09 June 2010

Live blogging the Old Man at the Chateau

12:58 PM (Eastern):  It’s great when you can get the mainlanders to read stuff your publicists cranked out.  No fact-checking.

1:00 PM:  The cash came from deals signed before 2003 and the debt remains the same.

1:01 PM:  The economy actually shrank 26% according to the provincial government’s latest budget.

1:02 PM:  The 2009 cash shortfall was a half billion with another billion forecast this year.  The net debt went up last year. 

1:08 PM:  Current cost estimate:  $14.7 billion to get it done.

1:08 PM:  It is straightforward except they have no markets and no money.

1:10 PM:  The Old Man spent five years trying to get HQ to take an equity stake in the Lower Churchill.  They just weren’t interested.

1:12 PM: April 2009:  NALCOR wheeled power through Quebec.  Its projects got done too.

1:12 PM:  NALCOR presented no evidence to bolster its claims.

1:15 PM:  NALCOR’s requests went to the Regie because NALCOR filed appeals.

1:17 PM:  NALCOR’S reputed price to New Brunswick:  16 cents per kwh, if the project ever gets built.  NB current consumer rate = 12 cents per kwh

1:20 PM:  Williams’ original ask to Ottawa 2005:  federal transfers equal to offshore revenues regardless of whether or not the province qualified for Equalization.

1:24 PM:  Imagine if they’d expropriated private property.

1:26 PM:  Will Jack and Iggy still cuddle Danny now?

1:27 PM:  Self-reliance, but only with hand-outs.

1:29 PM:  A fine rehash of the New York speech and every great 40-year old fable, delivered with the usual flat tone.

-srbp-