WHY GILBERT BENNETT, OTHERS SHOULD BE FIRED

The public should be disturbed that, in releasing the Report of the Muskrat Falls Inquiry, Premier Ball and Minister Siobhan Coady were unwilling to demonstrate that there are consequences for senior public servants who engage in a calculated and systematic abuse of the public’s trust. Indeed, they exhibited no capacity to even check the behaviour of their Tory predecessors.

Among the Commissioner’s findings is that, in the case of Nalcor, the Corporation failed to adhere “to the core values of open communication, honesty and trust, or accountability in their discussions and communications with GNL [the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador] and Nalcor’s board of directors.” He found that “Edmund Martin, Gilbert Bennett and the PMT [Project Management Team] frequently took unprincipled steps to help secure Project sanction. They concealed information that would undermine the business case reported to the public, to GNL and to Nalcor’s board of directors.” His findings confirm that senior officials of Nalcor and GNL behaved in this way on multiple occasions.