ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Newfoundland is continuing its attacks against the federal government, issuing two reminders to Ottawa this week about contentious issues, suggesting relations remain strained between the two governments.
The latest came Wednesday, with Premier Danny Williams again accusing Prime Minister Stephen Harper of breaking a promise when the federal budget was released in March.
The budget contained changes to the federal equalization program that force Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to choose between 2005 deals that protect offshore resource revenues and an enriched equalization formula that includes a fiscal cap.
The Newfoundland government issued another friendly reminder a day earlier, urging the federal government to honour a campaign pledge to add hundreds of military personnel to Canadian Forces Base Goose Bay in Labrador.
The statements are the latest jabs at Ottawa in a feud that prompted Williams to launch a national ad campaign earlier this year attacking Harper, and has the fiery premier promising to campaign against the federal Conservatives in the next election.
Williams accused the federal Tories of pledging to preserve the offshore deals while in Opposition but then deciding "that their promise was meaningless" after forming government.
"They completely reneged on that commitment which they made repeatedly in writing and verbally, and they went further and made unilateral changes to the Atlantic Accords," Williams said in a statement.
The federal government has insisted it hasn't broken any promises because the provinces are free to opt out of the new formula and keep their offshore deals.
But Williams said Canadians won't be fooled by Ottawa's attempts to gloss over the dispute and focus attention away from broken promises.
He said he was disappointed to read comments this week from Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, who told a business audience in Nova Scotia there has been too much negative attention surrounding the dispute.
"While there may be differing opinions on the issue, there can be no dispute that the federal government has betrayed our people and broken their promise," he said in a news release Wednesday.
"The people of Newfoundland and Labrador will make no apologies for being negative towards a federal government that treats them with such disdain."
The revamped equalization formula has also angered Saskatchewan, which does not have a similar agreement on resource revenues with Ottawa. The province has promised legal action to challenge the fairness of the equalization changes.
