Dunderdale blunders on term sheet power sale provisions

Kathy Dunderdale obviously needs a briefing on her old boss’ retirement plan.
In the House of Assembly on Tuesday, Dunderdale said:

Mr. Speaker, while it is true that Emera will own the Maritime Link for thirty-five years, they will only have the ability to wheel one terawatt of power across that link.   Mr. Speaker, all rights above the one terawatt lie with Nalcor.

Unfortunately, for Dunderdale that isn’t what the term sheet says. Under Term 7 (d), Emera can buy additional power for sale in Nova Scotia, and under 7(e), Emera can step in between Nalcor and a power sale to a third party:

The company can buy that additional power and run it down the line or build new lines to carry it either with Nalcor as a partner or on its own.

If that weren’t good enough for you, there’s nothing in the term sheet that says Emera cannot buy power in addition to the Nova Scotia Block for its customers in the United States or anywhere else in the Maritimes. After all, Nalcor would be foolish to turn down the prospect of selling power to help pay off its massive debt burden, should it wind up up building Muskrat Falls along the lines in the term sheet.

So if Dunderdale can get such an obvious point completely wrong, it makes you wonder what else she doesn’t understand about this proposal.

- srbp -