Takes volatility to know volatility

Let's work with Quebec, Preeeciousssssssss!

January 20, 2006: Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is set to forge ahead with plans to move electricity from a potential Lower Churchill development across Quebec, Premier Danny Williams said Friday.

Crown-owned Hydro, which is taking the lead on the province's behalf on developing power on the lower Churchill River, will be submitting an application to Hydro-Québec TransÉnergie, the transmission division of Hydro-Québec.

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Hydro will be applying through Hydro-Québec's open access transmission tariff, for the possible sale of power to markets including Ontario, Quebec, the maritime provinces and the northeastern U.S.


May 8, 2006: Hydro continues to assess all market access options including monitoring the progress of its application to Hydro-Quebec TransEnergie that will allow power from the Lower Churchill Project to be transmitted from the Labrador/Quebec border to markets in Quebec, Ontario, U. S. northeast and the Maritimes.

No, no, we hates Quebec. Yes, Preeeecioussss, we hates them.

September 28, 2006: "The more we can spread out our energy supply means that we won't be totally dependent on Quebec for energy — which, given the volatility of politics in Quebec, could be a very, very sensitive situation in years to come," Williams warned.

But the Quebecerses is so kind to Smeagol. Quebecerses never hurt Smeagol.

October 19, 2006: "If I have offended anyone in Quebec, I'm sorry for offending them, and I can state that quite honestly, quite sincerely, to the people of Quebec," Williams said.

Precious Hates Them! HATESSSS! THEM!

May 3, 2007: In the late 60’s, we also lost most of the return on our Upper Churchill hydro-power resource to Québec, which received an outrageously-lopsided contract for 70 years to buy and sell our power after the federal government refused to allow Newfoundland and Labrador to transmit our power through Quebec.

Our loss is estimated at 1.3 billion dollars minimum every year – a billion dollars from our resource that goes directly into Quebec’s revenues. Our return is approximately 75 million dollars annually.

And yet this year once again, we see Quebec receive massive benefits from equalization changes while Newfoundland and Labrador is made to beg for what was promised.

At the time of the Upper Churchill contract, the Prime Minister of the day told our Premier that the price of doing otherwise could have been civil unrest in Quebec. Sounds extreme. But the reality is that we made the sacrifice for the sake of national unity.

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Our challenge is to get cooperation from Quebec and let me tell you they do not make it easy. But we are extremely pleased by the approach of Ontario’s government and particularly the support of Minister Dwight Duncan who has said that this project is an exciting one for your province.

The Ontario government is also a staunch supporter of an east-west power grid, which is fundamental to effectively meeting the future energy needs across this great country.
Unfortunately, Quebec is fundamentally opposed to such a concept with federal government involvement. I cannot understand how opposing such a wonderful national initiative can be considered good for the country – especially in these days of climate change and environmental urgency.

Without Quebec’s cooperation, the alternative for our province will be that we send our power south to New Brunswick and the U.S. They are equally as hungry this is a very feasible and real option that we are actively pursuing right now due to stumbling blocks in Quebec.