The Chair of the team that will negotiate the final definitive agreement based on the MOU reached between Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador on the Upper Churchill, as well as future hydro development in Labrador, believes one year is enough time to complete their work.
Karl Smith was on the negotiating committee that developed the MOU reached late last year.
He says their next step is to negotiate the definitive agreement, something he compares to “putting meat on the bones” of the MOU.
“And the next stage is to put all that into a legal form, and there will be a number, perhaps more than a dozen definitive agreements,” says Smith. “We have three new projects, we have the change in the existing contract, there’s shareholders agreements, there’s agreements with respect as to how the water will be managed, ect. So, a lot of work.”
Smith says despite the volume of work ahead, he believes it can be completed in the next year or so.
“We have two very motivated parties that want to get this finished,” says Smith. “There will be matters of interpretation that have to be ironed out, and there are a lot of agreements, but there’s going to be a lot of people thrown at this on both sides, and I think we should be able to get through it in a year.”