Masdar, a state-owned renewable energy company in the United Arab Emirates, is looking at doing business in Newfoundland and Labrador.

That’s according to Premier Andrew Furey, who was in the country last week on a trip that was part personal, and part government business.

He says representatives from that company will be in Montreal later this month as part of an annual meeting with the Canada-UAE Business Coalition. While in the country, they will be making a “special stop” in this province on the west coast.

Furey says they will be visiting the province because things have moved to the decision-making stage within the company, and they want to see if they should invest here.

According to Furey, Masdar is a company with “hundreds of billions of dollars” to invest worldwide. He says a company with that kind of money looking to come here is something that should be celebrated

Meanwhile, the official opposition is raising questions about the amount of time the Premier has spent travelling during his time in office. PC Leader Tony Wakeham says an ATIPP request has revealed that since he took office in August 2020, the Premier’s office has incurred over $500,000 in travel expenses.

Moreover, Wakeham says the travel budget for the Premier’s Office has increased from $132,000 in 2020-2021 to $279,000 in this year’s budget.

Wakeham says government’s priorities should be different, but Furey defends the travel.

Wakeham says they need to look at when it is best for the Premier to take such trips, but he should be in the province when the House of Assembly is open. Furey counters that it is his job to sell Newfoundland and Labrador to the rest of the world and he makes “no apologies for that.”