Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador are preparing to put an end to the historic dispute that has divided them for 55 years over the Churchill Falls hydroelectric power station.
Prime Minister François Legault and his counterpart Andrew Furey will sign a new agreement on Thursday on the sale to Quebec of the production of the powerful Newfoundland and Labrador energy complex.
François Legault confirmed that he was flying to the neighboring province on Wednesday afternoon.
Repeatedly contested in court by the Newfoundland government, the energy agreement concluded in 1969 allows Quebec to purchase approximately 90% of the electricity produced in Churchill Falls for 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour until 2041. the energy that Hydro-Québec resold for around 10.3 cents per kilowatt hour, according to Hydro-Québec’s latest annual report on average price of electricity sales outside Quebec.
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On May 22, 1969, the leaders of Hydro-Québec and the Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation signed the contract for the Churchill Falls hydroelectric project in Labrador. (Archive photo)
Photo : Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation
Approximately 15% of the electricity available each year in Quebec, or 31 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy, comes from Churchill Falls, to the great dismay of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians, who were literally prisoners of this agreement.
In 2019, it was estimated that the Churchill Falls agreement had brought in $28 billion for Quebec compared to $2 billion for Newfoundlanders.
Newfoundland contested this contract all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2018 that there was no reason to reopen the agreement.
However, in February 2023, the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, proposed to Newfoundlanders to review the terms of this agreement by declaring that they understood their frustration
and their anger
saying he was ready to reopen the agreement before its expiry, in 2041.
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Less than two years later, the governments reached an agreement, the terms of which will be known on Thursday, when the document is signed.
The renegotiation of this agreement is important as much for Mr. Furey – who wants to obtain significantly more for Churchill Falls electricity – as for François Legault, who must increase Quebec’s electricity production by 50% to achieve his carbon neutrality objective. by 2050.
The Legault government is thus securing its supply of hydroelectricity from Churchill Falls in a context where the need for green electricity is literally set to explode in the coming years.
With information from The Canadian Press
