Newfoundland Snow Crab Quotas Cut!!

...from cbc.ca

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn said the handling of immature and undersize crab is "seriously threatening" the resource. "Changes to management measures must be made or the crab simply won't be there to catch in future years," Hearn said.

Quelle surpreez! Same old, same old I'm afraid. The prosecution of this fishery was at an unsustainable level. To wit: In 1992, only 750 licences for crab had been issued in Newfoundland and Labrador. By 2004, that number had climbed to 3,411.

Hopefully this bitter medicine has been administered in time unlike JC's cod moratorium of '92 which was akin to shutting the barn doors after the horse has gone!

How the EI system continues to subsidize a dying industry and corrupt a workforce:
In St. Bride's on the south coast, fishermen like Kevin McGrath will see their quotas cut by 25 per cent. He figures the lower quota will cost him and crew about $30,000 and will make it harder to qualify for employment insurance. "Last year … you were just scraping a few stamps. You weren't making no big pile of money, and this year, it's looking harder for the stamps and that," he said.

King Ralph, King Lear, King Kong

Ralph Klein faces the music tonight and the daggers appear to be unsheathed. His plan for a long, sordid, drawn-out swan song might go down the drain. He is morphing into his arch enemy, Jean Chretien, with the plan to leave when he's damn good & ready. Paul martin can tell you how well that worked for the Liberals!

My prediction for tonight is 73% support which might be enough to save him for now but it won't quell the rumblings for the usurpers.

Alberta needs some vision and resolution. Let's hope King Ralph makes the right decision.

...and have-not will be no more!

from the CP:

"I am pleased to report that for the first time in our history the province is budgeting a surplus on a fully consolidated basis," Newfoundland Finance Minister Loyola Sullivan said in his budget speech. "I think we have turned the corner," said Mr. Sullivan. "We have enormous potential."

Brian Peckford's vision has finally seen the light of day!

Not without a little acrimony from Ontarians and others complaining how they must contribute to Equalization. I remember when I first moved to Calgary in 1996. It was the first time I had experienced first hand the resentment held by "mainlanders" towards the poor cousins on da Rock. As a friend of mine, Grinder, would say in retort, "...how would you feel if you were told that there was no more oil, or that you couldn't farm anymore." Well that is what had happened to the fishery in Newfoundland; the economic lifeblood let go from a rotten and abused jugular through mismanagement & greed. Were Newfoundlanders innocent bystanders in the cod's demise? No, but for the most part they were victims of overfishing (foreign & domestic), DFO's mismanagement and misdirected government subsidy programs whihc supported a fleet, inshore & offshore, that was too large for the resource.

Why must Ontario always lead the way by default? If Newfoundland's oil industry continues to prosper and the rural areas swallow the bitter medicine of rationalization to improve their economic situation, in the nmor too distant future Newfoundland could surge to the front of the pack with Alberta & BC. At that point the equalization tables may be turned, given Ontario's withering auto sector, and the largesse may in fact flow uphill!!!!!

Kudos to Danny Williams Government. Keep your shoulder to the wheel b'ys!

Queen of the North sinking

This is the site of the sinking. The Queen of the North was on a southeasterly course coming from the narrow channel, upper left, about 1 km wide to the wider Wright Sound, about 5 km wide. This is about the same as the distance across Badger Bay (in Notre Dame Bay, NL) from Triton to Locke's Harbour. Hard to fathom (no pun intended) how the crew on the bridge could have drifted onto the rocks. Awe inspiring & chilling to know that the vessel ended up with over 200 fathoms of water above her deck. Sad to think that two people may be entombed on her.

paper industry bailed out again

I hope that the Minister, Ed Byrne, has some vision for the next step in 12 months because government bail outs only avoid the real problem and postpone the true economic fallout. To me it seems that the inherent competitive advantage that Newfounland held in the pulp & paper industry has vanished. An abundance of high quality wood, cheaply harvested is no more. The hydroelectric advantage has dissipated with very few recent developments of any scale on the island. Last but not least, the loonie's recent run has hurt when competing with the US and South America.

Until Abitibi & Kruger rationalize their industry and straighten out their financial houses it will be rough times for the Badger drive! Politicians do not help the issue by supporting an unviable economic model in an inefficient manner. I shudder to think what would happen to the wood harvesting industry without the hidden subsidy of EI. Talk about pain, right now they don't know pain!

Mordecai

Just read Barney's Version, an opus delecti by the Bard of St. Urbain. Struck by the phallic symbolism of the lone cigar on the cover. Or perhaps it represent's the protagonist, Panofsky, flipping the bird?!