400 jobs on the line as NDP sit back and hope for the best
 
HALIFAX, NS - PC leader Jamie Baillie says the Dexter-led NDP are being out-hustled by our New Brunswick neighbours when it comes to the future of our province’s only oil refinery. Imperial Oil announced today that they will sell their Dartmouth refinery.

Baillie says the refinery is the latest casualty of the weak business climate created by the NDP.

“The business climate of our province is something that is in the Premier’s control,” continued Baillie. “We have the highest corporate taxes and the highest consumer taxes on retail gasoline. While right next door in New Brunswick there is a government that is working very hard to find cheaper sources of crude to grow their refining capacity.”

The New Brunswick government is aggressively pursuing bringing cheaper Canadian crude oil from Alberta to enhance their refining output at the Irving-owned Saint John refinery.

“While we face losing a refinery, we have an NDP government that is standing by while our neighbours pursue a future for their refinery,” said Baillie.

Today in Question Period at the Legislature, Baillie accused the premier of “waiting for someone else to tell him what to do” instead of working hard like New Brunswick to ensure a future for locally refined gasoline.

Baillie also raised concerns that if the refinery were to be lost it would increase the price of gasoline in Nova Scotia.

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