ST. JOHN’S – Emails to Newfoundland and Labrador’s outgoing premier show that many in the province will remember him for ending a lopsided energy deal with Quebec.
People sent more than 80 emails to Andrew Furey in the weeks after he announced in December a new draft agreement that would terminate a contract from 1969 that had allowed Hydro‑Québec to buy Labrador energy for dirt cheap.
The emails to Furey, who is leaving office today, were obtained through an access to information request and show a hopeful public deeply engaged in energy issues, in a province still scarred from past missteps.
About half of the messages were effusive and congratulatory — some came from people who said they were alive when the 1969 deal was signed and they were proud to finally see it end.
Others wrote with questions, advice or pleas for Furey to have the draft agreement between the two province’s public hydro utilities reviewed by independent experts.
If the new agreement goes ahead as planned, Hydro‑Québec will pay far more for Labrador’s Churchill Falls energy, and co-develop new projects along the Churchill River with Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 2, 2025.
