Energy Minister Lloyd Parrott says it is not the PC government’s intention to kill the MOU, but they want to ensure that the deal that’s now in the process of being finalized is the best it can be for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

While in opposition, the PCs repeatedly indicated that the MOU must be paused, but with a Quebec election on the horizon, many feel the window of opportunity is closing.

The PCs have promised an independent review. Parrott says there are still questions around the deal and what benefits NL will gain, and government intends to get them.

“They’ve estimated 10 million person hours to build this project…it took 48 million manhours to build Hebron, it took 43 million person hours to build Muskrat Falls, and this project is about three times the size. They didn’t have the right information, and from what we see, this is the information they were providing to Quebec. They talk about an independent review that they had inside by PowerCorp, and others…they weren’t given all the information…they were only allowed to review portions of this. We asked specific questions about what Quebec was gaining form this, but we couldn’t get the answers.”

Energy critic Fred Hutton says it’s been ten months and with the potential change in government in Quebec, the time is right.

He says ten months ago they brought a host of experts into the House of Assembly to answer questions from members. “We brought in the experts from JP Morgan Chase, we brought in Power Advisory, we brought in Stikeman Elliott, we brought in the folks from our group that were negotiating this MOU and looking to proceed with it. We’ve had ten months, and we’ve had several years prior to that; everybody knew that this was on the go, ” says Hutton.

He’s calling on government to reopen the legislature “so that we can ask the pertinent questions, the main one being; ‘what is the stance on the MOU?'”