Liberal MPs and Liberal MHAs talk all the time, according to Premier Dwight Ball and MP Seamus O’Regan, including about Muskrat Falls.
- any formal talks between the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the federal government, about getting assistance with covering the $12.7-billion hydro project’s final costs, would come only after the “gap” — what ratepayers can manage, and what they can’t — is more clearly identified, Ball said Monday.
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That’s part of the work of the province’s Public Utilities Board (PUB), under a special review ordered last week by the provincial government.
“Let’s not forget, that regardless of what others might say, this was not a project that was contingent on the federal government’s commitment. No one in this province back in 2012 was saying that this project would not go forward without federal government involvement,” Ball said when asked about federal help, following an unrelated infrastructure announcement in St. John’s.
Standing alongside MP Seamus O’Regan, the premier noted the past federal involvement with the project through the loan guarantees, as examples, but did not commit that the federal government would be part of the solution for Muskrat Falls project costs.