Conservative leadership candidate Steve Kent may be running in third place in the race, but the guy makes bold promises. His energy policy includes the pledge about Muskrat Falls that he will “bring this project in on time, and on budget.” That’s a rather silly promise considering that the project
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The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Cost Driver #nlpoli
Companies large and small in the province are under considerable stress as a result of Nalcor’s Muskrat Falls project. The cause? This CBC story from Labrador mentions “steep wages” as the major issue: "Over across the river, the average paying job is up to $40 an hour, and that’s before
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Another tired dog and sway-backed pony show #nlpoli
Temporary premier Tom Marshall and natural resources minister Derrick Dalley released a 40-odd page document on Thursday. It’s was supposed to be a report of a committee of senior public servants appointed to provide something called “oversight” of the project. Neither the report nor the committee actually reports on anything
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Traitors Everywhere #nlpoli
Tony Collins loves Muskrat Falls. He loves it so much that every now and again he takes the valuable space from his column in the weekend Telegram and lets loose with a verbal assault on the people who don’t love the project as much as he does. The last time
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Desolation of Smog #nlpoli
The Telegram’s Peter Jackson used the most recent JM paper on consumer electricity prices and Muskrat Falls as part of his Wednesday column. Peter made some worthwhile observations, so head over and read the column if you haven’t already. That includes pointing out that current forecasts have electricity prices in
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Convergence #nlpoli
A couple of years ago, Liberal leader Dwight Ball said the Liberals would use earnings from Muskrat Falls to lower electricity prices for consumers in this province. The Conservatives dismissed the idea at the time. Then a couple of weeks ago, with news the cost of Muskrat Falls continues to
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Electricity prices when Muskrat comes on line #nlpoli
Cost over-runs on Muskrat Falls as well as other costs not included in previous calculations by Nalcor will likely increase current electricity prices by almost double their rate in 2011, according to a recent assessment. JM, a professional engineer who has worked extensively in the construction of large engineering projects,
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Paying everyone but ourselves #nlpoli
Nalcor boss Ed Martin told everyone in the province last week that his pet project has increased in price by almost another billion dollars. It’s now more than $8.0 billion, when the 2010 price was $5.0 billion. That wasn’t news. Martin and the provincial government knew that last December, as
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Muskrat Falls costs break $8.0 billion #nlpoli
$6.99 billion is the new cost estimate for the Muskrat Falls dam and the link to the island. With that much money and with such a record of inaccurate forecasts, giving a cost estimate to two decimal places could only be a terribly cynical attempt at humour by the highly
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The market is closed, Ken. #nlpoli
Part of the problem the folks at Nalcor have had in trying to build support for on Muskrat Falls is that they never explain things completely, in plain English. The result is that they look like they are hiding something .That is, they look like they are not being candid
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Weak Questions get Weak Answers #nlpoli
Nalcor’s effort to have local taxpayers subsidize electricity exports to Massachusetts came up in the House of Assembly on Thursday. Well, sort of came up. New Democratic Party leader Lorraine Michael asked a couple of lame questions and got – not surprisingly – a few equally lame answers. Here they
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Nalcor promising Boston cheap electricity courtesy of NL taxpayers #nlpoli
Muskrat Falls is over budget, big time. The latest estimate is $7.4 billion and climbing on a project stat was forecast at $5.0 billion just four years ago. The project will wind up behind schedule, most likely. There’s a good chance Nalcor won’t have enough control over water flows on
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Muskrat costs at $7.4 billion … and climbing #nlpoli
After 13 days, Nalcor boss Ed martin finally responded to a simple request from the Telegram’s James McLeod for an explanation of what impact a delay in construction might have on project interest costs. Read McLeod’s original article from Wednesday Telly. it’s a tidy summary of what Martin told him
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Cognitive Dissonance #nlpoli
People like things in life to fit together. When things don;t fit together, people get upset. They get fidgety. They try to make things fit together. It’s an idea regular readers know from other posts. Take this bit from a post from 2012 as a good example of how some
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Plan 9 from Columbus Drive #nlpoli
Some enterprising political science graduate student will be able to write a brilliant doctoral dissertation a few years from now on the parallel ideas in provincial politics and popular situation comedy. She will find fertile ground in the Big Bang Theory, especially the episode the in which Sheldon explains a
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: How not to bolster public confidence: the umpteenth Nalcor edition #nlpoli
The folks at Nalcor held a media briefing at 11:00 AM on Tuesday. it was supposed to be about the release of the independent engineer’s review of Muskrat Falls done as part of the federal loan guarantee. You may recall this was part of some great confusion a few months
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Major Muskrat Costs Missing #nlpoli
As of April 4, Nalcor was “still in the process of negotiating and letting some large contracts for the [Muskrat Falls] project.” That’s the reply the Telegram got from Nalcor about missing the Muskrat financial update the company was supposed to issue at the end of March. Haven’t got the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Will wonders never cease? #nlpoli
As it turned out, the “robust” oversight of the Muskrat Falls project that everyone was making a big deal about a few weeks ago is – as your humble e-scribbler suspected – an awful lot less than some thought it would be. What a surprise. -srbp-
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: D’oh! Telegram shags up Muskrat Falls access story #nlpoli
According to a major Telegram story on Monday morning, the provincial government won’t be able to release some information about Muskrat Falls because of the provincial access to information laws. There’s only one problem: the Telegram got the whole thing wrong. (Read more…)
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Nalcor Oversight #nlpoli
The provincial government will be establishing a committee of senior public servants to co-ordinate information on Muskrat Falls for cabinet. VOCM faithfully reported Premier Tom Marshall’s comments to reporters outside the House of Assembly. The people want more, says Tom, so the Conservatives are going to give the public more
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