Deceit or Incompetence?

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 6^th 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?

Auditing the Truth

Auditing the Truth

By: Ryan Young

It has been a crazy couple of weeks in the world of #nlpoli. This good rogue took to the wilderness for a few days, sans cell phone or internet, and when I returned to civilization I could hardly believe how much I had missed in just a few short days. There has been a lot of information to digest and to ponder, but one thing that seems quite clear is that nobody appears to have any interest in taking any accountability for the problems with Nalcor and Muskrat Falls.

It’s hard to know where to start. We had a new report released on Muskrat Falls that outlines even more cost overruns, now putting the price tag at $12.7 Billion. We also had the premier saying that he will commit to an audit or inquiry of some sort, but not really. Then there was a release of an old SNC Lavelin report from 2013 outlining probable cost overruns that the premier claims the former CEO of Nalcor ignored and that Ed Martin claims he never saw. And finally, we have Danny Williams firing both barrels at the Liberal Government and Nalcor, calling the current CEO, Stan Marshall, a “boondoggle buffoon,” and calling allegations around the SNC report “bullshit.” Through it all we, the taxpayers, are left scratching our heads and wondering just what the hell is going on in this province.

A poll released on June 20th by CRA showed that for the first time, the majority of NL residents were against the Muskrat Falls project. Surprisingly though, 40% of respondents still supported the project but that number will likely drop when hydro rate increases kick in next week. It will dwindle even more when the full impacts of the project begin to hit people in their wallets when/if Muskrat Falls ever comes online. While protests in Labrador continue to grow in size and intensity, there seems to be a new groundswell of dissent happening on the island now as well. People are already wondering how they will make ends meet when their bills double and more than ever we are seeing a push-back from the public at large against the project as a whole.

While there have been no shortage of experts speaking out against the project, it was especially painful to hear former premier Brian Peckford express his dismay that once again, Labrador power would be enjoyed by another province at much lower rates than the people of NL. Emera customers in Nova Scotia will enjoy much lower rates than NL customers for the same power from a project funded entirely from our tax dollars. It is certainly an epic fail of smallwoodian proportions, and Peckford, who spent his entire political career fighting against resource giveaways, can only lament the direction our subsequent premiers have taken us, and wonder how different things might have been if he had been given the same financial resources to work with.

With all of the political pressure and negative press, even the usually slow to catch on Liberals are able to see that the public is no longer willing to buy the platitudes about cheap power and projected revenues from the sale of spot power on the US market. Instead, they have changed their tune and are now talking about things like rate mitigation, while always continuing to point the red finger of blame at those dastardly Tories who got us into this mess. It might even work too if ole Dwight was willing to open things up to a full forensic audit to expose the inner dealings of the sanctioning of the province to satisfy the nagging questions many people have about whether the endless delays and cost overruns are the result of corruption or just pure incompetence. For some reason, the premier seems to see no value in getting to the bottom of things, despite his constant finger wagging. By playing the blame game without utilizing the options available to him to try to make things right, Ball is planting seeds of doubt in the public, leaving them to wonder what the premier might be hiding or who he might be protecting.

I’m not suggesting that the premier is doing anything wrong, but when you fail to be transparent and accountable to the electorate, there tends to be an element of distrust that hangs around like a bad odour. All the premier needs to do to get rid of that Muskrat sized cloud that is hanging over him and his government is to be open and transparent. There is absolutely no good reason not to immediately order a complete forensic audit and Ball’s reasons for dithering are absurd to the point of bordering on pathetic. An audit would in no way compromise the continuation of construction at the site and it would not have any bearing on any future costs or delays. All the premier is trying to do is say enough words to make it look like he intends to do something, without actually saying anything at all that would commit him to taking any sort of real action. With so many questions and allegations hanging over the project the only responsible thing left to do is to order the audit and let the truth speak for itself.

The main narrative that Ball and Siobhan Coady will continue to push is that they will review the project after the fact. The main problems with that are that a) it does nothing to help restore the confidence of the public in the project, and b) it is a very strong possibility that Dwight Ball and his government will no longer be in power by the time the project is completed and therefore will never have the opportunity to order an audit or review. The ideal time for a forensic audit would have been in early 2016, right after the election. Openness and transparency surrounding Muskrat Falls was a major part of the Liberal platform after all. Of course, that didn’t happen, but there is still time for Ball and company to do the right thing and open the project up to the full scrutiny of an independent body. The time has come. C’mon premier Ball, let’s make it happen…

The Resignation of Bern Coffey

The Resignation of Bern Coffey

By: Ryan Young

The resignation of the provinces top bureaucrat sent shockwaves through the local political scene Sunday night. After days of controversy, Bern Coffey has stepped down from his position of Chief of the Executive Council. The move came after a flurry of criticism was aimed at both Coffey and the government when the public learned that Coffey was representing a client who was suing Nalcor through his private law practice.

Allegedly, there was an agreement made when Coffey was appointed last September that would allow him to finish off any existing cases at his practice, but that he would not take on any new ones. In his defense of Coffey, Premier Ball said that the work was being done in Coffey’s personal time and that he was confident that he would continue to work diligently on behalf of the people. It probably would have been a fair arrangement, except for the fact that one of Coffey’s clients is suing Nalcor, and by extension, the government. Despite Coffey’s claims that “Chinese Walls” have been put in place to assure that there is no conflict of interest, the whole situation has been perceived very negatively by the public.

With so many communications blunders already under his belt, you would think that Dwight Ball would have stopped to think about the implications of allowing his top bureaucrat, basically his right-hand man, to continue with a legal case against Nalcor. Even if the Chinese walls were working and there was no conflict of interest, for the sake of optics somebody should have put the brakes on, knowing that this would eventually come out and come back to bite them in the ass. Now that time has come and the province will lose the services of a very capable and hard-working member of the inner circle of government.

It is no secret that Bern Coffey was a Liberal. He ran for the party leadership in 2011 and was a frequent financial contributor to the party throughout the years. His appointment was called cronyism by the opposition due to his close party ties, but nobody argued that he was qualified for the clerks job. As a former member of the 2041 group, many had hoped that Coffey would be a strong voice in discussions surrounding the Muskrat Falls project. By all accounts he took his position as clerk very seriously and it is unfortunate that he is leaving under circumstances that could have been avoided with a little common sense and transparency.

These are the types of decisions that leave many to question Dwight Ball’s leadership ability. The premier has had a tendency to make rash decisions without thinking them through and has spent more time back-peddling than pushing his agenda forward.  A decision like this one though is really hard to fathom. How could Ball or any of his senior team have thought that allowing your top bureaucrat to sue you in his spare time was a good idea? The whole thing is completely absurd. As one colleague put it to me: “They either have to be dumb or they just don’t care.” I used to think it was the former but now I am leaning towards the latter. Maybe the cynics are right and the Liberals know their time at the trough will be short so they are making sure to fill it up as much as they can.

How many more people will need to resign from this government before it becomes clear that the real problems are coming from the very top. Dwight Ball has made a career out of playing “duck and cover politics” without ever actually saying anything at all, and now it is becoming all too clear that he lacks the leadership qualities needed to manage our government. As much as Coffey should have known better than to keep that case, or the one against Western Health that surfaced in a CBC story this morning, Ball and the government should have been clear that any litigation against government is off limits for someone in such a position of power and confidence. It will be interesting to hear what Dwight Ball has to say later today when he meets with the press and even more interesting to see how the premier addresses the issue in question period as the house reopens after Easter break.

No matter which side of the political spectrum you sit on, it is hard not to agree that this was a very bad decision by the premier, and Coffey’s ultimate resignation was the only way that this story could possibly end. There was no way the public could continue to have confidence in Coffey’s role, and one way or another his time needed to come to an end.  It’s an unfortunate end to an unfortunate story and one that showcases the lack of thought that has been given to the most important decisions made by our government. We keep waiting for them to get it right, but somehow, they always seem to get it wrong. It makes me think my colleagues question might be the right one to ask. Are they dumb, or do they just not care?

Priorities, Journalism, and Justice

Priorities, Journalism, and Justice

By: Ryan Young

Priorities

Maybe it’s just me, but I had a real problem when 28 Labrador Land Protectors were served charges for their parts in the protests against the Muskrat Falls hydro development on the Lower Churchill River. My issue was not with the charges themselves, although I personally think they are unnecessary. The protectors who stormed the gate and stayed on site last fall to protect their right to clean water and traditional food sources knew there was a very good chance that they would face legal consequences for their actions and they made a conscious choice to defy the court injunction and occupy the site.

What really gets  my back up about this case is that just a few weeks earlier, a former RCMP officer  in Labrador who was charged with child luring had his charges stayed because it took an unreasonable amount of time for the accused to go to trial. Judge John Joy noted in his decision that he was bound by legal precedent to stay the charges, and that despite exemplary work by officers and technicians, they could only operate within the limited scope of the resources of their respective offices.

So how is it that the court system in Labrador is too overworked and under resourced to properly manage a high-profile case involving a police officer in a serious breach of trust, but it can handle the load of 28 new complex cases that will use up even more resources and cash in a system already busting at the seams. Is making an example of these 28 a move to discourage more acts of the sort that we saw last October? When such an important case such as child luring against a police officer is thrown out because of a lack of resources and then a few short weeks later we see 28 names of people trying to protect their way of life added to the docket, it has many people asking just what the priorities are at the Department of Justice and Public Safety in St. John’s.

When is Journalism a Crime?

Justin Brake of The Independent is answering to charges for his role in covering the occupation of the Muskrat Falls work camp by Labrador Land Protectors last October. Brake has stated that he believed he was completely within his rights as a journalist to follow the protectors through the gate to document the real story of what was happening during a very tense time for the whole province. Brake’s reporting and live streaming of the events inside the camp often painted a different picture than was being put forth by Nalcor and the government. It allowed the world to see the protectors being welcomed with open arms into the camp and that there was never any talk of violence. While there has been precedent for such charges in the past, such as the Oka standoff in the 90's, many feel that in a case such as Brake’s where a journalist is the sole documenter of a story in the public and national interest, the rights of the journalist to cover the story must be protected.

When the powers that be in our justice system decided to go ahead with the charges against Brake, they began walking a very fine line. The story is beginning to get traction with journalists all over the world who are waiting to see what the outcome will be. Brake is officially facing charges of mischief exceeding $5000 and disobeying a court order. The charges come with a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.   Many in Labrador feel that the charges against Brake and the Land Protectors are an intimidation tactic by the government to ensure that there are no more protests like we saw last fall. What they don’t seem to understand is that they are seeding deep feelings of resentment in the residents of Labrador that might very well inspire more action in the name of justice.

Using the court system to strong arm the people of Labrador is one thing, but when the decision was made to charge Brake for his coverage of the story, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador have opened up a can of worms that they will not be able to control for much longer. As the story gains international traction, more and more groups are condemning the government’s actions and demanding that the charges against Brake be dropped. The government, however, seems to be holding firm and letting Gilbert Bennett and the other top Nalcor brass run the show. Muskrat Falls must be protected at all costs, even if it means potentially facing years of expensive litigation against our government for failing to protect Justin Brake’s journalistic rights.

Justice?

We have been talking quite a bit about justice in this province lately. From controversial verdicts, to overcrowded courts and prisons, to the need for new legislation to catch up with our modern times. There is much work to be done, and it will take more than one government to bring our justice system in line with the needs of the people. We have seen several cases where charges were stayed because the accused had not been given timely access to a trial. This has led to much discussion about the R vs Jordan decision last summer where it was ruled that there would be a ceiling of eighteen months for provincial court cases and thirty months for supreme court cases, after which time a defendant may make a motion to have the charges against them stayed. We saw this happen in the case I mentioned about the RCMP officer above, and it has been causing havoc for court systems all across the country who are scrambling to keep up with the new guidelines.

Justice and Public Safety Minister, Andrew Parsons, has said on record that the province will not be hiring any new judges to handle the caseloads, so that means that the province will need to look at other ways to find efficiencies and get cases to court in a timely fashion. It is no secret that our court system is already perilously under resourced, and with the Jordan decision adding even more pressure we can expect even more high profile cases to have charges stayed before they get their day in court.

All of that makes the decision to proceed against charging Brake and the Land Protectors even more curious. Most people I know would agree that if you break the law, you will face consequences, but how does that work when you are up against the people making the laws? It was the government via Nalcor that petitioned the court injunction that denied the Land Protectors the right to protest for their own safety and the very water that they depend on for life and culture. When an MP from town tells the people in Labrador that depend on the river that they should just “eat less fish,” it just emphasises the disconnect between the folks in fancy offices in St. John’s who only care about the economics of the project and the politics behind it and the people on the ground who feel that they are in a legitimate life and death battle with their government.

At the end of the day, the people of this province are feeling let down by their justice system. They are losing confidence in the police and in the courts and they are left to wonder just what the priorities are for this government. In Labrador, people are left to feel that their justice system is being used against them and they have lost all faith that the government is there to protect them. Where is the justice for the people of Labrador?

Time to Come Clean

Time to Come Clean

By: Ryan Young

It was a bitter pill for many to swallow last week when the premier finally confirmed that the principal beneficiary of the Muskrat Falls project would not be NL, it would be Nova Scotia and Emera. It becomes even harder to swallow when you consider that the entire reason for going through Nova Scotia in the first place was to give the finger to Quebec and ensure that we would be the ones to benefit from our own energy production. Danny’s $7 Billion-dollar tantrum will likely turn into a $20 billion dollar noose before a kilowatt of power ever flows from the Lower Churchill River, if indeed it ever flows at all.

At the time of sanction, we were told that Emera’s generous Maritime Link deal was good for this province because it would ensure access to southern energy markets without having profits hijacked by Hydro Quebec. It was an easy sell to a province that never got over the bad deal on the Upper Churchill. Unfortunately, as the project has progressed and bits and pieces of the truth about Muskrat Falls have been dragged out of politicians, it seems like in our effort to screw Quebec, we sold the farm to Nova Scotia.

The premier came clean in the House of Assembly on March 9^th, telling the province that Emera’s share in the Labrador-Island-Link (LIL) had risen from 29% to 59%. Ball was quick to shift the blame to the PC’s saying that "This was not my idea. This was not the idea of anyone on this particular side of the house." While that might be true, it still doesn’t explain why it took a premier who campaigned on openness and transparency 16 months to let the people of the province know that they wouldn’t even own a majority share of the LIL, despite the fact that the ratepayers would be the ones covering the cost overruns. Emera will enjoy an 8.8% return on their investment, with zero extra financial risk to them, and all paid for out of your rising hydro bills.

How could this happen? Well, as the Uncle Gnarley blog has been saying for quite a long time, ratepayers in Nova Scotia were protected by their public utility board, the UARB. The UARB ensured that their stakeholders would get the best deal possible, and even sent Emera back to the bargaining table to make sure that Nova Scotia would get a better deal than the original 20/20 deal signed by Danny Williams. Our own PUB has had no such oversight and has been shrouded in secrecy as far as Muskrat Falls is concerned. As pointed out in this recent Uncle Gnarley post, the PUB didn’t even have the terms reference to look at the Emera deal during their 2012 review.

With Danny’s hand-picked puppet, Andy Wells, at the helm, the PUB has failed to protect Newfoundland and Labrador ratepayers and has not offered any sort of meaningful oversight for the Muskrat project at all. It will be interesting to see if Wells will throw his hat into the ring for St. John’s mayor again this fall. With Dannyland aka Galway nearing its initial opening dates, good King Danny may need a puppet more in City Hall than at the PUB. Now that Dwight Ball and Cathy Bennett have made it quite clear that it will be business as usual at Nalcor, Danny can breath a sigh of relief, and Wells’ work at the PUB is done.

For an $800 Million dollar investment, Emera will earn an annual profit of $70.4 million for at least 50 years. That should finally kill the myth that Dwight and all the premiers before him have perpetuated that there will be profits for NL from Muskrat energy. In case anyone out there is still confused, there will be NO profit from the sale of Muskrat Falls power, other than what the rate payers will be forced to pay each month on their electricity bills. Then Why didn’t the PUB raise any alarms over such a deal? How could they have remained silent and secretive when we were knowingly selling ourselves up the river in the name of getting Muskrat built or bust. Sadly, it looks like even if it does ever get built, it will still be a bust for the people of NL.

So, if we can’t trust Nalcor or government and we can’t trust the PUB, who do the people of NL have to turn to? As good as the PC’s have been in the official opposition role, you will not hear them ask any tough questions about Muskrat for obvious reasons. The NDP have done a fairly good job of asking tough questions, but with such a small caucus their attack is limited and their questions almost always get blown off with spin by the premier and his ministers who know that they only have to be a little long-winded and wait out the clock. Paul Lane has done an admirable job of engaging the public and raising major issues in the media, but with limited resources and no questions in question period, it has been difficult for him to get the government to acknowledge the issues at hand when it comes to Nalcor and Muskrat Falls. The Auditor General is currently investigating Nalcor, but with only a small team and limited resources and no clear mandate from the premier, it could take years just to go through the books, let alone all of the other issues that deserve a look.

Where does that leave us? If people want answers, they will need to stand up and demand them. They will need to find a way to force the government into opening up Nalcor and the Muskrat Falls project in particular. While many have been very vocal, many more seem to be perfectly fine with allegations that could possibly include criminal acts, and at the very least the squandering of billions from the provincial treasury. In a recent poll, however, for the first time since it began, more people were against Muskrat Falls than were for it. This proves that people are willing to change their minds, when given a chance to look at the facts.

When Dwight Ball promised openness and accountability for Nalcor, people expected more than just asking their buddies at EY to do an expensive study on the cost. Why hasn’t the premier opened things up and come clean with the people of the province? He is quick to point fingers at the PC’s every chance he gets, but he has the power to reveal the truth about Muskrat and he refuses to do so. Why? By opening it up and showing the people the truth of the extent that we will be burdened by Muskrat Falls, they might even be able to earn enough credibility to keep a couple of seats in 2019. Instead, they have decided to keep us all in the dark and stay the course set by the previous administration that they are always so quick to blame.

By now it seems common knowledge that Dwight and Co. do not consider honesty and integrity to be part of their job description. They are fully committed to the spin and no matter how many times they say that they inherited the project, they can’t deny that they have failed to take any meaningful action on the file since they took over the reins. If they can lie or stay silent on things that are so obvious to so many, it leaves people scratching their heads and wonder what else they might be hiding. It’s time for the people to demand that the premier come clean.

The Funeral March

The Funeral March

By: Ryan Young

When Education and Early Childhood Development Minister, Dale Kirby, publicly stated that any teacher cuts in this year’s budget would be made “over my dead body,” most people rolled their eyes at the ministers attempt to make it appear like he was finally ready to stand up for the children of Newfoundland and Labrador. The very next day, we learned that Mr. Kirby was already backtracking on that statement, and what he actually meant was that there would be no change to the teacher allocation formula, but that there was still a possibility of more job losses for teachers.

Of course, Kirby was not literally talking about his own dead body, he was talking about the death of his career. As a long -time advocate for education, Dale Kirby became known for being stubborn and voters had assumed that after four years on the opposition side criticizing education policies, that he would be a good man to get our system back on track. Nobody could have predicted that Kirby would quickly cut education in this province to the bone, a term that was a favourite of his when in opposition. He is already feeling the heat, and he knows that further cuts to education will certainly hasten the end of his time in our House of Assembly.

Nothing was spared in education last spring. Teacher cuts, busing cuts, library cuts, and child care cuts were all offered up as part of Cathy’s directive to trim 30% from each budget. The provincial child care budget alone took a 16% cut in funding, just months after Kirby had ridiculed former minister Clyde Jackman at a public child care forum where he promised investment, not cuts. I’m sure that everyone understands that the province is in a tough place, but when you make a career out of advocating for better education and then when you finally have the chance to make a difference, your first act is to make dramatic cuts, people are going to question your credibility. Kirby has continued to defend his actions by blaming the opposition whenever a serious question is asked of him and has refused to take responsibility for any actions or comments he has made. All of this has elevated him to the same level of disdain that people have for the premier and the finance minister.

If you read my last post, you would know that credibility is a big problem for our government. With the House of Assembly open again, the Liberals have continued to dodge questions and dance around the issues, all the while pointing the finger of blame back at the opposition side every single time a serious issue is raised. Dwight Ball continues to throw his own credibility under the bus by maintaining his Ed Martin story, and Cathy Bennett maintains that her fiduciary responsibility to Nalcor, a crown company owned by the people, trumps her responsibility to protect the people of the province by providing pertinent information to government about the corporation. If that was indeed the case legally, then why was Bennett ever appointed as a minister in the first place? How can we have a finance minister that stated publicly that her first responsibility is to the Nalcor board and not the people of this province that she was elected to represent?

Politics is a world built on trust. You don’t always have to make the most popular decisions, as long as the people feel that you are being honest with them. Governments in this province and elsewhere have quite often been able to get themselves out of trouble by coming clean with the people and providing a clear plan of action. For this government, it seems to be more about duck and cover and one-way communication. Trust does not seem to be a matter of concern as the tendency has been to not be honest until evidence is presented that forces them to acknowledge the truth. Even when faced with blatant facts, such as in the recent Auditor General’s report into Ed Martin’s severance, they continue to go with their own story, despite the fact that everyone in the province knows that they are not being honest.

Trust is something that when broken, is very hard to get back. Most governments realize this, and work very hard to ensure that those values shine through in their interaction with the people. In our case, government has failed at every turn to be upfront and honest, or to provide us with a clear plan of what their intentions are. The Way Forward is a lovely document, but one that is very short on details and facts, and even when they make announcements that sound positive, hard facts are always left out in favour of spin and fluff. Even after all of the public outrage and backtracks in the past year, they still can’t manage to come out and have a real conversation with the people about the issues.

Despite the millions spent in communications, it seems like every single time a government member opens their mouth, something comes out wrong. This is a tell-tale sign that the decision makers in this province are not in tune with the wants and the needs of the people of this province. People are tired of the same old political games. They want the real change they were promised and they want their elected officials to listen to them. Kirby’s “over my dead body” quip has been a gold mine for cartoonists, media, and bloggers, but it does raise the issue that there will likely be many “dead bodies” of political careers after the next election. Cue The Funeral March…

Credibility

Credibility

By: Ryan Young

cred·i·bil·i·ty

noun

the quality of being trusted and believed in.

Our great sage and eminent premier, Dwight Ball, could have saved himself a whole lot of trouble if he had just told the truth last spring. Would anyone really have been that angry if he had told us that his government did not have confidence in Ed Martin’s leadership? Would we have flipped a lid if he told us that the cost of the severance paid to the former Nalcor CEO would be justified by putting the Muskrat Falls project in the hands on a man who actually had a lifetime of experience in building hydro dams? It would have been so easy for the premier to say something along those lines. There still would have been backlash at the amount of the severance, but the whole issue would have quickly faded away and been forgotten. Instead, Ball decided against the easy route and withheld the truth about what he knew and when he knew it, which has led to this issue dragging on for nearly a year.

Let’s start right back from the press conference held on April 20^th  2016, when it was announced that Ed Martin was resigning as CEO. The official story was that Martin was leaving because he wanted to spend more time with his grandchildren. The government was more than happy to prop up a make-believe press conference to tell the public that all was well and there was nothing to worry about. It was Ed Martin’s decision all the way. Despite what we were told that day, it is clear from the Auditor Generals report that the “facts” offered by both Martin and Ball on April 20^th were not entirely factual after all. Let’s take a quick look at a few points of contention:

Even though both men said that the decision was Martin’s, Terry Paddon concluded as the #2 summary point in his report that “Mr. Martin did not initiate any of the resignation provisions of his Executive Employment Agreement by giving the required notice.” During the April 20^th press conference, it was made quite clear that the decision to leave was Martin’s.

Summary point #7 indicates that during a meeting on April 18^th, Stan Marshall had agreed to accept the position of Nalcor CEO. Remember that during the press conference on April 20^th, Ball said that they had not spoken to any potential replacements for the CEO job.

Point #10 indicates that “Mr. Martin had no intention to voluntarily resign as CEO of Nalcor energy. Again, if Martin had no intention to resign, why did he say that he was retiring?

Point #17 says that the Board Minutes and the Settlement Agreement were constructed in a manner to ensure consistency between what the Board understood to have occurred at the April 19, 2016 meeting and the provisions of the Employment Agreement. The Board understood the Premier had terminated Mr. Martin’s employment and that severance payments would apply.

In Paddon’s own words:

"In the April 19, 2016 meeting, the Premier stated that he could not put the confidence behind public support for Mr. Martin and his team.” "This statement by the Premier was incompatible with the continued employment of Mr. Martin as the CEO of Nalcor."

All discussion of the severance aside, it is very clear from the auditor generals report and past statements by both Martin and Ball, that the real story of Martin’s departure was much different than the one both sides had agreed to give to the media. Martin wanted public support from government and Ball was not willing to provide it. They both agreed that Martin would leave on his own terms and take a little golden handshake on the way out. No harm, no foul. What Ball didn’t realize is that he was walking straight into a set-up and he had no idea that he was about to get his first real taste of political blood-sport. The board never received a formal resignation from Martin, and after the premiers press conference they decided to use that fact to terminate the contract without cause and promptly resign en-masse. Ethical? Certainly not. Legal? Absolutely. This would entitle Martin to receive the maximum severance and ensure that Ball was exposed for not being honest during the April 20^th press conference.

Despite the underhandedness of the boards decision, this was a golden opportunity for Ball and the Liberals to shift the focus away from themselves and onto the Nalcor board and the PC’s. Ball could have capitalized on the board decision and taken the whole severance issue out of his own hands and right back into the oppositions lap. Instead he decided to continue to withhold the truth and allowed Paul Davis to preform like a master opposition leader as he grilled the premier on his inconsistent statements. Instead of taking an opportunity to deflect the issue to the other side, Ball allowed Davis to shine during question period and in the media, while he himself continued to shed credibility by refusing to acknowledge the truth that everyone else already knew.

All of this left the premier in a very tough spot. He likely realized that he had gotten himself caught up in a web of spin and half-truths that he really had no business being involved in, and began to search for an easy way out. He first called in the Department of Justice and asked them to investigate the matter. I filed an access to information request for the subsequent report, but my request was denied. After justice had concluded their investigation the matter was then turned over to the Auditor General to determine if the severance paid out to Martin was appropriate. Unfortunately, the terms of reference for the AG were very narrow, and only dealt with the appropriateness of the severance. He was never asked to investigate why there were so many inconsistencies between the official story offered by the government and the information that came out after the fact.

The problem with not being honest, especially for a politician, is that once you get caught up, the only way out is to keep up the lie. Even after the Auditor General’s report made it very clear that Ball knew more than he said he knew, the premier continues to stick with the story that Martin resigned. When speaking with media yesterday, Ball continued his line that Martin left voluntarily, despite the information provided in the AG report. Even though he would not come right out and say it, his words indicated that he did not accept Paddon’s conclusion that Martin’s departure as CEO was constructive dismissal.

Paul Davis quickly jumped on Ball for continuing to call Martin’s departure voluntary. He says that with that claim, the premier is rejecting the Auditor General’s findings. It seems that even after a report that let him off easy, the premier is unwilling to acknowledge any error on his or his governments part and continues to stay the course, even in the face of overwhelming evidence against his case.

The issue for most people was never the appropriateness of the severance package. We all knew that even though it smelled really bad, Martin was likely legally entitled to it if he was indeed terminated without cause. The real issue for most of us is: why was the premier not honest with us?

Let’s be very clear. The severance package and the termination were not Dwight Balls doing. It was entirely the work of Martin and the Nalcor board in response to the scathing words from Cathy Bennett during her budget speech last spring. Ball had several opportunities to wash his hands of the matter and let the folks on the board who orchestrated the entire fiasco take responsibility. Instead, nice guy Dwight decided to protect those who would drive the knife in his back, even at the expense of his political credibility.

Credibility. That is the word that really is at the heart of this story. When your political leaders fail to be honest, they lose their credibility. This is especially true when it is so blatantly obvious that Ball didn’t have to lie. He was the victim in the story and he had nothing to hide. The set up was so obvious that he only had to be honest and let the blame fall at someone else’s feet. All he had to do was let the public know the truth and let the chips fall as they may. His choice to deliberately mislead us has led to a total lack of trust for the government, and himself as premier. When you lie to the people about the little things, they can’t help but assume that you will lie about the big things as well.

Dwight Ball is hoping that the Auditor General’s report will make this story go away, but I have a feeling he is going to be in for a rough ride when the House of Assembly opens next week. You can bet that both opposition parties are already sharpening the knives and will be ready to take a stab at Ball over this issue every chance they get. It makes me wonder how long Ball will continue to stick to his story, even in the face of mounting evidence against it. We all know how quickly things can go downhill when a politician loses credibility in NL…

You can read the Auditor General's report here:

http://www.ag.gov.nl.ca/ag/special/EdMartinReport2017.pdf

Go Home Out of It

Go Home Out of It

By: Ryan Young

The ongoing feud between former premiers Roger Grimes and Danny Williams got raised up another notch last week with an indirect war of words between the two former political heavyweights. Williams was making headlines with his speech to the St. John’s Board of Trade while Grimes was speaking out to the media, with both men coming to very different conclusions.

You can’t really blame Roger Grimes for taking his chance to get in a few shots. The man was dragged through the mud and back again during the 2003 election and campaign and for years afterwards by an angry Williams who was resentful that Grimes could hang on as premier for so long without ever being elected to that high post. Cummupins were a long time coming for Ole Grimey, but with the facts we now know about Danny’s legacy, Muskrat Falls, Roger Grimes has been eager to let the public know that despite all the mud-slinging, Danny didn’t know best after all.

In a recent CBC story, Grimes calls Muskrat Falls “the price of pride.” He maintains that his government was very close to reaching an agreement with Hydro Quebec to develop Gull Island, but that the deal was nixed after the election because Williams was unwilling to deal with Quebec. He refers to the Maritime Link as an “extension cord across the gulf,” and blasts Danny’s vision as being a short-sighted and petty “screw you” to La Belle Province that never made any economic sense.

Williams fired back in his Board of Trade speech by assuring us all that Muskrat is indeed a good deal, but the benefits will not be realized until years down the road. He rationalized mitigating electricity rates by saying that we only had to extend the debt terms and use profits from Nalcor to keep rates down to manageable levels. It all sounds very well and good when you listen to Danny go on in his great oratory style, but when you look a little deeper, things begin to fall apart. For starters, Nalcor has not returned one cent of dividends for the province since it was created by Williams in 2007, and any future revenue will come from the rate payers who will be forced to buy Muskrat power at outlandish prices. As for extending the debt schedule, that is all fine and good for the now, but do we really want to push any more of that debt along to our children and grandchildren? Muskrat Falls is not, and never has been a good deal, no matter how much Danny may try to spin it that way.

Just why are we listening to Danny Williams and Roger Grimes anyway? Both men have had their time in the sun, and are long past the time that they should be bowing out of the public eye. Yes, Danny wants to do his best to convince us all that his legacy project is anything other than what it actually is, a big mistake, but no amount of speeches can contradict the realities that the common folk will now face because Danny likes a good gamble. Grimes wants to enjoy the “I told you so” for as long as he can, and you really can’t blame him after the abuse he took, but you have to wonder if he might have been better served by doing his gloating on the inside and letting history settle the score for him instead of taking every possible opportunity to speak-out against his old political nemesis.

Its time for Danny and Roger to bow out and give up on the game. They each had their turn and they will each have to let the years decide who was the better premier. The petty back and forth between two grown men just highlights how much of a joke #nlpoli has really become. When you have two former premiers going toe to toe on an issue, while the current premier stands back and enjoys the brief distraction, you really have to wonder what the hell is going on in this province.

What we need right now is strong leadership and accountability. Dwight Ball promised both in abundance, but has delivered on neither. If Muskrat is such a good project and the North Spur is really nothing to worry about, then show us the data and open the books. It doesn’t have to be so shady, all you have to do is tell the truth and let people see for themselves. Instead we are treated to a great big game of egos and we never get any closer to the truth. We don’t need the egos of two former premiers hanging over this project any longer. It’s time for the by’s to go home out of it and leave their legacies for history to decide.

The Waiting Game

The Waiting Game

By: Ryan Young

It has been a long night and I am still trying to process the events of the last 24 hours. After a marathon meeting between government and aboriginal leaders, and an accompanying protest on the steps of Confederation Building, an agreement has been reached on the methylmercury issue at Muskrat Falls.

Confederation Building was on lockdown for more than 12 hours. Media were left not-so-patiently waiting inside for word, with not much to do but tweet and listen to the jovial atmosphere of the protesters and land protectors singing and dancing outside on the front steps. The numbers outside fluctuated between 50 and 100 for most of the day and night, despite the cold. They were all waiting for word on how the government would deal with the situation at Muskrat Falls.

In a statement released to media just before 2am, the leaders have agreed to review the documentation provided by Nalcor that supports the need for immediate initial impoundment of the reservoir over the next few days. If they are satisfied that the reasons provided by Nalcor are legitimate, water levels will be raised to minimum acceptable levels.

In addition, the statement says that Nalcor will release the dam in the spring when environmental hazards are no longer an issue, and allow the river to return to its natural flow which will facilitate the opportunity for additional mitigation procedures that MAY include clearing trees, vegetation, and/or soil from the reservoir.

All parties also agreed to establish an Independent Expert Advisory Committee that will include representatives from all levels of government, as well as all Labrador indigenous governments and councils. This committee will be mandated to seek an independent, evidence-based approach that will determine and recommend options for mitigating human health concerns related to methylmercury.

At this point, there are still many unanswered questions, and I expect that the government will be speaking out over the next few days to try to clarify what the agreement means. Initial reactions from protesters and land protectors were not all positive, but most are waiting for more clarification. The hunger strikers in Ottawa seemed to be initially pleased with the agreement, with a picture on twitter showing them with arms raised, with the caption “we won.” I am sure reaction will continue to be mixed in the days to come as government-speak gets translated into layman English and we start to understand what it all means.

I am not sure if this will convince land protectors on-site at Muskrat Falls to stop their peaceful protest and go home, but I expect that many are waiting on their lead before passing judgement on the agreement. With a court order forcing the departure of The Independent journalist, Justin Brake, from the camp on Tuesday, there has been very little word getting out to the public on what is happening inside the camp. Most likely phones will be ringing through the night as people on all sides try to figure things out.

Some of the questions already being asked are; “How high are the minimum acceptable levels for flooding?” Will methylmercury levels spike immediately after impoundment as suggested by Harvard?” Will the cold weather impact methylmercury production?” “Will the release of the dam in the spring cause an immediate spike in methylmercury in Lake Melville?” “What about the North Spur?” These are all legitimate questions and they must be answered along with many more before people are willing to accept this agreement and stand down.

In the last week, we have witnessed Muskrat Falls go from a local issue to a national and international issue. People in high places are paying attention, and every statement and decision is being examined under a microscope. People are skeptical of trusting the government and/or Nalcor, and neither one of them has given the people much reason to alleviate that skepticism.  The next day or two will be key for the government in getting its message and its evidence out to the public both quickly and clearly. The people have made it quite clear that they will not stand for back-door politics and the premier and his ministers will need to be very public and up-front about the situation, no matter which way it goes for them with the protesters and the land protectors.

As for what will happen next, we will have to wait and see. If the land protectors are satisfied that the agreement is a fair compromise and leave the work-site at Muskrat Falls things will settle down a bit for the time being with energies likely being focused on holding the local and provincial governments to task and continuing to discuss the safety of the north spur. If they are not satisfied, the government will have to decide on using police to forcefully remove them and protests will likely escalate in Labrador, on the island, and across the country. It will be a tense few days ahead, but all we can do now is watch and wait and see how the situation unfolds.

Wind Power and Wind Bags

Wind Power and Wind Bags

By: Ryan Young

I am sure that I am not the only one who found it curious to hear our eminent sage and wind bag, Dwight Ball, talking up our renewable energy potential at the annual meeting of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers held last week in Boston. While Ball continued to blow the same regurgitated hot air about Muskrat Falls as a source of renewable energy that we have been hearing year after year, from at least five different premiers, he surprised many by pointing to our wind energy resources as a possible source of green power for energy hungry New England states.

It seems that after half a decade of being told that Muskrat Falls power was simply too expensive for the American markets, that somebody in government finally got the memo. Labrador hydro will never light the lamps of Boston, and everyone and their dog knows it. But still it was crunch time, and Ball was given the difficult task of making the case to the governors that everything is not arse-up in Newfoundland and Labrador, no matter what they might have been briefed. It must have become apparent at some point that the governors were simply not interested in talking about Muskrat Falls anymore so our government had to take a new line of talking points into the meetings to try to paint a positive picture of what we have on offer here at home.

I’d really like to believe that this government is interested in moving the province towards green energy generation. The American markets certainly want green energy but they also want it to be cheap. The only chance we have of developing our offshore wind energy is if we can develop it and transport it to the American market at a profitable price point. We certainly have the potential to generate the power, but can we sell it?

The biggest knock against wind energy in NL is that power is not always produced when it is needed and that we would still need a way to supply power to customers at times when production is low and demand is high. With Muskrat Falls and the Maritime Link, that problem will be eliminated and wind will become a viable option. The problem then becomes having more energy than we need. That would mean that we would need to strike a new deal with Emera to export wind power across the link to markets further south. Then we run into an issue of capacity. With Emera already taking up a third of the capacity of the 500MW link from their Muskrat Falls block, can we even sell enough power to make it worth investing in the development of wind technologies? This is certainly something that would be worth crunching the numbers on before heading into a meeting and pretending that we have all the answers.

One of the major selling points of Muskrat Falls was that it was supposed to be a cheaper alternative than wind. The independent studies by Hatch and Manitoba Hydro both weighed Muskrat Falls against an isolated island option that would require upgrading the thermal generating capacity at Holyrood. Neither considered the option of building a link to Nova Scotia (or another partner) to facilitate a two-way exchange of power to utilize our wind resources. The numbers that Nalcor presented based on the independent studies were not necessarily all wrong. They just didn’t paint the full picture of what other options were available. The desire to sanction Muskrat Falls seemed to override the need for a slow and measurable decision making process when it came to weighing other options.

 When you consider that a local company, Beothuk Energy, is currently developing a 1000MW wind farm off the coast of Nova Scotia that will supply power to New England via a 200km subsea link, it makes you wonder why a similar option was never considered to be weighed against Muskrat Falls. Nalcor tells us that our maximum reliable capacity for wind generation in the province is around 300MW, but in fact, Beothuk is currently constructing another, smaller, wind farm that will be based in Bay St. George on the west coast of the island. That project will produce 180MW alone, making the 300MW number offered by Nalcor seem quite small.  With Muskrat Falls and the Labrador-Island Link in place we will be able to produce as much wind energy as we want. Can we produce it cheaply? Beothuk Energy certainly thinks so and is working hard to prove their point. But with likely $15 Billion we will have sunk into Muskrat Falls by the time it is finished, will we be able to justify investing in producing even more energy that we can’t use?

I’m certainly not suggesting that we should abandon all of our offshore wind potential because of Muskrat Falls, but sanctioning another multi-billion-dollar mega-project to produce power will be a hard sell to the people of the province. More likely they should create partnerships with companies like Beothuk Energy to develop offshore leases that could provide royalties much the same as our offshore oil leases do now. Then it would be up to the producing companies and the purchasing consumers to take the risk of building the infrastructure and transmission links. With the boondoggle on the Churchill River front and center in people’s minds, I don’t see any other viable way to harness our wind resources at this time.

How different might the economic outlook of this province have been if there was a serious effort put forth by Nalcor and the provincial government to look at real green energy alternatives to Muskrat Falls? We will never know the answer to that question, but I hope that we have learned some lessons this time around that will guide us in our future development pursuits. We are still a very energy rich province, but years of mismanagement and deceit have left us unable to capitalize on our resources. I can only hope that Dwight or his eventual usurper will take a look to the past to help better understand our future. We can’t afford anymore hot air. 

Paul Lane Wants Accountability for Nalcor

Paul Lane Wants Accountability for Nalcor

By: Ryan Young

In the spirit of openness and accountability, Independent MHA Paul Lane is calling for the Auditor General to complete a full investigation into Nalcor. According to Lane, the people of the province have lost faith in their crown energy corporation and it will take nothing short of total disclosure to start earning it back.

In addition to calling for a full investigation into all of Nalcor’s activities, Lane is also looking for an investigation into all former board members to ensure that no conflicts-of-interest occurred during their tenure. That might be a tall order to expect the government to fill, since Finance Minister Cathy Bennett was chair of the Nalcor board in 2012 when the project was sanctioned. Paul Lane believes that a full investigation, including accountability, is the only way to restore the people’s faith in Nalcor.

Lane is also asking questions about why large bonuses were paid out to Nalcor executives despite the findings of the Liberty Report that concluded that the infamous DarkNL blackouts in 2014 were a direct result of negligence by Nalcor.

With all of the controversy surrounding the Ed Martin departure, the government had a great opportunity to open things up at Nalcor and regain some public trust. We all know how that went. Then the former chair of the board, Ken Marshall, started talking about gathering ammo against the government. If Dwight Ball had any cajones, he would have called in Terry Paddon right there and then, calling Marshall on his bluff and putting the actions of the board under the microscope. But as we all know, that didn’t happen and the premier has found himself mired in controversy and scandal. That moment was another perfect opportunity to seize back the power and to shift the public outrage back where it belongs, Nalcor. Instead Ball has decided to let the entire board and the CEO walk away with absolutely no accountability for their actions. Even worse for the government, he has allowed this new government to be dragged down into a boondoggle that they didn’t even create.

But why should we open up Nalcor to such scrutiny? Some would argue that what’s done is done and it is best to leave the past behind and look ahead. Generally, I agree with such sentiments, but in the wake of nearly $6 Billion in cost overruns, this blogger thinks it might be a prudent time to start looking at how we got here. When it became public that former CEO, Ed Martin, had lied about fixed-term contacts at Muskrat Falls, alarm bells should have been ringing and the premier’s office should have been taking a much closer look at the actions of the Nalcor brass. What else were we lied to about, and how much is it going to cost us?

Bringing in the Auditor General is not only a good move, it is the only move that this government has left to regain any credibility in the eyes of the people. The cloak and dagger politics of Muskrat Falls have reached a tipping point and the people want to know the truth. Sooner or later that truth will come out. Wouldn’t it be nice if it would come from the government themselves…

If you would like a hard copy of Paul Lane’s petition, please email roguebayman@gmail.com

Pants on Fire

Pants on Fire

By: Ryan Young

The good people of Newfoundland & Labrador expect a certain level of arrogance and dishonesty from our elected officials. We have become quite accustomed to politicians telling half-truths and in some cases flat-out lies. It has almost become an expected practice, as evidenced by the 55% voter turnout rate last fall. Most times when we hear our politicians lie, we don’t bat an eyelash. The situation we saw unfolding in the House of Assembly last week, however, is not your average fib. It is not one of those white lies that you can write off and sweep under the rug. The revelations coming to light this week are no less than an out and out betrayal of the people at the hands of the premier.

By now, the timeline leading up to Ed Martin’s departure and receiving a hefty $1.4 Million severance package has become common knowledge for most engaged residents of the province. Everyone knew that the whole thing stank, but nobody was overly surprised. The sense of entitlement that Jerry Dean spoke about not so long ago is very real. Mr. Dean just neglected to mention that it does not exist with the average person, but rather the politicians and folks like Ed Martin and Gilbert Bennett who have mastered the art of suckling the government teat without giving back anything meaningful in return. With so many cuts and so much pain in this year’s budget, the whole situation has just left a bad taste in our collective mouths.

As if it wasn’t all too much to take already, then we had the bombshell revelation by David Vardy via Uncle Gnarley, that there was actually no provision in Mr. Martin’s contract for providing him with a severance package since he had resigned instead of being dismissed. Next came the bombshell from the premier while under fire during question period in the House of Assembly that the Board of Directors at Nalcor had actually rejected Mr. Martin’s resignation and chose instead to terminate his contract without cause, making him entitled to his hefty severance plus bonuses. Then they promptly resigned en-masse in order to protect themselves from future scrutiny.

The timeline of what the premier knew and when he knew it is sketchy at best. Dwight Ball promised that when the Department of Justice & Public Safety finished their review that all of the information would be made public. I won’t even get into the merits of the useless review by DPS, but we learned yesterday that the premier has called in the Auditor General to investigate, which is what should have been done back on May 5^th or 6^th, whenever Ball claims he became aware of the situation.  Now that Terry Paddon has been called in, will the premier release the findings of the DPS review and will he tell us what he knew and when?

CBC reports that according to a statement, the Department of Justice decided that an independent agency needed to conduct an investigation for a "fulsome determination of the issues" to be provided about the ongoing controversy. "Based on this opinion and the public interest I have decided to refer this matter to the Auditor General for an independent review," Ball said in the statement.

Ball and his staff have completely bungled this whole situation. The right and sensible thing to do would have been to be open an honest with the people (as a certain campaign promised) right from the start, instead of trying to cover up the information and lying straight to our faces. Would the premier have made the information regarding the severance public if David Vardy and Des Sullivan had not brought the story to light? I would say doubtful, and that is being generous. He had every opportunity to take the high road and come clean with the public, but instead he decided to hide facts and lie which speaks very much to his character and ability as a premier. The ease with which Dwight Ball can look you in the eye and tell an outright lie may be a quality that has served politicians well in the past, but in the words of one of my favorite British super groups, “We won’t be fooled again.”

At this point it is becoming abundantly clear that Dwight Ball’s premiership is on the ropes. Cathy Bennett and Co. and already lining up and sharpening the knives and it is only a matter of time before the party completely loses confidence in the premier. For Dwight to step aside now and trigger an election within a year would be political suicide for the Liberals, but how long can he hold on when he flat out refuses to be honest with the people? At this point I don’t think there is anything the Liberals can do to win back the trust of the people. That their government will be a one-termer is a given, but how long that term lasts is still to be determined. As long as Dwight Ball’s pants are on fire, it is getting shorter by the day.

Can the People Stand up to Mighty Muskrat?

Can the People Stand up to Mighty Muskrat?

By: Ryan Young

Finance Minister Cathy Bennett is telling the people of Newfoundland and Labrador that “everything is on the table,” but is that actually the case? Premier Ball has continued to reject the idea of public service layoffs, and most recently Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady clearly stated that the Muskrat Falls mega-project was most certainly “off the table.” This statement came on the heels of two former Liberal Premiers , Brian Tobin and Roger Grimes, advising Premier Ball to take a hard look at Muskrat Falls and possibly postponing it or scrapping the project altogether.

As Brad Cabana pointed out in his recent post; “The Muskrat Liberals,” the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador has been in favor of the project since the very beginning. It should come as no surprise then that they seem determined to hold on like the Captain going down with the Titanic. Speaking of going down with the ship, Danny Williams and Kathy Dunderdale were smart enough to jump off the boat just before the iceberg hit. They may be the ones that the public direct their ire towards right now, but it won’t be long before Dwight Ball and his Liberals will own what will probably go down as the biggest mistake in Newfoundland history. At least Joey got investors to pay for building the dam at Churchill Falls.

You can’t read a blog post or listen to an open-line show these days without hearing about the seemingly endless issues with the Muskrat Falls project. If Siobhan Coady is so sure that full steam ahead is the only course of action, then maybe she should explain to the people of the province how this project is still the best cost option. She should also be forthcoming with what the actual ramifications would be if the project were to be scrapped. It seems that nobody at Nalcor, the DNR, PUB or the media has access to that particular information.

There has been no shortage of analysis and fact checking by expert bloggers such as Uncle Gnarley and the Sir Robert Bond Papers. They have taken on the cause of real openness and transparency for the project from the very beginning. The case has been made many times that Nalcor has not been honest with the people and it continues even now as they are trying to justify a rate hike with the PUB in order to meet increased thermal generating needs.

Hearing former premier Tom Marshall stumbling his way through a CBC Crosstalk show this week, talking about the benefits of the profits from Muskrat Falls, was downright embarrassing. The fact that the former premier was still willing to talk publicly about profits is astounding. The best estimates of the amount of revenue we could earn by selling “spot power” on the open market is around $80 Million. When you compare that with the interest payments that could end up being in excess of $300 Million annually, it really makes one question the logic of the argument. Then there is, of course, the fact that any actual profit that the province makes from Muskrat Falls power will come through rate-hikes for the residents of Newfoundland and Labrador. The ten cents a kilowatt hour people are paying in Newfoundland now will double at the very least, but will most likely be in excess of thirty cents by the time all cost overruns, first power delays, and interest payments are factored in.

I won’t even delve into the issues of the North Spur or the Methyl Mercury concerns. Those issues are being written and talked about by people who have much more knowledge on those particular topics than I do. These issues are not going to go away though. Sooner or later someone is going to need to step up and address these legitimate concerns. In particular, an evacuation plan for downstream residents needs to become a priority for the current government. If the North Spur does fail, and no contingency plan is in place, the possible loss of life and property will become a noose around the neck of those in charge. It is very easy for people to talk about the benefits of the project when they don’t live in Mud Lake.

Just when you might be thinking, WOW, that is quite a bit to take in, we must also consider the implications of the court battle with Quebec  for water management rights of the Churchill River. If the courts rule in favor of Quebec, and they probably will, it is quite likely that we will have to compensate them for use of the water flowing through Muskrat Falls. It may also affect how much power is able to be generated at Muskrat if the current trend that is leaving our reservoirs at all-time low water levels (according to Nalcor) continues. This could result in the loss of any ability we might have had to turn a “profit” from the project, and most likely power rates will rise even more to pay the folks at Hydro-Quebec who will be laughing all the way to the bank, again.

So what can the rest of us do? How can we lowly citizens make a difference in the face of billions of dollars and thousands of bureaucrats? No amount of grassroots action will be able to stop the project now. That ship has long sailed. But maybe if the people start to speak up together we can at least get some honesty from the people in charge. Issues like Methyl Mercury and the North Spur need to be addressed.  The implications of us losing the water management rights case also needs to be addressed. And more importantly we need to examine the process by which the project was sanctioned in the first place. We might not have the power to stop the mighty muskrat from being built, but we do have the power to demand the hard truth of what this project is going to cost the people of this province for generations to come.

Many Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans that so willingly drank the Muskrat Kool-Aid are finally waking up to the reality of the magnitude and bad timing of this boondoggle.  It seems that we are finally seeing the writing that has been on the proverbial wall for a long, long time. If the calls to open-line shows are any indication of public opinion regarding the project, it is clear that people are beginning to take notice. If they are not paying attention now they certainly will be as soon as the first wave of power rate-hikes start making a noticeable difference in their household bottom line.  Can we harness this powerful public sentiment and force the governments to act on the issue? Maybe, but only if people are willing to take the power into their own hands and act collectively.

People are desperately looking for someone to take leadership on this issue. The Consumer Advocate and the PUB have repeatedly dropped the ball by failing to act in the best interest of the public and with Minister Coady’s recent statements, it is clear that the provincial government has decided to follow the path of their predecessors by keeping their heads buried firmly in the sand. At one point during the election campaign last fall, Dwight Ball said that he believed in the Muskrat Falls project, but that there needed to be changes in the management of the project. For those who noticed, it might have seemed a contradiction when the premier told the public that he had the utmost confidence in the management of Ed Martin, Gilbert Bennett, and the rest of the team of top decision makers at Nalcor. It makes you wonder who is really pulling the strings when a premier can have such a major change in opinion in just a few short weeks.

It has always been difficult to get people together in this province to take on the powers that be, but when needed the will of the people has been able to stop bad decisions in their tracks. Just look to Clyde Wells’ plan to privatize Hydro. If we fail to act now how many generations of our children will have to pay for this colossal mistake? We need to stand together to send a loud and clear message to the Premier that if he wants to have his job long enough to get comfortable, he is going to have to listen up and do better. He ran on “real change” and “a stronger tomorrow” and the people of this province will accept nothing less. If Dwight does not have the might then it is our duty to take back the power in the name of the people. We can do it. I’m ready. Who‘s with me?