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Opposition fisheries critic and
Twillingate-Fogo MHA, Gerry Reid, wants to know if provincial fisheries
minister Trevor Taylor was aware of the elimination of 600 jobs in the
Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans when he met with the Federal
Minister on Monday. He also wants to know if the provincial minister
strongly objected to any job cuts in this province.
"The provincial minister should let the public
know if he knew about these cuts when he met with the Minister and if he
used that meeting as an opportunity to speak out against these cuts,"
says Reid.
The Liberal MHA says he is concerned about the impact
the reduction in positions could have in this province and he is concerned
about the fact that the provincial conservative government has not been
speaking out against these cuts.
"I think rather than lessening the presence of
DFO in this province we need to have more people hired. This is where the
resources are, and there is a strong case for moving more jobs into this
province. I have not seen any strong case being made on this issue by the
Williams government. In fact, there has been total silence on this important
issue."
"I think it would be shameful if the Provincial
Minister had a meeting the Federal Minister and chatting about the need to
put more resources into protecting the fishery off our coast without
challenging him on the job reductions that were occurring." |