Hydro Quebec has "robbed" Labrador for years: Davis

ST. JOHN’S, N.L.—The leader of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Opposition Progressive Conservatives says a proposal that Labrador should be given to Quebec in exchange for 1,000 megawatts of energy is laughable.

Paul Davis is reacting to an opinion piece that appeared in Montreal newspaper La Presse on Sept. 17 in which the idea was floated by F. Pierre Gingras, a retired Hydro Quebec executive.

In the piece Gingras suggests that the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project, which is now more than $4 billion over its estimated construction cost, is too ambitious for a small province like Newfoundland and Labrador.

Gingras says the offer would be fair because it would correct a 1927 British Privy Council ruling that gave Labrador to Newfoundland and also allow for the development of several rivers in disputed boundary areas between the two provinces.

Davis says the suggestion gives insight into how Hydro Quebec has "robbed" his province for so many years.

Hydro power has been a contentious issue between the two provinces since the 1969 Churchill Falls agreement, which ended up being lopsided in favour of Quebec.