Here’s where it gets sticky

Work in Progress/by Ivan Morgan

Hope is the killer. Hope is what clouds your judgement. Hope is what tangles you up – makes you expect things a saner you might not. They say a second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience; I am on my second so what does that say about me?

It’s the hope that’s messing me up. 

We are all the product of our experiences. When the Furey Liberals made the big Churchill Falls announcement, over Christmas when everyone was distracted, I was angry, cynical and depressed. All the fanfare, the rushed “debate” called in the House, all the hallmarks of the whole Muskrat Falls debacle. Frankly it made me physically ill. To borrow from the lingo of a younger generation (and no disrespect to true sufferers), I had Muskrat PTSD. It was Christmas and I tried to put it out of my mind.

And now this.

Now a sort of, kind of independent review. Sort of. Maybe. Kind of.

I honestly don’t know what to make of it. I feel that maybe, just maybe, there’s a glimmer of hope.

This could be the biggest decision this place has made since Confederation (which is still hotly debated). We spent $16 million on a public inquiry into what went wrong at Muskrat Falls and the commissioner of that inquiry – who all agreed was the right person for the job – wrote, in his 1,000 page six volume report (I’ve read it twice) his recommendations to avoid another epic disaster. His first recommendation – Number One – was that government never again tackle any project over $50 million without:

“a. Engaging independent external experts to provide robust review, assessment and analysis of the project, and, b. Providing well-defined oversight after consideration of oversight processes instituted in other jurisdictions.”

The Liberals spent $16 million of your dollars to have this sensible judge write out the bleeding obvious. Now, $16 million later (I know, I am beating it to death) they aren’t going to heed this!

I worked alongside some of the current members of this Liberal government in opposition years ago, watching the arrogant Tories ram Muskrat Falls down our throats. All the taxpayer funded hoopla. All the derision of anyone who dared to question the project. They knew better than the experts. They knew better than the Public Utilities Board. They certainly knew better than us. They didn’t need an independent review. As far as they were concerned, we were unpatriotic idiots.

I had a bad feeling about what was happening at the time but could not have realized how bad it would turn out.

Now some of those very same people, who sat through the very same thing I did, with the very same doubts, are now in government and doing the very same thing? It defies logic.

Or are they?

Government has decided to ask Consumer Advocate Dennis Browne to strike a three person “independent” expert review of the deal with Hydro Quebec. They had a vote. The Tories stormed out (more about that some other time) and the Independents and the NDP voted onside (Jordan Brown being the NDP MHA for Labrador West might have had something to do with that).  Here’s where it gets sticky.

Lots of people are calling for Justice Richard LeBlanc to examine the deal. He’d be my choice.  Government has chosen Dennis Brown, the Consumer Advocate. I have met him a few times and he seems a thoughtful fellow. He was against the Muskrat Falls project at a time when it was not advisable to do so. As Consumer Advocate, he has stood up to the powers that be a few times. He’s a political choice for sure, but it’s a political issue…

I hope he is going to be a good choice. I hope he will be truly independent. I hope he will give this the thorough attention it deserves. I hope this does not turn out to be another in a ridiculously long list of economic disasters this place has suffered through.

It’s the hope that’s killing me. I wish Mr. Browne all the luck in the world. I wish all of us all the luck in the world. Right now, I really don’t know what to think of all this.

Except for one thing. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.

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