I'm flexible, Rideout insists on FPI quota talks

Newfoundland and Labrador's fisheries minister insists he is being flexible on conditions related to the possible sale of the province's flagship seafood producer, even as he sticks to his guns about obtaining fishing quotas from Ottawa.

Tom Rideout said any deal to foster the sale of Fishery Products International plants will require movement from the federal government, not him.

"I'm open-minded.… If somebody could tell me, 'Look, Rideout, get off your high horse, here's another way,' I'm prepared to listen," Rideout told reporters Monday.

"[But] I don't know of any other way."

Rideout met with federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn and corporate and union executives in Ottawa on Sunday, after Hearn refused to turn over control of groundfish quotas that FPI now holds to the Newfoundland and Labrador government.

The Fish, Food and Allied Workers union and Ocean Choice— a St. John's company seeking to buy five plants and an offloading facility from FPI— called for the meeting.

Hearn described the meeting as productive, but Rideout would not even go that far.

"To say that the meeting was constructive and positive— these are nice buzzwords," Rideout said. "I suppose that's true, but it's a stretch to read very much into that."

Feds hold constitutional right

The federal government holds constitutional authority over harvesting in the oceans. Rideout said the provincial government is making its unusual request so that Newfoundland and Labrador communities remain the primary beneficiaries of quotas that FPI currently holds.

Hearn said the same benefit can achieved through his proposal to set a condition on where groundfish can be landed.

FFAW president Earle McCurdy said his members are worried about a political struggle overshadowing their need to get back to work.

"I don't think it's dead yet, but it's a struggle to find a solution here," McCurdy told CBC News on Monday.

"The people whose lives have been turned upside by this whole FPI soap opera were looking over the last 18 to 24 months are really looking to their political leaders, their corporate and union leaders— the people around that table [on Sunday]— to find a resolution and get on with things," he said.

"I hope this doesn't get caught up in an intergovernmental dispute, because they have a tendency to drag on for a while," McCurdy said.

Strike deadline looming

McCurdy noted the clock is ticking.

About 1,700 FFAW plant workers were poised to launch a strike last week, but shelved those plans to allow negotiations to take place.

Without an agreement, McCurdy said, his members— who narrowly rejected a tentative deal with FPI that included a concessionary wage package— will strike on May 14.

The issue was raised Monday in the house of assembly, where the Liberal opposition pressed the governing Progressive Conservatives on their commitment to obtaining FPI's quotas.

Premier Danny Williams said he was not surprised by the federal Conservatives' stand, particularly in the midst of an ongoing battle over equalization.

"They're saying you can't have your fish," Williams told reporters later.

"What is more basic to Newfoundland and Labradorians than saying you're not allowed to have your fish quotas? That kind of, I think, for us, is the last straw."

The Newfoundland and Labrador government, through the FPI Act, retains some control over the former Crown corporation, including approving the sale of major assets.

FPI has also reached a tentative deal to sell its value-added processing plant in Burin to Nova Scotia processor High Liner Foods.