The Official Opposition has shown its incompetence in carelessly making claims based on their inaccurate and erroneous interpretation of information in an attempt to discredit Nalcor Energy and the Provincial Government.

On Monday, the Official Opposition stated in the House of Assembly that Nalcor Energy had paid Summa Strategies, an Ottawa-based government relations and communications firm, $960,000 for services.  The information was totally inaccurate.

"The information put out by the Official Opposition is dead wrong and it demonstrates their shocking incompetence in not being able to interpret information before them," said the Honourable Kathy Dunderdale, Minister of Natural Resources. "They misinterpreted information contained on a website and what it meant. Unfortunately, instead of clarifying the information they chose to make public statements for crass partisan political purposes. The people of the province deserve better from their elected officials."

Nalcor and its subsidiaries actually paid Summa Strategies one-third of what the Opposition reported � a total of $298,500 over a three-year period. It is common practice for energy corporations to engage the services of such companies to ensure their interests and viewpoints are well understood at the federal level.

"There are a number of policy issues and programs within the Federal Government that have the potential to impact on Nalcor�s efforts regarding a broad range of energy resource development opportunities," said Minister Dunderdale. "The potential development of the Lower Churchill Project is obviously one of them. Both private and public energy corporations hire companies to get specialized input in regards to federal policy issues and to ensure they are kept informed of federal policy initiatives. There is nothing untoward about it; as a matter of fact, it is a wise and strategic part of doing business."

The $960,000 noted on the website quoted by the Opposition represents funding received by Nalcor from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for three specific projects related to the Northern Strategic Plan, a rate subsidy for isolated and remote communities powered by diesel, and energy-related studies for the Department of Natural Resources � all unrelated to Summa. The fact that this was not a payment to Summa was evident from the website of the Office of Commissioner of Lobbying, but was misreported by the Opposition.

"Federal legislation does not provide for the disclosure of these types of consulting fees," Minister Dunderdale said. "Therefore, any figure sourced from lobbying registrations online would be erroneous � it has nothing to do with the fees paid to companies listed in the commissioner�s registry. The $298,500 that Nalcor actually paid is for services dating back to 2006, which means the equivalent of less than $75,000 a year."

The opposition also was required to issue a clarifying news release yesterday after improperly identifying the appropriate federal agency related to the alleged funding for Summa Strategies. Minister Dunderdale called upon the Official opposition to be more diligent and thoughtful in their delivery of information into the public domain.

Nalcor Energy has redefined itself as an energy corporation and is pursuing opportunities in the offshore oil and gas industry and wind development, as well as being the lead proponent on the potential development of the Lower Churchill hydro-electric resources.

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Media contact:

Tracy Barron
Director of Communications
Department of Natural Resources
709-729-5282, 690-8241
tracybarron@gov.nl.ca