ENGINEER FINDS DREADFUL EXAMPLE OF NALCOR ARROGANCE

Stories of Nalcor’s arrogance are not new; though, when they have consequences for the public purse and add to evidence the crown corporation is out of control, they should be exposed.

Recently, a Professional Engineer, in the course of reviewing sections of Nalcor's web site, noted one disturbing answer. It can be found on Nalcor's web site, within a group of questions and answers on the Muskrat Falls project, given in 2014.

The unidentified questioner had put two questions to Nalcor. This is the second one::

And is Nalcor aware that they (Astaldi) did not qualify to bid on a hydro project in BC?

NALCOR MIMICS KAOS, ED MARTIN THE NEW MAXWELL SMART

Evidence that the hammer should be brought down on Nalcor continues to pile up. 

Ed Martin’s screening tool for contractors exhibits all the sophistication of Maxwell Smart; the bumbling Agent 86 in “Get Smart”. The 1960s comedy series is more likely to offer insight into Nalcor's behaviour and Ed Martin's utterances than any other interpretation of a rational and competent outfit managing the province's energy file.

As if the allegations in which SNC Lavalin is embroiled were not serious enough, the Nalcor CEO gives us Joe Borsellino, the master of memory tricks, who testified at the Charbonneau Commission Hearings into corruption into Quebec’s construction industry.

Borsellino’s faulty recall earned him disbelief from the presiding Madam Justice Charbonneau though, according to a CBC story, he still “acknowledged contact with organized crime.”

THE BUDGET COLLOQUY (PART 2) REVENUE PROJECTIONS: CLOSE YOUR EYES, MAKE A WISH, AND HOPE FOR THE BEST

Guest Post Written By: JM

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has a spending problem.  The problem can be masked by the temporary windfall revenues. That is what occurred in 2008-2012.  However, a responsible government plans it’s long term spending based upon a sustainable, realistic revenue stream.    

The document entitled "Budget Highlights - Balancing Choices for a Promising Future"  was a part of this masking attempt. It contained a forecast of both spending and revenue for the next 5 years.   It predicts that in 5 years the province will return to balanced budgets.  It exhibits sufficient colored graphs, and statistics to even seem believable. But believable it is not.

DERRICK DALLEY'S ORATORICAL MANURE

This week the Minister of Natural Resources told the House of Assembly there is no relationship between the ongoing Hydro-Québec lawsuit and Muskrat Falls.

"Obviously, there is a court case going on”, Dally said, “but the court case itself is with respect to the interpretation…of the 1969 power contract. The renewal of that contract and the agreement with Hydro-Québec as to how the water will flow, how the power will flow, whether it will be continuous or interrupted — that is exactly what the court case is all about. It is not about water rights."

When Derrick Dalley speaks you can be pretty certain he is wrong; though, most often, he is just unintelligible.

No other energy Minister has ever been as comfortably uninformed, effortlessly ignorant, contentedly lacking knowledge, or happily short on logic and common sense. 

The suggestion the legal case, now winding its way through the Quebec Superior Court, will have no impact on the Water Management Agreement is simply disingenuous – or evidence of a lack of anything else to say – besides the truth.

Some explanation will help you understand the issue.

THE BUDGET COLLOQUY (PART I): PUT HIM IN THE LONG BOAT TILL HE'S SOBER

Guest Post Written By: JM

The 2015 budget documents contained a piece entitled "Budget Highlights - Balancing Choices for a Promising Future".  This is a glossy flyer which provides a summary of the current fiscal position of the province and a look six years into the future.  It predicts that within five years the province will return to balanced budgets.  It contains sufficient colored graphs, and statistics to seem believable. 

All Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are encouraged to read this document. 

In a recent Uncle Gnarley post, entitled “It’s the Spending Stupid”, I gave some initial thoughts regarding the 2015 budget. Since then I have been practically consumed with trying to better understand the province's fiscal position; both current and projected. The work has included a financial review of the past twenty years. I hope it will result in additional perspective as I dissect the data.   

LEGEND OF THE BLACKBIRD: BIRTH OF THE " DOME"

Ed Martin sent Gilbert Bennett to Paddy Daly’s VOCM Open Line Show, this week, to blame the Dome fiasco squarely on Astaldi.

But there was a time when all was la Dolce Vita between Nalcor and Astaldi.

As Nalcor VP Gil Bennett tells it, it seems none of the other international contractors had any original ideas for building Muskrat Falls in a Labrador winter.

Then came along Astaldi.

So, how did Astaldi beat out Canadian Company Aecon for the $1 billion plus Muskrat Falls project?

Well, back in 2013 it may have gone something like this:

Mr. Astaldi might have said to Ed Martin: “We can solve your problem, Mr. Martinelli…we Italians have come to defeat your Labrador winter. We know what we are doing.

But you have never worked in a Labrador winter, says Ed: how can you possibly know how cold it gets up there?

UNCLE GNARLEY BLOG THANKS FACEBOOK AND TWITTER READERS FOR SHARING

Thanks to so many people on Facebook and Twitter for sharing Saturday's Post: THE PHOTOS NALCOR DON'T WANT YOU TO SEE. 

Within the last 48 hours more than 8,000 readers have read the Blog Post, a stunning number because, it vastly outnumbered the popular Uncle Gnarley Blog Posts issued during DARKNL.

The pictures of virtually brand new structural steel being hauled away as scrap, after Nalcor failed to have the Dome built to speed construction last winter, are just one visual manifestation of Nalcor incompetence.  There are many others.  

Think of the hundreds of millions of dollars of work awarded without public tender! Think of the additional cost given the project is horribly off schedule.

Why would so many people be both interested and alarmed? This is a consequence of the secrecy and obfuscation that had insulated the Muskrat Falls project from day one. This is what happens when democratically elected politicians fail to perform their duty, when they cower before unelected bureaucrats masquerading as business mandarins, at great public expense.

THE PHOTOS NALCOR DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE

Uncle Gnarley Blog has obtained photographs (shown at the end of this introduction) of Nalcor’s Muskrat Falls Integrated Cover System (referred to as the “Dome”) reduced to loads of junk steel. The building is being taken down again. The photos are shocking because they represent an enormous waste of public money.

Muskrat Falls was an unwise project for many reasons. One of those was Nalcor's lack of expertise to carry out such a large and complex project.

We can’t always show you a picture of incompetence or arrogance but, this time, we have come pretty close.

The Dome under construction at Muskrat Falls

We don’t know Nalcor’s final cost for the "Dome". But we do know it was never finished. To the originally proposed $120 million (the final cost may have been higher) you can now add the cost of dismantling and removal.

Now, the Dome is being cut up for scrap readied to be sent off for re-cycling.

Fully constructed, the Dome's dimensions are 551-feet-long, 262-feet-wide and 164-feet-high. 

NALCOR CHOSE CONTRACTOR, SHUT BID PROCESS FOR 1100 KM. TL, SAYS INFORMER

Competitive tendering of government services, including capital projects, is not just important; it is a key feature of honest, fair, and transparent governance.

Introduced in this Province following the ouster of the Smallwood Administration (known, among other things, for its arbitrary award of government business and cost plus contracts) the Public Tendering Act (though still flawed) is viewed by many as a bulwark against the corruption, nepotism, and excess, experienced in an earlier time.

The Humber Valley Paving Contract, arbitrarily cancelled by a former Minister of Transportation and Works spoke to a demand not to return to a time when select political cronies got rewarded for their partisan fealty. It elicited a storm of protest.

Two awards, for two Muskrat Falls project related transmission lines, the largest completely untendered, should bring on a far worse storm.

IT'S THE SPENDING STUPID

      Guest Post Written by "JM"

     My political opinions were largely formed in the 1990’s.  This was turbulent economic times for both Newfoundland, and the country as a whole.  In Newfoundland the closure of the fishery represented economic death by a thousand cuts.  Our population declined by 10%, and an entire generation of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians were forced to migrate.

    In Canada, debt and growing deficits had us on the verge of default.  We were the economic basket case of the G7.  It was bleak times for both Canada and Newfoundland, yet we persevered.  With the Federal Liberals coming to power in 1993 they implemented a major program of cuts, intended to reduce government spending and balance the budget.  In this province, Clyde Wells had to manage a pseudo economy, yet was still able to control spending and balance the budget in 1996. This was before Vale, Hibernia, White Rose, or Hebron. 

     As noted in the linked article above, in Canada the ratio of spending cuts to tax hikes was seven-to-one in combating the deficit. Asked why, the prime minister replied: "There was more need on one side than the other". 

    These cuts were across the board, and deep.  They affected every aspect of society.  During my 5 years in university my tuition increased from $1420 a year to about $3350.  To put that into perspective, it would be about $5000 in today’s dollars, compared to the $2550 that Memorial students presently enjoy .