A proposed offshore oilfield and a hydroelectricity deal with Quebec are two major projects in Newfoundland and Labrador that can increase the competitiveness of Canada's economy, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Monday in St. John's, N.L.
Provinces are eager for their infrastructure and energy projects to be included on Carney's list of what he calls "nation-building projects" that would get accelerated approvals from the federal government — and Newfoundland and Labrador is no exception.
Alongside Carney at Monday's news conference, Premier John Hogan pitched Equinor's Bay du Nord oil project and a proposed energy deal between Hydro-Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro as ideal candidates.
Carney praised both several times as he spoke to reporters in Canada's easternmost capital city.
"I'm so proud of the progress that's been made … between Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec," Carney said.
The prime minister was in St. John's to announce that $80 million of his government's $1-billion tariff relief fund would be earmarked for businesses in Atlantic Canada. The funding will be administered by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, and available to sectors including manufacturing, technology and the seafood industry.
"For example: developing innovative packaging and product formats," the prime minister said. "Think, in food processing and fishery, vacuum-sealed lobster tails or flash-frozen crab clusters tailored for high-demand European markets."
China has hit Canada's seafood industry with punishing tariffs in retaliation for Canada's 100-per-cent levies on Chinese electric vehicles. The U.S., meanwhile, has hit Canada with tariffs on products such as steel and aluminum.
It's in response to the trade war with the U.S. that Carney is hoping to accelerate major infrastructure and energy projects across the country as a way to boost the economy.
Carney also said the federal government is "working through the compensation" for people in Newfoundland who lost their homes to wildfires this summer. A fire in May near Adam's Cove destroyed about a dozen homes, and another one in August burned down nearly 200 structures in the same region.
"We're making huge investments in our satellite detection, which is helping us to move quickly, and our capacity to move quickly in any part of this country in order to limit the damage from the wildfires," he said. "That's everything from those first responders, our firefighters, to our water bomber capacity."
Carney would not say Monday how Canada is planning to adjust its climate change targets, after recent policy announcements dialed back some of the Trudeau government's climate initiatives. "We see becoming low-carbon in any industry as being a key driver of competitiveness," Carney said, adding he'd have more to share in the coming weeks.
He said Equnior's proposed Bay du Nord project, off the east coast of St. John's, is intended to be "one of the lowest-carbon new oilfields, depending on how you develop it."
"So we look at that as a way of being competitive in conventional energy," he said.
The federal government gave Bay du Nord environmental approval in 2022, drawing sharp criticism from environmentalists. Equinor announced in 2023 it was putting the project on hold for up to three years as it looked for ways to make it more affordable.
Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro's pending deal with Hydro-Québec will create clean power and drive competitiveness, Carney said. The two utilities signed a memorandum of understanding in December that would end a 1969 contract that allowed Hydro-Québec to buy the majority of the energy produced by the Churchill Falls power plant in Labrador for rock-bottom prices.
Under the new draft arrangement, Hydro-Québec would pay much more for power: about $33.8 billion over the next 50 years. The two utilities would also partner on new developments along the Churchill River.
The provincial Opposition Progressive Conservatives have said the draft deal needs to be independently reviewed by a third party, and they walked out of the legislature earlier this year before the Liberal government voted to begin negotiations of final agreements.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Daly
