N.L., Quebec to make ‘energy security’ announcement Monday, amid reports of a deal

ST. JOHN’S — The premier of Newfoundland and Labrador says he’ll be making an announcement with his Quebec counterpart Monday amid reports the two Eastern provinces have struck a critical energy deal.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government in a news release says Tony Wakeham will welcome Christine Fréchette for “an energy and economic development announcement” in St. John’s on Monday afternoon.

Quebec’s energy minister, Bernard Drainville, and Hydro-Québec president and CEO Claudine Bouchard will also be there, according a notice sent to media Saturday evening.

The two provincial governments have been negotiating a deal to share energy from the Churchill River in Labrador.

Last week, La Presse reported they had reached an agreement. Radio-Canada reported last week that each province would receive more electricity than what was included in a previous memorandum of understanding.

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.

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’s generating capacity.

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.

Quebec is counting on the deal to secure the megawatts it needs to meet growing demand through 2075. However, Newfoundland and Labrador wanted to renegotiate the December 2024 memorandum of understanding to secure better terms.

While Fréchette suggested last December that Quebec had other plans to secure its power supply in the event that negotiations with Newfoundland and Labrador failed, the two provinces recently appeared closer to an agreement.

At a meeting of the country’s premiers last month, Quebec’s Fréchette said she was confident there would be a new deal “in the coming weeks.”

At the time, Wakeham noted the two sides “were making progress” as talks continued.

Then, amid reports last week a deal had been struck, Wakeham’s office said nobody had signed final agreements.

However, a spokesperson for the premier added the province had recently made significant progress in its negotiations with Quebec and the government of Canada, without giving more details.

Fréchette said the talks had “accelerated” and gave her confidence “that we can sign something in the near future.”

Their predecessors — Andrew Furey of Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec premier François Legault — signed an ambitious memorandum of understanding in December 2024 that appeared on track for a final agreement.

But Furey left politics in the spring of 2025, and Wakeham’s subsequent Progressive Conservative government established a committee that concluded in May that the draft deal was not in Newfoundland and Labrador’s best interests.

The tentative agreement was intended to resolve a long-standing dispute between the provinces by replacing the current 1969-2041 agreement governing the operation of the joint Churchill Falls power plant, which Newfoundland and Labrador considers unfair.

And Hydro-Québec was set to make massive investments to increase production along the Churchill River through partnership projects estimated at over $30 billion.

Currently, Hydro-Québec purchases electricity from the plant at 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour to resell it at a higher price. The draft agreement stipulates that Hydro-Québec would gradually increase the rate until 2075, reaching an effective average price of 5.9 cents per kilowatt hour, 30 times the current price.

The tentative deal 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.

The existing Churchill Falls plant has a capacity of 5,428 megawatts and supplies about 15 per cent of Hydro-Québec’s electricity.

If the agreement goes through, Quebec would have access to 7,200 megawatts to meet its needs, particularly to decarbonize its economy in accordance with international agreements on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Before being defeated in the 2025 election, the Newfoundland and Labrador Liberals claimed that the proposal, if finalized as planned in April 2026, would bring the province more than $225 billion over the next 50 years.

However, the committee appointed by Newfoundland and Labrador’s Progressive Conservative government to review the deal said the Liberals had overstated its value.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 16, 2026.

— With files from Eli Ridder, Sarah Smellie and Patrice Bergeron.

The Canadian Press