31 August 2006

He did the right thing

From Aurora Energy late yesterday comes the terse announcementt that Dean MacDonald resigned from the company's board about 48 hours after he took up the appointment.

You'll find the reasons for the resignation in Moira Baird's story on the front page of the business section in today's Telegram.

After a length claim about Hydro's extensive protections against conflict of interest, MacDonald said this:
"But, just on the basis there might be perceived issues, it's just not worth the hassle."
Later in the story, MacDonald is quoted again:
"Usually, everything that comes at me is a conflict and I have to turn it down. This one, I thought, was clean."
There were three potential conflicts or appearances of conflict in the appointment and these should have been blatantly obvious from the outset. At the very least, Aurora would have been coming to MacDonald's Hydro corporation to secure power in the event its uranium deposits are developed commercially.

Of course, if MacDonald had thought the thing through and concluded there was no conflict, he'd have stuck it out. Evidently someone saw it differently.

MacDonald can rest assured he has done the right thing by resigning. Now he can focus his energy on the Lower Churchill.