It was deja vu for former premier Roger Grimes who was among the many dignitaries on hand for yesterday’s Churchill Falls announcement.

Grimes was involved in negotiations with Quebec on the development of Gull Island more than two decades ago.

He says yesterday’s announcement was the fourth related to Churchill Falls and Gull Island hydro development since he started his political career in 1989.

First attempt to expand hydro development nearly 30 years ago

Premier Brian Tobin and Quebec’s Lucien Bouchard paid a visit to Churchill Falls in 1998 to announced a framework agreement on expanded development at Churchill Falls.

That was followed by an agreement in principle reached between Grimes and then Quebec premier Bernard Landry on the development of Gull Island in 2002.

And “Andrew Furey’s of course, I attended that one, and now Premier Wakeham, so, you know it’s one of those things that we’ve been trying to get a resolution to for a long, long time, and my only hope is that…at some point this thing actually works because I’m a pro-development person. I see great potential for all of us in the province if we get this done and get it right.”