Megaproject mystery
Mysterious website wants to create jobs for 38 per cent of N.L. labour force
Do you like jobs?
Don’t worry about where the jobs are.
Or what kind of jobs they are. But if you like jobs, you should definitely check out JobsForNL.com, and get excited about jobs! At some point in the last couple weeks, somebody quietly launched a website and set up Twitter and Facebook accounts for JobsForNL, the most exciting economic development that nobody has ever heard of. The website claims, “We want to bring jobs to Newfoundland and Labrador. We have a fully approved project and plan that is moving forward.
“We have been working with our provincial government on a new project that will see huge private sector job growth for decades. Jobs for generations to come.”
Who is the “we” you ask? They don’t say. And the Newfoundland and Labrador government has no idea who they are either.
There are hints that it might be a mining project — there’s a picture of an excavator and a man in a hard hat in the website background. But the Department of Natural Resources has no idea about any of this.
“The Department of Natural Resources is not familiar with the website www.jobsfornl.com,” Minister Siobhan Coady said in an emailed statement. “While we know of many potential natural resources projects for the province, such as those proposed by Alderon or Tacora, we don’t know what project is being referenced on the website.”
The website claims that it will create 1,200 jobs in the province, and another 1,600 jobs across the border in Quebec — “That’s almost 3000 accessible jobs!” the site claims, describing the 2,800 theoretical jobs. But Lisa Dempster, a cabinet minister whose Cart wright L’Anse Au Clair district borders Quebec, has no idea what sort of project they’re talking about.
“Never heard of it,” she said. “I’m not familiar, so I can’t comment, but I will tell you that any time there’s a prospect of jobs, it’s good news for us here in this province.
The mining industry association doesn’t know anything about it either.
“I’ve never seen it before,” Ed Moriarty, executive director of Mining Industry NL. “This is a really strange website.”
The Telegram tried to ask some questions directly to Jobs For NL, of course. But when a reporter sent an email to the listed address — info@jobsfornl.com — it bounced back as undeliverable, because apparently that email address doesn’t actually exist.
The Telegram also sent a direct message to the Jobs For NL Twitter account, and received a couple of responses that didn’t answer any questions, and provided new information that appeared to contradict the claims made on the website.