Questions continue to swirl around the way the Liberal government is handling Muskrat Falls and the deal with Nova Scotia utility company Emera, particularly the lack of transparency being displayed. NDP MHAs asked some of those questions today in the House of Assembly.
“It took our questioning in the House to extract from the Premier an acknowledgement that Emera’s equity share in Muskrat Falls transmission had increased from 29 per cent to 59 per cent,” said NDP House Leader Lorraine Michael (MHA, St. John’s East-Quidi Vidi).
“I ask the Premier, when did you first know this? Why didn’t you promptly notify the people of the province? And what have you still not told us?
The Muskrat Falls agreements signed by the previous government force ratepayers in this province to foot the bill for a guaranteed 8.8 per cent annual return on equity in the project, Michael noted, asking, “With the doubling of Emera’s equity share, how much money annually will go out of the pockets of ratepayers in this province and into the pockets of this private, Nova Scotia company?”
The Emera/Muskrat Falls controversy is just another illustration of the current government’s lack of commitment to transparency, says St. John’s Centre MHA Gerry Rogers.
“The Premier did not campaign on the slogan ‘Muskrat Falls is not my fault.’ He campaigned on a platform of offering the people of the province better management, and real openness and transparency,” Rogers said.
“I ask the Premier, whether it is Ed Martin’s severance, or the latest revelations on Emera, why do straightforward facts have to be dragged out of him in Question Period?”