IT COST NOVA SCOTIA TAXPAYERS $42,000 for Premier Darrell Dexter to unveil the government’s new blueprint for generating electricity at a news conference last month.
The bill for consultants, a former deputy minister, spin doctors, buses and sandwiches added up to that amount, according to figures The Chronicle Herald obtained from the provincial Energy Department.
Liberal Leader Stephen McNeil told this newspaper that a $42,000 news conference is unconscionable. That’s "more than most Nova Scotians make in the run of a year," he said.
"For the premier to make an announcement using that kind of money is unbelievable. At the same time, he’s telling Nova Scotians to tighten their belts because there’s tough times ahead."
Dexter announced the new energy strategy with much fanfare on April 23 at the province’s largest wind farm, on top of Dalhousie Mountain, about 25 kilometres west of New Glasgow.
The government said it would legislate that 25 per cent of electricity must come from renewable sources by 2015. And Dexter also announced a goal of 40 per cent of electricity coming from wind, tides, biomass and green imports by 2020.
The news conference at RMS Energy’s wind farm, which started producing power from its 30 turbines last year, was considered a perfect backdrop for the NDP government to announce a move away from electricity generated from coal and expensive imported oil.
A big chunk of the cost, about $15,000, involved hiring former journalist Parker Donham to write the text for the glossy 28-page booklet. Donham, now a senior partner in Kempt Head Communications, also attended the news conference and a technical briefing held at Dalhousie Mountain.
Before the premier and other dignitaries, including Energy Minister Bill Estabrooks, unveiled the plan, retired deputy minister Paul Taylor gave reporters a technical briefing at the nearby RMS Energy maintenance facility. Taylor had steered the new policy through different government departments from February to April for a fee of $11,000.
Estabrooks attended the briefing but the new deputy energy minister, Murray Coolican, did not.
Trivium Design of Halifax was hired to create the images, graphs and design of the booklet for $4,000, and 200 copies were printed at a cost of $1,200.
On the day of the news conference, the catering of sandwiches and drinks, along with the rental of audiovisual equipment and buses for transportation to the Pictou County site, cost $6,000.
And while several Energy Department communications officials were on hand, the department hired additional public relations help.
M5, an Atlantic marketing communications firm with an office in Dartmouth, was paid $5,000 for event logistics and organization from April 8 to 23.
Holly Dunn, a senior communications consultant with M5, said she co-ordinated the event and drafted a guest list of 200 people, arranged for catering, organized tents and contacted media outlets ahead of time.
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GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT:
•Paul Taylor: $11,000 for interdepartmental consultation, February-April
•Parker Donham: $15,000 to write booklet, January-April
•Graphic design: $4,000, April
•Printing: $1,200 for 200 copies of booklet, April 20-22
•Event organization: $5,000, April 8-23
•News conference: $6,000 for audiovisual equipment, catering, bus rental, etc., April 23
•Grand total: $42,000
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The Energy Department defends the costly news conference and the trip to the Dalhousie Mountain wind farm as an effective way to illustrate the government’s renewable energy policy.
"It’s more expensive, but at the same time it makes it real," department spokesman Matt Lumley said Thursday. "That’s definitely one of our objectives is to make people realize that this is really happening and that renewables are going to become part of the landscape and this is what they are going to look like."
Lumley said other announcements have been made in the legislature and cost less, but coverage of the Dalhousie Mountain news conference appeared in newspapers and other media outlets across the country.
"We definitely wanted to plant a stake in the ground," he said. "The point of doing that event there was to actualize it."
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