Sunday, November 21, 2010

Digging In Like Danny

Danny Williams 'Dug In' with the Feds until he was happy, even as far as taking down the Canadian Flag.

We the people of Labrador will dig in until our basics needs are met. Basics needs such as low cost electric power across Labrador, North, South, East & West. Environmentally friendly Industries developed solely in Labrador for the citizens of Labrador to work in, so that they don't have to go away like Newfoundlanders do.

Fairness for all Labrador People, is all that we are asking for. Adjaceny must apply here, and not just for one small group of people; so important as they are. A very large majority of Labrador people must be affected in a positive way. In fact, adjaceny should appy anywhere in this province where there are developments that create jobs & other benefits such as the Lower Churchill Project would.

Sure, this development would help local businesses but Danny Williams should know that basic needs of the people must be taken care of for businesses to be accepted. In this case our electrical needs across Labrador must be looked after. Don't come out and say a point blank statement like Mr.John Hickey said in the past, "we cannot build a Power Line to the North Coast of Labrador, because it would cost $155 million dollars". If you think about this for a minute you would say to yourself, wouldn't this powerline to the North be ultimately paid for in 25 years by Vale Inco anyway and Labrador North would, in effect, end up with a free powerline.
$155 million from a multi billion dollar project isn't much when it is spread out over a number of years, over the centries of Lower Churchill Power it would work out to fractions of a cent per kilowatt hour.

Then it's the protection of the Labrador's prestine environment from fossil fuels. Don't say we could develop rivers South and North that would destroy more ego systems, when we have all this power from Churchill Falls; not good enough!

I believe in the development of Lower Churchill if the positives for Labrador as a whole far out-way the negatives. As the proposed deal stands right now it is drastically in favour of Nfld development at Labrador's expense.

Sure they got some recallable power for us, but like the Upper Churchill Power, how can we really obtain any of it for industry? They just have to put road-blocks in place to stop industry from developing here. i.e. Alcoa Aluminum wanted to set up shop a few years ago in Labrador & our provincial government set hugh road-blocks to stop them. -oad blocks such as, part of your industry must be built on the island of Newfoundland. Naturally it wasn't feasible for Alcoa to do it so they walked away from this fiasco.

The list of one sided deals goes on, Labrador Lineboard, Voisey's Bay etc. Voisey's Bay for example was so bad that one could drive a truck through said Mr. Williams. In fact he spent many hours on NTV with Jeff Sterling condeming this Rodger Grimes deal. Now, today he looks at it in a much more favourable light. Why? Maybe it's because it is really good for his Island of Newfoundland and St. John's area. We know what it is doing for Central Labrador, for example. Diddly squat! The only thing we in central see is the planes flying overhead on the way to St.John's.

We just want to live together in harmony, as much as possible with nature and be treated fairly with our resources.

Do you expect the majority of Labradorians to chase our resources to the island of Newfoundland or to Nova Scotia for jobs from industries developed there from our Power. Not good enough any more!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree this is continued robbery at it's most blatant and cold hearted.
Cold hearted because they saw us protest against Roger Grimes government back in 2003 for the same reasons. They heard us talk about fairness for Labrador - then they calculatedly made all those promises they knew we were waiting for. They knew a critical number of people would fall for those promises. They have broken them one by one til finally we come to THIS one.

"...Sure, this development would help local businesses but Danny Williams should know that basic needs of the people must be taken care of for businesses to be accepted..."

Those businesses would STILL benefit even if they DID do the right thing and allow Labradorians the fair share you outline, would they not? IN fact, it should even ADD to those benefits in the long term.

People who are concerned about the environmental issues, safety issues because of this 'development' are as entitled to be heard as anyone else. Those are not obstacles, they are legitimate concerns.

Labradorians cannot continue to be considered disposable votes sources of income for those elsewhere with no regard to what is our right to prosper from our own resources. Would this happen in Newfoundland?

Lloyd Pardy

Norman Andrews said...

Absolutely correct Lloyd, businesses would indeed still benefit.

I'm hoping that the Metis will be a very strong force against Danny and his Butter Brigade. If so he will not win this one.

Thanks for the input buddy.

Norm