If Newfoundland asks for changes to energy deal, so will Quebec, says minister

ST. JOHN’S – Quebec’s energy minister says if Newfoundland and Labrador pushes for changes to a draft energy deal between the two provinces, Quebec will make new requests of its own.

But Christine Fréchette suggested Monday that she didn’t want the agreement to change at all.

“From our point of view, the current agreement offers an interesting balance, and a balance that must be preserved,” she told reporters in St. John’s, N.L., ahead of a meeting about the deal with newly elected Premier Tony Wakeham.

The fate of the deal between the provinces’ hydro utilities has been uncertain since Wakeham’s Progressive Conservatives toppled the Liberals in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Oct. 14 election. The Liberals had shepherded the proposed agreement, which would raise the rate Hydro-Québec pays for electricity from the Churchill Falls plant in Labrador, ending the existing contract 16 years early.

The Liberals have said the proposal, if finalized as planned in April 2026, would bring the province more than $225 billion over the next 50 years. Newfoundland and Labrador has the highest per-capita net debt in the country.

But Wakeham has promised to have the draft deal reviewed by an independent third party and subject final agreements to a public referendum. He gave short responses about his plans Monday, saying only that he would have more information about the promised review “in the next little while.”

“So stay tuned,” he told reporters.

Both Fréchette and Wakeham said they were not worried that a review or referendum would cause delays that would jeopardize the agreement. Fréchette said work was ongoing, and her government is confident final agreements will be in place “as soon as possible.”

The previous Liberal government had said negotiations for binding agreements between Hydro-Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro were underway. However, a spokesperson for Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro suggested Monday that those talks had stopped.

“Some work that is non-binding and relates to secondary issues continues while we await the independent review,” said Jill Pitcher in an email.

Fréchette was in Newfoundland and Labrador’s capital city for an annual meeting of governors from New England and premiers from Eastern Canada. Quebec Premier François Legault did not attend. However, Fréchette said Wakeham and Legault have spoken and they will meet in person at some point.

Fréchette did not say what demands Quebec would put forward if Wakeham’s government wants to modify terms of the agreement.

McGill University professor Daniel Béland said it is unlikely that Quebec would be open to making major changes to the agreement. The Coalition Avenir Québec government is widely unpopular and Legault would likely be “eaten alive” by his opponents if he opened the deal for negotiation, Béland said.

The Parti Québécois are ahead in the polls as Quebec heads toward an election next year. Béland said the PQ is unlikely to budge at all on the deal. In fact, they have criticized the arrangement for giving too much to Newfoundland and Labrador, he said.

Wakeham seems to have promised a review and referendum as a way to get elected, Béland said. Now that he is in power, those promises threaten to sink the deal, which Wakeham likely does not want, he said.

“There are things that you do to get elected, but that sometimes you regret after you’re in power,” Béland said. “It might be good politics, but it’s not necessarily good policy.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 17, 2025.