More wind than energy

"I was very clear and definitive with the partnership representatives that we are in the process of developing our provincial energy plan and, obviously, the development of wind projects would be a key element of the plan. Therefore, government was not going to make any decision regarding these projects until that process is complete."

That was then-Energy Minister Ed Byrne, a year and a half ago, in a press release, about the Ventus Energy proposal for a $2-billion — with a B, as in Byrne, or Bling — development in Labrador.

"We are not going to give away a wind resource to any individual company without the benefits coming to the people — in this case to Labrador — until we have a plan in place that deals with royalty, fabrication and assembly, and a long-range plan that benefits the people of Newfoundland and Labrador..."

And that was then-Energy Minister and then-MHA Ed Byrne, in May 2006, in the House of Assembly.

So, today's announcement regarding a 27-megawatt wind farm in St. Lawrence — which isn't in Labrador — can only lead a body to wonder.... Where's that energy plan, which was supposedly the prerequisite to any wind energy development? Or was that only a pre-condition in Labrador?

And what are the royalty, fabrication, and assembly benefits, which the former Minister of Energy indicated were also necessary, that the province will derive from the NeWind project on the Burin Peninsula?