Rarely have I encountered poor judgment such as that publicly manifested in the case of NL Hydro CEO, Jennifer Williams, last week. Though it was not the first example of the CEO having stepped over the line – her transition from bureaucrat to propagandist most notable – the VOCM News headline suggests that this is a CEO without boundaries. VOCM reported: NL Hydro Congratulates Newly Elected Government, Looks Forward to Future Discussions”.
Before giving that exposition greater appraisal, we might remember that NL Hydro was given responsibility for “selling” the MOU to the public, albeit at the Furey/Hogan Government’s behest. The problem throughout the ordeal of Hydro’s gong show, including the House of Assembly’s engagement, was that it was incapable of differentiating between the roles of “explainer” and “propagandist”. Former Hydro CEOs like Cyril Abery, David Mercer and Bill Wells would have refused a political role for NL Hydro. Forced on them, I am confident that each would have resigned.
It was bad enough that a terribly unwise Government openly attempted to foist the complicated, unfinished and poorly negotiated agreement on elected Members (most refusing to acknowledge that they had neither click nor clue what it was about). But on that occasion, too, the NL Hydro CEO failed to remember that she was a public servant, not a member of the Premier’s re-election strategy group.
Williams even had the audacity to insert herself in the election campaign, appearing on Paddy Daley’s “Open Line” Show to ostensibly correct what she regarded as misleading information attributed to critics of the MOU.
Sensitivity to the importance of an impartial electoral process and her bureaucratic role – in contrast to the job of her Minister – ought to have inspired her to definitively counsel the inappropriateness of such an engagement. If she called the Open Line Show of her own volition, in other words absent prodding from her Minister, nothing more need be be said.
Her conflict in this case, however, also manifested in her refusal to pay deference to the few people capable of exposing the MOU’s massive shortcomings. One was economist and former PUB Chair, David Vardy. After months of attempting, along with other analysts, to square aspects of his analysis with NL Hydro’s distinctly promotional wares, Vardy wrote Ms. Williams asking that NL Hydro “introduce an expedited information process to improve public understanding of the issues that are at stake.”
Vardy submitted 29 questions to her the day following her Open Line appearance, seeking a quick reply. Ms. Williams replied that his request in the timeframe was “not reasonable”. Her response was not that she would answer one-half or one-quarter of them; it was simply “nada”.
Whether the Hydro CEO’s insertion in the election campaign was her current Minister’s inspiration or not, she would have received no such instruction when she inspired VOCM to announce her readiness to speak with the new Administration.
Let me state again,Jennifer Williams is a public servant. She enjoys no greater status than any other Deputy Minister or senior official in the public service. Like all senior officials when a change of government occurs, each one is expected continue their role, while they await instruction on policy changes – including the question whether they will continue to hold onto their job. Discretion in the interim is expected, and discretion is the course normally embraced by the wise public servant.
Jennifer Williams, perhaps in alignment with one of her recent predecessors, former CEO Ed Martin, did not understand her place. Instead, she blurted to VOCM that she looks forward to connecting with (Premier-elect) Wakeham to “discuss how the Crown electricity assets are integral to, and contribute to, the vision and plans for the province’s future.”
Implicitly, the presumption is that the new Administration did not know the importance of our hydro resources already. Ostensibly, Williams was eager to tell them what it needed to know and, presumably, what, so far, they had got so badly wrong.
The fact that the Tory Leader made his views on NL Hydro’s negotiated outcome with Hydro-Quebec a distinct campaign position, and that the public gave the MOU a resounding repudiation, was evidently immaterial.
Only those of modest achievement and who are told by incompetent politicians too often that they are “experts” would embrace and be affected by such blandishments. Even fewer would have the gall to publicly greet the new Administration with news of NL Hydro’s (old) mission, when new instructions had already been broadcast.
Is it from this same source that the Furey/Hogan Administration received advice to accept the MOU for fear that Hydro-Quebec would walk away from the negotiation, its 1969 equivalence notwithstanding? The incredulity of this assertion by CEO Jennifer Williams is still mind numbing.
Unlikely as it was, a more grounded member of the NL Hydro Board might have advised the CEO that, in the interest of efficiency, immediate removal of any unnecessary trinkets from her office was warranted.
Such an initiative would have been wise should a “real” expert be asked to assume the helm of NL Hydro – one possessing infinitely better judgment, too. Then, she could be completely ready for a quick exit from Hydro Headquarters, having been shown the door.