice and dice FPI.
For those of you who wonder why I and others ask questions about natural resource policy - read below.
Don't be so cocky about brushing off the questions regarding Muskrat Falls.
FIRST PUBLISHED August 24th 2007
What has Premier Williams managed to do that other Premiers could not?
...allow the destruction of FPI.
I am upset today as a Newfoundlander and Labradorian - are you?
While equity in non-renewable assets is the order of the day for Williams - valuable renewable assets and associated business get the thumbs down.
A Nova Scotian based company ends up with the lucrative North American marketing arm of FPI - yahoo!
How many Sullivan's does it take to consume FPI?
Give me a penney and I'll tell you.
This is pathetic and deserves as much negative attention as the Hebron MOU deserves positive. The fishery until Danny Williams became the Premier - was referred to as the backbone of our economy. Nowadays - I think the government MHA's are careful or told not to say that.
As most of us should have observed by now Dean and Danny have a fetish for oil and gas and that is where the focus has been. It is nice to have the diversity of natural resources we have - but with Williams it will be oil oil oil and soon gas gas gas. The Premier just does not have the same protective passion for renewable - generational resources like the fishery - hydro-power - and wind.
Today I will focus on the fishery. Regardless of how the Premier or his top-spinner Ross Reid might plan and roll out announcements during polling period or just before an election - they are just inadequate when it comes to that resource of the sea.
Danny is the man to fight Ottawa over equalization (oil revenues primarily) and fallow field legislation - but when it comes to the fishery - he is impotent. The grand fisheries conference a year or so ago - has produced nothing new.
Do you see Williams pulling an ABC because there is no early retirement package - or inadequate federal money dedicated to science - the failure of the ground-fish stocks to recover well past the originally predicted time-frame? You have not heard a peep from him on proposed changes to the federal fisheries Act or the NAFO shenanigans brought to light by former DFO official Applebaum. Oil is sexy to St. John's, the business and construction labour communities - whereas fish is just this nuisance that the rural crowd keep pestering him about.
There is no doubt about it - Williams just does not have the guts - knowledge - interest - or some combination of them to take on the feds over the fishery - and further - the display of bravado to big oil companies - is just not present with the fish merchants. For some reason the Barry's - Penney's - and Risley's of the world are just too tough.
Here's a portion of the News Release put out by Highliner Foods International on the purchase of a portion of FPI assets:
High Liner Foods Incorporated today announced it has signed an agreement with FPI Limited and its subsidiary, Fisheries Products International Limited, to purchase its
marketing and manufacturing business.
FPI's marketing and manufacturing business consists of its North American
value-added food service and retail frozen seafood businesses. In 2006, the
business had sales of $452.9 million and gross profit of $43.5 million.
So if they become the leading - where are we?
Just to put that in perspective:
Highliner
The company began in 1899 with the founding of W.C Smith & Company, a salt fish operation located in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia -- the current home of our head office and one of the most modern and diversified food processing plants in the world.
FPI
Fishery Products International is an industry leader in harvesting, processing, global sourcing, and marketing a wide selection of high quality seafood products. From its corporate headquarters in St. John’s, FPI manages primary and value-added seafood processing plants and a fleet of modern harvesting vessels.
From the few words which I have highlighted - can you see the problem already?
Please remember when the legislated restrictions are finally gone - the guarantees have a very short time-frame. The rural communities affected by this deal today - no longer have the protection of socio/economic policy attached to the harvesting of the resources adjacent to them.
First problem:
The Provincial Government has achieved a five-year agreement for the sustained operation of existing FPI facilities.
What happens then???
Second problem:
...we have made it a condition of sale that FPI and OCI proceed expeditiously with the transfer of the Fortune facility to Cooke Aquaculture. Is Cooke still interested? I thought not. (That's if you buy into Aquaculture being a panacea to replace the wild fishery) More on that in the next post.
So what happens now?
Third problem:
Sold to Highliner -
FPI's marketing and manufacturing business consists of its North American
value-added food service and retail frozen seafood businesses. In 2006, the
business had sales of $452.9 million and gross profit of $43.5 million. I wonder who benefits from that now?
What's the provincial portion of tax lost etc...What does Nova Scotia gain - and what does Newfoundland and Labrador lose?
NO EQUITY IN OR FOR THE FISHERY!
That's the real problem - so tilt your glasses and toast the man of the hour Danny Williams who has done what no other Premier could do before him - allow the destruction of FPI.
I will conclude by saying: In my opinion it's much tougher to make your million on a crab boat or prosecuting ground-fish than it is to make it off - let's say a bunch of poles and wires capable of bringing sports - news - and whatever else into your house!
For those of you who wonder why I and others ask questions about natural resource policy - read below.
Don't be so cocky about brushing off the questions regarding Muskrat Falls.
FIRST PUBLISHED August 24th 2007
What has Premier Williams managed to do that other Premiers could not?
...allow the destruction of FPI.
I am upset today as a Newfoundlander and Labradorian - are you?
While equity in non-renewable assets is the order of the day for Williams - valuable renewable assets and associated business get the thumbs down.
A Nova Scotian based company ends up with the lucrative North American marketing arm of FPI - yahoo!
How many Sullivan's does it take to consume FPI?
Give me a penney and I'll tell you.
This is pathetic and deserves as much negative attention as the Hebron MOU deserves positive. The fishery until Danny Williams became the Premier - was referred to as the backbone of our economy. Nowadays - I think the government MHA's are careful or told not to say that.
As most of us should have observed by now Dean and Danny have a fetish for oil and gas and that is where the focus has been. It is nice to have the diversity of natural resources we have - but with Williams it will be oil oil oil and soon gas gas gas. The Premier just does not have the same protective passion for renewable - generational resources like the fishery - hydro-power - and wind.
Today I will focus on the fishery. Regardless of how the Premier or his top-spinner Ross Reid might plan and roll out announcements during polling period or just before an election - they are just inadequate when it comes to that resource of the sea.
Danny is the man to fight Ottawa over equalization (oil revenues primarily) and fallow field legislation - but when it comes to the fishery - he is impotent. The grand fisheries conference a year or so ago - has produced nothing new.
Do you see Williams pulling an ABC because there is no early retirement package - or inadequate federal money dedicated to science - the failure of the ground-fish stocks to recover well past the originally predicted time-frame? You have not heard a peep from him on proposed changes to the federal fisheries Act or the NAFO shenanigans brought to light by former DFO official Applebaum. Oil is sexy to St. John's, the business and construction labour communities - whereas fish is just this nuisance that the rural crowd keep pestering him about.
There is no doubt about it - Williams just does not have the guts - knowledge - interest - or some combination of them to take on the feds over the fishery - and further - the display of bravado to big oil companies - is just not present with the fish merchants. For some reason the Barry's - Penney's - and Risley's of the world are just too tough.
Here's a portion of the News Release put out by Highliner Foods International on the purchase of a portion of FPI assets:
High Liner Foods Incorporated today announced it has signed an agreement with FPI Limited and its subsidiary, Fisheries Products International Limited, to purchase its
marketing and manufacturing business.
FPI's marketing and manufacturing business consists of its North American
value-added food service and retail frozen seafood businesses. In 2006, the
business had sales of $452.9 million and gross profit of $43.5 million.
"This acquisition will be an important milestone in pursuit of our vision to become the leading value-added frozen seafood company in North America..."
So if they become the leading - where are we?
Just to put that in perspective:
Highliner
The company began in 1899 with the founding of W.C Smith & Company, a salt fish operation located in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia -- the current home of our head office and one of the most modern and diversified food processing plants in the world.
FPI
Fishery Products International is an industry leader in harvesting, processing, global sourcing, and marketing a wide selection of high quality seafood products. From its corporate headquarters in St. John’s, FPI manages primary and value-added seafood processing plants and a fleet of modern harvesting vessels.
From the few words which I have highlighted - can you see the problem already?
Please remember when the legislated restrictions are finally gone - the guarantees have a very short time-frame. The rural communities affected by this deal today - no longer have the protection of socio/economic policy attached to the harvesting of the resources adjacent to them.
First problem:
The Provincial Government has achieved a five-year agreement for the sustained operation of existing FPI facilities.
What happens then???
Second problem:
...we have made it a condition of sale that FPI and OCI proceed expeditiously with the transfer of the Fortune facility to Cooke Aquaculture. Is Cooke still interested? I thought not. (That's if you buy into Aquaculture being a panacea to replace the wild fishery) More on that in the next post.
So what happens now?
Third problem:
Sold to Highliner -
FPI's marketing and manufacturing business consists of its North American
value-added food service and retail frozen seafood businesses. In 2006, the
business had sales of $452.9 million and gross profit of $43.5 million. I wonder who benefits from that now?
What's the provincial portion of tax lost etc...What does Nova Scotia gain - and what does Newfoundland and Labrador lose?
NO EQUITY IN OR FOR THE FISHERY!
That's the real problem - so tilt your glasses and toast the man of the hour Danny Williams who has done what no other Premier could do before him - allow the destruction of FPI.
I will conclude by saying: In my opinion it's much tougher to make your million on a crab boat or prosecuting ground-fish than it is to make it off - let's say a bunch of poles and wires capable of bringing sports - news - and whatever else into your house!
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
80,000 people lost from coastal NL Letter to Minister King
Please find below a response to Minister Darin King from Dr. Phil Earl regarding the OCI situation.
Their reaction is typical of the philosophy of the ASP corporations which are all about their own concerns of bottom lines and profits. If these corporations are permitted to continue dominating our provinces fishing industry and have inordinate influence with governments the future of the fishery and any hope of saving costal NL is doomed. The first, and main, duty and philosophy of our government should be to protect the jobs and peoples of our coastal fishing communities and not companies whose success appears to be also the success of the ‘industry’. How can their ‘industry’ success be success if at the same time it destroys the fisher people, their communities and the resource itself? The government must step in now to protect the resource for the future of our people.
Everything under the sun has been done and given to corporations for the holiness of saving and protecting their success and propagation. To the point where what was zero unprocessed fish shipped out a few years ago by FPI, is today 75% of shell and 80% of ground fish being shipped out. This fact alone is enough to explain all that has befallen our coastal plants and their workers in the past four years.
Stopping the exemption, as you have done, is the first step, reversing all the rest of the ‘unprocessed exemptions’ must be started, it is the only way that will give any air to the chance of restoring our Industry. This action may appear to be what would break the companies, if some can’t handle it then they would fold but that would only create the chance for others, smaller operations with different approaches, to be successful. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Regardless of my rambled, incomplete, remarks one over all description of the whole situation can be truthfully summarized. What OCI pertains to in the Industry is that group of corporations which cry out in every possible manner and way, at any cost to anything else or anyone else in their way, to continue their selective, personal or collective existence. On the other side of the balance scale in this situation is the survival of the fish stocks and the dependent fishers and their communities. That’s a fact.
We have been watching the tipping of these scales for 20 years, where stocks have disappeared, not recovered, 80,000 people lost from coastal NL and 40,000 fisheries jobs gone to hell, and a great part of this is due to what governments have allowed corporations to do on their end if the scales.
If you are really serious about wanting to protect the welfare of our fishers, our coastal peoples and saving our fishing heritage and culture you, our government, must act now and show the leadership that can save it. You are the government, you are the people. You cannot be directed by the chosen, corporate powerful, wealthy few, you must take your direction from the people. The people who are Newfoundland and Labrador. God be with you to do the right thing.
Respectfully
Philip Earle
Dear Minister King, Jan 10/12
As you can see, and not surprising, the quick response from OCI to our government’s announcement of refusing their request to ship out more unprocessed fish is one that can be likened to blackmail.
As you can see, and not surprising, the quick response from OCI to our government’s announcement of refusing their request to ship out more unprocessed fish is one that can be likened to blackmail.
Their reaction is typical of the philosophy of the ASP corporations which are all about their own concerns of bottom lines and profits. If these corporations are permitted to continue dominating our provinces fishing industry and have inordinate influence with governments the future of the fishery and any hope of saving costal NL is doomed. The first, and main, duty and philosophy of our government should be to protect the jobs and peoples of our coastal fishing communities and not companies whose success appears to be also the success of the ‘industry’. How can their ‘industry’ success be success if at the same time it destroys the fisher people, their communities and the resource itself? The government must step in now to protect the resource for the future of our people.
Everything under the sun has been done and given to corporations for the holiness of saving and protecting their success and propagation. To the point where what was zero unprocessed fish shipped out a few years ago by FPI, is today 75% of shell and 80% of ground fish being shipped out. This fact alone is enough to explain all that has befallen our coastal plants and their workers in the past four years.
Stopping the exemption, as you have done, is the first step, reversing all the rest of the ‘unprocessed exemptions’ must be started, it is the only way that will give any air to the chance of restoring our Industry. This action may appear to be what would break the companies, if some can’t handle it then they would fold but that would only create the chance for others, smaller operations with different approaches, to be successful. Necessity is the mother of invention.
Regardless of my rambled, incomplete, remarks one over all description of the whole situation can be truthfully summarized. What OCI pertains to in the Industry is that group of corporations which cry out in every possible manner and way, at any cost to anything else or anyone else in their way, to continue their selective, personal or collective existence. On the other side of the balance scale in this situation is the survival of the fish stocks and the dependent fishers and their communities. That’s a fact.
We have been watching the tipping of these scales for 20 years, where stocks have disappeared, not recovered, 80,000 people lost from coastal NL and 40,000 fisheries jobs gone to hell, and a great part of this is due to what governments have allowed corporations to do on their end if the scales.
If you are really serious about wanting to protect the welfare of our fishers, our coastal peoples and saving our fishing heritage and culture you, our government, must act now and show the leadership that can save it. You are the government, you are the people. You cannot be directed by the chosen, corporate powerful, wealthy few, you must take your direction from the people. The people who are Newfoundland and Labrador. God be with you to do the right thing.
Respectfully
Philip Earle
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