Spring 1994.
At the point
Clyde Wells spoke to the graduating class of Memorial University’s business
school that year, the administration he led had already started getting
government spending under control and transforming the economy. Wells goes through all of that with the
class, why government was undertaking the changes, and what he hoped would be the
outcome.
Give the
speech a listen. It’s only 38 minutes
and it is striking on a few levels.
First of all, think of the last time you heard a Premier speak to an
audience in Newfoundland and Labrador this calmly, rationally, and with as much
detail. This is not a speech of clever
quips or turns of phrase. This is basic
information.
Second,
notice that Wells talks about protecting the vulnerable in society while, at
the same time, making some significant changes in government and society. This was an incredibly important aspect of
what the government did at the time.
Anyone who ignores this when describing events in the 1990s is either a
partisan troll or someone who simply doesn’t know what he or she is talking
about.
Third,
notice the point when Wells talks about the potential for oil and interest in
developing Terra Nova. Within the decade
after Wells delivered this speech, oil companies had brought two more fields online
and had started talking about the fourth field.
Those are the royalty deals that delivered the cash windfalls in the
decade after 2005. In every single deal, including the Hebron deal, the part of
the agreement that delivered the most cash to the province came from the
pre-2003 royalty regime.
Then notice
that it only took 10 years of spectacularly bad policy choices for the Williams
Conservatives to demolish everything. They flipped back to the 1970s in energy
policy and economic development. The
started overspending in 2006-2007, then continued that overspending through the
recession in 2008-09 and with the downturns in commodity prices in 2013 and
2015.
10 years - 1994 to 2005 - to turn things around.
10 years - 2005 to 2015 - to wreck the place.
 |
| Ya gotta have a Plan C, Dwight |
The new
Premier who takes office in August will face the immediate financial problem of
a deficit of somewhere between $1.6 billion and $2.4 billion. Deficits will likely a billion dollars or
more as the pandemic lingers and oil prices remain suppressed. But even if those two issues disappeared
magically by Labour Day, Muskrat Falls and all the strategic problems resulting
from the disastrous policies after 2005 will continue to dog the province.
-srbp-