Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly

Yeah, so that should be a great weekend of baseball watching, playoff watching, race watching.

All right, what else is going on? Oh, yeah, there was a vote in the House of Assembly last evening, and so the members of the House elected to represent or vote on our behalf.

They did so last evening on the resolution of whether to continue toward finalization the new, still non-binding, Churchill Falls deal.

And in the end, it was the yeas 21 and the nays 18.

And that was important, of course.

They had to be there for the optics, more than anything, of course.

Yeah, and yes, the Premier has confirmed that the final definitive agreements will come back before the House, but asked repeatedly by the opposition leader, John Hogan, if that would be before the deal is signed and finalized, he stayed silent.

So in other words, no, I mean in the absence of an answer.

This is a CBC Podcast.

A special debate in the House of Assembly.

Four long days packed with information and clashes on the province's biggest energy deal to date.

The ruling Progressive Conservatives securing a slim majority vote Thursday night.

And how do we get that certainty? And then, you know, I kind of felt that the government did itself a bit of a disservice this week by putting Jerome Kennedy, for instance, up as a witness in that, you know, people remember Jerome Kennedy's scene and that, I guess, generation of politicians in this province saying, you know, Muskrat Falls will pay for itself, for instance.

In terms like

energy warehouse would come up in the House of Assembly back then, there was so much promise when it came and then the reality that hits later.

Yeah.

To another energy deal in that part of the world, the Churchill Falls expansion, announced to great fanfare last month, as an agreement in principle between leaders of Quebec, Newfoundland, and Labrador, as well as Canada.

But the deal has raised flags for the Innu Nation of Labrador, concerns they shared in a letter to the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly, which met Monday to debate aspects of the agreement.

And according to Deputy Chief Jody Ashanee, they had hoped to hear the province abandon its position that Innu only came to the region 300 years ago.

Such hopes were not realized.

A number of premiers are there.

Our own can't be 'cause clearly he's in the House of Assembly.

But Prime Minister has convened people for a investment forum in Toronto.

A lot of the world's big CEOs and institutional investors and political leaders are going to be there.

All of that on today's show.

But let's start with what began the day.

A former, now former, conservative MHA, uh, Keith Russell, f- uh, the MHA for Lake Melville, apparently without notice, told the House as debate began earlier that he was leaving the PCs and going to sit as an independent.

He had to do it out of conscience.

Submit whatever question you want on the new MOU.

So in advance of the special sitting, of course, of the House of Assembly next week, the Churchill Falls Agreement, the province did launch this portal on the EngageNL website last Friday.

where residents can submit uh... said questions on said project and that portal closes today so it opened on friday closes today your last chance uh... already and with all this debate over the debate uh... with regard to the actual questions last thing here please please please no lengthy grand standing preambles just the question as succinct and legally clean as possible, requiring an equally clear answer of the same quality.

You know, keep it to specifics as much as humanly possible, because time is, whether we like it or not, is limited.

And I know that the member you were talking to yesterday, my friend from Corner Brook, he was distracted by it all, but this is very significant stuff for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

And I think we need to make sure that we get it right, and we've got the data behind to show it, and that'll be my job to make sure that we validate where we put it and why we put it where we did.

And I know you mentioned, take your word for it, that this is not just smoke and mirrors a few days before the House debate.

But when the province breaks some pretty significant and clear promises, it's hard to take the government's word.

I will say this, and we're going to get into it.

I see we've got Gabe Gregory there from 2041 Group, one of many people who are certainly adding their expertise and their experience and their analysis of the so-called MOU2, if you will, to the discussion here in advance of the debate in the House of Assembly.

Four-day debate.

We can talk about whether or not you think that's sufficient.

But you and I may not understand it all, of course, but should it all be, well, yes, it should all be put out there in the public domain and let the public experts and the non-experts at least see and discuss it, its elements.

It needs to be a public discussion, talking about the complexities of it, but there are enough knowledgeable, learned people out there, such as the Gabe Gregory's and the Des Sullivan's and the Greg Roberts of the world.

um who have some insight and some intellect when it comes to this and every viewpoint should be thrown into the mix and discussed and dissected you know and whichever experts made the determination last point after reviewing all of this uh you know the the ones who you know have uh directed the premier give him the best advice and said yup this is now the best we can do uh whichever experts made that determination after viewing it all and uh... decided this is in the province's best interest they of course have to be questioned about their conclusions i'm not talking to figureheads not the heads of not the expert not the panel that was there to provide some oversight i'm talking about the independent expert panel that was put together those people those members should be in front of the house of assembly or wherever uh...

they of course have to be questioned about their conclusions which is what's informing the premier's or government's decision.