Cry me a River downstream

This is a readers digest discussion of the woes of the Upper Churchill contract and continues on from the first installment Cry me a River.

Frank Moores becomes Premier at a time when the first hint emerges that the deal Brinco has with Hydro Quebec is one sided and that Brinco if left alone stood to lose money over the term of the agreement. This is when Newfoundland and Labrador became directly involved in the contract.

Essentially Brinco wanted to develop the Lower Churchill same terms as Upper Churchill - Newfoundland and Labrador political geniuses had now figured out what Quebec was getting in the first round said no. The rest of the story since related by John Crosbie in his book - No Holds Barred - is surely the same as all the rest of the "expose" semi-fictional novels where the author is the hero and others around the situation were just weak. 

In either case Frank set out to buy Brinco's water rights - we are told in order to develop the Lower Churchill. The additional truth is that Frank went to a hotel room in Montreal and for all we knew bailed Brinco (Rothschilds) out of a bad deal which would see them lose money.

John Crosbie's interpretation or "recollection" in his book has Frank Moores as spineless and Crosbie further was "unimpressed" Sir Val Duncan or Bill Mulholland or "any of them". Crosbie articulated he assumed he was as brainy as the other side of the table. At this point I will note it is too bad that the grey matter was not up to the same snuff when we did the Upper Churchill. But romantic reflections of our current Lieutenant Governor aside Crosbie admitted the price to buy back the water rights in Labrador and the control of CFLCo was too steep. I'll say - 160 million dollars or so for an investment of what 10 million dollars. They collectively gave the Rothschilds a return on their investment that they never would have seen on the Upper Churchill fiasco.

Three others observations of Crosbie from the time are very relative to now and this proposed deal with Emera.

1. Crosbie concluded that Joey was responsible for the mess of the Upper Churchill which sees hundreds of millions going to Quebec as we receive little more than 10 million (pre resale power under Tobin). Even though John and Bill and Bill and Clyde and others mentioned in the Cry me a River installment - were around during the deal they collectively all watched or assisted it in happening. But no - it's the dead guys fault.

 2. Crosbie concluded that there is no doubt the Upper Churchill should not have been developed by Brinco but rather as a joint project between the governments of Newfoundland and Quebec. In this he suggests that nationalizing and maintaining control of resources such as the renewable energy in Labrador is essential. He almost after all these years got it right - yes it should belong to the people - but he forgot the people of Labrador and the absolute battering they have taken on what could have been the industrialization of Labrador for the benefit of the great land.

3. Crosbie speaks of Joey's insistence on dealing with Brinco despite the potential loss to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and speaks to potential conflicts of interest where he speculates on Joey's dabbling in Brinco stock and Smallwood's violation of the peoples' trust. He then compares this to Frank Moores who would not allow any Minister to make decisions on a deal or development of resources where they had private interests - and then goes further to say at the time the provincial legislation was better than the federal in that it did not recognize blind trusts. According to Crosbie and I quote "A blind trust is useless when dealing with private companies." Yes so true is it not? Think about that and what Crosbie is actually saying. For sure if you are the Premier now you could not have interest in the Lower Churchill construction or shares in Emera - but if you are a private citizen you sure can. What's the time frame after having been a Premier  - one must wait as a private entrepreneur to buy interest in a private company set to develop the Lower Churchill as a "windfall"?

another installment around the corner.....