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Williams Concerned over Meeting


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Equalization payment are only there to help with making the poorer provinces more equal. They are not supposed to be a permanent subsidy. If the province becomes as rich as Ontario then Yes, definitely, they should be paying towards other provinces equalization payments; not continuing to recieve them. Geesh.

That may have been the original purpose for equalization when Ontario was the only have province but all bets are off now with Trudeaus social engineering and not worrying about needing Alberta votes to hold onto a majority.

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This is about equalization payment tha t are in place to bring poorer provinces up to a level to be able to fund social programs. When a province starts making money; which they should all strive for; then equalization programs should be cut. BC is at this time heading back into the Have province status and will not be receiving any equalization payments. I don't think we ever did recieve all that much.

We are not talking about the regular transfer payments.

The maritimes province already get the lions share of our EI with their seasonal employment industries.

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The maritimes province already get the lions share of our EI with their seasonal employment industries.

What do that have to do with anything?

The main industry that I assume you're referring to, the fishery, is limited by 3 things: availability, weather and government, in the form of season setting and quotas.

I think it's unfair and unnecessary to bring that into this discussion.

When a province starts making money; which they should all strive for; then equalization programs should be cut.

I am a little uncertain as to Williams' position on it. I don't know if he wants no impact on equalization ever, or get equalization and the revenues until NL becomes a "have province". I would settle for the latter. The problems are:

1) The time limit the feds want to put on the agreement (the feds want to renegotiate or stop the deal at the end of the 8 years while NL wants the revenues for good)

2) If the province becomes a "have province" or reaches Ontario's level of fiscal capacity the deal ends.

3) The feds want to cap what NL can get, so that if the price of oil remains high, we wouldn't get the whole revenue total. It would be capped at a certain amount and the rest would go to Ottawa.

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Motion introduced by Conservative Party:

That this House deplore the attitude of the Prime Minister of Canada at and following the First Ministers' Conference of October 26, 2004, and that it call on the federal government to immediately implement its pledges of June 5 and 27, 2004, to allow the provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia to keep 100% of their provincial offshore oil and gas revenues.

I may just have to vote for Harper in the next election. :D

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Hasn't this got messy because initially when PM Martin made his promises during the election campaign, the price of oil and gas was much less than it is now, so there is a lot more money at stake.

Regardless, PM Martin & Finance Minister Goodale should stick to their end of the bargain and keep their election promises. It is time to allow the Atlantic region to get on its feet just as Alberta was allowed to do so as well.

First we had Lyin' Brian.

Now are we goin' to have Lyin' Paul?

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Hasn't this got messy because initially when PM Martin made his promises during the election campaign, the price of oil and gas was much less than it is now, so there is a lot more money at stake.

Regardless, PM Martin & Finance Minister Goodale should stick to their end of the bargain and keep their election promises. It is time to allow the Atlantic region to get on its feet just as Alberta was allowed to do so as well.

First we had Lyin' Brian.

Now are we goin' to have Lyin' Paul?

They ARE getting 100 % of their oil money; they want to keep 100% of their original equalization money, too. In other words now that they have a job they want to still collect their welfare payments. Martin did offer them a few years of continued equalization payments. It seems NFLD wants to keep all their new found wealth and their previous support payments. Greed; pure and simple. No sympathy here.

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I think that there should be far more said about Churchill Falls. It is outright robbery by the Quebec government and a flagrant abuse of an outdated Constitutional jurisdiction.

Quebec deserves no more than a fee or commission for the pasage of the power over the hydro lines. Every province should have the freedom to send its resources anywhere that is compatible with national aims. No province should be able to resist that.

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I will read up on that but much of our relationship with the Quebec government are unfair and should be ended. I am tired of coddling them and giving them preferential treatment all the time. Become one of us or leave but don't expect any more equalization or other welfare payments. If they can't survive on their own now; how do they expect to survive as a separate nation?

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  • 2 weeks later...

The soap opera continues.

Williams was in Toronto and Sullivan (Finance Minister) was in Ottawa yeasterday.

Williams was there with Lord, Hamm and Binns, who were trying to drum up support for the region, while Sullivan left in a hurry to meet Goodale in Ottawa.

It seems NFLD wants to keep all their new found wealth and their previous support payments.
Here's what Williams said yesterday.
Once we get to the equalization standard . . .we no longer want equalization...We don't want our 100 per cent and equalization. I just want to make that very clear
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  • 1 month later...
caesar Posted: Oct 28 2004, 06:50 PM

Hopefully we will not develop our off shore oil industry until it can be done safely without injuring the environment. We don't need oil spills on our coastline.

The majority of the resources that are off of our coast are natrual gas deposits..........

My understanding is they do get the money from their resources; just diminishes their subsidy. Why should they still be subsidized??? I don't think BC gets much of a subsidy anyhow and we will be soon one of the ones paying out as before.

Why is it that we won't be recieiving a subsidy anymore caesar?

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  • 1 month later...

Well, looks like it's a deal.

NL will get $2 billion over 8 years while NS will get $830 million over 8 years, and if a province is still "have-not" the deal will be extended.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/stor...?hub=TopStories

Williams didn't get exactly what he wanted, but I really don't think he's in a position to be unhappy about the deal. $2 billion can go a good ways.

I think he was under pressure to get it done. Sure there was lots of support from the public, but if the books are in as bad shape as he says they are, he needed a deal.

He's got contracts up for nurses and teachers within the next year, and they are all looking for money.

Plus the government has been taking a beating over wait times for diagnostic imaging procedures and surgeries.

On second thought, maybe $2 billion won't go very far. <_<

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