NS 4 - NL 0 Please Premier Dunderdale may I ask a question now?

If this was the score of a hockey game - many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians would be disappointed. Unfortunately this is not a game or a short-term result - this is Nova Scotia politicians and corporate leaders giving us a severe trouncing on public policy and long-term vision.

Tourism

Well Marine Atlantic has crucified us again by increasing the cost for our Trans Canada Highway across the gulf - effective in February.

Over 2 million visitors in Nova Scotia in 2010.

1/2 million visitors to Newfoundland and Labrador 2010.

Ship Building

Nova Scotia 25 billion dollars Federal Contract 12,000 jobs - for over 25 years

Newfoundland and Labrador (Marystown) 0 dollars Federal Contract 0 jobs

Energy

Muskrat Falls

Nova Scotia gets all the cheap power long-term industrial and energy jobs

Newfoundland and Labrador pays for it and also sees its rates go up as much as 100% short-term construction jobs

Fishery: on the way to the Maritimes - watch

We have no reason to feel cheated right?

I would like to ask Premier Dunderdale - when is it appropriate for us to ask questions or criticize?

Ross Wiseman sent out to Ease the Pain - in yet another attempt to COVER-UP

Well who knew? Ross says everything is A-Okay in Newfoundland and Labrador. Hard to know how long he was on the air - after I spoke of the shipbuilding fiasco. 

Amazing to what lengths a fellow Newfoundlander and Labradorian will go to cover-up ineptness and the loss of our resources to benefit another province. 

I can assure you they have no pride and do not give a damn about what happens here. 

If either of the shipbuilding contracts goes to Nova Scotia the Emera deal must be stopped.

If either of the shipbuilding contracts goes to Nova Scotia our politicians should be fired out. 

We will actually have to take to the streets or allow a few millionaires to rob us blind. 

The purpose of Wiseman's call was to talk to us about how good we have it. Just because we lost two paper mills and lost the fishery - and we are about to giveaway Muskrat Falls - we should all be happy. 

Just because we will be fuelling the Nova Scotia economy instead of our own - we should all be happy. What about Old Harry or the Romaine River?

We continue to be the only place that loses population and loses most of our youth to other provinces. 

Ross Wiseman - bury your head in shame. History will do it if you won't.

Ross Wiseman your job is not to spin to protect your party and yourself - your job is to advance our province for our people.

You want the answer to - why Emera and why Nova Scotia? Today we find out why!

This is the day the millionaires have been waiting for.

This is the day that the shipbuilding contracts will be announced.

This is the day that was stolen from Marystown and our province.

This is what the Lower Churchill speculation was all about.

This is the day we will find out if the Irving shipyard in Nova Scotia is the winner.

This is the day we will watch Nova Scotia get 8500 jobs a year for 30 years.

This is the day that Emera finds out if Nova Scotia needs more power.

This is the day we find out how much the Williams and Dunderdale team will have cost us.

Marystown under Kiewit was part of the huge federal shipbuilding contracts - remember?

Then inexplicably Kiewit withdrew from the process right at the end - remember?

Then there was a delay in the awarding of the two lucrative projects - remember?

Just long enough to get us through an election in Newfoundland and Labrador - remember?

Well today fellow Newfoundlanders and Labradorians we may see the largest fiasco to ever hit our province. 

If Nova Scotia wins one of the two bids - they will employ over 8500 people for over 30 years and the housing and business boom in that province will begin. 

Where will the power come from? Labrador!

We will see today the worth of our politicians, Nalcor, and media. 

We will watch our children flood out - not to Fort Mac - but this time to Nova Scotia. 

If Nova Scotia wins today - we should all be on the streets for the greatest deception ever to be perpetrated on our people. 

You really want to know what the rush is to get power - cheaply to Nova Scotia? 

If Nova Scotia wins today - the Emera project must be stopped - and despite that we just completed an election - Dunderdale and her team should be shamed out of office. 

Dunderdale won't open the House of Assembly right? 

Now VOCM, Kathy Dunderdale, and Ed Martin want it all to go to Nova Scotia?

     

 For the link on what VOCM supports CLICK HERE

This is posted on top of the VOCM website today. I want to express that VOCM owned by NewCap is proudly supporting the bid by Irving for the multi-billion dollar federal contract for shipbuilding.

This is the same contract that Peter Kiewit and Sons pulled out of leaving Marystown without any hope of getting this work.

Please go the site that VOCM is supporting and read about the hopes and dreams of those in NS and NB in getting the work and being able to build a house and start a family in these provinces.

What is to become of Marystown and our people?

I have selected a few quotes below from the Nova Scotian website. For the full story CLICK HERE.

Workers hope ship comes in

Every week, Ryan Prendergast puts $10 into his lottery pool at the Halifax Shipyard. But these days, the 23-year-old sheet metal worker dreams of another big financial prize, one that could come from the federal government. “It means a secure job, a secure future. You can start a family, buy a house,” the Glace Bay native says of Ottawa’s $35-billion shipbuilding procurement plan.


Married and with a baby on the way in November, he has almost finished his apprenticeship after 3½ years at the yard. “It’s definitely important to a lot of people — younger people, anyway,” the Cape Bretoner says during a break in a lunchroom. Such a long-term contract would also benefit older workers, many of whom are set to retire in the next five years or so, Prendergast says.

About 700 tradespeople are working at the yard, 250 of them apprentices. In all, the Halifax Shipyard has roughly 1,000 people at its waterfront complex.

A single mother, Morris is anxious to land long-term work. Because she has a three-year-old daughter, she’d prefer not to leave the province to find it. With so much riding on the contract, it’s usually the topic of conversation in the lunchroom, Morris says.

“I could see us hiring another 1,000 workers over the period of the contract, at its peak,” says Risser, whose father, brother and an uncle work at the shipyard. “You could see us hit levels that we’ve never seen before.”


About half the yard’s hands are between the ages of 19 and 35 and would benefit the most from having 30 years of contracts waiting, Risser says.

Having read above - how do you feel about your future. While we are at it - how about Ed Martin, Kathy Dunderdale, and VOCM all get together and pump the Lower Churchill project with Emera. That way we can send our industry, power, and people to that province. 

Well done!

Here comes the truth on the ship building contract! What was the excuse again Premier?

Please read the story below from Metro News in Halifax.

I have highlighted the areas of importance.

One thing is for sure - something stinks or somebody is incompetent. Madame Premier - which is it?

Hurry up Premier Dunderdale - if Quebec gets the contract - we will have to giveaway Muskrat to Nova Scotia to help them through the loss. If Irving gets it - MacKay did a great job. Poor old Kiewit - see if you can find them some engineers then go for an extension.

Just last week, all three parties in the Nova Scotia legislature were aligning themselves behind Irving Shipbuilding’s bid to obtain a lucrative national shipbuilding contract.

Yesterday, in another rare display of crossing party lines, the governing NDP and the third-place Progressive Conservatives teamed up to attack the federal Liberal’s position on the issue.

The parties were reacting to news reports that quoted Denis Coderre, a high-profile Liberal MP from Quebec, as saying a Liberal government would extend a key deadline to allow the Davie Shipyard to compete for the $35-billion, 30-year contract.

“In power, the Liberal Party will issue a directive, so that Quebec can also apply for this important contract,” Corderre told Le Journal de Levis.

PC MLA Chuck Porter said the federal Liberal position would threaten Irving’s chances.

“(Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s) plan is one that could push the Halifax Shipyard out of contention contract,” said Porter.

Premier Darrell Dexter agreed with Porter, saying he was “very shocked” to read Coderre’s comments.

“I have asked my staff, on my instruction, to draft a letter to the leader of the federal Liberal Party expressing our disappointment in his comments,” said Dexter.

“If this was to be in fact the position of the federal government, it runs the risk of stunting the growth of Atlantic Canada.”