MF COALITION TO HOLD FIRST MEETING TONIGHT



Notice of General Meeting of the Muskrat Falls Concerned Citizens Coalition (MFCCC) The first meeting of the Coalition will take place at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, September 12th at the Holiday Inn, 180 Portugal Cove Road, St. John’s, to bring our members up to date on our preparations for the hearings which will commence on Monday, September 17th.

This meeting will also be broadcast Live via our Facebook page for those not able to attend in person.

Please let us know if you will be attending in person by RSVP to info@mfccc.ca.

Des Sullivan
Des Sullivan
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada Uncle Gnarley is hosted by Des Sullivan, of St. John's. He is a businessman engaged over three decades in real estate management and development companies and in retail. He is currently a Director of Dorset Investments Limited and Donovan Holdings Limited. During his early career he served as Executive Assistant to Premier's Frank D. Moores (1975-1979) and Brian Peckford (1979-1985). He also served as a Part-Time Board Member on the Canada-Newfoundland Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB). Uncle Gnarley appears on the masthead representing serious and unambiguous positions on NL politics and public policy. Uncle Gnarley is a fiscal conservative possessing distinctly liberal values and a non-partisan persusasion. Those values and opinions underlie this writer's views on NL's politics, economy and society. Uncle Gnarley publishes Monday mornings and more often when events warrant.

REMEMBERING BILL MARSHALL

Bill left public life shortly after the signing of the Atlantic Accord and became a member of the Court of Appeal until his retirement in 2003. During his time on the court he was involved in a number of successful appeals which overturned wrongful convictions, for which he was recognized by Innocence Canada. Bill had a special place in his heart for the underdog.

Churchill Falls Explainer (Coles Notes version)

If CFLCo is required to maximize its profit, then CFLCo should sell its electricity to the highest bidder(s) on the most advantageous terms available.

END OF THE UPPER CHURCHILL POWER CONTRACT: IMPROVING OUR BARGAINING POWER

This is the most important set of negotiations we have engaged in since the Atlantic Accord and Hibernia. Despite being a small jurisdiction we proved to be smart and nimble enough to negotiate good deals on both. They have stood the test of time and have resulted in billions of dollars in royalties and created an industry which represents over a quarter of our economy. Will we prove to be smart and nimble enough to do the same with the Upper Churchill?

13 COMMENTS

  1. I was there. It was a shame that the average age was probably 60. There were lots of good things said and I'd like to see them broken up into clips, distributed on twitter, turned into memes, quoted on blogs etc. Some of Andy Wells dialogue was both funny and disturbing – he clearly saw malice towards the PUB. Others pointed out a deficit in how we govern ourselves. We need to get more of the younger generation involved. The only caveat is that older people in this province are the majority and the ones mostly likely to be stuck here. Perhaps it is the elders that need to revolt politically and lead by example.

    Everyone should read the shocking AG report on the corrupt school board (improper hiring, buying tires that fit no company vehicle but match the buyer or an EECD employees personal vehicle, missing equipment (either never delivered or stolen), total disregard for HR and Financial management and controls, destruction of records, falsification of records, total lack of morals, etc.

    I believe that because of rampant crony-ism, that incompetent and inappropriate two-legged rats infest management positions of all government positions and agencies. Competent, ethical and well educated people are a threat to these cronies and are driven out. The end result is a dysfunctional mess throughout the entire public sector.

    • Thanks an: 7:21 for the brief update. Yes, would be nice to see clips broken up and posted as you suggest. But these same people seem to be relucent to make their own post or comments on this blog. Why? It's a blog that is widely read. I write here all the time, but I don't know anything. Pass time I guess. Yes, kind of a shame that the younger generation show so little interest, but being of the modern social media age, they don't attend meetings, protest etc. until it affects them directly in their daily lives. And they prefer, Facebook, Twitter and other social outlets that I am not even familiar with. But we the boomer generation always led, the builders, and guess we still have to. Was bred into us the way we grew up. So guess we will continue. As for your comment about the school board and the AG, yes shows the AG is on their toes, hopefully, but understand it occurred mostly a few years back. Yes educated people not able to govern themselves. Too much time on their hands and not doing enough except looking after them selves, while some teachers, are worked and stressed to the max. But that's it, take the good with the bad. But to keep things in prospective, this may have involved less than 200$ thousand, compared to our other leaders of muskrat, like billions. So not even a drop in the bucket, compare able, but of course still not condoned. Yes, tell Andy to write some of his knowledge, experiences, especially the humorous stuff on this blog. Or maybe he thinks he will get personally attacked, so a more friendly environment in the confines of a controlled public meeting. But either way Andy is good for it. Or maybe he prefers to talk rather than write. Now b'y, she's not that bad, "a mess" and that occurs everywhere, not just here, just look at the churches, from USA to Australia. But of course we tend to just look at our little domain to find fault and a mess. Cheers, Joe blow.

  2. One topic Vardy and another speaker raised that was very relevant was the aspect of not speaking out or doing so with anonymity to avoid retaliation from those in authority. I am one of them. I'm certain my employers would interpret my comments here as actions detrimental to their interests and I'd likely be promptly terminated.

    Surely there are many strong supporters of MFCCC and anti-MF who are marginalized by the anti-democratic petty power politics that pervades our economy in both the private and public sectors. I've learned many times over in my career before MF that it's tough to lodge complaints from within this tiny fishbowl we live in.

  3. We were asked to help listen to the recorded sessions and note anything of interest that the lawyers (Ron and Jeff) might question or explore further in questioning of witnesses. To do this, we would have to section the hearing up, perhaps by half hours of the day and volunteer to listen to chronological sections of it and take notes. These notes could be comments on a bulletin board. Another useful tactic would be to tweet out anything said that was outrageous / shocking / profound with the hashtag #NLPOLI along with a link to the video and the time stamp.

  4. I wish I could have attended, but with a newborn and work it was not possible. I'm wondering if any of the major news outlets were present? Looking through the CBC and VOCM headlines this morning, they were not. Funny how they're always quick to parrot Nalcor press releases without a second thought or consideration, but ignore the opposition.
    Being a journalist must be easy these days with corporate PR staff doing their jobs for them, all they need to do is copy and paste, or press the record button and stay quiet while the powerful tell us what's what.
    Someone commented that it was mostly boomers at the meeting last night, I hope they listened and learned something, and aren't foolish enough to vote the PC's back in during the next election, which is likely given their short-sighted nature. One of the most frustrating parts of living in NL as a young person is not the cost, it's old people being the deciding vote – and the young – the future of the province, having their fate decided by people who may not even be around for the consequences of their decisions – MF being the fattest example. I'm glad Ches is as boring as he is, if the PC's had another big mouth messiah like Danny, the bitter boomers would fall to their knees in praise without a second thought I fear. Jeez, listen to me, perhaps I'm becoming bitter as well – I must be getting old.

    • Some reasonable comments but I disagree on typecasting demographics with voting preferences. The DW era was popular with all demographics – they were doling out sugar for absolutely everyone as I recall. I think everyone today is skeptical of any politician who promises anything positive or non-bitter. But I'm 49 so I should let the boomers speak for themselves.

    • Good points DT…can't disagree with you. Yes, you would think the brave, fearless, useless media would have learned from their inhepness, and parrotining mode of operation over the past decade. But guess they never learn either, or their bosses has a strangle hold on them, that they will be canned quicker than snookie could say, " right on". Yes, the poles showed that the older generation were more likely to support the pc's even without a Danny size messiah. But given the 3 choices, there don't seem to be a great distinction to be made. None has given any logical, straight forward plan that the voters can take any confidence in. And agree with you that the boomers may be the deciding vote, but you cannot really blame them, they are just more active, and express their democratic right more often than the younger generations. And if you take those from voting age to around 50, they are the greatest majority, so as we have been saying get more active and do your civic duty. If the boomers wre not involved, there would be almost no one involved. As for age and being old, that's all relative, and you will be old or think you are old some day if you live long enough, lol. And think the point you are also making, is that the boomers were responsible for the muskrat boondoggle. Yes, some truth in that, but think it was mainly a few boomers that did that, and we all know their names, including all those in the legislature at the time. But still think a majority of the boomers were against it from the beginning, and the younger generation was mainly out of the loop, except their short term look was a good payceck. Most guys like me didn't have a horse in the race, I wasn't looking for a job, or to make a quick buck. But keep on truck'en DT, including making babies, lol, and hopefully more of the younger will follow your example. Cheers, Joe blow.

  5. 43 year old here so at the higher end of what some might call the higher end of the "social media" age.

    I was in this area last night and would have attended this had I known about it. I visit this site almost daily hoping for new posts but missed this post somehow. Perhaps events like this would have higher attendance and more coverage if they were well known.

    It is starting to feel like the general populous is getting more keen to what goes on and I think more interest and participation in this and other public discussions might make more people who fear for their lively hoods to come out of the proverbial closet and speak to or acknowledge the arm twisting in the leadup to sanction.