The chair of the Premier’s Economic Recovery Team says the group is going to need extra time to prepare its interim report for the government of Newfoundland and Labrador, preliminary findings that were originally scheduled to be presented to the government on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters on a teleconference media availability Saturday morning, Dame Moya Greene said, “we're going to need a few extra weeks — maybe five or six extra weeks — to get the report done in a way we are happy with.”
Originally, the interim report would have been presented a little over two weeks after what was supposed to have been a Feb. 13 provincial election. However, the election process was postponed and altered because of the recent COVID-19 variant outbreak affecting the Avalon Peninsula.
All remaining voting is by mail-in ballot and vote-counting isn’t expected to be concluded until the week of March 15.
"It was my decision, because we're not ready... the report is not ready and it has nothing to do with the election." — Dame Moya Greene
The election postponement has led to opposition parties pressing Liberal Leader Andrew Furey to publicize the interim report as planned.
However, Greene stressed the call to delay the release of the interim report was hers.
"It was my decision, because we're not ready... the report is not ready and it has nothing to do with the election,” she said.
Greene did say later in the availability that some on the team “have felt disinclined to take up discussions because of the drop of the (election) writ.”
Greene further explained that some scheduled meetings didn’t go ahead because people affiliated with the provincial government were not comfortable having those meetings.
“When public servants are in the period between the dropping of a writ and the forming of a government, they cannot do very much,” she said. “It’s almost like a closed period, if I can explain it that way.”
Greene said Furey is unaware of the report’s recommendations, “because they haven’t been written yet,” and that she hasn’t been in contact with him since the election call.
"Well, it's certainly different now,” she said. “It's just not appropriate for me to communicate with the premier from the day the writ was dropped."
Greene’s group was announced last September and she says they have “been working literally seven days a week."
“(But) a lot has changed since we started and now, most recently, with the recent lockdown ... our work has become more interrupted."
When asked when she made the decision to delay the release of the interim report, Greene said she came to conclusion over the past 15 to 20 days.
“It was just taking longer for us to do everything, and I communicated that to the clerk (of the Executive Council)... I don't know exactly when... probably a week or 10 days ago.”
She stated she never considered the Feb. 28 due date as being “a firm, time-is-of-the-essence date.”
“We need more time for a number of reasons — a lot of ground to cover, haven't been doing work too long, (what) with the pandemic,” she said. “And now, (with) the new restrictions put in place as a result of a spike in infections, the flow of our work has become interrupted.”
Greene is from St. John’s and a graduate of Memorial University and Osgoode Law School. After working in the federal civil service, she moved to the private sector and is perhaps best well-known as CEO, first of Canada Post, and then Britain’s Royal Mail, overseeing the privatization of the latter.
She now lives in England.
She describes the work she has done with the economic recovery team as one of the best things she's done in her career.
“To have the chance to hear from so many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, to hear perspectives on the province, the challenges we face ... that has been hugely important,” she said.
