Churchill Falls: Good agreement for NL and Quebec, reaffirms Legault
Posted October 15, 2025 10:15 am.
Premier François Legault is defending the energy agreement in principle with Newfoundland and Labrador, as the province’s new government commits to subjecting it to an independent review.
Voters in Newfoundland and Labrador elected Tony Wakeham’s Progressive Conservative Party to power on Tuesday, ousting the Liberals who had ruled the province for the past ten years.
In recent months, Wakeham has expressed reservations about the tentative agreement between Hydro-Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro regarding energy produced in Labrador.
In his victory speech Tuesday evening, the new premier confirmed that he will have the draft agreement reviewed by independent experts, in accordance with a recommendation from a public inquiry.
The day after Wakeham’s election, Legault took to social media to congratulate him.
In his message, he expressed his “convinced” that the agreement-in-principle on Labrador energy development is “beneficial for both Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec.”
“Rest assured of our full willingness to continue our collaboration with Newfoundland and Labrador,” Legault wrote on X.
Félicitations à Tony Wakeham pour son élection comme nouveau premier ministre de Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador.
— François Legault (@francoislegault) October 15, 2025
Je suis convaincu que l’entente de principe sur le développement énergétique du Labrador est bénéfique tant pour Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador que pour le Québec.
Soyez assuré…
Resentment
Announced with great fanfare in December 2024, the agreement-in-principle stipulates that Hydro-Québec will pay significantly more for the electricity produced by the Churchill Falls generating station, which the Quebec government helped build in the late 1960s.
The agreement is also expected to lead to new hydroelectric projects along the Churchill River, including increasing the capacity of the current generating station, adding a second generating station at Churchill Falls, and building a generating station on Gull Island.
He will also terminate, 16 years earlier than planned, the current Churchill Falls contract, which allows Hydro-Québec to purchase the majority of the electricity produced by the plant at unbeatable prices.
This contract, signed in 1969, has been considered unfair by Newfoundlanders for several decades.
However, Wakeham believes that the information published so far does not allow us to determine whether the new memorandum of understanding is the best possible agreement for Newfoundland and Labrador.
“I will demand a genuine and independent review, the findings of which will be made public,” Wakeham promised Tuesday evening to his supporters.
“I will use this review to modify this agreement or demand a better one. Given the generational stakes, I will not sign any agreement that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador do not approve in a referendum,” he declared.
$225 billion
The agreement with Quebec was signed by the then Liberal Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, Andrew Furey, who resigned last spring.
His successor, John Hogan, defended the interim agreement during the election campaign, estimating that it could inject $225 billion into the province’s coffers over 50 years.
On Tuesday evening, Hogan urged the new Premier, Wakeham, to “stay the course” on the Churchill Falls issue.
“This is the best opportunity to secure the future of our province,” he argued. “So listen to the experts. There is no better deal, but there is a better future for our province.”
Preparatory work and negotiations to reach a final agreement continued during the campaign. The goal is to ratify the draft agreement by April 2026.
Legault has already stated that the agreement with Newfoundland and Labrador is “by far” the one of which he is “most proud.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
