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MONEY FOR NOTHING

Re “Quebec owes Newfoundland nothing for the Churchill Falls power contract” (Report on Business, March 21): As a person born in Newfoundland, it’s not surprising for me to read a Quebecker’s pronouncement that Quebec owes Newfoundland nothing.

His argument centres on Quebec’s risks. There were many moving parts influencing the deal, including antics around its extension (tons of literature on it). Regardless, the undisputed end result is a woefully lopsided deal in favour of Quebec that was upheld by the Supreme Court.

I suggest that if Churchill Falls were in Quebec and Newfoundland was reaping lopsided profit, then it would be a national crisis. The parties can no more approach the Churchill Falls negotiations from a “clean sheet” than Canada can on Indigenous issues.

As a negotiator by trade, my view is that one needs empathy to be successful (there’s plenty of literature on that, too).

Ward Jones Richmond Hill, Ont.

Churchill Falls had only one route and one buyer. One would expect any contract to reflect such, but the terms forced on Newfoundland were extreme.

Hydro-Québec paid 0.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, a fraction of the market, and sold the product to U.S. buyers at a multiple many times over. I believe it was pure and simple greed, extracted at the cost of one of Canada’s poorer provinces.

And it amounted to billions of dollars: Newfoundland’s share was a tiny fraction.

Frank Potter Toronto

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2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-24T07:00:00.0000000Z

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