Reporters asked the premier on Wednesday about comments by Nova Scotia premier-elect Stephen McNeil about Muskrat Falls.
Here’s what CBC reported:
"Our contract — our agreement — is with Emera. They're going to sell the power to Nova Scotia," she said.
The Telegram had an extra bit along the same lines:
“I just want to remind people again that the agreement between Newfoundland and Labrador — Nalcor specifically — is with Emera. Emera is a publicly traded company,” she said.
She also told reporters that the agreements with Nova Scotia covered off every possible outcome so everything was just fine.
Whatever.
The thing is, though, that both Kathy Dunderdale and her predecessor have always made a big deal out of the image of the two provincial governments agreeing to this big project. Back in 2010, they had a huge announcement. Dex came over from Halifax. They signed pieces of paper.
All the media reported it, like say the Mighty Ceeb:
"This is a historic day for Nova Scotia, and all of Atlantic Canada," Dexter said. "Through this partnership, Nova Scotia is taking a major step forward as an international leader in renewable energy."
So it seems the former premier of Nova Scotia was under the impression his government had something to do with this.
Lots of people in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador seem to have gotten the idea into their heads that this was a deal between two provincial governments as well as between the two companies. All those big media events and all the comments from Dexter and Dunderdale might have had something to do with what is apparently a big misunderstanding. By the looks of things, lots of Nova Scotians voted against Dexter and his New Democrats the other night because they didn’t like their government’s plan to help develop Muskrat Falls.
Turns out all those people were just fooled by an enormous deception by Dunderdale and her predecessor. Kathy must have laughed long and hard Tuesday night when she called up Dex and yelled “Bazinga” down the phone.
Big deception is the only logical conclusion you can draw from Kathy Dunderdale’s comment that the Nova Scotia government isn’t a party to the Lower Churchill/Maritime Link project so what the new head guy over there says doesn’t matter.
Minor problem.
What Kathy said?
Not true.
The project can’t work without the federal loan guarantee. The guarantee agreement and the accompanying oversight agreement involve both provincial governments as well as the two companies.
So the agreement to develop the Maritime Link includes both provincial governments.
After all this time, Kathy Dunderdale still does not understand the multi-billion project on the Lower Churchill.
-srbp-