Back when he was in another cabinet job, Premier Tom Marshall made some comments about dividends from Muskrat Falls. Let’s take a look at them. (Read more…)
Continue readingTag: Tom Marshall
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Premier Confusing #nlpoli
Premier Tom Marshall has been in cabinet since 2003. He’s held pretty well all the big portfolios connected to Muskrat Falls, including natural resources and finance. He should know details about Muskrat Falls backwards. That’s why his comments in the House of Assembly on Monday caused such a stir: (Read
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Whizzo Quality Assortment #nlpoli
On the outside, the spring budget for 2014 looks like a delicious assortment of goodies for everyone. You can tell it is delectable because everyone is shouting for joy and drooling over their good fortune. There is not a single group who have had their hands out for government money
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: How do they run things? Budget Lead-Up #nlpoli
Finance minister Charlene Johnson will read the new provincial budget speech on Thursday. In keeping with the provincial Conservative tradition, though, they’ve been announcing bits and pieces of the budget already. On Monday, for example, justice minister Darin King announced that the new budget would contain money for 20 new
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Insiders #nlpoli
The story of the 2014 provincial Conservative Party leadership contest is a study in politics on its most basic level. It is a story of those with influence and of those who have less of it or none at all. It is a story of how politics actually works inside
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
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: All hail the Glorious Leader Trope #nlpoli
“Province to deliver on promise of whistleblower law” read the headline for the CBC’s online story about the provincial government throne speech read Wednesday in the House of Assembly. About half way down the story, it says that “Premier Tom Marshall is fighting back against the perception” that the government
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Budget consultations and other political insanity #nlpoli
This year it is Charlene Johnson’s turn to host a series of meetings across the province that the provincial Conservatives cynically tout as a way for people to have some input into the provincial budget. It’s cynical because – as the Conservatives know – the major budget decisions are already
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Competition #nlpoli
When they got up on Wednesday morning, everyone in the province who was paying attention knew that Bill Barry was going to launch his bid for the provincial Conservative Party leadership later that afternoon in Corner Brook. Barry made his plans clear the week before. He’s the only one definitely
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Vibrant Unsustainable Super Energy Debt Warehouse #nlpoli
The Conservatives used to say that Newfoundland and Labrador was eastern North America’s energy warehouse. Once Danny Williams ran for the hills and left Kathy Dunderdale in charge, she kicked everything up a notch. Energy warehouse was too plain for Kathy, whose party ran on the slogan “New Energy” in
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Political Mummers’ Parade on Monday #nlpoli
Finance minister Tom Marshall will present his mid-year financial update on Monday. It is supposed to be a way of bringing everyone up to date on how the annual budget is going. It’s an accountability thing. Since the government’s fiscal year starts in April, the middle of the year was
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: O brother… #nlpoli
There are times when the talk in the province sounds a bit like the soundtrack to a movie, a comedy to be precise. On Monday, finance minister Tom Marshall sounded a bit familiar: “This is a golden age, Mr. Speaker,” Marshall said, “a golden age.” Recall only a few years
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Governing by polls: fracking version #nlpoli
There’s something wonderfully cute about the blind, unquestioning boosterism you get from some of the more aggressive groups of young political party supporters. All parties have them: the L’il Liberals, the Dinky Dippers, and the Tiny Tories. With the provincial Conservatives so low in the polls, the ones among Kathy’s
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Like water for muskrats #nlpoli
Wednesday it was Kathy Dunderdale. Thursday, they sent Tom Marshall to chat with Bill Rowe on Open Line to do damage control in the wake of two huge setbacks for the Muskrat Falls project. Some people thing Tom is a good spokesperson because he talks in soft tones. But truth
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Not exactly, there, Tom, b’y #nlpoli
As part of the orchestrated campaign to attack the people making the comments instead of the comments themselves , finance minister Tom Marshall trotted out in front of the news media on Friday to lace into a group of five lawyers. Marshall said comments by five lawyers opposed to Muskrat
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Marshall’s release doesn’t match DBRS public statements #nlpoli
Simply put, Tom Marshall’s most recent news release about the report by Dominion Bond Rating Service doesn’t match what the bond rating agency said in a news release about the provincial government’s finances. You can see that pretty clearly if you read the whole release from DBRS. The release indicates
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Art of Budget Forecasting #nlpoli
The provincial government set its budget this year based on an oil price forecast of US$124 a barrel in 2012. As we move up on the midway point in the fiscal year (it starts on April 1), oil is well below that. The result is that the provincial government could
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Diversifying the economy and slowing things down #nlpoli
Paul Oram was a colourful politician. Well, colourful in the sense that he flamed out very quickly. Regular readers of these scribbles will remember him as the guy who had no idea what had happened in the province during his lifetime. Not long after taking over the health department, Oram
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: A fresh smear of lipstick #nlpoli
CBC’s online version got the story right from the most recent episode of On Point with David Cochrane: Natural Resources Minister Jerome Kennedy says the Newfoundland and Labrador government is not back-pedaling in how it is handling the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, even though the governing Tories are already planning
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Arrogance, thy name is Tom Marshall #nlpoli
Speaking on VOCM’s Open Line on Tuesday, finance minister Tom Marshall explained what will happen in the House of Assembly during the Muskrat Falls debate coming up in June: The opposition will get its say, then the government will get its way. That’s how democracy works. That pretty much sums
Continue reading