The company reviewed the province’s assets such as the NLC, Marble Mountain and the $ 5 million oil and gas fields. The government says the results of this review will not be made public, citing “a significant amount of commercially sensitive information”. Finance Minister Siobhan Coady says that regardless of the decisions that could be made, Marble Mountain, for example, will remain a growth opportunity for western Newfoundland. However, he stressed the offshore position of the province in the share capital. “Do we get the best value out of it?” he asked, adding “I hope the report goes deeper into this, as an example”. Coady says with this week’s budget, she did not have the opportunity to review the report, and any action taken will likely take some time. He says that while they will do it “as fast as we can”, it must be done right. Independent MHA Paul Lane says he can not support the sale of any provincial assets without disclosing the appropriate information. Lane says he can not support any sale of assets without having all the numbers and data from the Rothschild report. He says that there should be a substantial public contribution and a separate discussion in the House of Assembly for each individual asset. He raised the issue during the debate in the House of Representatives on the future of Stephenville Airport. He says the “just trust me” approach will not fly, citing his own support for the Muskrat Falls project during his tenure on the PC caucus. He told the House that he was not proud of his support for Muskrat Falls and that it was something he should wear for the rest of his life, even though he did so in good faith. “I will not follow this path when it comes to our provincial assets,” he told the Legislature.
