After the four-day Special Debate in the House of Assembly on the Churchill Falls DCIA – a deal that will impact Newfoundlanders and Labradorians for 50 years and beyond – NL NDP Leader Jim Dinn (St. John’s Centre) and MHA Sheilagh O’Leary (St. John’s East-Quidi) chose to vote no on the resolution.
The NDP has been clear on the three conditions that had to be met before supporting the DCIA: strengthened independent oversight with the PUB responsible for appointing experts to the panel and increased communication with the public, a debate and vote on the final agreements, and the Innu stating their approval to move forward with the deal.
Dinn says that while these three conditions were not fully met, there was significant discussion with the Premier on how to achieve them. While significant advances on two of the conditions were made, the third condition remains unmet at this time.
“I applaud the Premier for reaching out to discuss the involvement of the PUB in oversight, which will strengthen the information we all receive on this deal. I believe he realizes the public’s need for this independent view to earn trust, and I look forward to that,” said Dinn. “But the Innu have made it extremely clear that without an apology from the Premier for how government has treated the history of the Innu in Labrador, they will not support this deal. The Premier indicated that he recognizes that his government has work to do on this condition, but until we hear that from the Innu themselves, we cannot in good faith support the deal at this time.
“What this special debate has shown us is that government has not done their due diligence in communicating with the public on the intricacies of this deal. I have serious questions about the independence of the experts, which has created more questions and less answers,” said Dinn. “Regardless of the partisan political rhetoric that dominated these four days in the House by the PCs and the Liberals, we stand by our three conditions.”
“We have a duty to the public to stick to our word and use our power in a majority government to hold any governments feet to the fire. We see this as a “not yet” vote – not until we see action on the three points we have raised.”