After decades of friction, Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have reached a new tentative deal over the long-standing issue of energy.
Quebec Premier François Legault met with his Newfoundland and Labrador counterpart Andrew Furey in St. John’s on Thursday in what could be the end to the dispute over the Churchill Falls hydroelectricity plant in Labrador.
“Today everything changes for Newfoundland and Labrador,” Furey said. “Today after more than 50 years of a lopsided agreement that has been such a contentious point for Newfoundland and Labrador, we finally have a new deal on the table for Churchill Falls with Quebec.
“We are ripping up the 1969 contract. Not in 2041 when it expires, but today.”
The provinces announced a new arrangement that will see Quebec pay 30 times more for power from the plant. Officials in Newfoundland and Labrador say that increase will net the province $1 billion a year until 2041.
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Hydro-Québec described the preliminary …