Funding available as needed to support Muskrat Falls Inquiry
Province has set aside more than Commissioner’s request for budget
Exactly what the Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Muskrat Falls Project might cost the province received some attention this week, with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador releasing its budget on Tuesday, revealing what was set aside for the inquiry’s needs.
The headline number was $33.7 million budgeted over two years ($20 million and $13.7 million respectively), atop spending to date.
The inquiry is scheduled to wrap up at the end of 2019.
The total there is different from the Commission’s proposed requirements of about $25 million over two years, with roughly $17 million in the first fiscal year and $8 million in the second.
Justice Minister Andrew Parsons spoke with The Telegram about the difference Thursday, saying the province needs to be ready for any change in the ask.
“You don’t have absolute control over how this goes. I mean things can come up that are not anticipated and if we don’t have the financial ability to cover off those expenses, we get ourselves in trouble,” he said.
So for one thing, the province has added in some additional contingency to allow it to respond to requests from the Commissioner if and as needed.
“This is situation where it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it,” he said.
Assistant deputy minister Kendra Wright said there is better detail available at this point for the requirements in the first year than in the second, with a rough ballpark for the second. The first year is expected to cost more and, she said, how much contingency is really needed — if any — will be better known at the end of the first year.
She said the largest element within the total budgeted by government right now is about $19 million, set aside for “professional services.” That’s where supports for Commissioner Richard Leblanc can be found including — as stipulated under the Public Inquiries Act — his ability to retain his own experts, auditors and advisors as he sees fit.
“He doesn’t come to us looking for approval,” Wright said, underscoring the inquiry’s independence.
“He has to have a ballpark figure there and it’s got to be significant. If it’s too low, where does he get the money to retain these experts that he may or may not need as he goes through the course of the inquiry? So that’s why that number is significant,” she said.
The forensic audit falls under professional services, for example. Wright said it’s not known how much that audit will cost the inquiry and ultimately the provincial budget at the end of the day.
But government’s budgeting there also includes its own costs to participate in the inquiry. Wright said about $471,000 has been budgeted for counsel and assistants (researchers), or enough for four salaries.
And the funding allows for government to consider participation in other judicial reviews or inquiries as required.
Cost considerations are top of mind for the Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Muskrat Falls Project, as noted in a news release following the release of the provincial budget.
“The inquiry wishes to assure the public that priority is being given to fiscal prudence in everything it does. It will spend only that which is necessary to respond to its mandate,” it stated.
“Additionally, prior to incurring capital costs, the inquiry sought government advice so as to best ensure that, once its work has been completed, the items purchased for the inquiry could be used for future inquiries or other government needs.”
The plan is to offer periodic updates on spending, to be posted at www.muskratfallsinquiry.ca.
But at the end of it all, is the forecasted expense just too much?
Parsons said he keeps thinking about how it amounts to less than one per cent of the overruns on the ongoing Nalcor Energy-led Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.
“I’d like to know what happened here. I’d like for any future government to be able to avoid the mistakes that led to this,” he said.
The public has been asking for some non-partisan answers and this is a way to providing them.