{"id":860827,"date":"2026-08-17T02:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T02:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/860827\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T02:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T02:42:10","slug":"nl-and-quebec-premiers-to-make-energy-announcement-on-monday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/860827\/","title":{"rendered":"NL and Quebec premiers to make energy announcement on Monday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Quebec Premier Christine Frechette, left and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham seen in this diptych photo.Darren Calabrese, Paul Daly\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador will make an announcement with his Quebec counterpart Monday amid reports the two provinces have struck a critical energy deal.<\/p>\n

The Newfoundland and Labrador government says Tony Wakeham will welcome Christine Fr\u00e9chette for \u201can energy and economic development announcement\u201d in St. John\u2019s on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Quebec\u2019s energy minister, Bernard Drainville, and Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec president and CEO Claudine Bouchard will also be in attendance, according to a notice sent to the media Saturday evening. As well, Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s office said late Sunday he will be joining the premiers in St. John\u2019s for an energy security announcement. <\/p>\n

Officials have been negotiating a deal for Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro to share energy from the Churchill River in Labrador. <\/p>\n

Last week, Montreal-based newspaper La Presse reported they had reached an agreement.<\/p>\n

The hydro utilities in Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador jointly own the Churchill Falls generating station in Labrador, under a contract signed in 1969 and set to expire in 2041. <\/p>\n

The provinces unveiled a framework agreement in 2024 to end the 1969 deal and establish a new arrangement to share energy and expand the Churchill River\u2019s generating capacity. <\/p>\n

But when Wakeham was elected last fall, he subjected the draft deal to an independent review and sent a negotiating team back to the bargaining table.<\/p>\n

Quebec is counting on the deal to secure the megawatts it needs to meet growing electricity demand through 2075. At a meeting of the country\u2019s premiers last month, Quebec\u2019s Fr\u00e9chette said she was confident there would be a new deal \u201cin the coming weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n

At the time, Wakeham noted the two sides \u201cwere making progress\u201d as talks continued.<\/p>\n

Then, amid reports last week a deal had been struck, Wakeham\u2019s office said nobody had signed final agreements. <\/p>\n

However, a spokesperson for the premier\u2019s office said the province recently made significant progress in its negotiations with Quebec and the government of Canada, without giving more details. <\/p>\n

And Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec was set to make massive investments to increase production along the Churchill River through partnership projects estimated at over $30 billion.<\/p>\n

Currently, Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec purchases electricity from the Churchill Falls plant at 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour to resell it at a higher price. The draft agreement signed in 2024 stipulated that Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec would gradually increase the rate until 2075, reaching an effective average price of 5.9 cents per kilowatt hour \u2013 30 times the current price. <\/p>\n

The tentative deal also proposed a 550-megawatt upgrade to the Churchill Falls facility and a second 1,100-megawatt power house near the existing plant. It also proposed a new 2,250-megawatt power plant downstream at Gull Island.<\/p>\n

The existing Churchill Falls plant has a capacity of 5,428 megawatts and supplies about 15 per cent of Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s electricity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Quebec Premier Christine Frechette, left and Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham seen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,66,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-860827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-science","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}