ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A day before the Premier’s Economic Recovery Team (PERT) was scheduled to submit its interim report, chair Dame Moya Greene announced via teleconference on Saturday morning — giving media only about two hours notice — that she would be delaying the release of the interim report by potentially five to six weeks.
Greene said she never felt Feb. 28 was a “time-is-of-the-essence” deadline and that the scheduled date was “notional.”
Reaction from opposition parties, and people on social media, was swift.
Not a lot of surprise
Many on social media said the move did not come as a surprise given the confusion, delays and chaos surrounding the winter provincial election, impacted by a COVID-19 outbreak of cases.
NL Alliance Leader Graydon Pelley said he suspects 100 per cent of the province, including the premier and the government, expected the delay.
“We really did not expect anything different,” he said.
Pelley said Greene is a brilliant person but thought her comment that the deadline was “notional” was indicative that someone must have implied that to her when she was appointed.
“She didn’t feel the deadline was steadfast and we needed to get this done?” — Graydon Pelley
“(Furey) appointed this committee because Newfoundland was in such a financial bind and a financial mess that we needed to find some way to get out of it, the best way and the quickest way we could, and yet the deadline was only a suggestion?” Pelley said.
“She didn’t feel the deadline was steadfast and we needed to get this done?”
Greene cited issues surrounding the COVID-19-related lockdown in Newfoundland and Labrador and that some people felt disinclined to take up discussions once a provincial election had been called.
She said she came to the decision about 15 to 20 days ago, but felt it was inappropriate to be communicating with Liberal Leader Andrew Furey during an election and had not told him.
Furey says he learned of delay Friday
Up until Friday, Furey said he was still under the impression the interim report would be delivered on schedule.
Over a media availability on Zoom on Saturday, Furey said that while he was disappointed with the delay, he understands the “magnitude of the scope of the work and the additional challenges the recent lockdown has placed on the team’s volunteer members.”
Furey maintains it is the final report that will contain recommendations and it will undergo broad public consultation before any recommendation is implemented.
“There will be new ideas, hopefully outside-the-box ideas that we can all have a healthy debate about,” Furey said. “The most important thing is for her to get it right, not that it lands on the exact date.”
He sympathizes with voters who might feel suspicious with the delay, which some see as a central issue in the election.
“But there is no bogeyman here,” he said.
Progressive Conservative Leader Ches Crosbie said the delay only confirms people’s worst fears.
“Andrew Furey and the Liberals just don’t want the voters to see this slash-and-cut report before they cast their ballots,” he said.
Crosbie said many members of the public have told him they were waiting to cast their ballot until after the interim report was released on Sunday.
“Now all those people have been badly misled,” he said.
Convenient coincidence?
NDP Leader Alison Coffin said on Saturday that Furey has put the election and his hopes for a mandate ahead of the economic future of the province.
“I don’t think that bodes well for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador,” Coffin said. “Given the importance of the economic recovery …
“Remember, last year (around) this time, Premier (Dwight) Ball was writing the prime minister saying we were out of money and we had no more time.”
Furey said the report’s delay until potentially after the ballots are counted was a coincidence.
Coffin disagreed.
She said the coincidence is convenient for Furey, but not for the province.
“A delay in this report means a delay in making decisions about our economic future,” she said. “We’re already seeing people facing potentially very high rates of power bills, we already see very high rates of people living in poverty, we have a minimum wage that’s totally inadequate and yet, this report is going to be delayed … due, in part, because (Furey) called an election. And we know that the budget is supposed to be … being made right now, so wouldn’t it be really useful to have the Premier’s Economic Recovery Team have some input into what the budget is going to look like so that our economy can perhaps be well aligned?”
The delay speaks volumes to what the NDP have been saying all along, Coffin said.
“They’ve been trying to hide this report and it (now) seems like they’ve quite effectively hidden the report,” she said.
Bad news put on hold, says Crosbie
Crosbie added that he believes the report will contain a list of college campuses, schools and hospital facilities to be shut down, and that those cuts will fall particularly heavily on rural Newfoundland and Labrador.
“And by the way, this is not a set of recommendations no matter what anyone says,” he said. “Look at the letter of mandate to the minister of Finance from the premier — he says, ‘implement this report, this is not for discussion.’ And that’s exactly why he doesn’t want it coming out during an election. He doesn’t want any discussion about it.”
Pelley said there seems to be different expectations of what the Greene report would represent.
“That’s all (Furey) has been talking about,” he said. “(Greene) said … she hopes it will generate some discussion about Newfoundland and Labrador’s financial situation. My perception is the Liberal government was waiting for this to come out to be their platform, to be their blueprint for the future, and I’m sure most of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador were thinking the same thing.
“There is definitely a major disconnect between the committee and the people and the premier.”
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.
“When public servants are in the period between the dropping of a writ and the forming of a government, they cannot do very much,” — Dame Moya Greene
Greene 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.”
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 said.
“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. 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.”
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