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Environment

Muskrat Falls

March 13, 2020

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Indigenous Group: Nunatsiavut Govt, Innu Nation and NunatuKavut Community Council,

Business: Nalcor

Issue: Overexposure to methylmercury in food and resources

Comment: The Avativut, Kanuittailinnivut Scientific Report (produced by Harvard University after four years of research on the topic) concludes that methyl mercury levels could rise by 1500%, cause serious food insecurity and disrupt a way of life that is heavily dependent on the land and the water. Indigenous groups in the area have been fighting in courts and making their concerns known to government and other stakeholders over past years.

Mar. 5, 2020: Muskrat Falls Inquiry – The Executive Summary noted that although the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador (GNL) had publicly professed that a business case for the Project would have to be established, in effect GNL had predetermined that the Project would proceed. In so acting, GNL failed in its duty to ensure that the best interests of the province’s residents were safeguarded. A thousand-page report into the financial and operational issues facing the multi-billion dollar Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project says the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, as well as its Crown corporation Nalcor, “created an environment of mistrust” by failing to allow concerned Indigenous peoples and other citizens to “engage in a meaningful and transparent consultation process.”
The report’s six volumes are available at: http://www.gov.nl.ca/nr/muskrat-falls-a-misguided-project/.

Latest Updates: Mar. 13, 2020: APTN News – Release of the report on the Muskrat Falls Inquiry from the Honourable Justice Richard D. LeBlanc, Commissioner: “Muskrat Falls, A Misguided Project”. Inquiry finds environment of ‘mistrust’ after lack of Indigenous consultations for Muskrat Falls project. The Muskrat Falls project has had a profound impact on ratepayers and the financial situation in Newfoundland and Labrador. The report makes findings and recommendations related to the inquiry’s terms of reference, as announced by government in November 2017.