A Newfoundland mayor says he and three council members did nothing wrong when they flew home from Germany aboard a private jet owned by a billionaire vying to build a major energy project in their town.
Tom Rose, mayor of the western Newfoundland town of Stephenville, says the flight offered by John Risley in September saved the town of around 7,000 people approximately $5,000. The story was first reported by CBC.
He said in an interview that with large, wealthy companies, meeting on a golf course or a private jet is “the way business is done.”
Risley is a director of World Energy GH2, a company awaiting provincial government approval for a US$12-billion wind and hydrogen project in the Stephenville region.
Rose says he and his fellow council members went to a wind energy conference in Hamburg, where they signed a memorandum of understanding with GH2 officials to “engage in development” on the project.
He says they accepted Risley’s offer to fly them from Hamburg to Halifax because it presented a good opportunity to speak privately with the project’s leader.