What comes around goes around (II)

A couple of interesting tidbits out of Central Dannyland, by way of the Advertiser.

Shawn Skinner throws a lot of cold Exploits River water on the principle of adjacency, once sancrosanct — at least as it applies to enemies foreign, not domestic:

[Skinner] mentioned the original overture from the [Exploits Regional Chamber of Commerce] that they would like to see an economic development fund for the region. However, the minister reiterated that government would not be creating such a fund.
After presenting government's take on the issue, the chamber indicated it understands government's rationale and decided not to proceed any further.

"The rationale is that this is a resource owned by the people of the province, and a resource that will benefit the people of the province," said Minister Skinner.

"If a particular area of the province needs economic stimulus, we as a province will step up. Right now in central that's something that's needed and we've agreed to and have been doing and continue to do in terms of providing economic stimulus. We really don't believe it's good policy to break up the province into regions and if they happen to have a natural God-given resource, they should be the only ones to benefit from that."

So no regional fund.

But that's not stopping the ERCC:

ERCC acting president Gerald Thompson agreed that the meeting with Minister Skinner was a cordial one.

He said the chamber has changed its strategy - what it's looking for is an equity share.

Yeah, OK. Good luck with that. But have fun trying. By the time you're done, ODP will rue the day he ever decided to popularize the E-word.