Good morning from the legislature, where NB Power CEO Gaetan Thomas & other utility officials will take questions from MLAs on the Crown corporations committee. 
Liberal MLA Brian Kenny is up first and asks zero questions about this story. cbc.ca/news/canada/ne… Kenny was part of the Liberal cabinet that approved $6.7M from Regional Development Corporation.
PC MLA Bruce Northrup asks Thomas to tell him the whole Joi saga. CEO says federal climate plan, including carbon tax & coal phaseout, forced NB Power to look for alternative fuels to run Belledune plant.
Joi “actually contacted us. They knew Canada was committed to carbon reduction. ... With any start-up, there are risks involved.”
“We never told the shareholder [government] it was a shoe-in. ... The potential was probably 50-50 at the time. ... What we’re probably guilty of is setting too much expectation” on timeline.
NB Power not adding any “major” investment at this time, Thomas says. Also disputes former employee who says in our story that process is only 20 percent efficient. “I can assure you the numbers we have are higher than the numbers thay were quoted.” But gives no figure.
Now Thomas says the 20 percent was accurate—“yes, there was one test that showed that”—but system wasn’t “optimized.” Issue remains to scale it up to commercial level.
NB Power VP corrects my spelling: “shoo-in,” not “shoe in.”
Joi first approached NB Power board member Norm Betts in 2015, Barrett says. “He knew somebody who knew somebody.” Officials “saw potential,” Thomas says. “I had to go to cabinet to get this approved by the shareholder.”
Thomas says federal government “talked about possibly contributing” to the project. In July, we reported another possible source of funding had not come through. cbc.ca/news/canada/ne…
Alliance leader Kris Austin is now asking for the names of the major global companies supposedly interested in Joi. Thomas and Barrett say they can’t identify them because might harm those companies’ competitiveness.
Thomas says RDC put in its $6.7M and Ottawa was supposed to put in other half, but “it didn’t materialize. They did not match the province’s commitment.”
At that point NB Power decided to put its own R&D money to cover the second half. “We had to make our commitment to walk away.”
Austin, mixing his metaphors to good effect, says calling the chances of success 50-50 was “a stretch” and a case of “Hail Mary roulette.”
Correction to the quote: “make our commitment or walk away.”
Second round of questioning, and Liberal MLA Brian Kenny steers the conversation away from Joi Scientific again.
Thomas: we have briefed Minister Holland, though not on the details being dicussed today; we are prepared to “go into as much detail” as he wants.
Thomas: still talking to “major players” about being part of Joi initiative; we may know by end of year whether to go ahead or walk away. Will know by end of fiscal year at the latest.
Testy exchange with David Coon. He asks Thomas what part of Electricity Act allows NB Power to make “high-risk investment in speculative technology.” Thomas: “Where does it say we can’t be innovative?”
Thomas: given emissions-reduction goal, “I actually thought the Green Party would be in support of this.” Coon: “you’ve bought a pig in a poke. ... You’ve been had.” Barrett responds: we’re not naive; Coon comments “insulting.”
In wake that exchange, Coon moved on to other non-Joi issues, as did Alliance MLA Rick Desaulniers. Liberal Brian Kenny still staying away from Joi. We’ll see soon if PCs drop subject as well.
Green MLA Megan Mitton introduces a motion to have committee "urge" NB Power to release to the committee any Joi Scientific technology audits.
Second motion from Mitton: to call Regional Development Corporation to appear before the end of the year.
Motions pass, though one on RDC now says “as soon as possible,” not end-of-year. Thomas tells reporters he’ll comply with request for technology audit if he can legally do so; contract requires confidentiality.
Correct. Committee can “request” or “urge” but cannot subpoena.
