PAUL DAVIS KEPT LID ON RELEASE OF COST OVERRUNS PRIOR TO 2015 GENERAL ELECTION

The Commission of Inquiry into the Muskrat Falls Project has heard plenty of evidence regarding how Nalcor CEO ED Martin failed to report to either the Board or the Government the truth about cost overruns and the delay in the project schedule.

Nalcor’s deceit is only one sub-text of a larger issue, to be sure. Another is that the Board and the Government — politicians and bureaucrats — supported and accommodated Nalcor’s secrecy, most effectively by suppressing bad news under the guise of “commercial sensitivity”.  

The Inquiry has now heard evidence that the September 2015 costs, which had grown to $7.65 billion (up from $6.99 billion announced in June 2014), were significantly understated. First power would be late by two years, too. Concerns that Nalcor had understated those issues made their way into a new EY Report in the early part of 2015. The Report’s existence created a big problem for the Paul Davis Government. The bureaucrats on the Oversight Committee understood foot-dragging well and Nalcor were never found without reasons why the truth hardly mattered.