This one is totally on us

Work in Progress By Ivan Morgan

When Muskrat Falls was being hatched, I worked for an MHA and party leader, and we met with the mucky mucks at Nalcor a few times.  As an elected official, my boss had questions. She was concerned about the cost of the project, whether we needed the project, whether the project would work. That sort of thing.

She asked for a meeting so we could ask Nalcor questions about the project, especially the Labrador Island Link (LIL) without being laughed at, mocked, scolded, and otherwise abused, as was happening in public and in the House of Assembly. We were looking for responsible answers to our concerns. I took detailed notes.

I remember that meeting. Let me set the scene. We were met in the Nalcor building lobby, ushered upstairs to the executive suites, and then the Nalcor brass filed in.

There was cordial chitchat. Everyone made light conversation and joked around. As someone who once wrote comedy professionally, I thought making a joke might break the ice. As we took our seats at a humongous board table I piped up.

I told all assembled that I plan to stay in shape, keep training on my mountain bike, and keep hiking. You could see they wondered where I was going with this. Why? Because, I said, the planned transmission line from Muskrat Falls to Soldiers Pond, when it was built, was going to be the Big Daddy of all mountain bike trails. Can’t wait to try it.

There was laughter and several executives allowed they hadn’t thought of that, but agreed it certainly was going to be quite the trail. It was a joke to relax everyone, and I like to think it worked.

I was kidding!

I had no idea how close to the truth my joke would turn out to be. Here we are a dozen years on, and the 1,100 kilometer, $2.1 billion “extension cord” from Muskrat Falls to the Avalon “underperforms.”  It doesn’t work.

For the sake of comparison, say you bought a luxury car for $100,000. When you take delivery, although you were confidently told by the salesperson it is a “world class” car, when you drive off the lot you quickly find out it doesn’t go faster than 50 kms per hour, frequently breaks down, is lousy in snow, costs a fortune in gas, and has no warranty. The salesperson tells you it will cost you another $20,000 to repair, but it still might not work.

Is this a rough comparison? Sure. But it’s not that far off.

Reviewing my notes from all those years ago I am astonished at the malarkey Nalcor executives told us with a straight face. We had concerns. Pish, posh they chortled confidently. We have everything under control. We know what we are doing.

Now here we are. Suffice it to say we were right to be worried back then. Is it a $2.1 billion mountain bike trail?

NL Hydro’s most recent president gave an optimistic interview at the beginning of this month, saying she’s confident they will sort out the problems with the LIL. What else is she going to say? Is this more malarkey?

It’s really that bad, and no one seems to care.

There’s a myth that’s been perpetrated by generations of local politicians for political gain that Quebec ripped us off on the Upper Churchill. Those nasty Quebecers taking our birthright!  They owe us! It’s heresy to suggest otherwise.

Certainly, we signed a bad contract, but the truth says a lot more about us and the politics of this place.

The truth is we didn’t lose a dime, we just haven’t made near as much as Quebec. Since 1969 they have made $28 billion to our $2 billion. It’s a lopsided deal, and we did get the short end. But we aren’t out of pocket.

Muskrat Falls is very different. We are out $13 billion and counting. That’s what you and I owe. For a project that still doesn’t work. We did this to ourselves.

Politics in this place is not going to get any better until we all open our eyes. We need to understand that if there is a bogeyman, it’s us.

Ivan Morgan can be reached at ivan.morgan@gmail.com