Premier Dwight Ball denies the $10-million offered to each of Labrador’s three Indigenous groups was “hush money.”

The Nunatsiavut Government has balked at the offer in lieu of wetlands capping at Muskrat Falls. Inuit on the coast of Labrador have long expressed fears about the impact of methylmercury on country food on which they rely.

$30-million was set aside for wetlands capping, but the Premier says it was determined that it would have little to no effect on methylmercury mitigation.

He says the money was then offered to Labrador’s Indigenous groups.

He says rather than put the money back into provincial coffers, he asked Nalcor CEO Stan Marshall to negotiate with the region’s three Indigenous groups to provide programs and benefits. If he hadn’t done that, he would have been accused of trying to save money at the expense of Indigenous peoples.