It is not
difficult to figure out why Nalcor CEO Stan Marshall wasn’t invited by the
Premier to sit in on the marathon session with aboriginal leaders. Evidently he
would not have been helpful. Already he is dissing the importance of the
methylmercury issue — mere days after the protesters broke off their sit-in.
At the
beginning of his tenure, Marshall appeared in front of the media to confirm that the
Muskrat Falls project is a “boondoggle” and to say that he is trying to mitigate the
impact of 21.4 cent KWh power on ratepayers. Otherwise, he has largely been mute.
Whether it
was the protesters or something else that stirred him to consciousness is
uncertain.
The Nalcor
CEO used his two-day media blitz last week to largely dismiss the deal the politicians
had constructed. He downplayed concerns about methylmercury and suggested the
science would not require clearcutting and soil removal. Marshall may be right.
But how is the expression of such views supposed to advance progress in
establishing a relationship between the parties?
