Skip to main content

“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

JOHN FELDSTED – It’s not fair, but it is business as usual for federal investments in Ontario and Quebec

The federal and Ontario governments have convinced manufacturing giant 3M to start making N95 respirator masks at its plant in Brockville, Ont., a move that will give Canada a domestic supply of critical personal protective equipment, CBC News has learned.

The two levels of government and the company will evenly split a financial investment of at least $70-million to boost production capacity at the existing 3M facility in Brockville, with a goal of producing masks by 2021. Both levels of government have also agreed to long-term agreements to buy masks from the company.

Federal and provincial sources tell CBC News the official announcement will be made Friday afternoon by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford in Brockville.

 

Wow! Talk about chutzpah!

I wondered about this when I saw the Doug Ford / Justin Trudeau love in on CTV news. It is a classic example of politicians putting lipstick on a pig. 3M already has a plant in Brockville. The Ford and Trudeau governments have each agreed put up $35 million to boost plant capacity to make N95 face masks in Canada.

Ontario and Canada will each receive 25 million masks each year for the next five years. That is 125 million mask each. That means each government is paying $0.28 per mask up front – before any masks are even made, let alone delivered.

As with most of these press releases, the figures are fuzzy.

The CBC states the investment is $70 million split 2 ways. Then it goes on to talk about a $23.3 million investment by each government which is really a down payment on the deal. Why can’t they just be honest?

This is not a “domestic supply”.

The plant may be located in Canada, but the company is American owned. If you wonder why I find that unsettling, you have forgotten that Caterpillar, another US-owned corporation closed its London, Ontario plant in 2012 to cut production costs.

Ontario at least gets some jobs out of the deal, and thanks to Trudeau, the rest of us get to share in the costs. That is not fair -- but it is business as usual for federal investments in Ontario and Quebec.

We now have two foreign-owned face mask plants under construction, one on Quebec, the other in Ontario.

Yes, I know Medicom is a multinational owned by a Montreal-based holding company – that had closed its Canadian plant. With plants all over the world Medicom is not domestic.

Neither the Premier or the Prime Minister seem to have the foggiest notion of what a domestic manufacturer is, which should scare the heck out of you. They are juniors in the major leagues.

John Feldsted ... is a political commentator, consultant, and strategist. He makes his home in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

GORDON F. D. WILSON: When The Trick Masquerades as The Treat

Thirty-seven years ago, Halloween 1987, I became the leader of the BC Liberal Party.   British Columbia was badly polarized. Social Credit held one side and the NDP the other. It had been twelve years, 1975, since Liberal MLAs Garde Gardom, Pat McGeer, and Alan Williams had walked away from their party to join Social Credit, one year after the lone Progressive Conservative MLA Hugh Curtis had abandoned his party to sit with Bill Bennett, the son and heir apparent to long-serving BC Premier, WAC Bennett.   An unwritten agreement by the biggest Canadian political shareholders, the federal Liberals and Conservatives, decided that if British Columbia was to remain a lucrative franchise from a revenue perspective, they couldn’t risk splitting the electoral vote and electing the real enemy, the NDP, so no resources would be used to finance either a Liberal or Conservative party provincially.   “There are two sides to every street,” I was told by a very prominent Canadian businessman who cont
Post a Comment
Read more

FORSETH: As a BC Conservative member, and campaign worker, I will again state that the fact these errors were found -- AND brought to light BY Elections BC -- shows the system IS working

Sadly, two and a half weeks after the BC provincial election campaign, those who want to undermine our political process are still at.  PLUS, we also have one who doesn’t even live in our country, never mind our province. I speak of the buffoon running for President of the United States, who has poisoned the well when it comes to faith in the electoral process. Just today alone, comments such as the following, were being made of posts that I shared online: ... all the votes they keep finding has just favoured NDP on in all critical ridings and soon they will flip another riding in favour of NDP, Come on. ... Elections BC has ridiculed British Columbians, and I no longer have confidence or trust in their process and competence regarding the results Then there are others online, with comments like these – who are claiming fraud in the October 19th election: ... Who is the oversight for Elections BC? They should be investigated for election fraud! ... Fraudulent election ... should be red
Post a Comment
Read more

Rob Shaw: Eby should be worried why mudslinging missed the mark in B.C. election

  Why did a BC NDP election campaign overwhelmingly focused on attacking the character of the BC Conservatives fail to prevent a blue wave that came within 27 votes of toppling the governing party? Partly because voters didn’t much care for, or about, all the New Democrat mudslinging. They were just hopping mad about some very specific issues ... CLICK HERE for the full story
Post a Comment
Read more

Labels

Show more