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MHA Jones concerned Labrador needs not
being addressed in new energy plan
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Liberal Opposition Critic for Natural Resources and MHA for the District for Cartwright-L’Anse au Clair, Yvonne Jones, says that the proposed new energy direction for the province appears to have excluded the energy requirements of Labrador and that is less than acceptable. Jones was reacting to the document released by government this week that sets out a broad blueprint for energy development in the province over the long-term. One of the stated policy actions of the document Focusing our Energy is to undertake the building of a transmission line from Labrador to the island portion by the year 2015. "While there are several long-term plans to deal with energy issues on the island portion such as replacing the Holyrood generating station with a cleaner energy source through this transmission link, the document does not outline how Labrador will benefit from this investment," says Jones. "When the consultations for this plan took place, Labradorians made it clear that they wanted to see real benefits such as cheaper and available sources of power. This plan is a disappointment in that there are no such commitments to address this serious consumer, economic and regional development issue." Jones points to a number of large-scale projects in Labrador that would benefit from having a less expensive source of energy. Several of these, she notes, include the military base at Goose Bay which is run by diesel power and the mine at Voisey’s Bay which functions with five diesel generators. "These two already exists, but there are other anticipated projects such as the Uranium project in Postville and the two mineral finds in Labrador West, including Bloom Lake, that will require a major amount of energy to operate. "The only real commitment in this document is to continue to subsidize power to residential customers in Southern and Northern Labrador, an initiative previously committed to by government. The major shortfall of this subsidy is that it did nothing to address the high rates paid by commercial businesses or for those consumers burning over 700- 1000 kilowatts per hour, which is less than it takes to operate a normal household without electric heat. "How can government keep up its shameful rhetoric that it is committed to Labrador when it basically provided no solid commitments or time lines to take on the power needs in our region in this policy document? It’s simply not there and it’s simply not good enough. From a Labrador perspective, this is another resource giveaway!"
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