SIOBHAN COADY OK WITH STURGE’S BOUGHT SILENCE

It is tough to be kind to the Ball Administration. They cause members of the public to label them “lame” and “dumb”. On what basis should they think differently?

The Liberals ought to have immediately understood the rationale for Nalcor’s $900,000 parting gift to VP and CFO Derrick Sturge and stopped the move. Even a modicum of intelligence would have helped them see through his “without cause” departure, complete — the Uncle Gnarley Blog has learned — with “Confidentiality Agreement” attached. The Agreement was key to the whole arrangement. It would provide the assurance Nalcor needed that Sturge’s lips would remain zippered about Executive complicity in Nalcor’s $12.7 billion debacle.

ROCK SOLID: ANOTHER MYTH EXPOSED

Guest Post by David Vardy
Our credit rating, albeit already downgraded, hangs on a slender thread. It depends upon the false premise that Muskrat Falls is self-supporting and that Nalcor Energy is a “self-sustaining” Government Business Enterprise (GBE). Nothing could be further from the truth. This is the myth which supports our credit rating and which is our tenuous buttress against falling over a steep fiscal cliff.

Sturge: Project Rock Solid
On March 28, 2019, Nalcor’s then Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Finance Derek Sturge told the Muskrat Falls Inquiry that the financing of the project was “rock solid”  (page 26). This is the same CFO whose contract has just been terminated “without cause” and who was awarded a compensation package of $900,000, in keeping with Nalcor Energy’s entitlement culture. Legal counsel for the Muskrat Falls Concerned Citizens’ Coalition had asked him:

$900,000 TO STURGE: NALCOR BOARD AN ECHO OF THE LAST ONE

It isn’t hard to tell that it is public money about which the Nalcor Board of Directors is so cavalier, not their own.

The previous Board gave former Nalcor CEO Ed Martin $1.38 million severance even after having resigned for “personal” reasons, “to spend more time with his family.” Fired “without cause” soon replaced the well-worn excuse of the empathetic family man booted out the corporate door. The Board, caring not a whit about Mr. Martin’s behaviour — or record — as CEO, used the contortions of legal camouflage to justify the decision; even Premier Ball allowed that Martin was awarded severance in accordance with Nalcor’s contractual obligations, until this Blog caught him out in the lie. 

VULTURES SIGHTING AN OMEN, SAYS THE BARD

VULTURES

(A Turkey Vulture (bird) was seen by local birders on Roche Street, St. John’s, on Nov.05. Seen again in flight on Nov. 10 - last seen over Confederation Building!)

A Vulture sighted in St. John’s -

It scavenges from dead!

Perhaps it is an omen

Of the coming of The Fed

To bare the bones of Province

That debt and folly’s fed?

FISCAL CLIFF: HARD OR SOFT LANDING?

Guest Post by David Vardy
How many people in this province believe we are heading for a fiscal cliff? How many are aware of how precarious our position has become as a result of our high public spending, combined with the tragic decision to build Muskrat Falls? What are the options available to us? This post will review some of the options, including early negotiations on a possible power contract with Quebec after 2041 and the prospects of enhanced federal support. My intention is to bring some of these options to light for respectful, informed dialogue. With final reports due soon from both the Muskrat Falls Inquiry and the Public Utilities Board there is a plethora of evidence and ideas. Sadly the greatest dearth of research relates to the fiscal impact of Muskrat Falls, which is the real elephant in the room.

PLAYING CHES: REFERENDUM IDEA HIS BEST MOVE?

Ches Crosbie wants the Government to call a referendum on equalization. He believes it will call attention to the program’s unfair construction and garner support for reform of the system, giving this province some much-needed additional revenue. 

Other than the Schroder Policy Institute’s Upper Churchill proposal — which has been articulated by local artist and entrepreneur Bob Hallett — no ideas have been brought forward to deal with the Province’s full-blown, and largely unacknowledged, fiscal crisis.

This Blog has never assessed Mr. Hallett’s proposal, but it is gratifying that a talented, fresh face has entered the fiscal crisis debate — even though “debate” may be too strong a word.

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.

STAN: DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT

If the public didn't feel so well off, Nalcor CEO Stan Marshall would be gone in a Dunderdale minute. They need to tell Stan not to let the door hit him on the way out. April 2020, his scheduled departure date, won't come soon enough!

Just more than a week ago, Marshall graced the PUB Hearings on rate mitigation with his noble presence. One might have expected him to explain why thousands of transmission lines throughout the world operate using dependable computer software, yet even a two-year delay in the Muskrat Falls project isn't sufficient to get Alstrom, Nalcor’s contractor since 2014 (purchased by General Electric in 2015), off their duffs. Worse, the public has to be satisfied with Marshall’s simplistic assertion that the job is “complicated”.

WHO STOLE THE CASH? BARD ASKS.

THREE MILLION VIEWS

(Gnarley Blog)

Three million views to look at ruse

That politicians bid,

And thirty million spent on hues

Surrounding tale sordid

Of project built to stroke conceit

In cost and schedule skid;

But few clues in verbal chews

On venality and perfid.

CHANGE COMING TO THE UNCLE GNARLEY BLOG

Since 2012, the Uncle Gnarley Blog has posted every Monday and, during much of that time, Thursdays too. Several contributors, notably David Vardy, “PlanetNL”, "JM", Jim Gordon, the “Anonymous Engineer”, “Agent 13”, the “Bard of Pynn’s Brook”  John Tuach — to name some of the most recent and prolific amongst them — have played a major role in offering analysis and opinion on the many facets of the Muskrat Falls Project, in addition to the province's fiscal challenges.  All have demonstrated enormous dedication to a high standard of research and writing, as well as the capacity to explain and simplify exceedingly complex issues.