The province now has an agreement in place with two of three Indigenous groups: the Innu Nation and NunatuKavut Community Council (NCC), but not the Nunatsiavut Government (NG).
The agreement is to take the $30-million originally intended for wetland capping, and use it to improve social and health benefits for communities, with each group receiving $10-million each. However, there are no conditions on what the groups can do with the money.
The Nunatsiavut Government is calling on the Premier to order Nalcor Energy to suspend plans to flood the Muskrat Falls reservoir until mitigation measures are taken to reduce the potential impact of methylmercury on the Lake Melville ecosystem.
Premier Dwight Ball says they will stay at the table and keeping working to reach an agreement with Nunatsiavut Government. If there is a resolution, they want to make sure that they provide benefits to all members.
Two Weeks Before Flooding Scheduled to Begin
Despite calls for consensus, and no agreement with the NG, the reservoir flooding is expected to begin around August 7.
Ball says that all tests have shown there are no risks to human health. He says the reservoir upstream at the Upper Churchill is 60 times larger than Muskrat Falls, and has been there since the ’60s.
He says their evidence, based on what was gathered from 1,300 samples, does not demonstrate any human health risks.
MHA Challenges Comments Made by Environment Minister
The MHA for Torngat Mountains says she is offended by comments from the Minister of Environment in the House yesterday.
Lisa Dempster said if methylmercury contamination did become evident, they may have to tell those downstream of Muskrat Falls that they can’t eat fish seven times a week, but just twice a week.
Lela Evans compares the statement to the infamous quote often attributed to Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France before the French Revolution in the 1700s, that people should “eat cake” when dealing with food shortages.
Evans says she is offended for her people, scared of methylmercury contamination, and scared of government. She accused Dempster of not understanding Indigenous people.
She questioned what people will eat for the other five days a week, with prices akin to $8.49 for a small head of cauliflower, and $7.99 for broccoli. She says people would not be able to afford to feed themselves.
Evans says government is supposed to look after its people, and could have stepped in much earlier. Whether it was intentional or through incompetence, whatever is found out, Evans calls it “scary.”
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