In announcing an inquiry into some aspects of Muskrat Falls on Monday, the Premier muddled up some numbers that suggest the confusion at the heart of Monday’s big news. He said that the inquiry will explain how a project that was originally supposed to cost $5.0 billion at the wound up costing
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The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Quebec Demon #nlpoli #cdnpoli
The fancy word for it is revanchism. People who study words and language call it a borrowed word, meaning that we use it in English but got it from the French word. In this case, it is the French word for revenge. People familiar with history are most likely to
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Muskrat, risk, and memory #nlpoli
There’s a great column in Saturday’s Telegram by Pam Frampton than anyone concerned about Muskrat Falls should read. It’s the latest in a string of columns that Pam’s been writing about the troubled megadebt project and events in 2013 around the time that the major contractor on the project produced
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Traces of the Grossly Impudent Lie #nlpoli
There’s a phrase in Pam Frampton’s Saturday column on Muskrat Falls. A bunch of words dropped in easily, maybe offhandedly. Nothing that really stands out. Just a simple fact. The kind of thing that you might just skip past, unless maybe you’d be writing about this project since before it
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: No Market Research Required #nlpoli
In the House of Commons, members can put questions to cabinet ministers several ways. One of them is called Questions on the Order Paper. Ask a sensible question. Get a sensible answer. This is a truly amazing idea given that the House of Assembly got rid of the notion 20
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: No Market Research Required #nlpoli
In the House of Commons, members can put questions to cabinet ministers several ways. One of them is called Questions on the Order Paper. Ask a sensible question. Get a sensible answer. This is a truly amazing idea given that the House of Assembly got rid of the notion 20
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Sovereignty #nlpoli
Newfoundland and Labrador is one of the very few countries on the planet that got itself into such a financial mess that it gave up self-government. The people gave up their right and power to govern themselves. That is, they gave up their sovereignty. They took it back in 1949,
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A muskrat by any other name… #nlpoli
Memorial University economist Jim Feehan proposed in the December issue of Canadian Public Policy that the provincial government should change the way electricity is priced in Newfoundland and Labrador once Muskrat falls comes on stream. Now to be clear, the way government prices electricity will already change for Muskrat Falls.
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Putting the sunk in sunk cost #nlpoli #cdnpoli
Muskrat Falls is basically an $800 million tax on the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. That’s roughly the amount you get using numbers Nalcor chief executive Stan Marshall made public last summer. Muskrat Falls is a tax on the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. Always was that. Never was anything
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Public Support for Muskrat Falls #nlpoli
Corporate Research Associates isn’t the only pollster in the universe, no matter what some people locally seem to believe. CRA released the results of a question the company asked during its omnibus last November. They found support for Muskrat Falls at 45%. That’s down from 54% in May 2016, 65%
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Spin, illustrated #nlpoli
Spin is a bit more than a mere biased interpretation or a clever reframing of an idea. In other words, there’s more to it than saying the glass is half full rather than describing it as half empty. Spin is deliberately deceptive. On Wednesday, the folks at Nalcor announced they
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Megawreck #nlpoli
Over the past couple of weeks, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador have been shown more and more the lunacy that is Muskrat Falls. Nothing better exemplifies the crazy world of the Muskrateers than Dwight Ball’s claim in interviews that he has wrestled the project back under control. Not long
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Faint hope #nlpoli
Nalcor won’t be able to install a boom upstream from the powerhouse construction. The result is that there will likely be damage to the dam construction, according to Nalcor boss Stan Marshall. Well, likely if the winter is normal or colder. But maybe not. “It’s weather dependent,” said Marshall. “So
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Mazel Tov Cocktails #nlpoli
Scottie Nell Hughes is one of the legion of ident-a-bots who turned up on news programs during the recent American election spouting lines from the Trump campaign. She’s already famous as the one who gave us the mazel tov cocktail flub. She grabbed some headlines last week for making the
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The graveyard of ambition #nlpoli
Think of it as an inside joke. James McLeod interviewed Premier Dwight Ball about the horror show that has been Ball’s first year in office. “Ball also came under heavy fire,” McLeod wrote, “for his handling of Nalcor Energy and perceived dishonesty about what he knew about outgoing CEO Ed
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: un autre pet de cerveau de Jones #nlpoli
Labrador member of parliament Yvonne Jones got so effercited at the prospect of more hydro-electric development with Hydro-Quebec that she wanted to offer arctic and sub-arctic regions outside Labrador as potential customers for surplus Muskrat Falls power. Seriously. There are people in Labrador slaved to diesel generators. Some of them can see
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: North Spur sideshow #nlpoli
Jim Gordon, an engineer previously critical about the design of the Muskrat Falls dam has revised his opinion. Gordon had earlier believed that the landmass known as the North Spur was potentially unstable and could collapse under certain conditions. He’s now revised his view based on new evidence. For all
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Feds offer more help with Muskrat #nlpoli
The federal government delivered a $2.9 billion additional loan guarantee Thursday in time for the Liberal Party convention this weekend in Gander. The added guarantee is less than the provincial government wanted – they went looking for $5.0 billion, apparently – but it will help to defray the escalating cost
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Muskrat Math #nlpoli
Stan Marshall told the province Tuesday that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador can never get their money back on this pig of a project called Muskrat Falls. On Wednesday, people were bending their brains trying to figure out how this happened. Must be a recent thing. Blame it on
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Muskrat Circus rolls back into town #nlpoli
Stan Marshall appeared out of the shadows on Tuesday to do a round of interviews with every media outlet in town. He told NTV what he told everyone else: the cost of the protests and the environmental work coming from the agreement that ended the protests will slow the project
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