NEWS RELEASE
                                                                                       Office of the Official Opposition

Liberals call for legal opinion on OCI’s commitment to Marystown

Liberal Fisheries critic and MHA for the District of St. Barbe, Jim Bennett,  is calling on government to create transparency in the OCI debate and release the assessment carried out by the Department of Justice which concluded that the company has lived up to the terms of its agreement in Marystown.

Despite requests from the Official Opposition, government and OCI have both refused to release a copy of the final Implementation Agreement signed in December 2007, contending it is a confidential agreement between a number of parties.  

“Minister Darin King recently indicated in the media that he sent the agreement to the Justice Department for a legal evaluation and they concluded that OCI met the terms and conditions of its agreement respecting the employment levels and processing requirements at the Marystown plant,” said Bennett.

“All we have to go by is the MOU released by government on May 28^th, 2007 regarding this binding agreement.  This is too important an issue to the community, the fishing industry and the province to be masked in secrecy of this government.   I call upon government to immediately release not only the Implementation Agreement but also the associated legal opinion. That agreement was intended to offer long-term protection to those plant workers and we know this has not taken place.”
 

Government press releases related to the sale of FPI in 2007
http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/exec/0528n06.htm
http://www.releases.gov.nl.ca/releases/2007/fishaq/1220n05.htm