‘ CHANGEMAKER’
Surgeon pledges new prescription for N.L.
Andrew Furey will be the next Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador after a sevenmonth- long leadership contest following the unexpected announcement the province’s sitting premier would not seek re-election.
“I’m calling on the opposition parties and the independent MHAS to come together because future generations will judge us not based on the size of the challenges we face but on how we come together,” Furey said Monday moments after being announced as the new leader of the governing Liberals, which holds a minority in the House of Assembly.
“I’m 100 per cent committed to being the changemaker that this province needs right now,” Furey said, noting that the province faces major economic and fiscal challenges.
Furey, an orthopedic trauma surgeon and educator at Memorial University, solidly beat out longtime public servant John Abbott in the Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador leadership race and will be the Atlantic province’s next premier, after a shock resignation announcement from sitting Premier Dwight Ball in February.
“This is not a funeral, I’m not looking for six pallbearers,” Ball said in an emotional speech during the leadership convention Monday. “I’m proud to say I will continue to represent the district of Humber- Gros Morne.”
He said he would be “proud to step back and let someone else cut the ribbons” on infrastructure projects currently underway.
Ball, who will not be seeking re- election, announced his surprise intention to resign the premiership in a video statement in February. “The time has come for me to spend more time with family and friends in Deer Lake to lead a more private life,” he said at the time.
The Premiers of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and the Prime Minister all offered Ball video tributes during the leadership convention on Monday, all referencing Ball’s desire to spend time with his granddaughter.
“We will miss your leadership and passion in public life,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in his video message broadcast during the leadership convention.
“Outside of the moratorium, I’m not sure there’s a harder 5 years to be premier,” Natural Resources Minister and Member of Parliament for St. John’s South- Mount Peral Seamus O’regan said in his own video message, referencing the cod- fishing moratorium of the 1980s.
Ball became Liberal leader of the official Opposition in 2012, then led his party to a majority government in 2015 before being reduced to a minority government in 2019. In his video statement, Ball said he “cannot ask my friends and family to follow me” into another election, the timing of which would be uncertain given the Liberals’ minority status.
His resignation came as a shock but followed on multiple controversies, including the appointment of multiple people to senior- level jobs in the province without competition.
There was also a high-profile cabinet minister resignation last September after a racist voice- mail message was left with an Innu Nation staffer.
Ball has served as premier through a difficult economic stretch in the Atlantic province’s history as the oil price crash of late 2014 left the province reeling. It’s also facing the sharpest economic contraction of any province in Canada this year following the COVID- 19 pandemic and its resultant recession.
As a result, Furey faces a significant fiscal and economic challenge as they take over the top job from Ball.
“We must get away from that well-worn path of boom and bust and back again,” Furey said, referring to the challenges the province faces and the swing in resource revenues that dominate the province’s finances.
The province’s debt- to-GDP ratio is expected to rise above 75 per cent in 2020-2021, DBRS Morningstar forecasted in a June 17 research note after the province’s fiscal update that showed a deep drop in expected revenue. The province’s debt has ballooned in part because of expensive hydroelectricity projects and partly because of collapsing oil revenues.
RBC Economics forecasted on June 17 that Newfoundland and Labrador would face a 9.9 per cent contraction in real GDP this year — which is more than a full point greater than the next hardest hit province, Alberta, which is forecasted to experience an 8.7 per cent real GDP contraction this year.
Similarly, RBC Economics projects Newfoundland and Labrador’s unemployment rate will jump from 11.9 per cent to 15.1 per cent this year, which is also the highest unemployment rate in the country.
The collapse in oil prices following the coronavirus pandemic has driven unemployment in the province. There were layoffs announced in the offshore Hibernia oilfield and construction halted at the West White Rose offshore oil project. TD Economics forecasted that exploration activity will also cease in the Flemish Pass Basin.
“With the oil shock impacting the entire value chain, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Come by Chance refinery — responsible for processing up to 130,000 barrels per day of crude products, had announced a temporary shutdown of operations,” TD economists Beata Caranci, Derek Burleton, Rishi Sondhi and Omar Abdelrahman wrote in a June 17 report.