Newfoundland: The Anti-Enron

Michael “The Liege” O’Connor Clarke points us to a story in Canada’s National Post:

Newfoundland’s government prepared to take “extraordinary action” against a publicly traded company yesterday, warning Fishery Products International that it is drafting legislation allowing it to veto nearly 600 layoffs planned by the company…

Michael comments:

Yikes. This seems to be almost the moral opposite of the Bush/Enron situation.

Enron = corporation large enough to be significant economic mover and driver of GDP. National government has its hands buried up to the armpits in a smelly, convoluted mess of inappropriate interests, campaign contributions and other conflicts. Corporation suddenly implodes after appealling to government for a bail out. Government takes “hands off” stance but continues to stack the odds in favour of Corporation’s disgraced management.

FPI = corporation large enough (on a provincial scale) to be significant economic mover and driver of GDP. Implodes, threatening substantial (again, on provincial scale) layoffs. Government steps in, very definitely hands-on. Even going so far as to possibly create new legal precedent if required to support the local economy.

I agree with Michael’s conclusion: “Crikey.”

Categories: Uncategorized dw