Not so fast, Rideout warns FPI

A move by Fishery Products International to sell plants and trawlers to another company will not proceed without the Newfoundland and Labrador government's blessing, Fisheries Minister Tom Rideout warns.

"We're not going to play games," Rideout told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier that day, FPI said it was going to proceed with selling its assets to an unnamed company without waiting for government approval.

Rideout, who said an FPI executive told cabinet last week that two proposals met the company's minimum requirements, called the move unacceptable.

"We will not be bullied. We're not going to have artificial timelines imposed on us by this corporation, whom we've had a significant amount of difficulty dealing with over the past number of months," Rideout said.

FPI's leadership solicited bids from other companies for its plants, trawlers and other assets.

Company under provincial legislation

A former Crown corporation, FPI's governance comes under the FPI Act, provincial legislation which the government says gives it control over sale of assets.

Rideout said security laws prohibit naming which company FPI has selected as its preferred suitor.

Rideout said the government wishes to conduct is own review of the two final bids.

Without that, he said, "there would be no sale without our approval."

Strained relations for months

Rideout and the provincial government have indeed had difficult relations with FPI in the past.

Last year, Rideout sparked the company's ire bysaying at a union-sponsored rally outside the company's headquarters that FPI was breaking the law by exporting unprocessed fish without the proper permits.

Meanwhile, a battle involving the Newfoundland and Labrador government over the future of St. John's-based FPI may be forming on another front.

Industry players say the federal government is reluctant to give any provincial government ownership over quotas, even though that has been done in the past.

Quota transfer key: province

The Newfoundland and Labrador government is insisting that transfer of FPI's quotas through the province is key to any deal.

In 2004, the province was able to purchase quota from one company to save a fish processing plant in Arnold's Cove. Quotas are a federal responsibility.

However, that deal happened under the former Liberal government, and sources say the decision is not popular with the current Conservative government and bureaucrats with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Federal Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn's office reissued a January statement, in which he said he cannot consider transferring FPI's quotas until he receives a "formal request."