It was time for me to say good bye to Tim Smith and I was ready for my ride to the Capital.
While walking through Brunswick Square, I noticed Ivan Court sitting down at a table.
This Councillor is the only elected official who truly spoke against the City on the LNG deal with the Irvings!
I slowly walked silently behind the Councillor and grab him in a choke hold and said -
Hey? I’m a Hitman from the Irvings and if you open your big mouth one more time? You’re going to get it!!! Do I make myself clear????
He quickly answered - Hey? If there are Irving’s hitmen around Charles? I’m sure they would get you first!!!..lol…
CHARLES LOOKING FOR THE IRVING'S SHARPSHOOTERS FROM THE ROOF TOPS!!!
I got lucky because a good friend of mine heard that I was heading for the Capital and found me a ride right near my front door but of course I drove the guy crazy with my many stories.
It made the drive must more interesting. It must have been interesting because the guy gave me his email to add on my list of 1,000!!!
Once he dropped me off at the Irving Mainway, I walked inside and noticed a woman ¾ naked, I glanced at her and said- My God! I forgot that I was in Fredericton? I still have my jacket on!
In the Loyalist City the girls are dressed like an esquimaux.
Look at me with my jacket on!
My God? I don’t know what I said on the talk show CFBC Friday but I received a lot of hits on my web site and this is a good thing.
Hey? I hit 14,000 hits and I am so happy because have you notice that I never mentioned 13,000 hits?
I’m paranoid of that number!
Yeah this blog have come a long way since the days of sending my update every day. I got partners and silent people who helps me this is good!
All the many thanks goes to WCIE!!! If it wasn’t for this guy? This blog site would have never became what it is today! Good work WCIE!!!
We need websites like this one to spread the word and debate the issues of the day!!!
We sure cannot go by the Irving newspapers.
It’s Germany all over again and there’s nothing New Brunswickers can do about this issue. New Brunswickers are not allowed to write letters against the Irvings and this is not fair.
But then again? Look at the sign at the Telegraph Journal? It shows you the respect the Irvings have for their newspapers. It’s coming to an end soon enough!!!
Lets wait and see what kind of verdict the Senate hearings on the Irving newspapers are going to say!
Speaking of Senate? I heard that another Senate Committee are going to study the different Human Rights Commission across Canada?
Have you heard this? Can someone tell me if this is a true fact! I will definitely make a presentation and I will make certain that it is no 4 minutes speech!
We have a very racist Human Rights Commission in this Province who dedicated their life and soul to the evil Irving Empire!
These racist members of the Commission must be eliminated at any cost!
Any Commission who supports and promotes racism must be eliminated!
We have a convicted thief- Carl White who stole from the Irvings in the 80s and now is looking after the Irving’s interest.
By the way? If you’re new on this site? Go read ????? It’s all there.
I had a very racist supervisor at Gulf Operators who told every co-workers that no niggers or frogs should be allowed to work within the Irving Empire!
The again? I told J.D. Irving about this racist supervisor and he told me that it was ok!
A Billionaire who will tolerate racist Supervisors in his empire? Very scary stuff!!!
If you deal with Gulf Operators? It means that you support Racism!
Our infamous New Brunswick Human Rights Commission have gave the ok to the Irvings that minorities can be assaulted on the job site and there’s nothing we can do about this issue.
Thank god that it’s not 100 years ago because every blacks and Acadians would be hung on the trees!
I will continue to fight those racist members of the New Brunswick Human Rights till the ends of time!
Hey? It’s not that bad because their lawyer Christian Whalen and I attend the same Church! Take a look at this picture.
You see? I am not a bad person! I will only fight against mis-justice being done to the minorities in this Province by the Irvings!
Sorry..Jumping the gun here….Ok I fell much better now because I believe that I am making up for lost time! The Senate will definitely hear from me in the future about this very racist commission!!!
Please excuse the style and grammar of this blog because I just write the darn thing and send it along the information highway! You have a good day and don’t be afraid to leave a comment. After I showed Tim Smith how to blog a story? Maybe he’ll write a blog this evening? Who knows?
Bye bye
Saturday, June 11, 2005
EDITORIAL IN NATIONAL POST ABOUT LNG DEAL!!!
It's all in here
The Irving Oil tax act scandal
Terence Corcoran
Financial Post
Thursday, June 09, 2005
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June 7, 2005, 10:07 am ADT: The CBC reports that New Brunswick's minister responsible for local government, Brenda Fowlie, says it could be months before the province makes a decision to approve a special law to allow Saint John to give a tax break to a new $750-million liquid natural gas plant.
June 8, 2005, 1:34 pm ADT: The New Brunswick government introduces a special law that will allow Saint John to give a large tax break to Irving Oil as an incentive to build the new LNG terminal.
In New Brunswick, apparently, a month is not as long as it used to be. Within hours of Ms. Fowlie's first comment, Irving Oil and its Spanish parter, Repsol, announced they had signed a definitive agreement to build the gas terminal, which will import gas, liquify it and then ship it out again to the U.S. and other destinations.
Now maybe Ms. Fowlie was simply out of the loop on the tax deal. If so, she's not alone. The Irving Oil tax subsidy has been looping its way through Saint John and the provincial government for months, a mystery to all but a few insiders. One of those insiders is Saint John Mayor Norm McFarlane, who got the subsidy idea rolling last March 14 when he appeared before council with a dramatic announcement and an ultimatum.
Saint John, said the mayor to a rapt council, had been selected by Irving Oil and Rapsol as the site of a major natural gas investment. But the investment would not be made unless the city gave the plant a tax break that would limit local taxes to $500,000 a year over 25 years. Council members, who had never heard of the deal before, were told by the mayor they had until midnight that night to vote yes or no.
Somebody asked the mayor how he knew this was a do-or-die tax deal. The mayor said he had spoken with Kenneth Irving several times over the previous months. "I asked him very clearly, and looked into his eyes, and said, 'Kenneth, you look into my eyes and tell me, if this does not happen, will this facility not be here?" To which Mr. Irving is said to have responded: "Yes, it is true."
When politicians start looking deep into somebody's eyes for policy guidance, as opposed to applying common sense and a few principles, the game is bound to go downhill. Saint John council, facing the midnight deadline, capitulated and voted for the deal, estimated to be worth about $100-million over the 25-year life of the $750-million plant.
By approving the tax break last March, city council not only caved in under pressure, it also set New Brunswick tax policy back 40 years. Back in the 1960s, the provincial government put an end to local tax subsidy competition. The common practice then pitted one town against another in money-losing battles for industry. The law banning such tax giveaways still exists, which is why Bernard Lord's Conservative government yesterday suddenly ushered in Bill 70, an act to comply with the request of the City of Saint John on taxation of the LNG terminal.
The bill is, quite literally, the Irving Oil tax break. It wipes several clauses of existing law out of existence and makes a specific and exclusive exception for the Irving LNG terminal. All other industries will continue to pay the full Saint John tax rates, although Ms. Fowlie did not rule out other exceptions. The province, she said yesterday, is willing to look at other projects providing they were "site specific."
One of the lost tax principles here is that taxes, tax increases and tax cuts should apply to all industries equally. Tax preferences on a company by company basis are distorting and unfair, if only because they pass the tax burden over to companies not receiving the benefit. Special concessions create utter confusion over the tax base and the nature of tax revenue. Even worse, perhaps, are the backroom-deal cutting and ugly political games that inevitably follow a system that gives politicians power to swing deals on a company by company basis. Looking deep into somebody's eyes doesn't rate as a guide to public policy.
In this case, moreover, there is much doubt that the tax break was a deal breaker. In the days following the council's midnight vote, information surfaced to show how other places were actually collecting bonuses from LNG plant builders. A town in Louisiana said its LNG plant generates municipal taxes and land fees worth millions of dollars annually.
Nothing in the public domain supports the idea that the business plan for the Saint John plant, to be built on Irving land adjacent to existing Irving facilities, was that tightly tied to a tax break. On the other hand, there's not a whole lot of public information available, especially for a project that has a city council and the Lord government scrambling to underwrite and support with special legislation.
So, in a country whose tax and political system is already a national disgrace, the Lord government of New Brunswick, in a scandalous secret deal led by the mayor of Saint John and a hard-ball playing corporation, have set bad policy and a precedent that could set New Brunswick tax policy back decades.
© National Post 2005
The Irving Oil tax act scandal
Terence Corcoran
Financial Post
Thursday, June 09, 2005
1 | 2 | NEXT >>
More Columns By This Writer
:: Unionomics
:: $20 bills to toddlers for toys
:: Free the RBC Four
:: Stop pining - it's time to be a man subscriber only content
:: Corporate tax power fantasy
:: Bleeding us from both arms
June 7, 2005, 10:07 am ADT: The CBC reports that New Brunswick's minister responsible for local government, Brenda Fowlie, says it could be months before the province makes a decision to approve a special law to allow Saint John to give a tax break to a new $750-million liquid natural gas plant.
June 8, 2005, 1:34 pm ADT: The New Brunswick government introduces a special law that will allow Saint John to give a large tax break to Irving Oil as an incentive to build the new LNG terminal.
In New Brunswick, apparently, a month is not as long as it used to be. Within hours of Ms. Fowlie's first comment, Irving Oil and its Spanish parter, Repsol, announced they had signed a definitive agreement to build the gas terminal, which will import gas, liquify it and then ship it out again to the U.S. and other destinations.
Now maybe Ms. Fowlie was simply out of the loop on the tax deal. If so, she's not alone. The Irving Oil tax subsidy has been looping its way through Saint John and the provincial government for months, a mystery to all but a few insiders. One of those insiders is Saint John Mayor Norm McFarlane, who got the subsidy idea rolling last March 14 when he appeared before council with a dramatic announcement and an ultimatum.
Saint John, said the mayor to a rapt council, had been selected by Irving Oil and Rapsol as the site of a major natural gas investment. But the investment would not be made unless the city gave the plant a tax break that would limit local taxes to $500,000 a year over 25 years. Council members, who had never heard of the deal before, were told by the mayor they had until midnight that night to vote yes or no.
Somebody asked the mayor how he knew this was a do-or-die tax deal. The mayor said he had spoken with Kenneth Irving several times over the previous months. "I asked him very clearly, and looked into his eyes, and said, 'Kenneth, you look into my eyes and tell me, if this does not happen, will this facility not be here?" To which Mr. Irving is said to have responded: "Yes, it is true."
When politicians start looking deep into somebody's eyes for policy guidance, as opposed to applying common sense and a few principles, the game is bound to go downhill. Saint John council, facing the midnight deadline, capitulated and voted for the deal, estimated to be worth about $100-million over the 25-year life of the $750-million plant.
By approving the tax break last March, city council not only caved in under pressure, it also set New Brunswick tax policy back 40 years. Back in the 1960s, the provincial government put an end to local tax subsidy competition. The common practice then pitted one town against another in money-losing battles for industry. The law banning such tax giveaways still exists, which is why Bernard Lord's Conservative government yesterday suddenly ushered in Bill 70, an act to comply with the request of the City of Saint John on taxation of the LNG terminal.
The bill is, quite literally, the Irving Oil tax break. It wipes several clauses of existing law out of existence and makes a specific and exclusive exception for the Irving LNG terminal. All other industries will continue to pay the full Saint John tax rates, although Ms. Fowlie did not rule out other exceptions. The province, she said yesterday, is willing to look at other projects providing they were "site specific."
One of the lost tax principles here is that taxes, tax increases and tax cuts should apply to all industries equally. Tax preferences on a company by company basis are distorting and unfair, if only because they pass the tax burden over to companies not receiving the benefit. Special concessions create utter confusion over the tax base and the nature of tax revenue. Even worse, perhaps, are the backroom-deal cutting and ugly political games that inevitably follow a system that gives politicians power to swing deals on a company by company basis. Looking deep into somebody's eyes doesn't rate as a guide to public policy.
In this case, moreover, there is much doubt that the tax break was a deal breaker. In the days following the council's midnight vote, information surfaced to show how other places were actually collecting bonuses from LNG plant builders. A town in Louisiana said its LNG plant generates municipal taxes and land fees worth millions of dollars annually.
Nothing in the public domain supports the idea that the business plan for the Saint John plant, to be built on Irving land adjacent to existing Irving facilities, was that tightly tied to a tax break. On the other hand, there's not a whole lot of public information available, especially for a project that has a city council and the Lord government scrambling to underwrite and support with special legislation.
So, in a country whose tax and political system is already a national disgrace, the Lord government of New Brunswick, in a scandalous secret deal led by the mayor of Saint John and a hard-ball playing corporation, have set bad policy and a precedent that could set New Brunswick tax policy back decades.
© National Post 2005
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