The price of not paying heed
Brian Jones writes: Hands up, anyone who is willing to admit they were one of the two-thirds of Newfoundlanders (and Labradorians) who a mere three months ago told a pollster they support the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.
Hands up, anyone who is willing to admit they were one of the two-thirds of Newfoundlanders (and Labradorians) who a mere three months ago told a pollster they support the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.
The so-called naysayers have been proven right again and again regarding this massive economic blunder, and yet as recently as June, 65 per cent of provincial residents told Halifaxbased polling firm Corporate Research Associates that they “completely or mostly support the Muskrat Falls development.” That was actually an increase over the 63 per cent who said such in a February 2013 poll.
In the opposite corner of the ring, the people who have been fighting against the megaproject garnered a mere 29 per cent of residents who “mostly or completely oppose” Muskrat Falls, up from 27 per cent in 2013.
Apparently, people get not only the government they deserve, people get the power bills they deserve.
Hang on to your monthly invoices from Newfoundland Power Co. Come 2018, you’re going to gaze at them with forlorn nostalgia.
It gets worse. Nalcor Energy’s admission this week of cost overruns and being behind schedule not only prove, finally and officially, that the naysayers are correct, but that they’ve been correct since the beginning, ever since then-premier Danny Williams vowed Newfoundland (via Labrador) would stick it to Quebec by building our own dam and transmission lines, and somebody muttered, “I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to spend $5 bil- lion.”
Did they say $5 billion? Oh, make that $6.2 billion. On second thought, tally that as $6.99 billion.
Anyone who was paying attention could comprehend a troubling trend. About a year ago, some naysayer or other pondered the possibility of breaking the $10-billion barrier. Preposterous, sang the chorus of Muskrat love.
And yet, this week the full, final price estimate — with interest costs included — passed the $9-billion mark.
Bear in mind the project is only one-third or one-half finished — according to varying calculations — so hitting double digits seems as certain as snow squalls in February.
None of this impending — some might say inevitable — bad news was hidden.
There were plenty of warning signs in print, on the airwaves and blipping around the Internet. Why, the prognostications of Wangersky alone should have been enough to send support ratings well below the 60th percentile.
For the benefit of the 65 per cent of residents who support the Lower Churchill mega-disaster, let’s recap some of the abovementioned warning signs:
• The “least-cost option” analysis was fixed from the start, by limiting which power sources could be considered;
• The Public Utilities Board was denied authority to analyze the pros and cons of the project, and thus was prevented from performing its job of protecting the interests of ratepayers;
• Not a single dollar of private investment in the project was found;
• Despite Muskrat Falls being touted as a revenue generator, there are no signed contracts with supposedly power-hungry northeastern U.S. states;
• The government passed a law making it illegal for any other company to supply power to consumers, thus granting Nalcor a monopoly and eliminating all competition.
Get together with your friends, crack open a few cold ones and see how many more items you can add to this list.
Meanwhile, 65 per centers can ponder another troubling fact: neither Nalcor, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro nor Newfoundland Power will say what will happen to individual ratepayers’ monthly bills once Muskrat juice flows in 2017 … er, 2018.
Imagine, they’re spending $5 billion — oops, $9 billion — and they don’t know the dollar breakdown of how it will all be paid off.
“Of course they know,” chirps a naysayer in the back row. “They’re just not saying.”
Uh oh. Sounds like more bad news is on the way.