(OTTAWA) July 22, 2016 - The Green Party of Canada is urging Prime Minister Trudeau and Cabinet to reject taking on $4 billion in new debt to pay for the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam project in Labrador.
“Despite false claims, new mega-hydro projects like Muskrat Falls and B.C.’s Site C are not clean and renewable energy,” said Elizabeth May, Leader of the Green Party of Canada (MP, Saanich-Gulf Islands).
“The Green Party warned in 2012 that Muskrat Falls was a bad investment when the previous administration committed $6.3 billion in taxpayer dollars to this boondoggle,” Ms. May said. “Now we learn the price tag has gone up by $4 billion, and that even the CEO of Nalcor Energy, the provincial Crown corporation behind the project, admits the dam should never have been built.
“Instead, investments should be made in renewable energy that can be brought online more quickly, more cleanly and at less cost than environmentally devastating mega-hydro dams,” Ms. May said.
“The Green Party continues to push for an upgrade to the east-west energy grid to get clean energy from Quebec to the Maritimes much more cheaply while investing in solar, wind, geothermal and tidal energy projects. These projects, like harnessing tidal energy in Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy, would create local, sustainable jobs.
“The painful lessons learned from Muskrat Falls should serve as a warning for proponents of the Site C dam, about which the Trudeau Cabinet still needs to decide if it will honour Treaty 8 treaty rights, and accept the advice from the federal-provincial environmental assessment. If it does, then no federal permits can be issued for Site C.
“I urge Prime Minister Trudeau to fulfill his campaign commitments to invest in clean and renewable energy from coast to coast to coast, rather than waste another $4 billion to produce energy no one wants to buy,” Ms. May said.
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For additional information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Dan Palmer
Press Secretary | Attaché de presse
dan.palmer@greenparty.ca
m: (613) 614-4916