Tag: Investcan Energy

Garden Hill was once promoted as Newfoundland’s next energy frontier — a project that promised jobs, prosperity, and renewal. Instead, it collapsed into rusting tanks and broken promises, leaving behind a scar rather than a legacy. Today, the Environmental Transparency Committee reframes the site as a symbol of heritage and tourism, invoking ancestors and lighthouses to cover decades of failure with the language of pride. This article traces how overlapping interests in Enegi, Investcan, Town of Cape St. George and FFTNL left their mark, how governance capture ensured no accountability, and how even the fence was only repaired once optics demanded it. Garden Hill is not renewal — it is the carousel turning again, with the same interested parties still guiding the ride. Read More...

This article examines the career of consultant Ali Chaisson as a case study in Newfoundland’s recurring cycle of failed megaprojects and governance gaps. From his early shell companies like Cabestan Holdings to roles in Enegi Oil’s Port au Port #1 project, the Bettencourt-linked Investcan Energy, and later pivots through Orion, OPTIONS, and XMi Systems (now Lexa Intelligence), Chaisson exemplifies how consultants survive while projects collapse. The pattern is sustained by Newfoundland’s “soft budget constraints” — a culture of bailouts and weak local governance that enables consultants to outlast the ventures they front. Rather than producing lasting results, Chaisson’s permanence shows how the system rewards continuity over accountability, turning each new initiative into another spin of the carousel. Read More...

Vanishing Evidence: The 404 Strategy of Selective Activism exposes how inconvenient truths in Newfoundland activism are erased — sometimes through outright deletion, sometimes through strategic silence. Using the Environmental Transparency Committee’s August 2025 post about quarry water use as a case study, the article shows how selective outrage distracts from bigger threats like fracking, despite leaders’ political, bureaucratic, and financial ties to the energy sector. From deleted posts and suppressed petitions to institutional 404s, the piece demonstrates how vanishing evidence shapes consensus, silences dissent, and reinforces hidden loyalties. Read More...