Fistfuls of cash help Townie toffs

But Baymen can go beg to Trudeau: Furey

Given the way Premier Andrew Furey touts his cash give-away to WestJet as a game-changer - one of his many meaningless phrases - and as the source for new business opportunities in the province, you’d think the government would not only have the information to back that up but that they’d be falling over themselves to give it to you.

Sure.

You could think that like you could think that the government has a strategic plan for anything, given the way they bungle, bumble, and fumble their way through everything every day.

But the reality is way different.

A simple request to Steve Crocker’s tourism department about the traffic from last year's WestJet give-away turned up nothing. The department refused to disclose the information claiming that the raw numbers were “proprietary information” of WestJet and so it was sooper seekrit.

We don’t even know how much cash is involved. The department will only say what was in last year’s budget. Next year, the subsidy will be buried in the tourism department’s overall marketing budget and given that it will now cover seven flights, the total cost will likely be double that of last year or more with no increase in local business to show for it.

Someone tossed around a number the other day. Supposedly WestJet flights out of YYT to Gatwick had 80% seat occupancy, which is very good. It would still be interesting to know how many or what percentage of seats originated in Sin Jawns versus how many originated in Gatwick. The more seats that originate in Gatwick, the more you’d know this whole thing was about creating more business here.

After all, you may remember that about a dozen years ago, an American airline started flying from New York to St. John’s without any government subsidies of any kind. They kept it going because there was lots of traffic and they shut it down when the traffic dried up. By the same token, if these trips were about bringing new business opportunities *to* Newfoundland and Labrador, you’d expect the flights to start outside the province. Or at least you’d expect that half or more of the travellers originated outside Newfoundland and Labrador.

The fact the flights start in Sin Jawns and the provincial government won’t tell us any information about the travellers looks and smells a lot funny. And it should because the long list of these subsidies for airlines since Danny Days has never been about bringing people *to* Newfoundland and Labrador. The loudest complaints are always from people flying out of here for business or, more likely, for a holiday. London was arguably a business hub or a multi-purpose hub. But Dublin? That’s locals going home. Paris is a convenient hub to Portugal, where locals have found a cheap bit of sun that isn’t the United States. It adds up, which is more than you can say for much else in the House these days.

Doesn’t matter the political party behind them, these travel subsidies have always been - *always* been - about transferring scarce public cash to the local middle and upper middle class to support their vacations overseas. They could afford them anyway but their friends in government can help them out with some public cash just like for years they gave their kids discounted university educations.

But the real give-away that this WestJet give-away is just a class-based scam of public money just like frozen university tuition is in the Premier’s response to concern about the high cost of travel within Newfoundland and Labrador. One hundred percent the provincial government's responsibility. Huge problem. Labradorians are especially hard-hit by the high cost of flying to the island, compounded by the chronic scheduling issues of Air Canada partner PAL.

But Premier Furey had precisely zero interest in helping Labradorians. Asked by reporters about what Furey would do for the people trying to travel around the province, his reply was blunt: go ask Justin. Piss off, in other words. Furey rhymed off a list of charges by the individual airport authorities - all separate corporations not operated by the Government of Canada - he claimed the feds could cut to help Labradorians. They can’t. Plus the charges go to provide things like security or better facilities for travel. They are part of what helps those airports handle all the new passengers the tourism folks want to help build their businesses. So it would be in Furey’s interest to help, not blow people off. Interestingly enough, the charges all apply to the international flights out of Sin Jawns that Furey is helping to pay for. On that, Furey said nothing.

Odd thing to say for a guy looking to get re-elected. Flipping the bird to people in your own province doesn’t look good. When two members of your own caucus represent people in Labrador who are struggling with transportation, it’s not the sort of thing you’d expect the Premier to say. Even order thing to say for a guy who supposedly operates according to some strategic plan or other because the subsidies don't do what Furey claims.

But there is no plan to change the province. Just a desperate political need to get re-elected

---