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…

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

C’mon Stan, Show a Little Class

C’mon Stan, Show a Little Class

By: Ryan Young

Nalcor CEO, Stan Marshall, announced last Friday that there would likely be ice damage to structures at Muskrat Falls this winter, and placed the blame squarely at the feet of protesters. According to Marshall, Nalcor simply “ran out of time” to install the ice boom needed to protect the site from the harsh Labrador weather, mainly due to the actions of protesters last October. Marshall’s blame game starts to lose credibility, however, when you consider that the land protectors only occupied the Muskrat site for four days. Even if you give him the full two-week disruption that he claims, that still does not account for why Nalcor was unable to get things done in time to avoid the winter freeze. Considering the track record of the work at the site, this latest delay seems par for the course.

The real culprit behind the delay is not the protests, but rather the leaky cofferdam. Without the cofferdam being fully functional, they are unable to raise water levels high enough to facilitate the installation of the boom. Despite Nalcor’s assurances that the cofferdam is not a serious issue, the fact that they have not been able to fix the problem suggests that it may be bigger than they are letting on. When you factor in Marshall’s deflective comments, in addition to the quickly advancing winter, all signs point to some very big problems at Muskrat Falls.

With the Nalcor CEO publicly blaming the people of Labrador and telling us to expect damage at the site, we should stop and take a closer look at what is really going on. Very little of the “progress” at Muskrat Falls has come easy, and none of it has come cheap. With so many issues in the process so far, it is not unreasonable to think that there may have been some serious flaws with either the cofferdam design or its construction. It must feel like another kick in the face to the people of Labrador from the big boot of Nalcor to be blamed for yet another failure in the construction process. With the cofferdam leaking and the project going even further behind schedule due to construction issues, is it any wonder that so many people are worried about the North Spur?

It s no secret that Nalcor has zero experience with large hydro developments. The head of the Lower Churchill project, Gilbert Bennett, came from Danny’s cable circle to oversee a project that would make or break our province. Ed Martin had no hydro experience either. He was a middle manager at Petro Canada before Danny tapped him for the top job at Nalcor. Now of course we have Stan Marshall in the CEO chair, with his decades of dam building experience, but Gil Bennett is still managing the project and the same contracts and designs are still in place that were there under Ed Martin. If someone like Stan had been there from the start, someone who knew how to build a dam, then maybe things might have turned out differently. As it stands now though, Stan Marshall is little more than a figurehead to appease the public and try to get a handle on some of the ballooning costs.

The cofferdam issue is just the latest in a long line of blunders that has led to this project being years behind schedule and billions over-budget. Marshall knows how bad things are with the project, but his corporate instincts tell him to shift the blame and drive the wedge. That tactic has been working well enough in Labrador for centuries, so why stop now? Maybe instead of giving him full autonomy, Dwight Ball could have included in his mandate a little bit of sensitivity towards the people who will have their lives irrecoverably changed by this project. After all of the issues that we have seen with the construction at Muskrat Falls, to see Marshall play off the first major blunder under his watch as the fault of a four-day protest is just plain embarrassing. Maybe someone should tell Dwight that it he is going to convince the folks in Labrador that he really cares about them, he might want to talk to Marshall about toning down the rhetoric and showing a little class.

Silent Stan and the Chalillo Boondoggle

Silent Stan and the Chalillo Boondoggle

By: Ryan Young

 “Silent Stan” Marshall, has finally broken his silence. In a lengthy interview with CBC this week, the Nalcor CEO offered his opinions on the recent protests and the potential dangers associated with the Muskrat Falls project. Many people, especially in Labrador, were not happy with his comments, but let’s be perfectly clear; Stan Marshall was never brought in to worry about the concerns of the people of Labrador. Nor was he brought in to address the peoples concerns about methylmercury or the north spur. Stan was brought in for one reason, and one reason only, to get the finances of the project back on track. His experience comes from the boardroom of an energy giant where decisions are made based on profit-margins, not heath or the environment. Stan Marshall has certainly had a long and successful career as a dam builder, but before we question his recent comments, we need to understand his position.

Stan Marshall was brought in to try to get the ballooning cost of the Muskrat Falls mega-project under control, while at the same time restoring the faith of the people in the leadership at Nalcor. He was outspoken against the project in the past, saying that he did not think it was a good idea, and he said he felt it was his duty to help the province get the project back on track. By all accounts he has been doing just that, albeit behind the scenes. Negotiations with Astadli have been ongoing, and yesterday it was announced that the federal government would be providing an additional $2.9 Billion on the loan guarantee. For Stan Marshall, this was never about clearing more soil or opening the north spur analysis to outside scrutiny. It was simply about trying to lessen the overall impact of Muskrat Falls on the provincial treasury.

When Stan Marshall comes out and says that he does not expect that any soil will be cleared from the reservoir, he is saying it from a business perspective. That is what the man knows. Methylmercury is just the cost of doing the dam business. As a CEO, it has never been his job to worry about the relationships between people and governments. It is curious to hear him challenge people to prove that there have been adverse health effects from the Upper Churchill reservoir, when fish consumption advisories have been in place in the area for decades, but that is what the CEO of the company building the dam is expected to say. It’s just the way the world works. We know that the science is very clear on the effects of methylmercury, but since when does science factor in to decisions made at the boardroom level? The only language the people in those positions speak is dollars and cents.

Make no mistake, the reservoir will be flooded to the minimum level in the very near future, no matter what comes of the meetings being held in Labrador this week. Winter is already upon the big land and there is no way that Stan is going to be willing to risk further delay and cost due to ice damage. While he says that he fully supports the agreement between the premier and indigenous leaders, his language makes it quite clear that he does not believe that the protesters concerns are valid and he does not expect to honor any commitment to clear topsoil from the reservoir. This has caused Opposition MHA, Barry Petten, to question if the premier and the CEO of Nalcor are on the same page when it comes to methylmercury concerns. Since Marshalls interview we have not had any comment from the premier.

So, what are we to think? Some in Labrador are already talking about feeling betrayed by Marshall’s comments and many have vowed to stand-up again if the province reneges on its deal. There is much uncertainty in Labrador right now as people are waiting to see what their leaders will say. It would not take much to send people back to the site to shut it down again, and certainly neither Nalcor nor the government wants that to happen. Stan has a job to do, after all.

Trust Stan. That has been the word from the government since Marshall took over as Nalcor CEO last spring. It kind of sounded like the “Trust Ed” kind of talk we were given for years by the previous administration, with the one obvious difference being that Stan actually knows a thing or two about building dams. But did anyone stop to look at Stan’s track record? While much of it is certainly impressive from a business and profit perspective, his record is far from perfect. Remember when he called Muskrat Falls a boondoggle? It was certainly an interesting choice of words to use as Marshall had heard them before. In 2002, environmental lawyer, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called Fortis’ Chalillo dam project on the Macal River in Belize, “The worst boondoggle I have seen in two decades as an environmental lawyer.”

The Chalillo dam made headlines worldwide for the amount of controversy related to the tiny 7MW project that Fortis was building under its local subsidiary Belize Electricity Limited (BEL).  The area that was flooded contained the only known nesting site in Belize for the rare Scarlet Macaw as well as habitat for endangered jaguars, tapirs, and howler monkeys. Celebrities such as Harrison Ford and Princess Anne raised public concerns about the project and environmentalists and biologists from all over the world condemned the damming of the Macal River.

The whole project was mired in controversy with allegations that there was a cover up by Fortis and engineering firm, AMEC, to suppress data that questioned the feasibility of the dam. In an editorial in 2013, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. goes even further, accusing Fortis of digitally removing visible fault lines from satellite photographs to suppress the local earthquake risk. This information did not come out until after the dam was complete. He also alleges that BEL lied about its claims that it would not harm endangered wildlife habitat, and that it withheld information about methylmercury contamination downstream from another one of its nearby dams. Sound familiar?

On top of all that, BEL promised that the project would not raise electricity rates for local customers, but in 2005, 2 years after the dam went live, electricity rates rose by 25%. A few years later BEL became insolvent and attempted to raise rates again by 25%, threatening to implement rolling blackouts if they were not allowed to charge higher rates. With local electricity rates already double that of neighboring countries, the Government of Belize rejected the idea and in 2011 it decided to expropriate BEL and the Chalillo Dam.

The expropriation of the Chalillo dam led to a long court battle between Fortis and the Government of Belize. It was ultimately settled in 2015 with the government having to pay Fortis $35 Million US dollars and return a 33% stake in the company. This settlement came not long after Barry Perry had taken over as CEO after Marshall’s retirement. Marshall was not willing to let the government off so easy and had been holding out for a $300 Million payment, plus damages. Since the takeover, however, BEL has been stabilized and electricity rates have been reduced to a new modern low. The government has worked closely with its partners to restructure the company back onto a sound footing.

Now, what can we take away from the Chalillo story? It certainly highlights how a corporation can be willing to bend the facts and do what it takes to make sure that pet projects see the light of day. The withholding of information and misleading of the public and the government that was witnessed in Belize sounds eerily familiar to the situation here with Nalcor. When you start to look at it from that angle, it is easy to see why Stan Marshall was the right man for the job. Stan is a man who gets things done. He doesn’t worry about pesky protesters or governments with cold feet. Stan was given a job to do and he fully intends to do it. It has been made quite clear that the project will not be stopped, and all Stan is worried about now is getting the project finished by 2020, without topping out over $15 Billion. This was what he was hired to do.

So, as much as we all want to hate on Stan Marshall right now, try to remember that the man is only doing the job he was asked to do. The real culprit is the government, who tried to sell us on the fact that one man could somehow come in and make this project magically right. The government does not care about the protesters anymore than Stan does, but they don’t have the will to face the people and say it. That is why the ball was put in Marshall’s court this week and Dwight has been silent again. They might have been wise to keep Stan’s muzzle on until next week when the flooding is done and the amount of damage that could be done by another occupation of the camp would be minimized. People in Labrador were already skeptical, and Marshall has only added fuel to the fire. But Stan knows that he was not put there to answer to the people of Labrador, he was put there to get this project done. The CEO and the Board of Directors may have changed, but it is still business as usual at Nalcor. Until government is willing to take a real stand and bring some transparency back to the company through an independent audit and a real hard look at the science and economics of Muskrat Falls don’t expect anything to change soon, or at all. Full steam ahead.

Muskrat Accountability

Muskrat Accountability

By: Ryan Young

Here is a question I have to ask: If Muskrat Falls is so bad that everybody refuses to take accountability for it, why don’t we just scrap the whole damn thing? I am not the first person to point out the strangeness of many of the #MakeMuskratRight protesters saying that they don’t want the project stopped entirely. I am sure many people feel that we have too much invested to turn back now, but with the final cost likely to be double what we have already spent, and the questions surrounding the north spur and methylmercury, it is hard to justify the reasoning that we must forge ahead at any cost. None of our political parties are willing to take the bull by the horns and demand a real stop/go analysis of the project, and the Liberals and PC's seem to be entrenched in a never-ending game of who-done-it.

So, just who do we blame for the boondoggle that is Muskrat Falls? At the PC Annual General Meeting last weekend, we heard that their party was not responsible for the current issues with the project. This revelation was met with much eye-rolling and public scrutiny, as is to be expected. This was after all the party of Danny and Kathy, who were determined to push this project through no matter what the cost. For them to take such a stand is laughable, and none but the most partisan blues are buying it.

Whenever we ask the current Liberal government about it they shrug and remind us they didn’t sanction the project. This past weekend, some Liberal MHA’s were sharing a new website that mysteriously appeared at the height of public outrage at the Liberal inaction of the situation in Labrador, highlighting the Muskrat Falls timeline from 2005 until just before the Liberals took office in 2015.

www.thanksmuskrat.com is full of quotes from current and former PC’s, and appears to be a hyper-partisan attempt to shift the heat that the government has been taking back onto the Tories. While the Liberals will deny any involvement in the website, its timing and content would make that appear to be suspect at best. They think the people have forgotten who started this mess, but they are wrong. The people remember quite well, which is why the PC party was reduced to just 7 seats last November. The people know full well who got us here, but they also know that they elected a new government to make things right. This latest move forces us to question if this government is only there to point fingers or if they actually plan to make any meaningful changes to the Muskrat Falls project.

Then we have others who like to blame the NDP and anyone else that was not crying foul of Muskrat Falls from the very minute that the words came out of King Danny’s mouth. Those who would say that if you were not there opposing the project in 2010, you have no business opposing it now. That is a very weak argument considering the many revelations that have come to the public’s attention over the past year or two. When it became clear that Nalcor had not been honest with the people on several issues, we began to wonder what else they might be lying about.

So, who do we blame for this monstrosity of a pickle we have gotten ourselves into? Not many members of the media were printing negative stories about the project in the beginning. Most people were too happy to be finally getting a one-up on the Quebec boogeyman to take a real hard look at the economics or the environmental aspects of the project. Those who did were written off as nay-sayers with their own agendas. Ed Hollett, Clyde Wells’ former EA, was a legendary Danny Hater. Cabot Martin, Dave Vardy, and Des Sullivan were the disgruntled Peckford Tories who were shut out of Danny’s government, Brad Cabana was written off as a Danny hater and a crack-pot, and many others were dismissed and ignored. Despite what your opinions of any of these people might be, they have all contributed to the ongoing Muskrat Falls discussion and have been instrumental in bringing the realities of the project into the public eye. All of these people were largely ignored by the media and the public at large for years. It is only now that the facts about the project are finally emerging that we are collectively realizing what a mess we have gotten ourselves into, and that many of the so-called nay-sayers were right all along.

Over and over we were told to trust Nalcor’s world class experts and science. We were told that the project was the only one that made sense, and that we were on-track to bring Newfoundland and Labrador energy independence. The economy was doing very well at the time Muskrat was announced, and most people were too busy working and enjoying being a “have” province to pay close attention to the handful of people who were daring to go against Danny Williams. Nalcor assured us all that science was sound and that there would be no negative impacts from methylmercury, no safety issues from the north spur, and cost overruns would be minimal.

Former Nalcor CEO Ed Martin told us blatant lies about how the contracts were let for Muskrat Falls. He said that they had used fixed-price contracts, but then later denied that statement and told us that the contracts we not actually fixed at all. This is one of the major reasons that cost overruns have greatly increased since construction began. Neither Martin, nor Lower Churchill head, Gilbert Bennett have ever been involved in a project like this before, yet we were told time and again to blindly trust their leadership without any public transparency or government oversight. Earlier this year, Stan Marshall was brought in to bring the project back on track, but other than to tell us that Muskrat was a boondoggle, silent Stan has been nowhere to be seen. As the project encounters even more problems and costs continue to skyrocket, we are being asked to blindly trust Stan. Sound familiar?

We all know that the PC’s sanctioned this project and basically gave Nalcor a blank cheque and free reign to do as it saw fit. A total lack of government oversight on the project allowed unqualified leaders at Nalcor to let things spiral out of control with not nearly enough attention paid to the economics and environmental concerns. A questionable company, Astaldi, was brought in to construct the dam, and the entire construction process has been mired in delay and controversy right from the start. Yet, if you look at the PC twitter feeds, you would swear that they were never involved in the project at all. Unless of course you ask them if it is still a good project. Then they are quick to defend Danny’s legacy and blame the current Liberal mismanagement for all of the current issues at Muskrat Falls.

No doubt, the Tories have had an easy time in opposition, with new ammo being served up on a silver platter by government almost daily, but their time in the wilderness does not seem to have given them much time for contemplation on how they ended up swept from power last fall. If the PC party is really serious about renewal, a good place to start might be take a long, hard look at how they got where they are in the first place. The Tory arrogance that people were so fed up with leading up to the last election has not gone anywhere, and trying to shift the blame for Muskrat Falls to the Liberals is not earning them any points from anyone but their own partisans.

And where is Wade Locke these days? The MUN economist was long the PC’s champion “expert” in justifying the business case for sanctioning the project. Locke assured us that oil prices would remain at record highs long into the future, and that the only option to be considered was Muskrat Falls. The words “lowest cost option” were thrown around so much that they lost all meaning to anyone who was listening. When asked by Pete Soucy when the project would no longer be the best cost option, Locke put the number at about $8 Billion. You would think that statement should have raised more eyebrows. Surely they must have anticipated cost overruns in such a remote construction location. With a ceiling of $8 Billion, they were left with very little wiggle room from the start. Now that oil is trading at less than $50 a barrel and cost overruns have but the project at $12 Billion and growing, it would be nice to hear Mr. Locke tell us at what point it makes sense to pull the plug.

That brings us back around to our current Liberal government. Yes it is true that they voted against the sanctioning of the project, but don’t read too much into that. Voting against a majority government is what opposition parties do. The real litmus test came when the Liberals took over last fall and were handed the keys to the Muskrat castle. We were given lots of words like “oversight” and “accountability,” but we didn’t really see any of those things, or any changes to the project. Pulling the plug was never on the table for the Liberals, and neither was further clearing of the reservoir to mitigate against methylmercury concerns until the protests got so loud. Instead the government followed the same template as their predecessors and kept Nalcor firmly in the driver’s seat. Finance Minister (and former PC supporter) Cathy Bennett sat on the board of directors at Nalcor and was accused of conflicts of interest regarding business contracts related to Muskrat Falls. It comes as no surprise that despite her harsh words for Nalcor in the budget speech, that she and her colleagues in cabinet were quite content for the project to keep moving along, business as usual. Unfortunately for her and the rest of the Liberals, that didn’t happen, and we were left with the Ed Martin severance fiasco, the mass resignation of the Nalcor board, and the nationwide protests that our premier assured us had no bearing at all on governments decision.

The Ed Martin debacle was a golden opportunity for the Liberals to break Nalcor and Muskrat Falls wide open. They could have opened things up to the public and let us see the extent of the mismanagement at our crown energy corporation. They could have ensured that the public fully realized the mess that the project became under the PC’s and would have earned an enormous amount of political capital without having to take any ownership for Muskrat Falls. Instead they chose to bumble and delay, and make themselves look like they were trying to hide everything from the public. For several days, last spring, each time the premier opened his mouth, lies came out. Instead of taking a golden opportunity to come out swinging and throw the PC’s under the bus, they decided to take ownership of all that negativity, and put themselves in a very tough position.  It makes one wonder what, or who, they might be protecting?

That brings us right back to where we started. Who do we blame for Muskrat Falls? The answer is certainly not black and white, and the blame runs deep. Danny, Kathy and the PC’s part played their part, as did Nalcor and its board and executives. The Liberal and NDP opposition of the day didn’t do enough to bring science and evidence into their political opposition to the project. The people have been too trusting of government, Nalcor, and the media to bring them the facts about the project. And now, the current government has not provided any degree of acceptable leadership to restore the faith of the people in the reasoning for finishing this project. It is easy to point the finger of blame and find a target when it comes to Muskrat Falls, but now that it has become crystal clear that this government has no intentions of stopping the project altogether, we need to stop talking about blame and start talking about responsibility.

The premier can stand in front of the province and say that he did not sanction the project and that his government inherited this boondoggle, but at this point those things no longer matter. The day he was sworn in as premier, he took responsibility for Muskrat Falls, and it is his responsibility now to make sure the concerns of the people are heard. The poor planning and management has continued under the leadership of Ball and Marshall, and the premier has dithered on each and every issue he has encountered. This has caused him to keep getting backed into corners and appearing weak whenever there are questions about his leadership. What we need is for our government to tell us the truth and stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes on Muskrat Falls like the previous administration did for so long. It was this attitude that pushed the PC’s back into the political wilderness, and the way things are going, the Liberals are very likely in for a similar fate.

All the blame in the world cannot hide the fact that the Liberals hold the power now. They have the numbers and the science in their hands and they have had more than enough time to develop a real plan for Muskrat Falls. The premier can stand at the microphone and say that the protests had nothing to do with the recent agreement with indigenous leaders, but we all know that this government failed to act until they were backed into a corner, again. Even then, he was quick to point the finger of blame, and suggested that we were asking the wrong premier questions about Muskrat Falls. Well here is some advice for our premier. Real leadership is not about pointing fingers and ducking out back doors. It is about meeting problems head-on and making decisions, even when they are hard or unpopular. It is about engaging the people who are desperately seeking your leadership on important issues, even when you know they wont agree with you. And most importantly it is about standing up for what is right and good, and inspiring others to follow you and to believe in you.

Does Dwight Ball have what it takes to be a real leader? I won’t attempt to answer that, but I do know that our premier has done very little to inspire confidence in our people. How can we believe in him, when he has not done or said anything to give us something to believe in? At this point we are left to judge on the track record so far, and for that, the 20% approval ratings might be generous. It is time for our premier and our government to stop playing the blame game and to stand up and lead this province. We can no longer afford to look to our past, the time has come to start looking to the future. So please Mr. Premier, stop playing the blame game and start leading.