Newfoundland and Labrador’s premier says an agreement with Quebec to develop energy in Labrador is not open for renegotiation.
Tony Wakeham said Wednesday that the Newfoundland and Labrador government had already voted in favour of the non-binding agreement, which he unveiled in August alongside Prime Minister Mark Carney and former Quebec premier Christine Frechette in St. John’s.
“Let me be clear: we will not be renegotiating the deal, and will not entertain an attempt by anyone else wishing to renegotiate the deal,” he said.
He made the remarks as reporters pressed him about whether final agreements would be signed before they were debated in the legislature. But there is also a new Parti Québécois government in Quebec that could ask for changes to the multibillion-dollar agreement.
Wakeham said he has not heard any rumblings about Quebec Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon wanting changes.
“I think what I’m trying to do is just outline our position,” Wakeham told reporters in St. John’s.
The proposal — which the government has called a definitive co-operation and implementation agreement — lays out plans for Hydro-Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to expand the hydroelectric capacity of the Churchill River, which cuts through traditional Innu territory.
Carney has touted the proposal as “the largest clean energy investment in North American history” and his government has promised $10 billion in financing to help it along.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, the grand chief of the Innu Nation in Labrador said Innu were not included in the energy negotiations despite the agreement proposing projects on Innu land.
Jodie Ashini pointed to a social media post by Carney saying he met with Wakeham recently in Ottawa, and a public statement from Wakeham pledging to “keep engaging respectfully with the Innu Nation.”
“How is meeting with the prime minister and discussing our lands and not having us at the table respectful?” she wrote.
“There is no respect from the [Newfoundland and Labrador] government right now to the Innu.”
“Come to Sheshatshiu and speak with us,” she added, referring to an Innu community in central Labrador where the Innu Nation has its main office.
Ashini has accused Wakeham and his government of interfering with a cultural exhibit detailing Innu history in Labrador. She says the government believes Innu arrived about 300 years ago, after the Europeans. The position erases thousands of years of Innu history, she has said.
On Wednesday, Wakeham said he would table all final energy agreements in the legislature and propose a special debate about them. He would not answer directly when reporters asked if thoseagreements would already be signed, but he was clear they would not be open for changes.
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The Parti Quebecois did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
St-Pierre Plamondon and his cabinet were sworn in last week, and Wakeham has not yet met with the new premier in person.
“It’s coming,” Wakeham said. “He wants to come to Newfoundland and Labrador for a meeting. He indicated that to me in our last conversation, and I’m looking forward to that.”
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