Newfoundland and Labrador’s premier kept his cards close to his chest when speaking to reporters Friday about ongoing energy negotiations with Quebec.
Tony Wakeham said negotiators are making progress but it’s still “to be determined” if they will reach final agreements.
This despite Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette saying earlier this week she was confident a final deal would be struck in the coming weeks.
The two leaders met during this week’s gathering of the Council of the Federation, a forum of provincial premiers, which was held in Charlottetown.
Wakeham told reporters at the St. John’s International Airport that he was not disputing Fréchette’s claim, he was saying there was still work to be done.
The provinces are renegotiating a draft deal first unveiled in December 2024 to expand the hydroelectric capacity of the Churchill River in Labrador. Wakeham is looking for more power and more opportunity to transmit power from Labrador for sale in export markets.
“I will tell you one thing we didn’t discuss was the border, because Labrador is part of Newfoundland and Labrador (and) always has been, always will be,” Wakeham said, referring to the long-standing boundary dispute between the provinces.
His comments come after Pascal Paradis, the energy critic for the Parti Québécois, told the National Post his party would be willing to hammer out an energy deal with Wakeham, as long as it included compensation for a 1927 ruling by the British Privy Council granting a part of Labrador to Newfoundland, which had not yet joined Canadian Confederation.
