DenyAsk

What was Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) doing at the fly ash plant in Goose Bay two weeks ago? Did the Inspector order it closed, as a local source � a former worker � reports? According to the source, the plant was ordered closed but was back in operation again within a day or two.  The plant is the sole supplier of fly ash to the Muskrat Falls project. The operation is housed in an old hangar near the Goose Bay Airport. The building is reportedly in poor condition and, according to the former worker, unsuitable for its current use given the toxic nature of fly ash.  Fly ash is used in conjunction with (or as a partial replacement for) Portland cement to improve a particular property of concrete (e.g. to slow hardening) or to restrict a specific chemical reaction.   It is a by-product of pulverized coal and this source believes that, based upon product data sheets, the ash contains a high percentage of silica. Old hangar near Goose Bay Airport hosts silica f...

Guest Post by David Vardy Introduction Terry Paddon, the province�s Auditor General will be stepping down at the end of the month. His swan song was the recent release of his annual report to the House of Assembly, on the Audit of the Financial Statements of the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, for the year ended March 31, 2017.  In light of the parlous fiscal state of the Province one has to ask if he told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?  Did he speak truth to power in a language that both citizens and their elected representatives can understand? In particular, how did he deal with the Muskrat Falls project?   How a Revenue Shortfall becomes a Regulatory �Asset� Bonnie Lysyk, the Auditor General for Ontario, recently released a special audit report, entitled the Fair Hydro Plan: Concerns About Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Value For Money. The special report relates to Bill 132, the legislation for the Fair Hydro Plan under which e...

If you live in Newfoundland, you know all about wind.   There�s the natural kind� and then there�s the wind that keeps carpetbaggers aloft until the easy money disappears. �If you got the juice we got the use,� Kathy Dunderdale was fond of quoting the New England Governors, the cost of producing the power never entering the equation.  "Even if we produce everything we have here at Muskrat Falls and Gull Island, we still wouldn't fit all the energy demands south of the border," the CBC quoted Kirby Mercer in a story posted back in June.  Mercer is the spokesperson for Beothuck Energy�s proposed wind power project in St. George�s Bay. Like Dunderdale, economics seems not to matter to him either.   It is true that the American appetite for power � especially the clean variety � is significant. But the same latitude does not hold for the price that American consumers are willing to pay for carbon-free electricity. ISO New England is the body that administers the wholesal...

As I look at the world around and feel the rumblings of a monster storm, the likes of which history has no comparison, I contemplate it with mixed emotions.  Just like the fabled king whole left eye was crying as the right one was laughing, so my heart holds both joy and sorrow. If we had a giant time clock in the skies that counted down to the advent of Christ's second coming, its arms would probably be seconds away from midnight.  We can almost hear His steps descending on Heaven's stairway into the Now that rushed and ordered itself into waves of matter and light expelled by His breath.  We can sense Heaven getting ready to receive His bride, and a thousand times thousands wedding invitations are dispatched to fill the wedding halls with His image-bearers.  We hear the Angel set pen to paper and, in eternal books, another name is engraved with ink that cannot lie, the scarlet fountain of His blood.  ...

Not surprisingly when politicians and public servants screw up, and their error is exposed, the excuse register gets pretty crowded. That was the case when this Blog revealed that Nalcor lost $66.9 million on a hedging scheme in which it speculated on $1.82 billion of the most recent $2.9 billion Federal Loan Guarantee - funding for the Muskrat Falls project. On NTV , August 21, 2017 CEO Stan Marshall defended the loss - suggesting nothing would have been said had it been a win.  Of course, Marshall was mute about Nalcor's expertise in this complex and risky field. He did not mention if he had given any guidelines (limitations) to his officials - now speculators with the public purse. Nor did he comment on whether those decisions are given over to some investment advisor with no skin in the game. And he offered no data as to the frequency of the Corporation's hedges. And, which would have been nice, he didn't confirm if � over time - wins/losses had evened out. Certainly, ...

Editor's Note: When David Vardy released the essay entitled � Making Best Use of the Lower Churchill: The Muskrat Falls Development � , which he had prepared as a brief for the Action Canada Fellowship in 2011, it constituted the first sceptical appraisal of the many claims of the Williams Administration regarding the project. It took six more years before then Fortis CEO and current Nalcor CEO Stan Marshall got around to describing the project as a �boondoggle�. But Vardy was there, at the starting gate, absent any but the public interest, to warn of that likely outcome and to replace hyperbole and falsity, often issued under the guise of patriotism, with objective analysis. It can rightly be said that Vardy not just wrote the primer on the Muskrat Falls project; he was the "first responder" sounding the alarm, demanding notice of Muskrat as ill-considered, possibly injurious, public policy. David A. Vardy It was in response to his alarm that this Blogger, and a handful ...