PORTLAND, Maine — Maine is courting the world’s largest manufacturer of aircraft and trains for possible expansion in Maine.
Gov. Paul LePage’s economic development team and the agency redeveloping the Brunswick Naval Air Station in early May met with officials from Bombardier Inc., the Canadian company with facilities around the world.
Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner George Gervais, who attended the meeting along with representatives from Bombardier’s aerospace division, described the meeting as preliminary but successful.
Gervais tells The Portland Press Herald there have been subsequent discussions with Bombardier since the May 10 meeting.
A Bombardier spokeswoman says the meeting was an exploratory session and the company has made no commitment.
The U.S. Navy decommissioned the 3,300-acre base last year.
Someone please hide the governor or at least Muzzel him!
They won’t come to Maine when the governor has vowed not to fund infrastructure projects…no businesses will.
What do you call the east-west highway?
Infrastructure..
Which is a private road (supposedly)
ONE HUGE BOONDOGGLE !
A privately funded road for Canadian super truckers.
Governor has vowed not to fund infrastructure projects as a form of make-work (aka ARRA). Investing in infrastructure to support new business is not make-work.
Only a republican would think repairing lousy pot-holed roads and unsafe bridges are “make work”.
Yessah
Sounds like Mr. LePage is hot on the trail, keep it up…
It will be interesting to see how many millions the governor throws at Bombardier to get then to come here after telling us how broke the state is for the past three months.
If the “millions he throws at Bombadier” pays off in more jobs and investment in Maine, why do you have a problem with it. Every state offers incentives to bring businesses in, and every state is broke at this point.
These would be manufacturing jobs that are multipliers for the other jobs (service, retail etc.) and we should do all reasonable efforts to win this.
I get the logic behind it, but don’t tell me we are broke so we have to cut elderly and mentally ill services, and then throw money and loans worth millions (the Kestrel deal was worth 10 million in loans, bonds and incentives) at a “job creator.” I am just saying be honest, he should say something like, “I hate the poor,elderly, and mentally ill simply because they are poor, elderly and mentally ill. I like business, so I want money and favors to go to business rather than people.”
Dream on , this move will never happen. Why would any manufacturer move to Maine with all of its high costs. Maine has no manufacturing base, no skilled workers, most workers are old. Everything to build a plane will have to be transported in . Excessively high electricity costs, excessively high heating costs, outrageous taxes and a Governor that’s a Buffoon. If they are smart and want to stay in business they will look to a Southern State to manufacture, like other foreign corporations have done. Bombardier, if you want to stay in business, run as fast as you can from Maine.
Sir, what ‘no manufacturing base’ do you describe ? Last I saw Bath, Kittery and the Midcoast boatyard’s all disprove that. As far as skilled worker’s, P-L-E-A-S-E !!!! Maine had skilled worker’s in maritime construction (When was the last time you bothered to go to the shipyard’s and see just what’s being built and repaired ? ) And as far as aerospace, have you ever bothered to look at just what skill’s are needed to keep a Navy 4 engine turbo-prop in the air for up to 14 hours at a time ? And with it’s associated equipment ? Oxford alone has an aircraft modification and modernization firm there that does a lot of work on the smaller type aircraft that ‘Bomby” builds and needs periodic maintenance and up-grades that ‘Bomby’s plant’s can’t, or don’t, have the time to do.
And as far as old is concerned, just who do you think has those skills, and want’s to pass them on to the next generation of worker’s, a great many who need to learn them and improve on them, in the coming future ? It’s us older folk’s ! I defy any serious manufacturer of equipment here in Maine, that needs the worker’s, and isin’t afraid to teach them, to put out advertisement’s stating that they need worker’s and they don’t give a damm about their age, and see the result’s. Do these older worker’s need a bit slower paced environment ? Let your ‘chassis’ get 50 to 70 years of age on it and tell me that you don’t need to slow up a bit more than usual. But these same worker’s also have the work ethic that these same business owner’s are all crying about as being no longer seen or valued in today’s work environment. Please, did Paulie, and come to think of it, Mitt, just fall off the ‘tater truck ? You Sir, along with Paulie and Mitt, all need a good woodshed session and then some castor oil. Maybe an appreciation for what it took for this Country to get to where it’s been, and can go, needs to be re-applied…………….
Lefties will jump out of there skin to block this. They hate industry and jobs, they believe only the government should supply good paying jobs.
Nothing like producing some beautiful diesal guzzling aircrft, it would be so great.
It’s Canadian…maybe it’s okay, since it’s not milk.
For all the naysayers concerning ‘roads and infrastructure’, ski-doo trails are not very expensive to upkeep.
As much as some are tired of hearing it, it would be the SMART MOVE for the DECD folk’s to get the Kestrel deal paperwork out and use it to be sure that Maine doesn’t shoot itself (almost !) again in the foot. I have no doubt that Bombardier is a honest and established company. Their products are world-wide in use, and in quality. And Maine’s workforce is both established and knowledgeable about both types of their product’s, both aircraft and train”s. That Bombardier is looking at Brunswick is a natural, more so given the old Air Station facillities that Kestrel walked away from. And the recent resurgence in rail use in the expansion of the Downeaster bodes well since rail is a natural here in Maine. But before this deal goes any further, please, someone in DECD be sure to keep the Governor out of these talk’s.
Every time a Maine politician, of either Party, gets mixed up in economic development before the serious, and ‘nitty gritty’, portion of the business process gets discussed, it inevitably winds up ‘tanking’. Let the DECD folk’s and the Bombardier folk’s get into serious discussion and get things going before the press ‘grip and grin’ process start’s up. Then at least the business relationship, between both, is established and both side’s know what to expect out of each other, and no more ‘Kestrel landmine’s popping up in the process. This could be a huge opportunity for Maine. Take it slow, take it steady, be up-front with each other and everybody stands to gain. Jump in and rush it and we’re gonna have Kestrel II. We all should have learned from the last time.
Personally, I think it was a blessing in disguise that we didn’t get Kestrel, they were asking for (and eventually got) way too much to move their operations in and set up shop.
The real question here is, how much should the State throw at Bombardier for these possible jobs?
If Paulie and Company were smart they’ed start off by using the Kestrel proposal as a starting point and working from their. But, and it needs to be addressed here and now, Bombardier needs to know that the E-W Highway Act and it’s provision’s ARE NOT A PART OF THIS DEAL . Strange as it seems, Bombardier’s timing is a bit suspicious, more so since the E-W Highway issue has been seen more and more as a supposed ‘feeder’ to potential Maine business’s. ‘Bomby’ needs to be set straight on that from get-go 1 so there are no later ‘We weren’t told this’ boo-boo’s popping up. Could the E-W Highway help ? No doubt it could if Maine had any say in it’s development, construction and management. But Maine isin’t going to get any of that. More so since the E-W is gonna be built to accomadate Canadian truck’s, which can’t run on U.S. road’s due to their size and weight loading limit’s. And with the Highway being planned for, and built with, no possible Maine interchange’s, well, ‘Bomby’ is gonna have a hard time getting it’s materials here using the Highway, much less getting the rail car’s out the same way. Plane’s, well, that’s kinda self-resolving, don’t you think ?
Me personally, I’d be giving ‘Bomby’s rail folk’s the same deal as with Kestrel, under the same criteria, and then add the fact that the old MMA rail line’s are under State, not private, control (Irving’s current leasing arrangement notwithstanding) and add their use for railcar delivery’s, at a percentage of the rail’s maintenance cost’s, to whatever deal that ‘Bomby’ proposes. That’s the start of the rail deal negotiation’s.
Likewise, the old NAS facillities could be proposed to ‘Bomby’s aircraft folk’s under the same provision’s that Kestrel got them. That also includes ALL OF THE FINANCIAL’S that Kestrel screwed the pooch on too ! Add the advantage the ‘Bomby’s gonna get with on-site labor force that know aircraft (The Navy had how many of how many types’s and powerplant’s here for how long ?) and their familiarity with the facillities, add some kind of refresher / training program (Where’s the FAA when you really need’em ?) and this one is almost a done deal. Same for the rail car construction and maintenance shop folk’s. Please, someone from DECD get on this horse and make sure it does not run off simply because someone wanted to play ‘Political Spitballing’ just to get their name in the paper. Maine’s worker’s deserve this chance and it’s up to those in charge to get it done, not toss it out just because of a ego problem…
Bombardier has contracts to build NYC subway cars and Boston streetcars in Pennsylvania. Why not Maine?
Agreed Sir. With the currently idle siding’s through out Maine, and their associated ‘houses’s right next to them, and ‘Bomby’s reputation for delivering a quality product, one would think that Maine’s supposedly ‘Business Friendly’ political machine would seize on the opportunity to put these location’s back into production, especially since the issue of mass-transit keeps coming up with the price of gas being what it is, and is going to be regardless of who sit’s in the White House. And to add to this whole mess is he fact that these type manufacturing site’s generate a huge amount of sideline revenue. Money flowing is money flowing. Now if LePage and his bunch of TP’ers can ever bother to see the ‘light’. Only time, and common sense, will tell ……
I hope something comes out of this.
Pilot to bombardier, pilot to bombardier, bombers 12 oclock high…may day may day, it is the buffoon.