Muskrat Falls too far gone to stop now, says Siobhan Coady

Natural Resources Minister Siobhan Coady has rejected a call by former premier Roger Grimes to shelve the Muskrat Falls hydroelectricproject.

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Coady said Thursday theproject is too far along for that, and a review underway for the Liberal government will instead focus on other things like reducing costs.

"It is not been our intent to do what Mr. Grimes is saying, because it doesn't make sense at this point to do so,"Coady said.

Grimes told CBCWednesday that investing in Muskrat Falls is one of the reasons why the province's credit rating was downgraded.He called it "a disaster in the making."

However, Coadysaid the province needs the power,and the project is 50 to60 per cent complete.

"There's been a lot of money already invested," she said. "And we have made contractual investments, for example, not only with our companies that are building Muskrat Falls but also with our neighbour, Nova Scotia."

Coady said government is instead looking at better management and oversight of the project, as well asminimizing risk.