Speaking Notes
Premier Kathy Dunderdale
Municipalities Newfoundland and Labrador (MNL) Appreciation Dinner
October 6, 2012

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Good evening everyone. It is my sincere pleasure to be here tonight.

I truly feel at home here as I look around and recognize many faces, from my own time in municipal government, and during my years as MHA, Minister and now Premier.

Building Your Communities
It is so important for gifted and motivated people, like you, to get involved in municipal government because building strong communities is vital to the success of our province. As municipal leaders, you work to create vibrant, economically sustainable communities.

You look for solid growth opportunities in diverse industries and sectors, to create employment for your people and income to your towns.

You know that identifying opportunities and turning them into prosperity requires vision, foresight planning and action.

Regional Cooperation
To identify the best and most worthwhile opportunities to grow, we need community leaders who are forward-thinkers, innovators and prepared to think outside the box. We need people who are prepared to work, not at cross-purposes, but as partners.

Nurturing a climate conducive to growth requires collaboration, reliable infrastructure, and sustainable services.

We must avoid duplicating services that waste resources. It unfairly burdens taxpayers. It undermines the competitiveness of our employers. It hurts all of us, and it cannot be justified.

Regional partnerships on such initiatives as waste management demonstrate just how much we can achieve by finding new ways to work together.

Partnerships take time to sort out. There are rough patches and times of adjustment,
but the goal of providing the services our province needs at a cost our people can afford is so important that we must continue to make regional cooperation our constant focus and priority.

By continuing to collaborate and share services such as firefighting and recreation, we can achieve economies of scale that will enable us to provide our people with better services than communities could possibly provide by working in isolation. We will be able to achieve more at costs that people can better afford. Here in this room are municipal leaders who have set an example by finding creative ways to share services. Together, we can accomplish even more.

Infrastructure and Operating Grants
Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy is performing better today than ever before in our history. But robust economic growth does not necessarily translate into more money in municipal government coffers. We understand this. We are listening, and we are willing to work with you to ensure you can meet your citizens’ needs.

As a province, we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in municipal infrastructure since 2003. Water and sewer systems, quality drinking water, road repairs – we have invested in all of these. Since 2008, our funding commitment has grown to more than $500 million province-wide. In our recent budget, we earmarked an additional $130 million over two years.

Infrastructure funding is just one component of our investment in the strength of our municipalities. Another is the Municipal Operating Grant formula. You came and talked with us about how you felt the formula could be more transparent and better reflect the changes that have been occurring in municipalities. We have listened, and we are responding.

We have had many discussions with MNL as we enter into a new budget process, and those lines of communication will remain wide open. In the meantime, we chose to provide the same level of extra funding in Budget 2012 for MOGs as was provided in 2011.

In addition to the $17.8 million earmarked for communities on an annual basis, we maintained additional funding at $4.6 million.

Fiscal resources are finite. That is true at the provincial level as well as the municipal level.

We need to achieve that perfect balance between tapping revenues to grow infrastructure and services, and holding the line on taxes so we do not suffocate growth.

We as a government believe we have struck that balance, keeping taxes competitive while continuing to strengthen the infrastructure and services we need to attract new investment.

The new MOG formula will be in line with this approach:

Fiscally responsible and sustainable while at the same time fair, transparent and easily understood.

Our overriding objective is to ensure municipalities and regions throughout our province are well positioned to seize the opportunities you need to grow because the growth that you achieve is the growth that all of us need moving forward.

This is where solid leadership, clear vision and sound planning are indispensable.

Moving Forward on Muskrat Falls
And that brings me to Muskrat Falls. On every level, Muskrat Falls is the right way forward for Newfoundland and Labrador.

First and foremost, it will address a looming energy deficit in 2019. Our people will need more power than we generate in just seven short years. We have to plan now to meet that challenge and Muskrat Falls is the best way to do that.

Without Muskrat Falls, our electricity rates remain tied to the oil market with increases continuing unchecked.

With Muskrat Falls, we achieve energy self-sufficiency for our province. It breaks the stranglehold Quebec has over future economic development in Newfoundland and Labrador.

It opens up a new export route for surplus power into and through the Maritimes. It means stable electricity rates for consumers and businesses at the lowest cost. It enables us to retire one of this province’s chief polluters at Holyrood and shift to electricity generated from clean, sustainable power.

It transitions us to a renewable energy economy and positions us to negotiate from a position of strength for the development of Gull Island and the sale of Upper Churchill power 30 years down the road.

On every level, this is the right approach, the visionary approach, to economic development.

That is why this project has been endorsed in principle by the business community in this province, including most recently the St. John’s Board of Trade and business people of every political stripe.

It has been:

• Endorsed by the banks.
• Endorsed by international energy exports Manitoba Hydro International and Navigant.
• Endorsed by the Conservative Government of Canada.
• Endorsed by the leader of the federal Liberal Party.
• Endorsed by the leader of the federal NDP.

Across all political stripes and strata of our society, Muskrat Falls is being recognized for the sound project it truly is.

Muskrat Falls Due Diligence
Nevertheless, we are doing our due diligence as we probe the final numbers. As I said to the St. John’s Board of Trade on Wednesday, this project will stand on its merits or not at all.

Since this project was announced in November 2010, we have engaged the most knowledgeable people in the energy sector to work out the fine details of this significant project, and the results of that fine-tuning will soon be made public.

Last year, the Government of Canada announced its willingness to support such a project given its national importance both economically and environmentally.

During my recent meeting with the Prime Minister, he reiterated his commitment to the project and the Loan Guarantee.

Simultaneously, we have engaged the team of independent professionals at MHI to undertake an analysis of the project and determine if it remains the least cost option. We believe it is.

We continue to share thousands of pages of information with the people of the province and the opposition parties. As well, there will be additional reports that explore alternatives such as wind and natural gas.

Nothing is being hidden from public view.

Already, we have released thousands of pages of information, including the analysis of independent professionals with unassailable expertise in the energy industry.

Indeed, never before in the history of our province has a project undergone such scrutiny. Never before has so much detailed information been provided.

We will continue to make information readily accessible so that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador will have the opportunity to engage in the discussion.

The House of Assembly will debate this project under similar rules as the Voisey’s Bay project was debated a decade ago.

The significant difference is that, in this case, we have hired international experts to ask the critical questions of our own well-accomplished professionals at Nalcor.

All the questions which need answering will be addressed through the work of independent and world-renowned experts, such as those at MHI.

Another difference from a decade ago with the Voisey’s Bay project is that we will be providing the analysis of those experts well in advance of the debate.

Every Member of the House of Assembly has a duty to represent the wishes and best interests of his or her constituents on this important public policy issue.

Our commitment to the people of our province is that the decision we make at the end of the day will be the one that is truly in their best interests.

Muskrat Falls Greater Principles
Our primary focus as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians must be on growing our means by taking hold of opportunities to fuel new growth in our economy.

On the strength of offshore oil, Newfoundland and Labrador, for the first time since Confederation, has come off equalization and stands proudly in this federation today as a “have” province.

But we will not be able to sustain this status unless we are successful in grounding our economy on resources that, unlike oil, are renewable and sustainable over the long term.

Hydro-power is the resource that secures our status as an energy super-power in this country.

When the oil is gone, the water will continue to flow, and that water is power for growth – growth that is sustainable over the long term.

Right now, the demand for iron ore and other minerals, particularly in Labrador, is white hot. The demand for power is growing. It is incumbent on us to strike while the iron is hot.

Until now, the province of Quebec has used its geographic position to block our attempts to secure markets for surplus power.

That is the beauty of Nalcor’s agreement with Emera, which gives us an unprecedented route to market bypassing Quebec once and for all. That is why the Muskrat Falls project is not just another mega-project, but a game-changer for Newfoundland and Labrador.

Today, we are in the same league in Canada as Alberta, a true driver of growth in one of the most prosperous countries on earth.

Tomorrow, with the power we develop at Muskrat Falls, our status as a driver of growth in this country will be secure.

We will have the power we need to bring new mines in Labrador on stream, to supply markets hungry for iron ore while driving growth, jobs and prosperity here at home.

During the construction phase, your region and your community will have opportunities to benefit as the transmission lines are built to channel this new power.

At peak construction we will see 2,700 people working on this project. Total income from the construction phase of the project will be 220 million dollars a year for a total of 1.4 billion dollars over the course of the project.

And during the long term, you will reap the benefits that power supply security and rate stability will bring to our economy.

Municipalities such as yours will be able to budget knowing electricity rates will not rise with the price of oil but will be stable for generations to come.

This is all about securing our future, sustaining opportunities and opening up new opportunities in towns such as yours.

I cannot overstate the importance of this project to our economic future.

We will not wait in the dark for 30 years, squandering three decades of opportunities in the hope that some miracle will drop from the sky in 2041.

We will seize hold of the opportunities before us right now, breaking Quebec’s predatory grip on our hydro sector and securing a new revenue stream flowing in perpetuity from a truly renewable resource.

Some of our neighbours in Quebec are talking about political independence.

I am more interested in economic self-reliance, and that is what we will achieve by securing energy self-sufficiency.

This is all about seizing the power to chart our own destiny, unfettered by those who would hold us back and keep us down.

With Muskrat Falls, ours will be a diversified energy economy, with power we can draw on, not just until the wells run dry, but generation after generation after generation – power that will pour wealth and opportunity into our economy to sustain our grandchildren and their grandchildren long after we are gone.

This is the chance of a generation for Newfoundland and Labrador. We must not, we cannot, and we will not let it slip through our fingers.

Nor will we be blindsided by those who lack the foresight to see the big picture, who are more interested in managing decline than investing in the future our province.

This is why Muskrat Falls development truly excites me as the Premier of this province. It takes our greatest hopes for the future and grounds them in solid bedrock.

No other jurisdiction and no other generation would let an opportunity so good and so important slip through its grasp. Nor should we. Nor will we.

I urge you to do what so many others have done by taking a stand in support of this magnificent project.

Rarely has so much been on the line in a public policy debate, and your municipality’s economic future, and, indeed, the economic future of the province, is too important to be held hostage by those who are intent on holding us back from all we are capable of becoming.

Conclusion
This is the time to stand together. Our government’s appreciation and support for each of you is unwavering. We value the partnership we have with MNL and with individual municipalities, and we vow to continue listening to you and working with you to advance the goals we share.

Our government has an open door policy with municipalities.

We listen and we act. We are ready to work together to maximize the opportunities for Newfoundland and Labrador, region by region, to ensure the growth we have already achieved is just the beginning.

We are more determined than ever to build an economy in this province that is vibrant, strong and sustainable over the long term.

By working together, not at cross-purposes but as partners, we can raise this province to the full measure of its potential and chart a new trajectory of sustainable growth for the greater benefit of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Thank you.