John Crosbie endorses Muskrat Falls megaproject

Lt.-Gov. John Crosbie says the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project in central Labrador ought to proceed.

Crosbie, a former federal and provincial cabinet minister, supports the plan to generate power on Labrador's Churchill River and export it through subsea cables to Newfoundland. Similar cables would send as much as 40 per cent of the energy to Nova Scotia and other markets.

In an interview with CBC News, Crosbie said the political reality is that Newfoundland and Labrador does not have many other options for moving the energy.

"It's the only way I can see [in which] we are going to escape from the trap that we're in now with respect to Quebec and the failure of federal governments to exercise their powers under the BNA act to force provinces to accept transmission of hydroelectricity, or electricity generally, across the provinces, just as they have done that for oil and gas," Crosbie said.

The term sheet, or final agreement, for Muskrat Falls has not yet been signed by the Newfoundland and Labrador government, its Crown energy corporation Nalcor and Halifax-based Emera Inc.

Newfoundland and Labrador is not expected to make a decision on Muskrat Falls until after the project is debated in the house of assembly this fall.