Deceit or Incompetence?
By: Ryan Young
Last week I listened closely to Finance Minister, Tom
Osborne, during a call with Paddy Daly on the VOCM Open Line show. Mr. Osborne
spoke at length about how his government was ready to play hardball with
Nalcor, and extricate answers about the project's finances from the board and/or
CEO Stan Marshall. At certain points during the conversation, the new minister
sounded quite a bit like the old minister, and the tough talk that she had for
Nalcor on Budget day 2016. We have heard plenty of tough talk since the
Liberals took office in late 2015, but what do we really have to show for it,
and what has changed?
More and more people are waking up to the monumental
mismanagement and possible corruption afoot within the Muskrat Falls project. Our
government, on the other hand, seems to be working as hard as ever to misdirect the public
and ensure that the project is finished without the taxpayers ever knowing what really happened to all of that money. The
Liberal’s are happy to keep themselves hitched to the “previous administration”
bandwagon, feigning ignorance and blaming the old government for everything
wrong with the project. Unfortunately, nobody on team red seems to realize that
by playing dumb, they are leading the public to believe that they are really as
incompetent as the opposition says they are.
The most telling part of Minister Osborne’s VOCM conversation was
when he told Mr. Daly that he was in the presence of the premier when he
learned about the massive cost of embedded contractors being used by Nalcor. He
claimed the premier was upset about the lack of transparency regarding the use
of these contractors, and told us that Ball is committed to a public inquiry
on Muskrat Falls. The question he didn’t answer, however, was did the CEO, the Minister of Natural Resources, and/or the Premier know about the extent of the
use of these contractors before James McLeod broke the story in The Telegram?
The Liberals have been in power for nearly 2 years. They
have brought in a new CEO and Board of Directors for Nalcor, they have claimed to have beefed
up government oversight of the project, and they have paid millions of dollars
to Ernst and Young to study and report on the finances of Muskrat Falls. They publicly
claim that the administration knew nothing about the project management team
being made up of 90% contractors or that they had billed Nalcor for $4.6
million hours of work. By telling us that the government was in the dark on
this issue proves one of two things. Either our government is directly lying to
us about Muskrat Falls or they are so completely incompetent, that in 2 years
they have not even managed to identify this glaring issue on their own.
While most people could easily latch-on to the incompetence theory,
it is quite unlikely that nobody in the decision-making process was aware of
the billing free-for-all that was going on right under their noses. Despite
what Ball might be spinning to the public, the issue of embedded contractors
seemed to be passing the small test just fine until someone in the media
remembered how to do some investigative journalism.
So where does that leave us? Mere hours after the backlash
from The Telegram story began to bombard government, Ball announced that a Muskrat
Falls inquiry would happen, and that he had reached out to the various
departments for help in drafting the terms of reference. While that is great
news on the surface, as Uncle Gnarley and others have pointed out, ordering an
inquiry before a complete forensic audit of the project is completed is rather
like putting the cart before the horse. The other concern many have about a
possible inquiry, is that if the leadership group was telling the truth about
their lack of knowledge and understanding of the project finances, then how can we
trust them to draft terms of reference that will actually reveal the truth about
Muskrat Falls?
I’d really like to believe the premier when he says that he
and his government are committed to getting to the bottom of the Muskrat money
pit, but words are just that, words, and actions speak so much louder. Take for
instance the Ball’s concern over the standoff at the Muskrat camp and the three hunger strikers from Labrador that
forced the government's hand last fall. After a marathon meeting with indigenous
leaders, a deal was reached in which further mitigation measures were promised.
In a letter from the Nunatsiavut government that was released yesterday,
President Johannes Lampe made it very clear that after several meetings with
government and Nalcor, those promises of additional mitigation measures will
not be honored.
Ball stood in front of reporters after the meeting last fall
and told the province that the meeting was about one thing, the health of Labradoreans.
He also said that going forward, their decisions would be based on science and
research and that his government was committed to working with aboriginal
leaders and that he was “confident” that they could achieve the goals that were
outlined in the agreement.
While a big to-do was made about a chair being appointed and
terms of reference drafted for the promised independent expert advisory council
(IEAC), it was made very clear from Lampe’s letter that there was never any
intention of lowering water levels so that additional mitigation measures could
proceed. Indigenous leaders were told during a meeting with the premier and
other provincial officials on September 6th that water levels in the
reservoir would be raised to 25m this fall, and once they reached that point
they would not be lowered again.
Dwight Ball already has a huge credibility problem. He has failed
to be honest with the people of this province at every opportunity. Despite
their best efforts of getting out in the media and telling people they are
going to do something positive, they can’t hide from their record, and the
revelations brought forth by Johannes Lampe just further prove that this
premier will say anything to ensure that Muskrat Falls goes ahead.
Deceit or pure incompetence? Either way, Ball and his
government seem to be willing to throw away every shred of their credibility in
order to deliberately mislead the people of this province about Muskrat Falls.
The real question is: How long will we, the people, continue to stand for it?
