WAITING, WISHING, AND HOPING

Sometimes an easy “fix” to a problem is wanted so badly that people will delude themselves with the sheer mention by partisans of the next best thing. 

One recent example. The Federal Throne Speech announced the “Atlantic Loop”, an expansion of electricity transmission capability entering New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 

Immediately, it was embraced by Newfoundland worthies as one of the long-awaited answers to the Muskrat Falls debacle. Yet, it contained not a shred of evidence that this Province has a role to play. 

The word “Atlantic” has historically enabled locals to distinguish the four most easterly provinces from the “Maritimes”. The inclusion of “Quebec” would naturally assume nomenclature like the “Eastern Canadian Loop”. Presumably, that would have allowed too much transparency to a plan in which the Government of Canada is involved. 

Still, what is it that inspires locals to think that the “Loop” is about them and to give it an air of credibility in which the truth is missing? 

RATE MITIGATION: PUB OFFERS NO MAGIC SOLUTIONS

On Friday the PUB sent its final Report on the Rate Mitigation Reference to the Ball Administration which it promptly released to the public. It would be nice to report that the PUB has contrived a magical solution to this enormous challenge, but there is no such good news. The Report, itself, is a bit of a disappointment though not because it contains no magic or that it offers limited solutions. It simply misses an opportunity to give certainty and clarity to the precise dimensions of the mitigation problem, fails to give Nalcor its proper berth, and fails to offer the Ball Government – and the public – advice on a realistic and permanent solution to the worst possible consequence of Danny Williams' legacy project. Obviously, I can be blamed for an excess of expectation.

RATE MITIGATION AND OUR FISCAL CLIFF

Guest Post by Ron Penney

The Government put out its rate mitigation plan last April prior to the provincial election.

It also asked the Public Utilities Board to examine rate mitigation and hearings are presently underway.

Unfortunately both efforts are being promised and undertaken in isolation, ignoring the real elephant in the room, our dire financial situation.

FEDERAL ELECTION: BE READY TO CONFRONT THE ‘SILENT SEVEN’

If any of the 338 Federal MPs in the House of Commons entered a race to name the “most quiet” politicians, the Newfoundland and Labrador seven would win hands-down!

For them, flying under the radar is a practiced art, a condition which may change slightly during the next six weeks of the Federal Election Campaign — though, if they are re-elected, reversion to “same ol’, same ol’” is a certainty. Even NL's Minister in the Federal Cabinet loses his tongue for extended periods, occasionally bobbing up to utter some vague assurance that he is on the job. What job is seldom clear.

PREMIER'S STATEMENTS FALL SHORT SAYS COALITION

The Muskrat Falls Concerned Citizens’ Coalition, headed by David Vardy, Ron Penney and Des Sullivan (the latter also hosts this Blog) wrote the Premier on September 3, 2018 seeking specific commitments and clarity following his statements to the effect that ratepayers would not be expected to bear the costs of the Muskrat Falls project and offered to reinstate the authority of the PUB to set rates.

Following receipt of the letter, the Premier made a further statement on September 6 which fell far short of his earlier commitments. This is the text of the Coalition's response to the Premier's latest comments. This post also provides a link to the full text of the letter sent to the Premier.

BIG BALL PROMISES: LET'S GET THEM IN WRITING

“We just want to clarify, there is no way ratepayers in our province could pay or should pay for the burden of Muskrat Falls.”  The province will be “separating the ratepayers from the Muskrat Falls debt.” It is a “tremendous burden… a debt issue, not a ratepayer issue.”  These are all direct quotes which the CBC attributed to the Premier in a by-election kick-off for Liberal Candidate, Paul Antle, in the District of Windsor Lake.

What else did the Premier say? He said, “we are not looking at increasing taxes for people in Newfoundland and Labrador.”

As others have asked, if both ratepayers and taxpayers will be spared responsibility for the $12.7 billion Muskrat Falls debt, who is going to pay?