ED MARTIN'S HYDRO PURGE OF 2005

Guest Post by Ron Penney

In my guest post of October 4th I explained how the 2002 Gull Island deal was scuttled by then Leader of the Opposition, Danny Williams, aided and abetted by the then Chair of the Board of  Newfoundland Hydro, Dean MacDonald, and board member Mark Dobbin.

When Mr. Williams became Premier in 2003 he proceeded to commence a series of personnel changes at Newfoundland Hydro which has led directly to the Muskrat Falls boondoggle.

The first was the appointment of Gilbert Bennett in 2003 to oversee the Lower Churchill project. Mr. Bennett formerly worked with Rogers Cable, whose work experience is in telecommunications. He is no doubt a bright and competent telecommunications engineer but it is hard to see how that experience readied him for his current role.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY: SCUTTLING OF THE 2002 GULL ISLAND FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT

Guest Post by Ron Penney
MISSED OPPORTUNITY: THE SCUTTLING OF THE 2002 FRAMEWORK AGREEMENT FOR DEVELOPMENT OF GULL ISLAND 

The full development of the Lower Churchill consists of two projects: Gull Island and the much smaller Muskrat Falls project. Gull Island is projected to be a 2250 megawatt project as compared to the Muskrat Fall’s 824 megawatts. Gull Island was always felt to be the far more economic project.

In 2002 a draft Framework Agreement was negotiated with Hydro Quebec to develop Gull Island. A link to that agreement is found here.

At the time, the then Chair of Newfoundland and Labrador, Dean MacDonald, and another Board member, Mark Dobbin, broke with the rest of the Board, and opposed the agreement. The then Leader of the Opposition, Danny Williams, became aware of the agreement and mounted a vigorous and ultimately successful campaign to scuttle the agreement.

This represented the most recent attempt to develop Gull Island and led directly to the Muskrat Falls debacle.