The provincial government’s quest to eliminate the bonus system at Nalcor is going to be tangly and difficult, but the first steps will come next Thursday when the House of Assembly opens for one day.
Last year, bonuses accounted for two per cent of the overall wage bill at the Crown corporation, including $70,000 for Gilbert Bennet—a VP who was severely chastised by the LeBlanc Inquiry into Muskrat Falls.
Andrew Parsons, the minister of industry, energy and technology, says he doesn’t have a lot of options where the bonuses are written into existing contracts. Tearing up those contracts would be more costly to taxpayers than leaving well enough alone.
However, he will introduce a notice of intent to change the legislation governing Nalcor next week.
He was notified only two weeks ago of the 2019 bonus recipients and amounts.
He says the Premier feels as he does, that the bonuses have to stop. He doesn’t consider a multi-million dollar review by an outside company to be worthy of extra compensation.
Opposition Leader Ches Crosbie meanwhile is calling for the termination of Nalcor Executives.
Crosbie says as a Crown corporation, Nalcor reports to the government. He says if the Liberal government was concerned about bonus payouts to executives, they should have put a stop to them as soon as they were elected in 2015.
Crosbie says the $2.9-million paid out in bonuses in 2019 is money that could have been better used to support Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and he plans to ensure fiscal oversight and accountability at Nalcor.
Nalcor was created to manage the province’s energy resources back in 2007 under former Premier Danny Williams.
The former PC government pushed Bill 29 through the legislature in 2012. The new Access to Information Act was seen as a step backwards when it came to accessibility and accountability.
It was amended as part of a statutory review in 2014.
Privacy Commissioner Michael Harvey this week made his submission to the latest statutory review, urging officials not to “go back” to Bill 29.
