Hey Laura,

I am not surprised that Mi(ni)ster Goofy Gravelle would employ this kind of faulty rationale without having any kind of notion that it is a contradiction onto itself. If the Gov kept four out of the five ONTC lines, then it would behoove them to set up conditions for success...to actually support these entities in their efforts to increase profitability and/or effeciency.

On the contrary, Goofy Gravelle is now saying that the Gov. won`t send any more work the ONTC`s way until they proove themselves to be more competitive; how do you do that without having some economies of scale, especially if you get compared to piers like CP and CN.

It appears that Goofy Gravelle was in bed with Cliffs by virtue of the fact that they have similar operating philosophies: IF YOU CAN`T GET WHAT YOU WANT right from the start, then use delaying tactics and attrition stategies to possibly eliminate any who have a better solution (avoid embarrassment by having to admit that you were wrong) or those who don`t agree with your one dimensional approach (How dare you oppose, contradict or show-up a minister`s plan or commitment).

I sincerely hope that someone (Wynne, Harper or others ministers) come to their collective senses and either replace Goofy Gravelle with someone who has no secret commitments to hide, no skeletons in the closet and no hidden personal agendas. We need someone who is really a mover and a shaker...not a pretender and a BS speaker.

It`s really ironic that we thought the resistence to development would possibly come from the Enviromentalists or the FN. Little did we know that it would be a double-talking visionless impostor who would hold the portifolio that would determine the success of this once in a lifetime mega-project...and not too long ago Ontario and Canada were touting themselves as mining friendly jurisdictions. What would we do if we had to contend with civil war, union revolts, intermittent power infrastructure/supply and unreliable transport systems. We are doing this to ourselves...we have very few problems, so we have to elect people like Goofy to create them for us.

How can we elect such ineffective leaders and then appoint them to the most important portfolios with respect to the economy. Let`s hope that the Feds have a plan that involves a JV with deep pockets (Chinese or otherwise) and that they can parlee it into multiple long standing agreements that lead to years of sustainable development.

Best of luck to all KWG and ROF longs,

Le Penseur