Quite a bit of misunderstanding

Four years ago, in the middle of CNLOPB Crisis 2006, Dear Leader described the importance of the Board’s top job as follows:

Mr. Speaker, we want to make sure that we have a person at the head of the CNLOPB who is going to represent the interests of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador and be a champion of that cause of no more giveaways.

A little later, Craig Jackson reported for the Telegram, on August 16:

The Telegram, meanwhile, asked the premier if he still believes Ruelokke is a friend of the oil companies and isn't best suited for the CNLOPB job.

"The one thing I don't want to do is disparage the character of Mr. Ruelokke," he said. "That's not what this is about. He's a competent individual in his own right, who is good at what he does."

But, Williams said, the CEO and chairman of the CNLOPB is an extremely important position. The organization is the regulator of the offshore oil and gas industry, he said.
It's important the person heading the CNLOPB be someone who believes "we can't give away the resources of this province, that we need to get maximum benefits for the people of this province, that we can't let big oil come in here and just completely strip us of all the benefits," Williams said.

Never mind, of course, that it is not actually the job of the CNLOPB to represent the interests of the province in negotiating benefits with offshore oil and gas companies.

That job, legally and politically, belongs to the provincial government. Or, if you prefer, the Provincial Government. The Provincial Government has jurisdiction over Giveaways and the Prevention of Giveaways.

Which is exactly what Natural Resources Minister Kathy Blunderdale Dunderdale told the House on Wednesday:

MS DUNDERDALE: Mr. Speaker, there seems to be quite a bit of misunderstanding about the role of the C-NLOPB.

Mr. Speaker, the C-NLOPB is the chief regulator here in this Province, and we have had discussion with regard to whether or not certain responsibilities should be stripped away from the C-NLOPB because it has been described as economic benefits, royalties being set, that all of these responsibilities lie with the board. Mr. Speaker, none of those responsibilities lie with the board. None of them. The C-NLOPB is the regulator, and what we see happening in the rest of the world is they are moving their boards to where our board already is. They are separating royalties, economic benefits from the regulation, safety and environment, Mr. Speaker.

And that is enough to make a body’s head spin: Minister Dunderdale has, and has expressed in words, a better, fuller, and more accurate understanding of the regulatory framework around offshore development, than the Great Negotiator, Great Lawyer, and Rhodes Scholar Himself.