Actually, that was just the cash he dumped on behalf of Saskatchewan taxpayers over Christmas;
Court documents obtained by the CBC say the Saskatchewan government loaned another $15,000,000 over the Christmas to keep the Meadow Lake Pulp mill open. This loan happened while the mill was filing court documents seeking protection from its creditors.
The document shows that since 1990 taxpayers have lost $804 million. The current value of the mill is described as “nil.”
David MacLean of the Taxpayers Federation is making .pdf’s of the court documents.
but think of how many “jobs” have been “saved”
That’s why the NDP does these things in secret . . over Christmas .. they don’t want the limelight for saving so many jobs.
Adn I’ll bet the Sask Fed will still collect the union dues from all these “jobs” and send off the correct amount to the Sask NDP
Pulp. http://www.meadowlake.ca/general/forestry.html
“Today, the mill’s production facilities are in excellent shape, plans are being made for secondary industries, and cooperative management agreements with northern communities will ensure that the mill’s activities will benefit all northerners.”
Below is a quote from then Minister Maynard Sonntag on May 26, 2003 while visiting the mill:
“Minister Sonntag congratulated Millar Western on the performance of the mill, noting that it had played an important role in strengthening the community. �As a major employer and generator of economic activity,� said the Minister, �the Meadow Lake pulp mill has been a great success since opening its doors 11 years ago. Strategic capital investments like the one announced today will help the mill continue contributing strongly to the economic well-being of the Meadow Lake region and the province of Saskatchewan as a whole.�”
Apparently the NDP continues to believe that success is measured by the amount of taxpayers’ money gets flushed down the crapper.
And, doing the math, 804 million dollars versus a mill work force of 170 persons equates to $4.7 million per JOB!
I can recall at least two similar high profile recent cases here in Quebec.
As in most examples of government intervention, it would have been cheaper to just pay the salaries of the workers, have them stay home, and be done with it.
But it would demoralize the “workers.” Far better to make them believe they still contribute to society. That’s what that $4.7M/person is buying, self-worth!
You can’t put a price on someone’s else’s feelings, can you?
More money pissed away at Meadow Lake Pulp Mill
Court documents obtained by the CBC say the Saskatchewan government loaned another $15,000,000 over the Christmas to keep the Meadow Lake Pulp mill open. This loan happened while the mill was filing court documents seeking protection from its credito…
can i have that $4.7M – and I will not take away job?
I dunno… I could feel pretty good about myself if someone gave me 4.7 million. Matter of fact, I’d be so busy tripping around the world, tasting a little of everything, I doubt I’d give my selfworth a moments notice.
Millar-Western got a pulp mill in Boyle paid for them by Alberta taxpayers about half a dozen years ago. They must have amazing business plans.
Privately held family company, hundreds of millions in gov’t loans and handouts, not much chance of abuse there. If I were a Saskatchewan tax payer, I might want to see the companies books.
sounds like the Pulp & Paper version of Bombardier
The pulp mill in Alberta cost something like $600 million if memory serves. Wonder if it will meet the same fate.
Think Skeena Cellulose in B.C.
It was, and is, a long road going nowhere; very complicated when so many jobs are on the line in depressed regions.
And must always for that reason, be dealt with in the full light of day, so as not to pit one region or business sector against another.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011555
$15 mill would buy an awful lot of retraining and transition for the workers wouldn’t it? Just like the NDP to apply their “old world” thinking to a new world problem.
This case is exactly why governments (ANY governments) should not be involved in business. The NDP don’t want to take the heat for closing the mill so they keep it open and unprofitable and simply stave off the inevitable. They don’t want to pay the political cost so they foist it upon us. The correct business decision is to cut the losses and walk but the NDP can’t face that politically so they make the “kind hearted” decision put up more capital and feel good about themselves. However, they don’t feel a fiscal responsibility because it is “government” money.
Here’s a question for Lorne: Would you put $ from the Ministerial pension plan in this mill? If not, why waste ours?
how far to a tarsands plant.
pulp and tarsands are the same technology, hot water and surfactants.
in the pulp mill they save the solids and in the tarsands they save the liquid.
sorry hit the button too soon.
they are crying for skilled workers.
Evidently corporate/government malfeasence has not been a federal crime in Canada since… oh… 1993.
Poor Saska bush, from stupid to crooked and back to stupid. For the sake of all the good people in Saskatchewan I hope you finally get a decent Government.
It’s what the Dippers call “Investing”
Meadow Lake, nice town, *blink*, whoops sorry missed it, when I used to go through there from Grand Centre to Preeceville.
Good to see Sask’ tax dollars hard at work. Heck why go to Quebec to see kickbacks when we got it in our own back yard…
As an ex-Saskatchewanite…..I read this and my blood still boils! Imagine $804 Million pissed away, AGAIN. I moved to Alberta for the simple fact that I just couldn’t take the socialist hordes anymore. How many times have they done this….how many more times will they do it before the people left in that long suffering province finally rise up and kick them out. My God….what will it take….I asked myself that time and time again, and finally just shook the dust off my boots and left! Why do the majority of people left there vote for socialism????? Why???? I am firmly convinced that if you folks ever go back to a free enterprise government, and stay with it, it will take at least two generations for the capital markets to begin to trust you enough to begin investing in the province,because history says, you kick out the socilaists only to vote them back in. When you can show the capital markets you are done with the the NDP, once and for all, you might see money come your way…until that time comes you can expect more of the same. Nothing changes, Nothing changes! Change that and everything will change! It’s not that I’m in love with Alberta….I would like to come home…but I will not as long as those socialist bastrads are in power! It’s all about my blood pressure. Oh by the way…my wife and I just got our $400 Ralph Bucks cheque in the mail….nice!
And the original CCF manifesto (the predecessor to the Sask. NDP) stated the party wanted to stamp out all private, capitalist enterprise in the province. This was, when, the 1930s when they wrote that sludge?
It appears Calvert’s socialists are reverting to their historical roots. Welcome to Saskalevakia. Where private business is buried in red-tape and legislative gagging, while the “comrades” wallow in financial and economic incest.
15 million and one…..
Mr. Calvert, what happened to the RaiseAFlag.ca website? I thought it was coming back after the election?
There was an explanation on the site that said they took it down because “they didn’t want to influence an election.” Then the poor DOLT comes up and says he supports the Conservatives because they’ll likely give SK a fair energy deal!!!! Nice – that’s somehow NOT trying to influence the election? I fail to see how DIRECT WORDS OF SUPPORT are different from “not wanting to influence an election.”
Well, now the election is over and rather than re-launch the campaign with a fresh new concept, they simply shut the site down.
I don’t know if we are getting lied to or just dealing with a bunch of know-nothings.
Ron,
I agree with you completely. The problem here in Saskatchewan is that people like you keep leaving and the socialist stay. I think that’s why the NDP keep getting in. What is Alberta, about a third former Saskatchewan residents? And what political persuasion do you think most of them are?
Can someone tell me why we can vote conservative, for the most part, federally but not provincially? (and also why people in this province drive slow in the left hand lane 🙂
Being from the farm here, we have tried to kick them out for ever it seems. Cities of Saskatoon, and Regina keep voting them in. If could get rid of the dirt pile here I am living on, would be out of here so fast all you could see was dust.
Its the type of thinking that this govt. has that has kept this prov. poor, no business investment. With pulp mills, Potatoe business, and countless other adventures these guys like to piss money away with, time we got some clear, buisness oriented thinkers in here.
Mur,
Is it any surprise Regina and Saskatoon voters continue to vote them in? The NDP have gerrymandered the constituency borders to a point where they simply have to cater to two communities. Provide the cookies to these two cities and you’ll have power seemingly forever.
Alberta is expected to be THE, if not one of the, most wealthy regions in the world in the next 10 to 15 years. When will we learn that if we simply do what they do, we’ll have what they have?
Alberta and Saskatchewan are like a social science experiment – socialism versus capitalism. I think the results are conclusive. Let’s ditch the Calvert/Leftie/Commie/Socialist/NDP government and ban them from the lab.
I seen on SDA a oil field graphic not too long ago showing active oil plots/wells/claims between Alberta and Sask, and the graphic ended at the Sask. border. I’m sure it is because Klein has put up a oil firewall around his rat-free province and not any socialist policies put forward buy the NDP.
I left the province 15 years ago because of the labour situation and moved to BC and have built a life i could have never of hoped for if I stayed in my beloved home province. This is sad…but the people of Saskatchewan must believe in themselves and not submit to the ‘culture of defeat’ that they have been lulled into.
tomax7, Preeceville, I used to live near Linlaw, bought lots of under age beer in Hazel Dell, Sturgis sports used to be a big deal, Okla doesn’t rate a blink. Sad to see the small towns go.
Misery loves company dept: Socialists are the same everywhere. In B.C. we had the NDP pour hundreds of millions into Skeena Cellulose, against the advice of all the experts in the pulp and paper industry, and even against the advice of left wing economists. Then the Fast Ferries, 500 million pissed away against the advice of everyone in the shipbuilding industry. The topper was when the NDP Gov’t. lost a defamation lawsuit against their main critic, (I think his name was Bob Ward.)The ferries ended up being sold to a Washington group for about 10 cents on the dollar. The Harcourt Gov’t. stopped logging in the Cariboo, by Carrier Lumber of Prince George, in the mountain pine beetle infestation. It might have been stopped, or at least slowed down, but they shut Bill Kordybans'(Carrier Lbr.) logging operations down. The NDP Gov’t. again lost over a hundred million dollars in the ensuing lawsuit, and the pine beetle has destroyed millions of acres of good timber. The judge was particularly scathing in his comments concerning the Gov’t.’s actions. The NDP, and all socialists, gather so much empathy from the naive because they are they “Party of the little guy”. When it comes to basic knowledge of economics, they are a bloody disaster. I hope someday a good investigative writer will author a book on the subject of socialists in power in Canada, and tally all the cost of their years in power. In B.C., it’s in the tens of billions. Sorry to hear Saskatchewan is suffering the same mismanagement.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are like a social science experiment – socialism versus capitalism. I think the results are conclusive. Let’s ditch the Calvert/Leftie/Commie/Socialist/NDP government and ban them from the lab.
We’ve heard that for years but nothing changes. Best to vote with your feet.
Actually, I like the dippers. They keep the population down and there’s all kinds of room for me. One thing I like is lot’s of room.
The wife told that to some dippers who phoned looking for support before the last election. They actually phoned back later and asked for me, thinking I supported them. heh
Given that, how smart do you have to be to outsmart dippers?
No comment on the no of square miles turned into wasteland, the upheaval of birds and animals. Looks like sask just gave away miles of boreal forest plus the lesser $800 mil for another socialist eperiment to prove all the previous socialist experimental disasters were just leading up to this winner.Only it was not a winner just another disaster. Forget the few piddly ass jobs lost. Close the damn thing down and vote out the nuts. Every Canadian should read “Golden Spruce” if they want to understand the timber industry. I bet not one of your govt hot shots has even heard of it.
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quit yer bitching- it’s the ‘Canadian Way’.
ok, let me get this straight.
This is a Saskatchewan blog.
You think Ontarians are dumb because they always vote for Liberals.
Provincially, Saskatchewan almost always votes NDP.
There is little difference between a Liberal loose in the treasury and a Dipper loose in the treasury.
Those of us out here just looking are supposed to think all this makes perfect sense.
Would someone please explain how these facts fit together.
dmorris — Thanks for reminding me. Fortunately I spent some good years in Ontario during the last NDP government, and missed some of this. You forgot to mention that they drive slow in the left lane in B.C. too.
What ever happened to the potato chip plant in Outlook, or the pasta plant in Swift Current?
And, not to be too hard on Sask, the magnesium plant in High River and the PCB burner in Swan Hills? This is a problem of governments generally, not just governments in Sask, and not just NDP governments.
Pasta plant in Swift Current?–the Liberals(CWB) refused to allow the Western farmers to sell their wheat to the plant and refused to allow them to make the flour from Western Canadian Wheat.
Magnesium Plant in High River?–the municipal and provincial government forgot to check the cost of bringing the ore in from BC–it negated the chance to be a profitable business–this after tax dollars were given to the company! I think they now make paper diapers at the plant–or that is what was planned the last I heard.
Last I heard of Swan Hills they had contaminated everything withing 100 miles of the plant–were not allowed to eat any wildlife hunted in that perimeter. Don’t know if they are still running–I think the government(taxpayer) had to take it over to keep it functioning.
“Court documents obtained by the CBC say the Saskatchewan government loaned another $15,000,000 over the Christmas to keep the Meadow Lake Pulp mill open. This loan happened while the mill was filing court documents seeking protection from its creditors.”
As someone from BC I know waht you are talking about. First,let me mention two things; I was born in Ocean Falls BC and I still have my BCRIC shares.
Some 20 years ago the NDP out here wasted taxpayers money trying to shore up the Pulp Mill in Ocean Falls. Premier Bennett got rid of the money eating sink hole by including the Pulp Mill shares in a free public give away included in the BC Resources Investment Corporation.(BCRIC) Ocean Falls is now a ghost town. The pulp mill is no more.
The sooner you stop gifting the money away the better.
As someone who has lived in Saskatchewan for my entire life primarily under the socialist rule, I am at the end of my rope with these idiots. I stayed and built a business that provides employment and taxes within the province. How was I rewarded? They set up a competitor who was directly subsidized by the govenment and attempted to put me and others like me out of business. Fortunatly, they are so incompetent that competing with them is easy. However, having said that, I am committed to staying here until after then next election. I will work my ass off to ensure that Brad Wall and the Sask Party win. If they don’t, I am out of here. BTW, I live in Saskatoon and do business in both cities. I submit that the real problem in this province is Regina. These two cities are polar opposites in attitude. In Saskatoon, people are working for someone else until they can start their own business or move to Alberta. In Regina, everyone seem to be either working for the government or trying to get on the that gravy train. When asked what the govenment planned to do about out migration, the finance minister said that this was a good thing. It leaves more for the rest of us. What an idiot.
Hi Canard, I’ve had the same discussion with my wife about leaving SK if the socialists are still in power. About voting patterns, I don;t think that the dippers get 50% (in fact, the SaskParty received more votes than than the NDP in 2000). The dippers are strong in the inner cities, with the elderly, and get over 90% of the votes on most reserves. But in the next election, hopefully it happens soon, the liberals will be weaker, and I think that voter turnout will be higher, as people seem to be more conscious of the mess that the dippers are making, expecially since we are learning that Calvert is so far left of Romonow.
Back on topic, I heard on CBC radio this am (this is the reason I’m posting anonymously!) that SaskPower has been asked to forgive 4 million owing to the Meadow Lake mill.
I also have tried voting these stards out since I can remember, but since elections are owned by Gov’t employees and union workers ( all that seems to be left in this God forsaken prov). We that want them out don’t stand a hope in hell. You know the more money Sask makes(royalties and such) it seems the more it spends on increasingly bad decisions or shud I say stupidity.
This is about trying to save Sonntag’s ass in the next election pure and simple. The NDP is aware how the tide is turning in our fair province and if they let the mill go under, Sonntag would be out on his backside. Just wait till we get closer to the election, they will be throwing money at every NDP seat to secure the “red” vote.
Shifting Targets
One tag filled, one tag to go. I wonder if bloggers will have the same impact on the issues that they had in the recent fedreal election. At least in Saskatchewan the right-of-centre bloggers won’t have to worry about
Canard
Even though I would agree that Saskatoon is more free enterprise and Regina more a government town,Saskatoon still voted in 11 of these socialist idiots, so it is far from a “Regina problem”.
We need to just band together and get rid of them forever.
“When asked what the govenment planned to do about out migration, the finance minister said that this was a good thing. It leaves more for the rest of us. What an idiot.”
What an idiot indeed. SK is INCREASING the INCOMING immigration allowances and doesn’t care about migration out?
I guess those government employees need to increase the number of “skilled” workers. Same as happened to us. We come here cause they need skilled workers, then we get here and so “oh ya, that education and experience requirement? THat is only enough to clear you through immigration, but we don’t recognize your education for credentialing purposes.” I guess that’s what we get for listening to the gov’t. Don’t come here if you are part of a regulated profession.
I guess all the Gov’t employees in Regina just want to increase the number of ‘skilled’ workers to come and sling fries at the Cornwall center. All the young SK people that should do that job go to Alberta and make $25 an hour.
Reginacon
I checked the results of the last election http://www.elections.sk.ca/results.php and Saskatoon did send 9 Dippers but they also sent three Sask Party. Regina OTOH, sent 11 out of 11 to the Dippers. Only one of those 11 was close the reast were no contests.
Having said that, I think there will be a difference this time. I think Regina has the potential to send a couple of people the “right” way and I think Saskatoon will most likely split. If this happens and the rest of the province stays static, change in govenment. The real battle will be in Sasktoon. If they manage to stay on message, provide a clear picture of their plans and address the “Selling the Crowns” hidden agenda bs early, I think the win is very real.
Canard
Sorry about the numbers,my memory doesn’t serve me as it once did.
The fact remains that neither city is getting the job done in trying to get rid of these commie maniacs the way our rural cousins are.
Looks like we are on the same side however, and the job will get done in 2007!
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