Premier Tony Wakeham says his promised referendum won’t be held on the MOU, but rather when a final deal is reached.

An independent review of the current MOU is underway, and is expected to take until the end of April to complete.

Wakeham says the review will look at the terms of the MOU and if it is the best possible deal, and if not, what other options there may be.

Once that process is finished, Wakeham says they will have direction on where to go in terms of signing a deal with Quebec, or looking elsewhere, and then they can move on towards finalizing any deal. “Then, and only then, once we get to the stage where we’re ready to sign a deal that will impact the lives of Newfoundlanders for generations to come, that’s when we’ll talk about having a referendum.”