Don’t sweep the inquiry report under the rug

The report of the Commission of Inquiry Respecting the Muskrat Falls Project was made public in March.

“Muskrat Falls: A Misguided Project” is the title given to the report.

Perhaps, looking to our history, a better title might have been: Lost with all Hands. In small print below could be written: except for captain and senior officers.

A person could be forgiven for thinking the word “misguided” would be reserved by judges and justices for their courtroom dealings with the misbehaving of callow youths, and not for the doings and goings on of premiers and cabinet ministers, deputy and assistant deputy ministers of the provincial government, or professional managers and much-touted world class experts employed and handsomely remunerated at a Crown corporation.

Premier Dwight Ball and Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady have said the report has been referred to the police and the Department of Justice for potential legal action.

All very well, if you want to keep the scandal at home hidden in the attic. Seeing as there is $7.9 billion in federal loan guarantees involved in the project, has the report been referred to the RCMP and the federal Department of Justice for potential legal action?

Sharp practices might be admired in St. John’s but elicit a different response in official Ottawa.

Similarly, Emera of Nova Scotia is Nalcor’s partner and customer. Will Ball or Coady be referring the report to the premier’s office and Department of Justice in Nova Scotia to search for any potentially inappropriate interference with that province’s Utility and Review Board (UARB)?

Was a good, solid air-clearing and soul-searching public debate of Commissioner Richard Leblanc’s report one of the first casualties of the COVID19 pandemic?

Ed Martin and Danny Williams rebutted the findings within a few days of its release, then the report was seemingly swept away, and handwashing replaced hand-wringing.