Another chapter complete

On Wednesday, Premier Danny Williams said he was pleased with the settlement, and most local politicians in the Exploits area seem to have the same view.

Susan Sullivan, MHA for Grand Falls-Windsor-Buchans, said she is pleased with the news of the agreement.

“Expropriation was always the right thing to do for the people of the province and the residents of central Newfoundland specifically,” Ms. Sullivan said. “We now have the timber rights, the water rights, the resources that rightfully belong to the people of this province. The steadfast decision and direction of Premier Williams and this government regarding expropriation was the right choice from the start. I am thrilled that we have resolution to this situation and can move on."

Ray Hunter, the MHA for Grand Falls-Windsor-Green Bay South said he agrees with the premier’s assurance that the province came out on top, while Exploits MHA Clayton Forsey agreed that the general consensus seems to be that it was a good move on the part of the federal government.

“The positive side of this is that we can go on now with our everyday operations because this could have been held up in the courts for years,” Mr. Forsey said. “We know that AbitibiBowater probably would deserve some type of compensation for their assets. No one was denying that, but regards to what the value of the assets were, that wasn’t decided and we could have been in the courts for years.”

“Expropriation was always the right thing to do for the people of the province and the residents of central Newfoundland specifically.” - Susan Sullivan

He added with the agreement, now that is out of the way, the NAFTA challenge is over and the province has its natural resources.

“That’s why we brought in the expropriation,” he said. “When the premier introduced that Bill, that’s what we wanted to do, we wanted to keep our natural resources here in the province. If AbitibiBowater wanted to move out of this province, well, so be it. But you’re not getting our natural resources.”

Grand Falls-Windsor Mayor Al Hawkins said from a Town’s point of view, they are

extremely pleased that chapter of the sage has been completed.

He said despite some critiques beliefs, the premier and the province did the right thing by expropriating the assets.

“If the premier had not expropriated, we would have had millions of cubic metres of fibre, plus hydro, that would have been controlled by a foreign company, AbitibiBowater, with no interest in Newfoundland at all,” Mayor Hawkins said. “They would not have any presence in Newfoundland and these resources would have been controlled by this company or would have been sold to another company. Whereas right now, the province has control over the assets and, to me, that’s beneficial not only to Grand Falls-Windsor, but also to all the citizens of the province because we do control the resources that we have.”