NEWS RELEASE  

June 21, 1995    For Immediate Release 

LIBERALS PASS LAW FORCING CN TO KEEP HQ IN MONTREAL  

"CN does 70% of their business in the west, but Quebec gets to keep head office jobs." 

Ottawa - Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, spoke in support of privatizing CN Rail but against the stupid provisions put in the bill by the Liberals. One of the dumbest ideas in Bill C-89 which was passed by the House of Commons last night was a provision which would tie the hands of the new owners of CN by stipulating that the company's headquarters remain in Montreal. The Liberals defended this goofy idea saying they wanted to make sure the company would not have to incur any "potential costs from relocation". 

"The big-government-knows-best mentality is alive and well in the Liberal Party even when they try and privatize something," said Breitkreuz. "A company would not relocate its headquarters if that would result in some financial disadvantage. On the other hand, what if there was an advantage financially to move the headquarters of CN Rail to Winnipeg or some other western city because that is where CN does 70 percent of their business? Why should a private company be barred, by government decree, from doing what makes economic sense?" asked Breitkreuz.  

The Bloc Quebecois accused Reformers of Quebec bashing but Breitkreuz accused the federal government of being inconsistent. Drawing on a recent column by Ted Byfield in the Financial Post Breitkreuz responded, "When the ancestor to Air Canada (Trans-Canada Airlines) moved its headquarters from Winnipeg to the east, westerners argued that this was a Winnipeg based company. The government argued that most of Air Canada's business is in the east and so its head office should be in Montreal. Now when the shoe is on the other foot and CN's business is mostly in the west and still growing, the government is arguing the exact opposite." criticized Breitkreuz. 

"By using the government's own logic, the Liberals should allow CN to move its headquarters out of Montreal, if it wishes. When history and tradition fail the west the Liberals say it does not matter. However, when it favours the east they write it into law," said Breitkreuz. "It just doesn't make sense to run a company 2,000 miles away from its main operation." 

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