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Video Stories - Dan Seekings - Transcript
Well I remember when I first joined the Board we used to go through these long difficult exercises to satisfy Part VI of the NEB Act. We'd have these hearings and the volumes of reservoir data and engineering data and the staff we'd have to go through all of this stuff and get a lawyer to ask these questions all to satisfy Part VI. There was a recognition that things were changing and so we had to find a way, how did you stay true to Part VI and still recognize market realities.
We went through all kinds of gyrations with the Board, the Board Members and the staff trying to figure it out and in the end the markets solved it all for us by going to short-term contracts instead of long-term contracts that we had before. So, it was a significant change that we struggled along with and then you wondered in the end was it really all worth the effort that we spent into it because the market dealt with it.
Probably one of the more humorous instances I had while working at the Board was we used to have to do these hearings with supply demand, the Supply Demand Hearing, and I can remember on one occasion I was on the staff working on that and I had to fly into St. John's because we were starting off in St.John's, NFLd. I took a later flight, most of the folks had gone on early, went through Halifax. When we landed in Halifax all the people in the plane applauded. And I'm thinking these are pretty happy ex-patriate Newfoundlanders to be back home. I didn't think much of it. I got to the hotel, I check into the hotel and the guy says "Oh! You're the only one here." I said, "What do you mean I'm the only one here?"
"None of the other NEB staff could make it."
"How can that be?" "How can I be the only one?"
It turns out that because of the weather circumstances the others had flown in earlier, the plane couldn't make it, so they were all stuck back in Halifax. So I had to phone Sandra Fraser who was the Legal Counsel at that time and I said "Sandra, I am here. Where are you guys?".
And poor old Mme Thur who was the vice-chair at the time, who was responsible for the particular panel, was quite nervous how she was going to explain to Mr. Edge, who was the Chairman at the time, how one of the staff had made it and she hadn't.
I just want to conclude by saying what a wonderful place the Board has been to work. It's a great team, there always has been, there's a real sense of collegiality and I've got a lot of good friends even at my old age that I made way back then when I started many years ago. So to them and to all the new staff that are now carrying the mantel of the Board, I say Happy Anniversary to you all and best of luck in the future in the many years the Board has ahead.
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