Legislative Assembly

ers there. You will recall the suggestion made by Moe in his letter of January 19, 1967, read by the member from Second Kings who tabled the letter, and all of the honourable members will receive a copy of it soon. The essence of the suggestion was that a certain amount of money be loaned by the provincial government as operating capital and that the creditors be paid off partly in cash, and partly in shares in the company. It took the Premier some three weeks to consider this suggestion, and as I said, he journeyed to Montreal early in February to hold a meeting. The meetin was held in the office of Messrs. Holden, Hutchison, Cliff, McMaster, Meighan, and innon Limited, in Montreal, on February 8, 1967. Present were Premier Alexander B. Camp- bell representing the Government of Prince Edward Island, John Nicholson Counsel for Government of Prince Edward Island, and,

W. E. Stavert, Counsel, representing the Norwegian group,

0. Tandre, Counsel, representing the Norwegian group,

Mr. Hague, for Bergen of the Norwegian group,

Mr. Wergeland, representing Bergen of the Norwegian group,

Mr. Bjerke, representing Olsen 8: Ugelstad, of the Norwegian group, Odd Kapstad, for M. K. International Limited,

Jens Moe, and A. L. Bissonette.

The meeting was called for the purpose of securing Mr. Jens Moe’s consent, and the consent of the companies he controlled, to the followmg proposal.

Honourable Alexander B. Campbell: Mr. Speaker, I was hopin that the hon- ourable member now speaking would make it very clear to this Assem 1y whose min- utes of that meeting he is quoting. I will tell him. These are minutes prepared by Mr. Bissonnette, Solicitor for Mr. Moe, and that this Government does not agree entirely with Mr. Moe’s version of what happened at that meeting.

J. Cyril Sinnott: Mr. Speaker, since the Premier has refused to table any min- utes of the meeting and because that meeting was most important, I will have to take what information I can find, concerning the meeting, and unless he wants to table what he calls the true account of the meeting to let us know exactly what went on, then I have no alternative. (Applause) I wasn’t at the meeting; I would have been glad to go with him, ‘but I am sure he would not have wanted me there. In any case, these are the minutes.

“The meeting was called for the proposal concernin Mr. Jens Moe’s consent, and the consent of the companies he controlls, to the followm proposal. (1.) Mr. Moe would transfer 100% of the stock of Bathurst Marine Limite , and Gulf Garden Foods Limited, except for the stock that he does not control, for example, the shares owned by Kaare Graesdal dz Fjell Navigation, to Norinvest for $1.00, such transfer to be made for the uxpose of (a) permitting Bathurst Marine, Limited, and Gulf Garden Foods, Limi , to make a proposal to their creditors involving a P.E.I. Government backup or guarantee for the proposal, but which would not commit the Government to an amount in excess of $500,000.” In other words the Government was prepared to invest $600,000.00, of the taxpayers money of Prince Edward Island in order to help pay off the creditors if Mr. Moe would sell all his shares for one dollar.

“The thought of the Norwegian group and the RIM. Government is that if the debt load on the companies could be reduced to zero by ayment to the creditors of, say twenty cents on the dollar, which would be paid by t e Government, the George- town complex would then be an interesting proposition to prospective urchasers like W. R. Grace and Company." I should stop here a minute and tell you t e story about W. R. Grace and Company. In December, after the plant had been closed, Mr. Moe had been told by the provincial government that they would not co-operate with him under any circumstances and that he would have to find his own outside capital. Mr. Moe got in touch with several investors and he succeeded in interesting W. R. Grace and Com- pany in coming down here to look over the plant. Their Vice-President arrived here sometime in December, I don’t know the exact date, and inspected the lant with Mr. Moe and subsequently had a short meeting with the Premier, after which Mr. Harris went home. The meeting was inconclusive and in order “to nail down the top on Mr.

_340_