Newfoundland and Labrador Conservative MPs Sell Out the Province’s Future
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Back in November of last year I reported that Ottawa was essentially abandoning the Newfoundland and Labrador ferry system. Recent announcements have not only confirmed this reality but also that the Conservative approach to abandoning Newfoundland and Labrador in general has worsened dramatically.
Ottawa’s mishandling of the ferry service, a service guaranteed by the province’s Terms of Union with Canada, is now clearly being supported by none other than Newfoundland and Labrador Conservative MP and Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn. Rather than fighting for his province over this issue Hearn has opted instead to try to sell it to the citizens of the province.
When this latest slap in the face is combined with Harper’s attempts to dance around his equalization promises plus comments today by Liberal MP Todd Russell that the federal Tories are backing down on their promise to station a rapid response team at 5-Wing Goose Bay and instead will station the troops elsewhere, the situation is pretty bleak.
Instead of speaking out for the needs of their home province, Conservative members Fabian Manning and Norm Doyle seem to have lost their voices completely. They’ve disappeared into the back benches are will not likely be heard from again until election time. The only one saying anything publicly at all is Cabinet Minister Loyola Hearn who has come out in full support of the decision to raise ferry rates on an annual basis and hit users with a fuel surcharge. Thanks for the support Loyola. Like Liberal John Effort before you it seems you’ve decided which side you’re on and it certainly isn’t the voters in your riding or the province you are supposed to represent.
Any increase in rates on the Atlantic ferry service translates in a higher cost of goods for every man, woman and child in the province. Nearly all goods coming into or going out of the province travel in containers with Marine Atlantic and any cost incurred by producers or distributors will eventually be passed along to the consumers, consumers who already have to deal with high unemployment and some of the lowest incomes in the Country.
The ferries are an essential part of the highway system across Canada and are also necessary for passenger traffic. In an average year it moves 500,000 people (the equivalent of the entire population of the province). Increased rates and already less than stellar service will likely convince many tourists that it isn’t even worth the bother to travel to the province.
Even before the increases are put into effect passengers on the service pay a far higher percentage of the operating costs than users of other ferry services across Canada. Why is this? Why is one ferry service, and a critical one to the entire province, being singled out to pay a higher return on cost than the federally managed ferries in other places? Perhaps Mr. Hearn can answer that question.
While the increases are being sold to the public as a means to improve services by sinking over $200 million dollars into it, in reality this is not the case. Analysis of the needs and impacts of any upgrade that may happen aren’t even scheduled to start for another two years and the actual work may or may not go ahead. In reality much of the money earmarked for the service in the government’s latest announcement will be put into the pension plans of employees, not into upgraded services or new ferries.
On the issue of what will happen to 5-Wing Goose Bay the jury is still out and I guess we’ll have to see what the response to Todd Russell’s allegations are. I imagine some sort of public statement will be made by Loyola Hearn over the next day or two. Based on recent developments however I won’t hold my breath waiting for him to stand up and commit the Conservative government to keeping its promises. He hasn’t supported the province yet when it comes to issues like equalization, the ferry services, custodial management, fallow field legislation or anything else for that matter so I don’t expect too much from Mr. Harper’s number 1, number 2 or number 3 yes men this time around either.
I just hope everyone in the province will remember the names of Loyola Hearn, Norman Doyle and Fabian Manning during the next election and think about where they stood on these issues.
By Myles Higgins
@ February 8, 2007