Will Newfoundland energy deal be finalized? ‘Good question,’ says Hydro-Québec chief

Hydro-Québec CEO Claudine Bouchard speaks to the media following a luncheon speech in Montreal on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi

MONTREAL — Hydro-Québec’s chief executive says she is confident a draft energy deal with Newfoundland and Labrador will be finalized, despite political moves in the eastern province that leave the agreement on shaky ground.

However, when reporters first asked Claudine Bouchard on Wednesday if she was confident the deal would proceed, she chuckled and said it was a “good question.”

“My personal view on that is I’m really confident because it’s a very good deal for them, and it’s a very good deal for us,” she said at an event organized by the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal.

“This is a commercial agreement that we made, not a political agreement,” she added. “We have … key elements in that deal to make sure our partners in Newfoundland see that deal as we do: as a very win-win situation.”

The fate of the tentative agreement between the provinces’ hydro utilities has been up in the air since Tony Wakeham’s Progressive Conservatives toppled the Liberals in Newfoundland and Labrador’s Oct. 14 election.

The Liberals had shepherded the proposed agreement, which would raise the rock-bottom rates Hydro-Québec pays for electricity from the Churchill Falls plant in Labrador, ending the existing contract 16 years early.

The utilities had hoped to hammer out final agreements by April 2026.

But Wakeham has promised to have the draft deal reviewed by an independent third party and subject any final agreements to a public referendum, pointing to lessons from the province’s past hydroelectric failures. He has not said when the review will begin.

Bouchard said she would leave the politics to the politicians.

“But for the moment, we still have an agreement in principle,” she said. “We’re trying to implement in a final agreement because we are convinced — we are absolutely convinced — that this was a win-win agreement for both provinces.”

Newfoundland and Labrador’s Liberals have said the proposal, if finalized, would bring the province more than $225 billion over the next 50 years. Wakeham has said he believes a better deal is possible.

A spokesperson for Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro said Monday that it is still in talks with Hydro-Québec about non-binding and secondary issues as the utilities wait for the independent review.

With files from Morgan Lowrie in Montreal

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2025

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press