The value meter

The real story in any budget lies not in the carefully worded budget speech, nor in the press releases that have been drafted by the press officers, vetted by the higher-ups for content and tone, and released in a flurry on budget day.

The real story lies in the line-by-line accounting of revenues and expenses, department by department.

The budget story will spin out over the next several months, like the ripples from a rock dropped into a small, still pond, as local papers, pundits and columnists explore its hidden nuances, meanings and after-effects.

A very quick glance at the budget estimates document - a 270 page report you can obtain by clicking on the Budget 2010 link on the government's website - provides some interesting points to chew on.

Like this one.

When it comes to the Williams' government's investment in renewable resource industries, the fishery is at the bottom of the proverbial barrel of importance in the fiscal food chain.

Here are the basic numbers, based on the estimates for salaries and programs in five government departments:

Natural Resources (encompassing the forests, agrifoods, and minerals) - $300 million for program spending and department salaries.

Tourism, Culture and Recreation - $63 million for programs and salaries.Environment and Conservation - $63 million.

Industry Trade and Rural Development - $56 million.

Fisheries and Aquaculture - $44,131,900 for salaries and programs. Of that $44 million, $13 million is set aside for aquaculture development and $11.5 million is earmarked for fisheries development.

And you have to wonder why fishers and plant workers feel they hold no importance in the overall mindset within Confederation Building?

Just this past fall, a handful of plant workers from Port Union - who had not gotten enough work to qualify for Employment Insurance benefits - pleaded their case to then fisheries minister Tom Hedderson, hoping government would be able to give them wages on employment projects that were equivalent to their plant wages. They were sent back home empty handed.

On budget day, March 29, a handful of fishers from the North East coast were on the steps of Confederation Building, asking not for money but simply for a chance to make a living.

They want the province to lift the rule that, essentially, has created serfdom.

Fishers want to have access to more buyers for their product, mainly crab.

They want buyers from the other Atlantic provinces to be able to come in here and, essentially, set up buying stations. So far, government has declined to change the policy.

The budget of $11.5 million for fisheries development won't do much more except, perhaps, build a few wharves or cover the costs of the next consultant in the lineup who'll be hired to figure out what's wrong.

Meanwhile, Monday's budget saw the government throw a $30.6 million lifeline to the pulp and paper mill in Corner Brook.

Minister Kathy Dunderdale, in offering justification for the bail out, told the media, "They, like every other pulp and paper company in the world are struggling. As all of that settles, companies like Corner Brook Pulp and Paper are trying to keep their head above water, and we want to do everything we can to help them do that."

Replace the words 'pulp and paper' with 'fisheries' and you have exactly the same scenario - but without a government aid package.

It's shameful that an industry that has been worth - just a couple of years ago - about $1 billion to the provincial economy, gets only a small mention in government's financial plan.

Unless government is prepared to bring its investments in the fishery on par with its spending for other resource industries, they might as well remove the 'fisheries development' line from the estimates document altogether, and tag the $11.5 million as an additional cost on the line for "Income Support" or "training" under the Labour Market Adjustment program.

Who knows, some of the former fishers and plant workers might be fortunate enough to wind up "in the woods" in Corner Brook.