The NDP is accusing the government of “bribing” Newfoundlanders and Labradorians by offering a 15 per cent electricity rebate – contingent on the Churchill Falls Agreement going through.

Party leader Jim Dinn likened the concept to the ‘carrot and the stick,’ saying government should have agreed to cutting the HST when asked to do so earlier this year.

“We’ve got a government that has a lot of skin in the game, to the point where you’ve got the minister of finance bribing people, basically saying, ‘Hey, you will get your 15% power rebate if this deal is passed,'” says Dinn.

“We put forward a motion in the House of Assembly, a PMR (Private Members Resolution), to remove the HST off all forms of home heating. Both the Liberals and the PCs voted it down. How does a party that a few months ago was saying, ‘No, this is not the right measure,’ now all of a sudden say this is the right approach?”