" B.C. coal port sale a political hot potato Thursday, January 5, 2006 The proposed sale of a money-losing coal terminal in Prince Rupert, B.C., is creating strange bedfellows in the federal election campaign, putting Industry Minister David Emerson at odds with fellow Liberal and Transport Minister Jean Lapierre and on the same side as Conservatives who oppose the deal. Mr. Emerson, speaking on behalf of the B.C. Liberal caucus, believes the proposed sale to a partnership led by London, Ont.-based Fortune Minerals Ltd. should not go ahead and will take that position in talks with Mr. Lapierre, a spokesman for Mr. Emerson said Thursday. Mr. Emerson made similar comments over the past week to newspapers in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, which is about 800 kilometres north of Vancouver. Conservative MP John Cummins has been speaking out against the proposed sale for months, arguing that it would put an important public asset in the hands of a private company that could jack up rates for competing producers and use revenue from the terminal to support its own mine project in the region. Fortune says such concerns are unfounded. The company is developing the Klappan coal project in northern B.C. and hopes to ship coal from that mine through Ridley Terminal. Conservative leader Stephen Harper has promised to put the brakes on the sale until it can be reviewed. John Reynolds, co-chairman of the Conservative campaign, Thursday said his party wants a review of the process because the proposed arrangement is a “bad deal for B.C.” and that the facility should remain in public hands. Mr. Reynolds, who is retiring as an MP after the Jan. 23 election, said Mr. Emerson is contradicting his colleague now the proposed deal has become an election issue. “Emerson's now trying to keep some votes,” Mr. Reynolds said. Meanwhile, Fortune says it played by the rules in an open bidding process for the terminal and that a booming commodity market has raised the political stakes. “If [the price of] coal had stayed where it was and nobody cared about coal, nobody would care about this,” said Julian Kemp, a spokesman for Fortune. Ridley Terminals, a federal Crown corporation, is a deep-water port built in the 1980s as part of an ambitious scheme to ship B.C. coal to global markets and to spur economic development in the northeast part of the province. But hoped-for prices did not materialize and the project was largely a bust. The Quintette mine, near Tumbler Ridge, closed in 2000 and nearby Bullmoose closed in 2003. Built at a cost of $250-million, Ridley never operated at its capacity and required federal funds to stay in business. The terminal was on the block in the mid-1990s but no buyer was found. The government tried again in 2003, issuing a formal request for proposals. Fortune Minerals and Federal White Cement Ltd., a privately-held company with its main office in Woodstock, Ont., formed Northwest Bulk Terminals Inc. and was selected as primary bidder by Transport Canada. Documents released by Mr. Cummins in October show the partnership proposed in 2003 to pay $20-million for the facility, including $3-million up front and the remainder to be paid out over 40 years. That raised howls of protest from Mr. Cummins and others who accused the government of sloughing off a prize asset at a fire-sale price. Coal prices have more than doubled over the past two years, with contracts soaring from $50 (U.S.) a tonne in 2004 to as high as $125 last year on surging demand from steel makers. The Ridley Shippers Coalition, a group of B.C. coal producers, has banded together to fight the deal, saying a sale to a private operator could lead to uncompetitive shipping rates and threaten an industry that's beginning to recover. Several new mines opened last year and more are scheduled to come on stream this year. Reasonable shipping rates are critical if B.C. producers hope to compete with Australian companies that have operations closer to ports, said coalition spokesman Pat Devlin. Leslie Swartman, a spokeswoman for Transport Minister Jean Lapierre, said the Ridley divestiture process has taken almost three years and was waiting for cabinet approval when the election was called. Approval is required before the government can enter negotiations with a preferred bidder. " explains why David Emerson became next a Conservative cabinet minister and Tue Feb 7, VANCOUVER (CP) - The federal government has cancelled the sale of the Ridley Island coal terminal in Prince Rupert, B.C., to an Ontario company. The honourable John Reynolds an ex Conservative MP had personally helped to broker all of this too. The Liberal Premier of BC now had supported Emerson's act too. Figure that one out!

CP VANCOUVER -- A shell-shocked but unrepentant David Emerson admits he miscalculated the backlash he'd face for turning his back on the Liberals and joining Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet. He said he briefly considered resigning and might not stand for re-election in his Vancouver riding if his disillusionment with politics deepens. Emerson said he was unprepared for the reaction in his home town to what seemed to him a logical move aimed at helping his province. The former Liberal industry minister said his young children have been hassled at school and he's been unjustly accused of rank opportunism for switching sides just days after an election campaign where he led the Liberal charge against the Tories in British Columbia. But support from his new boss and cabinet colleagues banished fleeting thoughts of chucking the whole thing. "I talked to the prime minister today and he was very, very supportive," Emerson said Wednesday from Ottawa in a conference call with reporters. "He certainly wasn't a scary Mr. Harper. He's been very kind, and Conservative cabinet members have been very, very kind. I'm committed to staying the course. "I've thought about (resigning) many times. This is just another day when I've thought about that." Emerson stunned his erstwhile Liberal supporters Monday by accepting a post as Harper's international trade minister. Many B.C. business and political leaders greeted the move with approval because the most powerful B.C. minister in Paul Martin's Liberal cabinet would continue pushing the province's issues without breaking stride. Emerson said he hasn't spoken to Martin but had a cordial conversation with interim Liberal leader Bill Graham. "He basically said he thinks I perhaps did a political miscalculation as to how this would be reacted to, and I suppose he was right on that," said Emerson. "I didn't expect the reaction that I got." Emerson said he was not so naive to expect no criticism over his defection but thought the logic of his reasoning would win out. "I'm a little disheartened by the reaction but I'm a grownup person and I can take care of myself," he said. While B.C. movers and shakers were happy, many residents of his Vancouver-Kingsway riding were livid. The Liberal riding association wrote Emerson, demanding he return almost $97,000 in campaign donations. He dismissed it, saying he left the party with a healthy war chest, little of which came from individual donations. "I think these people ought to give their head a shake and ask themselves how much of that money would have even come to the Liberal party if I hadn't been there," said Emerson. Emerson was personally recruited by Martin to run for the Liberals in 2004 after leaving the chief executive's job at forestry giant Canfor Corp. Before that he was a top B.C. government public servant and successfully headed the Vancouver Airport Authority and B.C. Ferries. He agreed to run in 2004 only because Martin offered him a job where he could push B.C.'s agenda. "Then I, under duress, decided to run again because I didn't want to let Paul down," he said. Emerson said he didn't consider jumping to the Tories until after Martin announced he would step down as Liberal leader. The following day, Tory campaign co-chairman John Reynolds sounded him out, beginning a process that ended last Sunday when he agreed to join Harper's cabinet. Emerson conceded perhaps he misjudged the level of loyalty required in political life compared to the corporate world. "I think that is quite possible," he said. "I've been flabbergasted to say the least about the way people treat each other in politics. "I thought it was just on the floor of the House that people abused other people of other parties, but I now realize that it runs deep into the fibre and the veins of the parties themselves." Still, Emerson said his current plan is to run again in Vancouver-Kingsway, despite the fact no Conservative has won the seat since 1958 and his Tory rival this time finished a distant third. "I may be so disillusioned by then that I won't stand anywhere," he said. "I have to be honest. If I knew that politics would be as it has been recently, I wouldn't have run to begin with. But I'm into it and I'll finish the job." Emerson will be responsible for the thorny softwood lumber trade dispute with the United States, Ottawa's Pacific Gateway trade initiative and federal participation in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, among other things. "I'm actually carrying on the very traditions and initiatives that in fact the Liberal party was attempting to deal with," he said. Emerson got a congratulatory call Tuesday from his U.S. cabinet counterpart, Trade Representative Rob Portman. "We touched on a number of the issues, softwood being one of them, that we need to begin to reactivate," he said. "It's a top priority for us and I think it's a top priority down in the U.S. and that's something I'll be pushing ahead with." Emerson said he'll be speaking this week with Canadian lumber executives and ministers in the producing provinces to see how close they are to a common negotiating position before sounding out the Americans on their willingness for serious talks.