Williams must share Critics Concerns about the Emera deal. Right?

Please read the various statements below and ask yourself - does Williams share the concerns of critics regarding the Muskrat Falls development? The statements are all by Danny Williams. What's up Premier Dunderdale?

Isn’t is a fact that Section 23(1)(c) of the act gives you and your government virtual veto power to deny the public information about any negotiations...including the Lower Churchill?

Then comes the important one as well, one that is equally important: information about negotiations carried on by or for a public body for the government of this Province. That is the Voisey’s Bay clause. That is the Lower Churchill clause. That is the one that this government can use to prevent disclosure of negotiations. Their answer to that is: Well, you cannot disclose the negotiations. If negotiations are going on in private, it is not right to get out and disclose those negotiations. You cannot do that. Well I submit, Mr. Speaker, we should do that. The people of this Province have a right to know what is going on. It should not be done behind closed doors. It should not be a fait accompli. It should not be signed, sealed and delivered and then rammed down their throats after it is all over. That is too late.

  

I would suggest as well, if anything happens with regard to the Lower Churchill, if there is any tentative agreement or any framework of an agreement - not a tentative agreement, the framework of an agreement struck on the Lower Churchill - that before anything is signed, before anything is agreed to, the Minister of Mines and Energy, as Chairperson of that particular panel, should go around - in the event of a Voisey’s Bay deal, or in the event of a deal on the Lower Churchill, there should be an all party, non-partisan committee of this House struck to go around and listen to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, to hear what they want, to hear what their interests are, and to hear what they think a deal should be. That is what should be done.

Mr. Speaker, by 2010 the Government of Quebec is forecasting a shortage of power that will leave them unable to meet their commercial obligations. Cheap power is the foundation of their energy plan and their key to economic development. One would think, therefore, that Quebec’s shortage of power would put our negotiating team in the driver’s seat during negotiations on the Lower Churchill. With such obvious negotiating power, Mr. Speaker, could the Premier please tell the people why he did not use the Lower Churchill as a bargaining lever to address the inequities of the Upper Churchill contract? Would the Premier explain why he quit on the objective of every single Government of Newfoundland and Labrador since the deal was signed over thirty years ago?

What is this Premier going to do? He is going to give away our cheap, our renewable energy, rather than create jobs in this Province.

  

One, that there is no redress on the Upper Churchill, that the Premier and his government have quit on us and have quit on this issue. Two, the Premier failed to use Quebec shortage of power in the next ten years as a lever to renegotiate the Upper Churchill.

  

If we do a Lower Churchill project, the people of the Province need to know one thing, that from the first day we sell one megawatt hour from that project we will be getting the full market value of the power as though we were selling it in any other market available in North America.

Mr. Speaker, would the minister please confirm that he stands by that statement...?

  ...that there is no guarantee of 100 per cent ownership of the project by Newfoundland and Labrador; that there is no guarantee of 100 per cent management and control of the project...

What role, Premier, has the Lower Churchill Development Corporation played in these Lower Churchill negotiations with Quebec?

... so therefore his answer is yes, he would proceed with a deal on the Lower Churchill without seeking any redress or a better deal on the Upper Churchill...

Mr. Speaker, my question for the Premier is: Would the Premier tell the people of our Province why he is proceeding with this deal when the following are against it: former PC Premier Brian Peckford...

We have an ever increasing list of people who oppose this deal on the Lower Churchill. Two former premiers, Tom Rideout and Brian Peckford ...The least you could do is show some respect for two former premiers of this Province. 

Will the Premier please confirm that the financing arrangements for this project will saddle our Province of Newfoundland and Labrador with 100 per cent of the cost overruns?

...can the Premier please confirm that, in fact, most of the design and engineering work on the Lower Churchill will be done in Quebec?

Mr. Speaker, would the Premier confirm what was told to the private meeting in Labrador, that at the end of construction of this multi-billion development of our resource, Newfoundlanders and Labradorians will only get fifty - fifty, Mr. Speaker - long-term jobs while Quebec will use more of our cheap power to create thousands of new jobs for Quebecers?