Guest Post by Ron Penney
The Tail Wagging The Dog:
Reflections
on Phase 1 of the Muskrat Falls Inquiry
The
Muskrat Falls Inquiry has competed Phase 1 of the hearings, which focused on
the events leading up to the sanction of the project on December 17th, 2012.
We
hadn’t fully understood before the depths of hatred and contempt towards us
arising out of our early warnings about the dangers of the path that we were
on.
A
senior federal public servant told us in 2011 that the tolerance for dissent in
Newfoundland and Labrador was very low and that proved to be the case. So much
for the notion that “dissent is the highest form of patriotism”. We were
treated as unpatriotic because we opposed what has been turned out to be the
worst public policy decision ever made in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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| Ron Penney |
Perhaps
those who comment on this piece would vote on the best insult sent our way:
“Bottom Feeders” (former Premier Danny Williams), “petty and narrow detractors”
(former Clerk of the Executive Council, Robert Thompson), or purveyors of “bullshit”
(former CEO of Nalcor, Ed Martin).
In
the case of Mr. Martin I will leave it to others to decide who is the real
bullshitter, but to assist readers I quote from the Commissioner’s comments
about Mr. Martin arising from our counsel’s Geoff Budden’s, vigorous
examination of him on December 12th. I happened to be in the hearing room at
the time, and was startled by a loud bang from the front of the hearing room,
which I take was the Commissioner banging his fist on his desk in utter
frustration with Mr. Martin’s antics.
“Now.
I’ve had it. I’ve had this foolishness - I’ve had it Mr. Martin. You’re not
being the witness here. You’re trying to run the show. It’s gonna stop right
now. And if it doesn’t stop, unfortunately I won’t be able to hear the rest of
your story.
Now,
I’ve had it. I’ve listened. I’ve been very patient. I’ve tried very hard to
take notes on everything you’ve said because I wanted to know it. But I don’t
like the attitude that you’re displaying here, to be quite frank. You are not
responsive to the questions; you’re actually being rude, as far as I am
concerned, as far as I am concerned, and I don’t want it anymore. I wouldn’t
put up with it in court, and I’m not gonna put up with it here.”
Turning
to the hearings.
We
have learned a lot of detail about how sanction came about, much of which
confirms what I and my fellow naysayers thought about what led up to this
disastrous decision.
The
key takeaway for me is that the key actor in sanctioning Muskrat Falls wasn’t
Danny Williams after all, it was Ed Martin. He was the tail wagging the dog.
While
Mr. Williams announced the project on November 18, 2010, he resigned soon
after. Before he resigned he had ensured that those in charge of the project
and the Board of Nalcor were allies of his and strong supporters of the
project, so he isn’t totally off the hook.
The
light came on for me when I watched Mr. Martin give evidence. He exuded the
same self confidence and certainly about the value of the project that he had
throughout the sanctioning phase of the project, and during the construction
phase up to the point since he was either fired or resigned on May 20, 2017. He
continues to confidently praise the project and predict billions of dollars in
benefits, no matter what the cost. This is utter nonsense, as Dave Vardy and I
have pointed out in a recent letter to the Editor
Early
on I described Mr. Martin as the most dangerous person in Newfoundland and
Labrador precisely because of the personal characteristics described above.
It
was clearly his vision which carried the day and a weak and gullible public
service and even weaker and gullible political class were never a match for his
self confidence and his communication skills. They all drank the Kool Aid
proffered by Mr. Martin.
In
fact it was worse than that. We have learned that the public service not only
didn’t ask hard questions about the project, some of them became cheerleaders.
We
also learned that efforts were made by Nalcor, mostly successful, to edit and
downplay the risks that ought to have been identified, to keep the public
service and politicians ignorant of those risks, and to circumscribe the MHI
terms of reference so as to limit the effectiveness and usefulness of their
independent report to government, which in turn led to sanction based on a less
than fulsome independent review.
Even
the preferred method of communication with the government was designed to
manipulate the officials and politicians. Rather than use the normal process of
a memorandum setting out the issues and and policy alternatives, which I was
used to when I was a Deputy Minister, Nalcor used PowerPoint, which should only
be used as a presentation tool not as a way of making decisions.
So
far, Inquiry Counsel, with assistance from our legal counsel and legal counsel
representing the Consumer Advocate, have succeeded in showing us how this
disastrous decision came about and the role played by Mr. Martin, other Nalcor
officials, the public service, and the politicians of the day.
The
next stage will show us why they did such a poor job in managing the
construction of the project.
Ron
Penney
Chair,
Muskrat Falls Concerned Citizens Coalition