THE MUSKRAT FALLS HOUSE OF CARDS - POSTPONING THE DAY OF RECKONING

Guest Post by Ron Penney

I, and some of my fellow naysayers, have been trying to understand the latest scheme for rate mitigation, announced just before the calling of the federal election.

There was very little information given out when it was announced but we have gotten our hands on the technical briefing given to the press at the announcement and a senior official has kindly agreed to meet with some of us on two occasions to discuss the plan, to answer some of our questions and to take other questions under advisement. 

In addition, the agreement in principle on the financing components of the deal together with an exchange of letters on the Hibernia revenues between the Premier and the Deputy Prime Minister are on the website of Intergovernmental Affairs. 

IMPROVING LITERACY IN NEWFOUNDLAND

Guest Post by Catherine Penney

Improving Literacy in Newfoundland and Labrador

The Greene (PERT) Report includes a statement that “K-6 classroom teachers no longer graduate from Memorial with adequate skills to reach these subjects”, the subjects being reading and mathematics. According to the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program in the years 2007, 2010, and 2013, reading achievement in Newfoundland was significantly below the Canadian average. According to the more recent Southam survey, Newfoundland has the highest rate of illiteracy of any province in Canada. In Newfoundland and Labrador, 44% of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador cannot read. 

If Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are to have good jobs, they must be able to use the complex technology now available and also future technology. To keep up, workers must be highly literate.

RATE MITIGATION: FUREY'S DECEPTION

As much as Premier Furey proclaimed, alongside PM Trudeau, that Newfoundland and Labrador negotiated a successful “rate mitigation” plan, no deal was struck that even slightly got the “Muskrat off our back”.

The plan simply does not contain the elements required to protect the public from unaffordable energy costs – except for just a few years. Then the problem will have only grown bigger. 

It is disappointing that the media were taken in by the propaganda and hoopla generated by the PM’s visit, reminiscent as it was of the manner which they treated Danny Williams’ announcement of the Muskrat Falls project in the first place.

RATE MITIGATION: DR. FUREY'S FALSE DIAGNOSIS

Guest Post by PlanetNL

PlanetNL39: Dr. Furey’s False Diagnosis

Premier’s Rate Mitigation Plan is a Bust

In his old profession, Dr. Furey could never get away with giving a terminally ill patient a pain killer and proclaiming to them that they are cured.  In politics though, he is shamelessly practicing that game to the fullest.  If you believed his July 28 grandstand with his pal the Prime Minister was indeed a good and permanent rate mitigation solution for Muskrat Falls, then you have taken his bait, hook, line, and sinker. 

There is very little in the announced Agreement in Principle that permanently decreases the cost of Muskrat to be borne by ratepayers.  This post will explain the problems and risks of five of the six measures that were announced as the rate mitigation solution.  It will also identify additional risks to demonstrate how impossible the task it is to have ratepayers pay for Muskrat.  But that won’t stop the politicians from trying to do it anyway.