ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador have signed a sweeping new deal to build new energy projects and throw out a decades-old contract that has long been a source of strife and bitterness for Canada’s easternmost province.
The agreement in principle ends a contract signed in 1969 that allowed Quebec to buy cheap power from the Churchill Falls hydroelectric plant in Labrador, and it promises hundreds of billions in revenue for both provinces through a new, more equal partnership.
“Today, everything changes for Newfoundland and Labrador,” Premier Andrew Furey said during a speech in St. John’s, N.L., that drew several standing ovations. “Today, after more than 50 years of a lopsided agreement that has been such a contentious point for Newfoundland and Labrador, we finally have a new deal on the table for Churchill Falls with Quebec.”
He picked up a copy of the 1969 agreement and tore it in half, as the audience of politicians and government officials cheered him on.
The Churchill Falls generating station is owned jointly by the two provinces’ Crown-owned energy companies. Under the agreement signed in 1969, Newfoundland and Labrador owned most of the facility, but Quebec pocketed most of its profits, paying just 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity from the plant.
The contract was set to expire in 2041, but Thursday’s memorandum of understanding between the two provinces will end it 17 years early. As of Jan. 1, Quebec will pay an average price of 5.9 cents per kilowatt hour, netting Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro about $1 billion per year until 2041.
Unlike the old deal, there are provisions in the new agreement allowing those rates to increase as the market changes.
The new contract also lays out a partnership between Hydro-Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to upgrade and expand the current Churchill Falls facility and to build a new hydroelectric plant further down the Churchill River at Gull Island, a spot long eyed for development. The new deal is set to run until 2075.
Hydro-Québec will pay Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro $3.5 billion for the right to co-develop the projects in Labrador. It will also manage the construction of the Gull Island development and the Churchill Falls expansion, and absorb any cost overruns, officials said.
The agreement will yield more energy for both provinces, and more money. Furey said his province stands to earn about $200 billion, if all proceeds according to the document. “Two hundred billion new dollars — every time I say that I have to pause,” he said.