I have never been an avid fan of the present Minister of Labrador Affairs.
He always rubbed me the wrong way with his bombast and aggressive style.
None the less he always used to be a strong supporter of things Labrador, and usually was not shy about waxing not so eloquently in support of Labrador.
Why as recently as when John was the Minister of WST he still had some fight left in him trying to do right by Northern Labrador.
I say used to because the big guy has lost his bark big time. I listened to an interview CBC HV-GB did with the John yesterday, the topic being the controversial postponement of the Labrador Winter Games until 2010.
John was grasping at strews in his defense of the Governments decision not to put any more funding into the games so they could be held as scheduled next year.
Rather than sounding like Captain Labrador he sounded more like a eunuch in the harem of the Danny Government.
Stuff like “from my perspective”, “Government has put in $500, 000.00 and I agree with that”. “The minister has agreed with a meeting with the games board and my self, to be held this fall”. “We need to maybe cut back on travel expenses for the games”.
“Private companies need to be encouraged to anti up” [paraphrased]. “IOC and VBNC have been making good profits over the years, time for them to give some back” [paraphrased].
Sounded all very half hearted and grasping at straws to me.
Some observations from my perspective:
The 500 grand will be devalued some what by 2010. The call for private funding is fine to a point, but does the government demand the same for similar events held in Newfoundland.
I am surprised that government has not demanded a cost sharing with the federal government, which is the usual call for any Labrador development.
Any way big John did face the music with the media so he gets points for that. Can’t say the same for the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs who does not do interviews, or press releases, or interviews to be quoted [or whatever media speak is for those types of interviews].
Just this morning the President of the last Labrador Winter Games has said that the Government is underfunding the games, and that the governments call for private funding is ill conceived. What rational is there for business to anti up monies in the hundreds of thousands of dollars he is quoted as saying.
He also went on the say that cutting events from the games will not save significant amounts of money.
1 comment:
Hi Brian,
I am shocked and disgusted to hear that the 2009 Labrador Winter Games will not happen due to the lack of funding on the part of the provincial gov't. The benefits from these games far exceed the cost.
Let's face it - the $200k-$300k needed to make the games a reality is a drop in the bucket for the province, considering the province's new found oil wealth, not to mention the Voisey's Bay operation, http://www.nr.gov.nl.ca/voiseys/benefits_industrial.htm
which seems to have quite the budget.
Did Vale-Inco receive any gov't incentives also known as taxpayer's dollars? Of course they did! Yet neither the province nor the feds can provide the paltry sum of 2 or 3 hundred grand to ensure the games can take place? They waste/misplace far more than that on a given day. As a Canadian, I continue to be disgusted with the way that both levels of gov’t treat our Inuit, Aboriginal and Métis people.
As a country, we are capable of far greater things than what our gov’ts represent. I blame the creeping “corporatization” of the various government bodies, which results in the subversion of the interests of the citizenry of this country.
I sincerely hope this idiotic decision will be reversed.
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