Finance Minister Missed Crucial Asset Valuation Report

Newfoundland and Labrador‘s finance minister admits he has yet to read an analysis valuing the provincial government’s assets. When Craig Pardy was on the opposition benches, however, his party and its leader demanded that the Rothschild report be made public as soon as possible.

In 2022, the Prime Minister Tony Wakehamthen Progressive Conservative finance critic, asked the Liberals to do the right thing and make the Rothschild report public to the people of the province.

On several occasions, he supported the Minister of Finance at the time, Siobhan Coadyfailed in its obligation to be accountable to the public.

In office since October, the current Minister of Finance, Craig Pardyindicated Thursday that he had not gotten his hands on the report. He refused to say whether the document, commissioned at a cost of $5 million in 2021, would be published by the new government.

We will have to ask the Prime Minister the question. I haven’t seen the report, if it is indeed a report. It might be a series of slideshows, I’m not sureaffirms Craig Pardy, which is currently preparing its first budget.

The document, drawn up by the multinational Rothschild, was intended to allow the country’s most indebted government to make more informed decisions about its finances. All of the province’s assets were assessed, including the government’s actions in three oil projects, the Newfoundland and Labrador Liquor Corporation and the ski resort Marble Mountain.

The former Liberal government did not want to publish the report to protect the commercially sensitive information contained therein.

We want to avoid unintended negative consequencesargued Siobhan Coady in April 2022.

Craig Pardywho participated in the opening of a new branch of the Société des alcools on Thursday in Saint-Jean, rules out the possibility of selling the entity, which paid a dividend of $215 million to the provincial Treasury in 2024-2025.

The Prime Minister’s Office has not responded to our questions at the time of writing.

On Tuesday, CBC reported that Newfoundland and Labrador’s new justice minister, whose party had campaigned for years for the immediate establishment of an independent commission to oversee the provincial police, had changed her mind.

Helen Conway Ottenheimer believes these days that more consultation is necessary before making a decision.