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Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Dean McDonald Left the Wind Farm - Danny, Danny Oh!

Today Dean McDonald resigned as Chairman of the Board for Newfoundland and Labador Hydro, effective immediately.

According to Premier Danny Williams, McDonald will be replaced by former MHA and cabinet minister John Ottenheimer. The question on everyone's mind after the announcement is why McDonald suddenly decided to vacate his post.

Premier Williams is saying the decision was made for personal reasons. Apparently since selling Persona Communications (after it received a $10 million dollar government contract without public tender), McDonald has been busy with his capital venture company and has not been able to give NL Hydro the attention it deserves at this critical time. A time when Lower Churchill development plans are being drawn up, when NL Hydro is entering the oil and gas market space and as new wind power developments are coming on stream.

There has been no comment publicly from McDonald today.

This is the second time McDonald has resigned from the same position. The first time was under the former Liberal provincial government of Roger Grimes. McDonald resigned at that time saying he could not in good concience allow the Grimes government to sign a deal to develop the Lower Churchill power project without going public. According to McDonald it was a deal that would export power through Quebec at what he believed were less than optimal returns for the province.

This begs the question, with McDonald's immediate resignation, with a new plan for Lower Churchill development on the drawing board and with with the current silence of Mr. McDonald, is the province once again about to sell out the people by selling off the Lower Churchill development Quebec?

Since the Lower Churchill project moved back to the front burner the Williams government has claimed to be seriously considering going the Atlantic route rather than wheeling power through Quebec. Today's events have raised speculation that a decision has already been made to export the power rather than use to to attract local industry and even on how that power will leave the province.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I smell another BRINCO coming.

Anonymous said...

I think that anon is on to something. MacDonald has already proven that he can make money off the NL Government (Persona) and has the inside track on the deal. Williams is going to push this through come hell or high water despite the economics - and someone will make a bundle in the process.
The ghost of Joey is alive and well. Will we ever learn?

Anonymous said...

Truthfully, I am scared to death.

The silence is deafening.

What recourse do we have, if things, do not change here in the way our resources are dealt out?

Premier Williams, as a well-established and adept lawyer,knows what the people of Newfoundland and Labrador do not want and that is the continued corruption that existed with the distribution of our resources in the past. If he ignores the situation, he will go down in the annals of history of being the very worst Premier, since he knows how the people think and he knows we are sick of corruption and thought that he was going to stop it.

I am hoping that it is only our untrusting minds and that won`t be the case and things are proceeding the way we expect them to be.

You know darn well Premier Williams knows the calibre and mind-set of his electorate and if he doesn`t do things the way his electorate expects him to do them, that he will be considered a traitor and will go down in history as such.

I am just writing this as a warning, I am really hoping and thinking that he is doing things right. After all wasn`t that the reason Premier Williams took on the job in the first place?