RIP free enterprise — we hardly knew yah.

When the provincial government issues press releases with appaling, Soviet-esque statements like this:

To support the continued efforts of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to use the province’s natural resources for the benefit of its people, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro will oversee a monitoring program to measure the wind resource in Labrador .

“Our government believes wind has great potential as a source of energy in Labrador and on the island,” said John Ottenheimer, acting Minister of Natural Resources. “We also believe that wind must be developed in such a way that benefits accrue to the people of the province. That is central to our government’s natural resource development policy.”

is it any wonder that far too many people believe that employment comes at the end of a government program, and that jobs are things that are made (passive voice) by government, not something that you, yourself, can make?

Why would any company — local or external — want to invest in a province where the provincial government sees itself not merely as the steward, but as the owner, of everything, even the very wind, the fungible, recyclable wind, that the province had no interest in until private industry and some people in Labrador got interested in it first?