The provincial government says the agreement reached on replacing the contentious 1969 Churchill Falls contract will bring the province $273 billion in cash over the 50-year life of the contract – well above the $225 billion set out in the MOU reached in 2024.

And, Premier Tony Wakeham says that’s “only the start.” He says with access to more power, NL’s ability to generate revenue will increase.

“When we have more power…we get to choose how we use it…. whether it’s opening up more mines, whether it’s building more industries, this is something that’s built into this contract – the guarantee of more power.”

He says the province now has the ability to sell excess power to Quebec, with the flexibility allowing it to take that power back when needed.

“We have written into the contract that Quebec will buy up to a certain amount of MW from us at an increased price of 150 per cent of what the (Power Purchase Agreement) price is. And the good news is, we can sell it to them, and we can take it back. So, if we want to sell power to Quebec at 150 per cent while we wait for an industry to be developed, we can do that. And when we’re ready to develop our industry, we can turn around and take it back.”