Mr. Premier, take UPM mill from corporate parasites and send them packing!
Last week Shawn Graham, the premier of New Brunswick, said that the forest industry was his biggest challenge in 2007.
Well, looks like Shawn and the 18,000 or-so-and-dropping people who call the Miramichi home have something in common.
But it doesn’t look like the premier will do a whole heck of a lot about the fact UPM Kymmenne’s Christmas present to the people of the Miramichi was to close down its pulp mill here for good. In fact, it kinda sounds like he’s just gonna stand by and watch while almost 600 management and union jobs disappear into thin air.
The Premier did say he’d work with the various levels of government and with the mill’s union to find ways to diversify the area's economy.
Translation? Blah, blah, blah, blah.
More talk. Well, by now friends and neighbours, I’m pretty sure you all know that talk is cheap.
It’s time for action. And more than a few decided to start in that direction last week. About 150 of them marched through the streets of our fair city last Wednesday, letting everybody who would listen know just how serious they are. "We are asking that the government expropriate the mill and we'll find partners - the union, the city, provincial government, and another player to take over those mills and run them," said Chris Allison, president of local 689 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union.
"The dollar's high right now, but there's no reason this mill can't sit for seven or eight months until the dollar drops down to a reasonable level. And there's no reason why the paper off these mills can't be sold in Canada," he said.
Well, it’s an option, at the very least.
But the premier didn’t think so.
"There's no legal grounds whatsoever that would give the government the authority to go in and expropriate property and equipment that they do not own," Graham said after the meeting.
Hmmm.
Well, I know it’s a lot to ask, but I think a Premier of New Brunswick should know a little bit about the not-so-distant history of New Brunswick. Especially when that history happened in King’s County, the place he calls “home.”
For the benefit of our Premier, here’s the short history of how Kouchibouguac became Kouchibouguac National Park during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The folks of Kouchibouguac were leading ordinary lives when the government of New Brunswick walked in and said (more or less) “Sorry folks, but yer outta here! We think this land is a dandy spot for a national park. Unfortunately all these homes get in the way of the nature, but a couple of bulldozers can fix that up in a hurry. So pack up and get out!”
(That’s the short version, Mr. Premier. Find someone whose home and life was destroyed to make a tourist trap if you want the long version. Shouldn’t be hard. There were more than a 1,000 of them.)
So, Mr. Premier, it’s not like the province has never taken land and property that didn’t belong to them before. The only difference is this time, it would be for a good cause.
This time it would keep roofs over people heads instead of taking them away. This time, instead of dividing a community, you’d be helping a community stay together.
We, the people of Miramichi, and you, Mr. Graham, the premier of the province of New Brunswick, owe those people from Finland nothing.
They came in here, took everything they could and left us high and dry.
There’s a name for something that comes in uninvited, drains its host dry and leaves when there’s nothing left to take. It’s called a parasite.
The biggest mistake this town ever made was letting these parasites come in and take over the mill in the first place. Don’t let our second biggest mistake be electing a premier who just watched while our city died.
Merry Christmas.
Well, looks like Shawn and the 18,000 or-so-and-dropping people who call the Miramichi home have something in common.
But it doesn’t look like the premier will do a whole heck of a lot about the fact UPM Kymmenne’s Christmas present to the people of the Miramichi was to close down its pulp mill here for good. In fact, it kinda sounds like he’s just gonna stand by and watch while almost 600 management and union jobs disappear into thin air.
The Premier did say he’d work with the various levels of government and with the mill’s union to find ways to diversify the area's economy.
Translation? Blah, blah, blah, blah.
More talk. Well, by now friends and neighbours, I’m pretty sure you all know that talk is cheap.
It’s time for action. And more than a few decided to start in that direction last week. About 150 of them marched through the streets of our fair city last Wednesday, letting everybody who would listen know just how serious they are. "We are asking that the government expropriate the mill and we'll find partners - the union, the city, provincial government, and another player to take over those mills and run them," said Chris Allison, president of local 689 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union.
"The dollar's high right now, but there's no reason this mill can't sit for seven or eight months until the dollar drops down to a reasonable level. And there's no reason why the paper off these mills can't be sold in Canada," he said.
Well, it’s an option, at the very least.
But the premier didn’t think so.
"There's no legal grounds whatsoever that would give the government the authority to go in and expropriate property and equipment that they do not own," Graham said after the meeting.
Hmmm.
Well, I know it’s a lot to ask, but I think a Premier of New Brunswick should know a little bit about the not-so-distant history of New Brunswick. Especially when that history happened in King’s County, the place he calls “home.”
For the benefit of our Premier, here’s the short history of how Kouchibouguac became Kouchibouguac National Park during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The folks of Kouchibouguac were leading ordinary lives when the government of New Brunswick walked in and said (more or less) “Sorry folks, but yer outta here! We think this land is a dandy spot for a national park. Unfortunately all these homes get in the way of the nature, but a couple of bulldozers can fix that up in a hurry. So pack up and get out!”
(That’s the short version, Mr. Premier. Find someone whose home and life was destroyed to make a tourist trap if you want the long version. Shouldn’t be hard. There were more than a 1,000 of them.)
So, Mr. Premier, it’s not like the province has never taken land and property that didn’t belong to them before. The only difference is this time, it would be for a good cause.
This time it would keep roofs over people heads instead of taking them away. This time, instead of dividing a community, you’d be helping a community stay together.
We, the people of Miramichi, and you, Mr. Graham, the premier of the province of New Brunswick, owe those people from Finland nothing.
They came in here, took everything they could and left us high and dry.
There’s a name for something that comes in uninvited, drains its host dry and leaves when there’s nothing left to take. It’s called a parasite.
The biggest mistake this town ever made was letting these parasites come in and take over the mill in the first place. Don’t let our second biggest mistake be electing a premier who just watched while our city died.
Merry Christmas.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 2:18 AM
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