A former Newfoundland and Labrador premier says he was alarmed by feedback from Quebec’s hydro utility suggesting Canada’s easternmost province has one once more signed an unfavourable vitality deal.
Former Progressive Conservative premier Danny Williams is urging officers with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to ask Hydro-Québec to pay extra as the 2 public utilities negotiate a ultimate deal on electrical energy charges from Labrador.
He pointed to latest feedback in media stories from a Hydro-Québec official saying the not too long ago introduced draft deal affords outstanding costs at charges the province couldn’t refuse.
In response to critics, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro executives have mentioned repeatedly that Hydro-Québec should promote the brand new deal to the Quebec public — and play up the advantages.
Get breaking Nationwide information
For information impacting Canada and all over the world, join breaking information alerts delivered on to you once they occur.
The settlement in precept replaces a 1969 contract that gave Hydro-Québec energy charges from Labrador which can be far beneath market worth, and it ends that lopsided deal about 16 years earlier than it was set to run out.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro executives have additionally famous that the brand new tentative settlement offers for charges to extend with the vitality market — one thing the 1969 contract didn’t have.
Final week, members of the Progressive Conservative Opposition introduced up the Hydro-Québec feedback throughout a four-day debate within the legislature in regards to the draft vitality deal.
Specifically, they pointed to Montreal’s La Presse, which quoted Hydro-Québec vice-president Dave Rhéaume saying provisions within the new settlement to construct further hydro tasks in Labrador are much like the 1969 deal.
Walter Parsons, a vice-president with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, says Hydro-Québec is saving cash with the brand new settlement, in comparison with the price of vitality from different sources, and that the utility wouldn’t conform to a brand new contract if it didn’t profit Quebec.
He says Canada’s easternmost province additionally stands to reap advantages from the deal, together with a $3.5-billion fee from Hydro-Québec for the precise to co-develop new dams in Labrador, of which Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro would be the majority proprietor.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Source link