The man who was at the helm of Nalcor when Muskrat Falls was sanctioned has come out swinging following the release yesterday of a damning report by Commissioner Richard LeBlanc.
Martin says as the Muskrat Falls Inquiry unfolded, it became clear that it was focused on “aggressively pursuing various unsubstantiated negative hypotheses.”
View Ed Martin’s complete statement at this link.
In a lengthy statement issued today, Martin says the problem with “such a one-sided approach is that the outcome flows from an improper, weak foundation at the expense of a balanced perspective of the overall issues, merits and net benefits.”
He says with long-term projects like Muskrat Falls you have to “consider the associated costs and benefits over a long period of time”…which, he says in this case would be 50 to 100 years.
He does not accept the suggestion that he did not perform properly in areas such as disclosure, cost estimating and schedule development. He also finds it “disconcerting” that information on the overall benefits and merits of the project was summarized “deep” in the body of the report and was not included in the Executive Summary.
Martin maintains that Muskrat Falls was necessary to meet increased demand for power and replacing the Holyrood generating facility, and that the project provides the “best overall net benefits to the Province compared to other options.”
He concludes by saying that Newfoundland and Labrador needs to stick to the plan and he assures, “it will work.”