BIRD FEEDERS AND THE ATLANTIC ACCORD

Guest Post by "Agent 13"

Bird Feeders and The Atlantic Accord
(who's running this place anyway) 

We have all heard the old joke about the Alien looking down at St. John’s and seeing humans picking up after their dogs, coming to the conclusion that the dogs must be in charge. 

This got me wondering what the same Alien might conclude if they listened to our local News.

Could they identify our Leaders?

For starters, a totally stressed City Council have figured out the pressing issue is that “some” people in St. John’s have too many bird feeders. They want an immediate stop to the trend. The City plans a new by-law. 

MORE PRE-SANCTION FRAUD OR INCOMPETENCE?

Guest Post by PlanetNL

PlanetNL23: Backup Power Risks Reveal More Pre-Sanction Shenanigans

Two new reports on the Public Utilities Board (PUB) website shatter the illusion that the Muskrat Falls project will avoid the need for oil-fired generation in the province.  Upon decommissioning of the 490MW steam generation capacity at the Holyrood Thermal Generating Station, there is a critical reliability scenario arising in the all too likely event the Labrador Island Link (LIL) experiences an outage that will lead to a 500MW capacity deficit on the Avalon Peninsula.  Another report identifies that even when Muskrat runs optimally, there is insufficient capacity reserve without the addition of two new 58.5MW Combustion Turbines (CTs).

This new information gives further evidence of how Nalcor distorted the comparison of the Isolated vs Interconnected pre-sanction scenarios to favour Muskrat.  As reality sets in, Nalcor finds itself left with only one viable solution: the installation of several new diesel CTs, likely on the very same Holyrood site.  The irony of building the colossal Muskrat Falls megaproject for the purpose of closing Holyrood, only to find that a direct replacement must be constructed, is an astonishingly shameful exposure of Nalcor’s deceit.

BARD'S QUESTION FOR THE AGING MASSES

WHEN FEEBLE COMES

A question for the aging masses:
When feeble comes,
Who’ll wipe our arses?

In this time of smartphone fret
And fixation on the internet,
If wiping can’t be done by app.

FIFTEEN TAKEAWAYS PHASE I MUSKRAT FALLS INQUIRY

Guest Post by Muskrat Falls Concerned Citizens Coalition Members David Vardy, Ron Penney and Des Sullivan

Now that the second phase of the Inquiry has begun it may be helpful to take stock of where we are and what we have learned to date. 
Here are fifteen key issues on which the Inquiry Commissioner, Richard LeBlanc, must opine and about which the public should be informed. We have not attempted to assign priorities to them but we can say they that, while they are important, there are others issues that have been identified. We will post them another time.  

1.         When the Muskrat Falls project was sanctioned there was only a three per cent probability that the project would be completed on time, based on evidence provided by Nalcor’s risk consultant Richard Westney.

THE ATLANTIC ACCORD: BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID

It is not a good feeling when government cannot be trusted.

Yet, notwithstanding all the partisan nonsense that props up one Party over another, it is the trust that government acts solely in the public interest that keeps the democratic system strong.

It is an issue that permeates many of the articles and comments that appear on this Blog. Underneath them is the fear, to phrase it in the vernacular, that the Ball Government will “sell the Province down the river”.

There is reason for that and, paradoxically as it may seem, the origins of such scepticism are found with Ball’s Tory predecessors.

BEWARE FEDERAL SHAPESHIFTING ON ATLANTIC ACCORD, WARNS CABOT MARTIN

Guest Post by Cabot Martin
Hooray for Uncle Gnarley for he has saved me from the sloth of procrastination!

Nearly a week had passed since former Premier Peckford’s letter appeared in the Saturday March 2^nd edition of the St. John’s Telegram and I was still mulling over an appropriate way to support his views; maybe phone Paddy; maybe a letter to the Telegram.

So when Uncle Gnarley phoned last Thursday to ask me to write something on the Atlantic Accord mess, it didn’t take any convincing at all.

So to A. Brian’s excellent letter.

I was most struck by his comment on a possible change in the Accord that would see us being demoted from “principal beneficiary” to ”primary beneficiary” – a big change in a key, supposedly entrenched right.

WERE SNC LAVALIN TROUBLES OPPORTUNISTIC FOR NALCOR?

Guest Post by David Vardy

SNC LAVALIN: THE MUSKRAT FALLS EXPERIENCE
SNC Lavalin’s role in the Muskrat Falls project has figured prominently in recent hearings of the Muskrat Falls Inquiry. On Friday the Inquiry heard from Nalcor’s senior procurement officer on the project’s management practices, including those which led to the selection of SNC Lavalin (SLI) as EPCM contractor in 2011 and to their removal from this role in 2013.

The New York Times had this to say on the biggest scandal facing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:
“The case revolves around accusations that SNC-Lavalin, a multinational engineering company based in Quebec, paid 47.7 million Canadian dollars in bribes to officials in Libya to win contracts there, and defrauded the Libyan government and its agencies of 129.8 million Canadian dollars.

“The prime minister and his aides have been accused of pressuring his justice minister at the time, Jody Wilson-Raybould, to drop the criminal inquiry against the company because a conviction could potentially cost thousands of jobs in Canada, and diminish his Liberal Party’s political fortunes.”

WHEN POLITICIANS DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW

On the Witness Stand at the Muskrat Falls Inquiry, former Premier Paul Davis displayed the confidence of one who believed he knew what he was talking about. A confident Derrick Dalley, the former Tory Minister of Natural Resources, succeeded him. Trouble is, confidence is no substitute for the good judgment they ought to have brought to their senior positions.

Expected was leadership worldly-wise enough to understand the need for a process that assured “oversight” of the project at the highest level. The decision required personnel of international stature that was “earned” — not “awarded” by Kathy Dunderdale.  

Little wonder that Davis was once dubbed the “Corporal Premier” on this Blog, having admitted to the Inquiry that his chief source of information on Muskrat was Dalley.