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…
