Latest / VOCM On Demand / VOCM News Morning Update September 10th
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Local news now.
- 0:02Speaker 2: A VOCM News Update.
- 0:05Speaker 3: I'm Sarah Strickland. The provincial government is still mulling over
- 0:09Speaker 3: what relief measures can be implemented this fall using excess
- 0:13Speaker 3: oil money. Finance Minister Craig Party hinted earlier this year
- 0:17Speaker 3: that new cost of living measures would be introduced. He
- 0:20Speaker 3: says the province is expecting over $ 500 million in oil
- 0:24Speaker 3: revenues and they are currently doing an analysis to determine
- 0:27Speaker 3: how the extra money from that can be used.
- 0:30Speaker 4: An analysis would go from as far as... Reducing the
- 0:34Speaker 4: expenditures that Newfoundlanders were to pay for the electricity. We
- 0:38Speaker 4: know that we have the oil rebate that would be currently.
- 0:41Speaker 4: We know that we have, as far as the poverty,
- 0:45Speaker 4: more targeted relief, whether it be children, seniors, families in
- 0:50Speaker 4: low income. These are all the things we're looking at,
- 0:53Speaker 4: and it may conceivably be a smorgasbord.
- 0:56Speaker 3: The status of the promised 15% electricity rebate is up
- 1:00Speaker 3: in the air until the Churchill Falls deal is signed.
- 1:03Speaker 3: The party doesn't rule out using oil revenues to provide
- 1:06Speaker 3: that rebate if the deal falls through, at least for
- 1:10Speaker 3: one year.
- 1:11Speaker 4: If we just look at $ 500 million, then we're looking at,
- 1:13Speaker 4: we've got about $ 100 million that we would have to
- 1:16Speaker 4: provide relief for New Flanders and Labradorians. And if anybody
- 1:20Speaker 4: is doing the math and would say, well, this 15%
- 1:22Speaker 4: is $ 92 million and we're going to have $ 100 million,
- 1:25Speaker 4: is it conceivable we can do the 15% for one year?
- 1:28Speaker 4: That's conceivable. That's conceivable within what the oil revenue would be.
- 1:34Speaker 3: Fuel prices tend to ease off around this time of year,
- 1:37Speaker 3: but one industry expert says drivers should expect no such
- 1:41Speaker 3: relief this time. Patrick DeHaan is head of petroleum analysis
- 1:44Speaker 3: at price tracking website GasBuddy.com. He says diesel prices are
- 1:49Speaker 3: also seeing a surge at a particularly bad time.
- 1:52Speaker 1: It will be a cost that slowly gets trickled down
- 1:55Speaker 1: from logistics. Supply chains will be passing that along. So
- 2:00Speaker 1: that certainly could reignite inflation across the country in the
- 2:03Speaker 1: weeks ahead. at the worst potential times as farmers are
- 2:06Speaker 1: now getting out into their fields.
- 2:08Speaker 3: Escalating tensions in the Middle East and in Russia are
- 2:11Speaker 3: pushing international crude prices above 100 U.S. a barrel. Gas
- 2:16Speaker 3: is up a cent this morning. A Memorial University economics
- 2:21Speaker 3: professor says Canadians will eventually pay the price for counter-tariffs
- 2:25Speaker 3: imposed by Ottawa on a range of U.S.
- 2:28Speaker 2: Goods.
- 2:29Speaker 3: Affected U.S. imports include $ 28 billion worth of 629 items
- 2:35Speaker 3: from clothing and home appliances to metals and electronics and
- 2:39Speaker 3: range from 15% to 50%. Tom Cooper says local companies
- 2:44Speaker 3: will have to collect what amounts to a tax on
- 2:46Speaker 3: behalf of the federal government.
- 2:48Speaker 2: So it could be like locally an amazing organization like P.F. Collins.
- 2:53Speaker 2: They may be importing it on behalf of somebody, and
- 2:55Speaker 2: they would collect the tax. Or if you're an American
- 3:00Speaker 2: subsidiary like, I don't know, Old Navy or someone like that,
- 3:03Speaker 2: and you would be collecting the tax on their behalf.
- 3:07Speaker 2: It depends in terms of how they're structured, et cetera.
- 3:10Speaker 2: But it's not a bill that we send. Instead, we
- 3:13Speaker 2: collect it.
- 3:15Speaker 3: Premier Tony Wakeham met yesterday with members of industries affected
- 3:18Speaker 3: by the trade war with the United States. Wakeham was
- 3:21Speaker 3: also joined in the meetings by Finance Minister Craig Party
- 3:25Speaker 3: and Jobs Minister Lynn Paddock. Industry leaders shared their concerns
- 3:29Speaker 3: about potential impacts and discussed how the federal government's response
- 3:33Speaker 3: must be ambitious, targeted and responsive to the situation and
- 3:37Speaker 3: work for all regions of the country... including ones that
- 3:41Speaker 3: are export-oriented like this province. Wakeham reiterated government's unwavering commitment
- 3:47Speaker 3: to collaboration with affected parties and how protecting provincial interests
- 3:51Speaker 3: has been prioritized. The provincial government has appointed a new
- 3:55Speaker 3: director for the province's Serious Incident Response Team. CERT-NL is
- 4:00Speaker 3: a civilian-led agency that investigates serious incidents involving police officers
- 4:05Speaker 3: in the province. Senior Crown Attorney Richard DeVoe replaces Interim
- 4:10Speaker 3: Director Stephen Ring, who took over from Michael King after
- 4:13Speaker 3: his appointment as a provincial court judge in late 2024. DeVoe,
- 4:17Speaker 3: who is originally from New Brunswick, moved to this province
- 4:21Speaker 3: in 2010 to complete his articles with the NL Legal
- 4:24Speaker 3: Aid Commission. He worked with the Nova Scotia Public Prosecution
- 4:28Speaker 3: Service before returning to legal aid in St. John's in 2015.
- 4:32Speaker 3: DeVoe has been appointed for a five-year term. An upcoming
- 4:37Speaker 3: ACDC concert scheduled at Toronto's Rogers Stadium has been cancelled
- 4:42Speaker 3: due to storm damage. Live Nation operates the venue and
- 4:46Speaker 3: says engineers determined sections that were affected by last Wednesday's
- 4:50Speaker 3: storm will need to be removed and rebuilt. Powerful winds
- 4:54Speaker 3: tore through the stadium during major thunderstorms that caused localized
- 4:58Speaker 3: flooding and power outages in the Toronto area. The September
- 5:02Speaker 3: 16th concert was set to be the venue's final show
- 5:05Speaker 3: of the season. That's your news, I'm Sarah Strickland.