EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is a Guest Post written by the whistleblower, referred to as the “Anonymous Engineer”, who originally disclosed falsification of the estimates for the Muskrat Falls project on January 30, 2017 — in a post entitled Muskrat Cost Estimates “A Complete Falsification”, says Engineer, in a second post on February 6, 2017 called Muskrat: Allegations of Phony Cost Estimates, and to the CBC in early May. This piece is his direct appeal to the Premier and Minister Coady for a Forensic Audit of the Muskrat Falls project. — Des Sullivan
Premier’s and Minister Coady’s
statements are false – June 23rd,
2017
statements made by the Premier Dwight Ball and Minister Coady at the televised
press conference on June 23rd, 2017 are false. The Premier stated
that performing a Forensic Audit, now, will delay the project. He made an array
of other false claims, evidently with an intent specifically to delay a
Forensic Audit as long as possible. There is not a grain of truth in these
claims.
These mis-statements
likely stem from a lack of knowledge of how a Forensic Audit is done, who is
impacted, and how major projects are implemented. One is forced to wonder if
his primary objective is to delay and to discredit the Audit process.
noted that the estimates on which the Muskrat Falls project was sanctioned were
completely false. That sad but essential fact is widely acknowledged by the
highest authorities in the province — namely Stan Marshall, CEO Nalcor, Minister
Coady and the Premier Dwight Ball. Consequently, the question of whether estimates
were falsified will pass into history.
However,
whether the false estimates were a result of gross incompetence or deliberate
deceit can be established only by a Forensic Audit. The statements first made
by me in statements attributed to the “Anonymous Engineer”, in January 2017 and
since, have proven to be absolutely true.
leads us to a much more difficult question — a question that must be answered.
Who is to be held accountable for such an enormous error and/or a deliberate
act of deceit, having such catastrophic consequences for the province?
all institutions of Government have fought the Forensic Audit tooth and nail,
with their arguments not supported by facts; rather they are mired in false
statements and words lacking intent to act.
following are statements made by Premier Ball at the June 23rd press
conference. I have parsed his remarks and believe they deserved rebuttal with
the facts as I know them. My reply is highlighted in red.
“A Forensic Audit is a political tool
and is of no use” — A Forensic Audit is not a political tool at all. It is an integral
component of competent project management, where the trail of authority and
decision making has been incredibly unclear. No one knows who was responsible
for what decisions were made and, worse, no one in authority seems to want to
know. A Forensic Audit will make the public aware who knew what and when, and who
is responsible for the decisions, and what the outcome of these decisions were.
“A
Forensic Audit will not be telling us any more than what we already know” — This statement is nonsensical. What we know now is not nearly
enough. An Audit will tell us what we need to know. We have heard endlessly the
litany of excuses: “before my time, I don’t know what happened, I have no
mandate to look at the past, I only look at the future. I don’t know how to do
it.” I suggest it is time to stop making
excuses and get the Forensic Audit done.
“A
Forensic Audit now will cause delays in construction” — This statement arises from not knowing what a
Forensic Audit is all about. The construction staff now assigned to various
work sites were not there when the estimates were developed and approved.
Consequently they will not be consulted and there will be no work interruption.
Only the decision makers who are still around will be consulted, such as Gilbert
Bennett, Paul Harrington and Ed Martin. The Audit team typically works in a room
reviewing historical documents, tracking down the sequence of events. They will
consult very senior staff only on an as–needed basis. Questions such as why the
SNC Lavalin Risk Report dated April 2013 was completely ignored will need to be
answered. To say that an Audit team will interfere with construction is as
ridiculous as saying that the existing EY team interfered with construction and
caused delays!!!
“An Audit can be done after
construction is completed” — This is as nonsensical as
it gets. At the end of construction in 2020, there will not be anyone left to
consult. As stated earlier, the present construction staff had no input to the
decision–making process and will not be a part of the Audit.
Minister Coady said “We need to know
what went on. I have questions, the public has questions” — How can the Minister be so committed to having the answers
and yet be resolutely opposed to a Forensic Audit? This is a contradiction.
Also the Minister says things to look and sound good, but she exhibits no
commitment to action.
For weeks Minister Coady has said
that the Auditor General (AG) is looking at Nalcor and will review Muskrat
Falls. — This was most emphatically challenged by MHA
Lane, who said the AG is not looking into Muskrat Falls at all. But during the
press conference, not a word was said about the AG. The Minister has stated she is
“not opposed” to an Audit. This is double speak. Either the Minister supports
the Audit and orders it done or she opposes it, and says so.
The cost of
this project increased from $7.4 billion to $12.7 billion, financing included, with
guaranteed increases yet to come. The final cost could be in the range of $15 billion.
Ball, need to know. Minister Coady needs to know. We, the public, need to know
the truth.
The level of
falsification on the Muskrat Falls project is very serious, so serious that it
compelled me to warn the public through the Uncle Gnarley blog and, later, to
CBC. I believe the problem is too large to be hidden by excuses anymore. The
only way to know the full truth is to implement the Forensic Audit.
1000% AGREE!
Forensic Audit of MF!
Then ALL of GOV!
Seems NO one is doing their Job THERE!
Vote INDEPENDENTS! and Well MAKE SURE there be AUDITS!
Yes, the forensic audit is needed immediately.It seems apparent that Stan Marshall became aware of the SNC Lavelan report last spring, likely within days of his appointment. This cited many risks and cost increases exceeding 2 billion dollars. It is likely this was much of the basis of Marshall quickly adding billions to the overall cost projection last year. Yet Ball says he saw that 2013 report only last week! Are we to believe that Marshall kept Ball in the dark on this for a year, and also Minister Coady.
The over two billion extra cited in the 2013 report were the known unknown (known to Ed Martin and others, but likely not Ball prior to last spring.)
The new 1 billion extra were known unknowns (known by Stan Marshall this past year, and some others, but unknown to the public until Friday past. The increase in operating costs was expected if one read Liberty`s last report, so should have been forecast by the media.
As to future costs, we have more known unknowns: as to reliability issues for transmission, and more expenditures for Holyrood. Holyrood cannot be decommissioned as we have no backup when Labrador transmission goes down. We have no available power to import from Nova Scotia (again, pointed out by Liberty) These added costs can, and likely has been assessed already, but not yet released to he public.
And then there is the unknown unknowns……things that have not been properly assessed yet that will be evident in the first months or year of operation.
15 billion……very likely. And we continue be to subjected to death by a thousand cuts….100 million here, 200 there…..and on it goes……no cost too high.
If one reads Liberty report from last year, Liberty, in subtle language, implies to me that a rethink was warranted whether Muskrat should be put on ice, as UG suggested. With a likely 15 billion price tag, and the risk of the North Spur failing, I am still of the opinion Muskrat should still be stopped.
Stan Marshall`s facial expressions alternated between that of a worried man, and one that manages to grin. Neither gives confidence that this project will finish strong. How can it finish strong. Last June MF power was to cost 55 cents per kwh delivered to Soldier`s Pond. Now it is about 60 cent and headed towards 70. Can`t get much stronger finish that than!
Winston Adams
If Mr.Marshall knew about this for all that time and didn't inform the premier or Ms.Coady that's problematic for his credibilty.Mr.Ball,Ms. Coady and many other MHA's in all party's already have this problem and have for sometime.It's like they're saying to the public,none of your buisness.I would hope we are about to tell them if it's our money it's our buisness.
Surely to God there must be a mechanism in place to have a forensic audit ordered. The magnitude of apparent incompetance and/or criminal fraud associated with this monumental unnecesssary expenditure which put our's, our children's and grandchildren's future in jeopardy has to be explained. Those responsible have to be held accountable. No Government has an unchallenged right to bulldoze a project through, no matter what the consequences which we as taxpayers/ratepayers are left footing the bill.The proof is there of the incompetance and possible criminal activity. The courts should be on top of this to make it mandatory. We're supposed to be living in a democracy but we are being subjected to 3rd world tyranny.
It's insane!!!
Is there any way to take a class action to a court to obtain a judicial order to conduct a forensic audit? Seems to me, we taxpayers have at least 6 billion dollars of reasons from $7 billion to now $13 billion.
Feds have guaranteed $8,000,000,000 in loans to NL for MF (all 3 Federal parties supported FLG/MF..) I think it's time they sent people in droves to aid NL in the forensic audit and forthcoming Royal Commission/Inquiry.
JT and the Federal Gov should DEMAND an Royal Commission on behalf of Canadian taxpayers for Boondoggle Falls, no if and or butts about it.
I am confident that at least 95 percent of Nflders do not have a clue that MF power cost now is at about 60 cents per kwh (compared to 0.2 cents for HQ Upper Churchill power)
When they hear of the likelyhood of 23 cent power here they think that is the cost of MF power, and not blended rates.
Likewise 95 percent or more do not know who produces most of the power on the island. They are familiar with the names Nfld Power, Nfld Hydro, ,Fortis, and Nalcor., but do not know the difference, who does what, or what is private or govn owned.
As I have well educated relatives who do not know the difference, what does it say for the general public, and for the media, as to informing the public, as to understanding this boondoggle.
WA
Based on years of research where I spoke with many NL'ers dealing with this very subject I would say you're not too far off the mark.I would say 70% give or take a few points.And that my friend is why the companies mentioned know most don't know who's who or what they do.It's easier to fool the gullible.It's why they do this research.
WA most ratepayers require the costs be broken down by how much more their monthly power bills will be post-MF.
Initially MF was going to cost $80 more a month @ 16.4c kWh, now @ 23c kWh $177 more a month. These are both astronomical cost increases to ratepayers that simply can't be afforded by the majority.
Even Wade Locke had made a passing mention of for every 20% electricity cost increase there is a correlating 5% demand decline. Residential demand should DECREASE by 12.5% using 16.4c kWh in this formula. There isn't a SINGLE year of demand decline in Nalcor's 57 year energy forecast projection and the forecast itself is off by 20 years, no new generation required until 2036.
Page 21 of Wade's Harris center Nalcor rehash presentation expected/assumed oil prices 2013 $97 bbl 2016 $105 2019 $108 2037 $150 or +$1.5 every year after 2019.
Nalcor was off by $65-$70 in 2016 alone or 67%, their 57 year forecast was never realistic and now its worthless.
Ball has at least 2 current cabinet ministers who were members of the board of directors around the time this project was authorized to proceed. In addition there are a number of other board members and board chairs who were involved as well as several former premiers, both elected and appointed who were involved and of course there is the former ceo and then there is snc. Then there are also the present (too god to get rid of) and several past management people who were involved. I think a forensic audit is too limited in reach. A full blown public inquiry is the way to go.
BINGO! Ball is stalling on purpose. Forensic audit in one hand public inquiry in the other. People are screaming for an audit when it should be a public inquiry being demanded. You'll get your audit.
Why is it so important to complete this project by 2019, or for that matter to finish it atall? When complete it will cost over 100 million a year to operate. What if Ball decides to stop the dam construction,claiming we don't have the two billion dollars to complete it? Is there someone out there to give Nalcor the money because we shur can't afford to borrow it.
Premier Ball should should shut it down and call for a fiscal audit and a public inquiry, throw in a Judicial inquiry for luck. If he has nothing to hide,it would make his career.
Gerry Goodman
Does any one have any info. on who has a stake in any of the contract companies for Muskrat Falls. Any current or former politicians?
From the very beginning, when Muskrat Falls was sold to the people as the "least cost option", either one person, or a group of people, were standing to massively gain from the MF development being pushed forward. Since, politically it's a mess, the only gain I can think of is purely financial.
As as result, the question I ask is, who now has ties, or more likely, who had ties to the companies contracted on this project, or who, is one step removed from these companies. I talking about current or former board members, directors, investors, shareholders, executives, managers, or people with family ties to these companies.
This is quite an investigative challenge, but it seems to me the answer may be hidden here.
Only a full blown inquiry can answer these questions. I have written EMERA NL for information but they hide behind Commercial Sensitivity. There are rumors of who is making money off this project but with Bill 29 and no oversight by the PUB, only an Inquiry with give light and truth to rumors
It goes way beyond stakes in contract companies, albeit that is happening, conflicts of interest everywhere, follow the money. Here are some timelines facts for you, draw your own conclusions. The main driver for the project can easily be concluded from the following;
April 2012 Hebei Iron & Steel Group Co. purchase 20% of Alderon Iron Ore stock and 25% stake of Kami Project
June 2012 Danny Williams is appointed Board of Directors of Alderon Iron Ore
June 2012 Bill C 29 is implemented
July 2012 Legal signing of Muskrat Falls
A lot happened in 2012, do you see now why Muskrat Falls was pushed through? Bill C29 kept it all a secret. Another huge atrocity against the people of NL is the legal fees paid by NL'ers to reverse Bill C29.
Questions; Does this look like the fiduciary interests of the tax payer are high on anyone's list? Is there collusion here, ya think? Any insider trading? Who all have shareholdings in Alderon Iron Ore?
This is the money to follow. Who is the puppet master? DW and I don't mean Arthur's sister.
Undoubtedly when the SNC Lavalin Risk Assessment was issued early 2013 this sent huge repercussions through Nalcor and many stock portfolios. You know for sure Ed Martin was aware of the report, who do you think told the puppet master about it. So what happens, SNC is declared as trying to "sabotage the project", a new Nalco Project Team is established usurping the authority of the EPCM Contractor, SNC, essentially and a new risk assessment report is developed no doubt mitigating the SNC very high and high risks. Why should there be a perception of sabotage? This is definitely upper management (including DW) speaking knowing the huge gains and interest they have in the Kami project which needs Muskrat power to go ahead.
It's interesting to note that a PC Gov't delegation went to China in June 2013 under the heading of Expanded Post Secondary Education and Mr Martin, CEO of Nalco, was in attendance, that seems odd doesn't it, what's the connection? Well considering the above maybe it was a good time to meet a fellow major shareholder of Alderon Iron Ore.
No doubt members of the Nalco Board, PC and Liberal, are involved in this. If one goes down they all go down.
Let me add to the timeline;
April 2013 SNC Risk Integrity Report issued.
June 2013 MOU between NL and Hebei is signed.
There is no coincidence between the dates of these timelines, there was working behind the scenes, strings were being pulled to secure Kami and Muskrat Falls.
I would like to see an independent public inquiry with full judicial and investigatory powers. And the results should be public.
The complacent NL population will not put heat to Balls seat until they get their first big fat power bill! They'll remain in the safety of the fog until an uncomfortably strong wind blows them out of it!
Sue Kelland-Dyer has an interesting chart on her twitter account @hydroqueen today.
It shows the electricity consumption percentages for 2013..Residential Consumption is 4.6%…Aluminum Industry..68.4%…The full graph is available on her twitter.
Maybe is time NL start to become a Centre of Excellence for the medical production of marijuana as to grown it requires massive amounts of hydro.
Something could could come out of MFs!
Let us not get tangled up in technobabbel, let us get on with the public inquiry which could lead to a police investigation and a judicial inquiry. Let the process begin ASAP. The project unfortunately has reached the point of no practical return, but the search for the guilty should begin ASAP!
I find it very interesting how so many politicians from both the PC and Liberal parties all served at one time on the Nalcor Board, but all seem to be clueless when it comes to what is going on. It reminds me of the St. John's Sports and Entertainment Board and St. John's City Council Any time a new council member questioned giving free money to Mile One, they were appointed to the Board. Is that what happened with Nalcor? What a joke. What is the point of having these people on the board if they don't have a clue of what is going on? Or do they?
You are heading in the right direction. Follow the money, all of it, and the answers will be uncovered. Hopefully when the spending is finished and the profits have been made we will be able to follow these tracks to the guilty and get them behind bars. It wont be easy, but within the legal framework of a "commission of government" type of administration it is possible. In the meantime, the machine continues to chew through money unabated. Public inquiries, royal inquires, etc., will not work. This must be done at arms length outside of the current political/business power structure. The invoices and records of work done are out there and they will be found. The change orders have been documented. The world is a different place now from the seventies, those found guilty can be extradited from just about anywhere in the first world….
Jp
As usual great analysis Anonymous Engineer. You have clarified several important things. A forensic audit would not slow the project at all. The political smokescreen put up by Ball has no basis in fact. These troubling facts strike to the heart of the political coverup underway by Nalcor and Ball's compromised government.
The AG is not investigating Nalcor and Ball and Coady are hiding behind that lie. It appears Nalcor runs the province and "governments" act only as a smokescreen to protect the guilty. Ball wants to stall until the guilty have left town and the doors shut behind them. How can audit be forced now when both Tories and Libs are so compromised?
It is heartening to finally see outrage from many quarters of the abused population. The way forward is clear, the problem is how to mobilize the political forces needed to force the issue.
It is time to move from understanding to forceful action.
Who is Ball and Coady trying to protect?
Forensic audit NOW!
Paul Davis has nothing to hide. He was only part of the Cabinet caucus that sanctioned MF and later became Premier. All the while David Vardy, Ron Penney, Cabot Martin and a host of other perhaps wingnuts in his mind, were calling out for an oversight committee that knew something about hydro projects and had some power.
Meanwhile, the Nalcor CEO who reported directly to him had a report from the main Engineering group, SNC, saying that the project was headed directly to where it now sits with double hydro rates for us all.
No sir, nothing to hide says it all while some of his constituents will lose their homes unable to pay their bills.
Get on with audit and separate out those that were incompetent from those that should be behind bars
I totally agree with your last sentence. There will be many to be found incompetent and many others to be corrupt. Those who were incompetent should still be held accountable through Nalcor for taking on such an undertaking with no hydro mega-project experience. Kinda like how Coady should not be Minister of Natural Resources because she is rather lousy at her job. Now her lack of action demonstrates a shady sense of cover-up. Hopefully, this is not being prolonged until the election year… to pull out the guns and call out the PCs in the 11th hour. This inquiry should've happening as first order when Ball took office. Or is it on the shelf until Galway sells all it's lots? I heard DW on the radio today boasting about location, location, location. Well Danny, if you read this, you better hope the lots sell before the masses really get a grip on the magnitude of this… which is now happening thank God. As soon as people connect the dots, prospective buyers may feel too infuriated to further line your pockets.
dm
Location, Location and location when there are already hundreds of homes and condos in greater STJ area for sale? Gallway is almost as big of a pipe dream as MF and 2X power bills won't be attracting people to buy from the cause of MF, Saint Danny himself.
Bruno – How do you implement forceful action. Where are the leaders of the opposition – Bill Davis, MHA Lane. The Premier and Minister Coady will resist an Audit to their last breath. The Anonymous Engineer completely trashed the Premier's excuses. Minister Coady is trapped, often contradicting herself. The media CBC is dead. Who is going to lead the charge on the Forensic Audit.
Yes your media is dead and your political opposition is non existent.
You now have the evidence to dispel Ball's Bull from the PE in this post. Change will come from the bottom up. You anon have the power and the facts to force an audit and inquiry that Dave Vardy calls for.
Get out and speak out now if you care about your province.
As a resident and taxpayer of NL, I am incredibly grateful to Uncle Gnarley, and his team of researchers and writers, for the work they are doing to force transparency on the Muskrat Falls project. It must be the most frustrating, thankless, never-ending task a person (s) could take on. On behalf those of us who lack the expertise to take on such a commitment… thank you. On behalf of those of us who believed (until recently) this was the job of our elected official opposition, thanks be to jeesus for you and yours!!!
To the anonymous engineer who wrote this column, if I knew who you were I'd buy you a beer or a case or an entire truck full!
On behalf of the silent among us who have no idea how to confront such a complex and complicated problem but realize it should be (confronted) thank you…history will be kind to you.
To those who read this on behalf of the politicians…for the love of God…do the forensic audit! The project won't stop. It is now too big. But, we would at least have the benefit of knowing and your government could stop wasting time defending decisions that are beyond defense and get on with day to day governing. This action is neither complicated nor complex.
Donna Thistle
Well said!
Ed Martin is speaking out on this matter. He should be given an opportunity to speak before a judicial inquiry on Muskrat Falls along with many others. The timing is right since the Dunphy inquiry should be reported on soon. This is far more important than the other matters suggested for inquiry by this government. When hunting big game, one should not get distracted by rabbit tracks.
There is something seriously wrong when such an obvious requirement of an audit needs to be conducted to find out where the 5 billion went and Ball and others are coming up with jack ass comments. This is like a contractor quoting to build your house for $300K and in the end, they charge you $550K without explanation and you are expected to pay. We have to look at this simply that someone has managed to steal $5 Billion from the people of NL and/or were so incompetent they could not estimate. We need to know who's bank account all this money went into. Something is very odd when this amount of money goes missing and all seem to want to ignore the issue….it reeks of collusion. Agree with other person…we need to know who needs to go behind Bars.
Can a forensic audit be crowd funded? Lets get on with it and ask for contributions…shag the government and the rest of the liars.
I'd contribute.
Donna Thistle
How about the tech savvy folks organizing a protest march through social media, to the Premiers's office, emphatically peaceful, but vocal,demanding a Forensic Audit. Just the way First Nations groups have done many times in Labrador, and the anti Trump marches in the USA. When all avenues of legitimate protest have failed, the institutions elected to uphold democracy and the rule of law have ceased to exist, this is the only way to be seen and heard. If this is done often enough, action will be taken, if not Ball, Coady and the like will do nothing.
The anonymous engineer presents a strong case for a forensic audit, and one to be started immediately. It should not be delayed. In my mind a forensic audit is not sufficient. A broader commission of inquiry is needed to take evidence under oath. Unless this is done quickly the evidence will disappear. The forensic audit should be conducted in concert with the inquiry. One option would be to have the audit undertaken under the direction of the commission of inquiry. Both should begin without delay.
The public inquiry should be conducted in phases, providing interim reports on a timely basis. Such reports will inform ongoing decisions. Both the forensic audit and the inquiry will provide information on how processes can be improved and how we can avoid the mistakes of the past.
The health care system was not placed on hold while the Cameron inquiry examined breast cancer experiences. Nor will the Muskrat Falls inquiry interfere with construction work.
A final caveat and a big one: Such an audit is no substitute for a cost benefit analysis of the option of stopping the site work and continuing only with the transmission line. The escalating costs raise the question as to how high the cost will go. Will we look back and say we should have stopped this project before it is too late?
David Vardy
Why does the Government and Nalcor insist that the dam must be finished? The savings in labour costs alone would make it a better option than continuing. Also where will the two billion dollars come from? Will Emera buy a share of MF?
GG
A lot of people in the confederation building read this blog and comment via private e-mail. Here is a re-posting (with permission) from an anonymous official that would get in trouble for using his name. he/she says comments are welcome.
So my question is this…
Why are the RCMP not called in to investigate allegations of ‘Misappropriation of Funds’, ‘Fraud’ or whatever other charges could be levied against Danny Williams, Dwight Ball, NALCOR and it’s Executive, and all the other players in this?
I don’t know how getting the RCMP involved works, BUT, they managed to do it with Duffy, the Mayor of Montreal and so on……. Why not this????
From a 3.2B project when it was announced to an estimated 15B by the time it’s finished at the expense of 250,000 people who NEVER gave either Government a mandate OR sanctioned this project in the first place………??????
Seems strange that the RCMP wouldn’t be bought in to investigate this…….. seems like there’s lots of lawyers involved in opposing this but no one has pressed charges or called for a criminal investigation!!!!!
also this:
BUT….. wouldn’t they ( ALL PARTIES OPPOSED TO THE PROJECT AND THE WAY IT’S BEING ADMINISTERED ) be better off pressuring the Lieutenant Governor to contact the RCMP and request an investigation????
It is most regrettable, and more than a tad suspicious, that the NL media has abdicated its mandate to the degree that the only source for informed discourse on this most serious of issues is a privately hosted blog.
CBC NL has deteriorated to a focus more concerned with the bloody weather and cute youtube videos rather than its previous notabke cutting-edge journalism. As for VOCM, that entity continues to trundle along producing nothing but See-Dick-Run sound-bites and likewise special-ed-level articles. And it would appear that Wangersky has since been secured to a very short jounalistic leash.
Just what the hell is going on here??
If not for Des Sullivan and the Uncle Gnarley forum, how else would the outrageous and quite possibly fraudulent nature of the Muskrat debacle be exposed for NL taxpayers to see?
Did Ed Martin receive the SNC Lavilan report in 2013……..
Ball said yes…….Martin said no.
But when asked by Debbie Cooper whether he sat in on a meeting in 2013 when this report was discussed ……….he would not answer, saying he did not want to discuss specifics.
He says the risk factors were mostly determined by Nalcor or Hydro personel, thought SNC were involved.
So, despite this so called world class Nfld engineers that Dunderdale kept promoting, within 6 months of sanction, they had identified some 2.4 billion is extra costs what would likely incur! Seems to support the whistleblower engineer claim that these numbers were fudged from the start , and by Nflders.
Martin seems to say that external consultants backed up the original estimates, as a way to say `nothng wrong here folks`
Martin would welcome a forensic audit, as long as it was an INDEPENDENT one. If it is as independent as Nalcor`s consultants, it does not say much. Their consultants gave them the answers they wanted to push ahead, with little caveats here and there to cover their own ass.
As to Wangersky being on a short lease……he writes that prior to sanction he wrote that the case for MF was based on INFORMED assumptions what could prove to be wrong. Russell now wanting to say I TOLD YOU SO.
Is Wangersky now right in that statement……I would suggest that Nalcors assumptions were ill-informed. Stan Marshall says they were false assumptions.
Which assumptions does Russell claim were INFORMED assumptions….
Some may have been, but many were not.
Vision 2041 blog has catalogued many of the false assumptions made by Nalcor, a good reference, which incorporated Cabot Martins quick clay issue, as well as my case for customer energy efficiency, and many many more relating to projected power demands, and the declining use and production of Holyrood power.
Nalcor consultants operated with tunnel vision to accomodate Nalcor, who was paying their bill. Turning a blind eye where needed to reach a wrong conclusion, we now know.
Let Russell list the assumptions which were indeed informed one and those which were ill-informed, and in some cases outright known to be false.
Perhaps Russell`s leash is too short for that. He appears to be choking. Remember, Russell at no time called for a stop and review for MF. He did say that if this was a private project, it would be halted, but he made excused for government not doing that. He now wants to cover his own ass…..saying he warned us. Too little , too late, Russell. And it seems doubtful if your leash will be loosened, much.
So, going forward, the People Paper will likely be gagged by corporate interests, and ad revenue considerations.
And Ashley Fitzpatrick……..just as well Nalcor and Fortis give her a pension, or honorary award. Ed Martin said either you lead, or follow or get out of the way. Most all, especially Ashley, got out of the way.
The Resistance is with Des Sullivan and UG, and his small band of followers, seeking to hold the guilty accountable.
Winston Adams
Thankfully, the SNC report has been made available to the public. I accessed it through the link in Hans Rollman's Independent piece. On page 4, section 4, the beginning of the excutive summary, the report mentions a group of elected experts from the Montreal, Panama, and Nfld offices. Given the stories of recent regarding financial malfeasance centered in Panama my attention was perked immediaitely. Why would MF, through SNC be involved with offices located in Panama? This sounds odd and deserves some investigation. If the anonymous source speaking to UG has any info I am sure the readers of the blog would love to know more.
Jp
It's time to put some of our angst over the Muskrat aside and to embrace the idea of Canada, and the Indigenous peoples who prepared for us, and continue to provide land, water and air to breathe and enjoy. Remnants of our, (European elements), of 150 years of colonization have a lot to answer for in current Labrador developments and human condition. On pause and reflection, maybe we can all do better, including our elected representatives and hoard of corporate interests. Happy Indigenous Canada Day.
I am with you Robert, but we have so far to go…….two night ago at a friends birthday party I listened as some there laughed that no Beothic survived, and was dismayed that Indians, he claimed paid no taxes. I, in jest, said perhaps we should bring back scalping of Indians ( which surprised him)……but then explaining that in Nova Scotia the British paid bounties for scalps of Micmac, men women and children as young as 12. From American movies, we believed that scalping was the sole form of terror used by Indians against whites. I asked if the sculls of Mary March and her husband should be brought back from Scotland………he said no……but I doubt if he was aware the skulls exist..
Sad, that many in our country know so little real history, as colonialism taints what we learn, and our point of view. This is gradually changing.
In ignorance, the man at the party said the Indians had signed away their right to land in treaties, but was silent when I told him there were no treaties in Nfld or Labrador.
We need to embrace the Indigenous people, but also make amends where possible, to lift them from the status of third world conditions, which means getting actually priority at times, until equality is gained.
And this also means supporting their struggle against the boondoggle of Muskrat Falls.
Winston Adams
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/tower-inspections-ordered-nalcor-emera-1.4182118
Good move.
Safety, whatever it may cost, takes precedent over all other considerations. If negligence is found, who will be charged? In the oil patch, the CEO is personally responsible where Worker deaths occur.
I could hear the emotion in Danny William's voice yesterday as he defended both the project and Ed Martin from his sermon on the (Galway) Mount. I think he is getting nervous about the legacy of his premiership.
But Williams is right about the idea of a public inquiry and forensic audit. The air needs to be cleared. What can we do to force Premier Ball to launch it now? If anyone wants to hold a protest rally I will join in and even donate funds to cover costs of placards, etc. I'd organize one myself but I have no experience at this and I have never even been at a protest in my life. WHO among us can step up and organize something please?
" Who among us can organize something please." Contact Donna Thistle, Bruno Marcocchio, David Vardy. You can do it. You will do it. Leadership derives from the unlikeliest of sources. The two more will join you, then another two. Before you know it there will be ten thousand. The young, the old, the healthy, the sick. All who want their voices heard will join you, You just have to start. May God guide you in your effort.
We have started. Today. Yet do we hang or do we balance it out, and start Creating?