Premiers Kathy Dunderdale and Darrell Dexter may be telling everyone that the Maritime Link can;t be stopped but the private sector company involved in the project said in June there is no plan on what to do if the Nova Scotia utilities regulatory ultimate turns thumbs down on the Link proposal.
According to the Chronicle Herald, here’s what Dunderdale told reporters on Friday:
If the board refuses to approve the plan, Emera will build the $1.5-billion subsea cable with its own money rather than through Nova Scotia ratepayers, she said. Emera would then sell power from the link to other markets in Atlantic Canada and New England.
Dexter said much the same thing according to the CH:
“I agree,” [he said Friday. “It will go ahead. It would be a terrible thing for us not to be able to take advantage of it.”
In June, Nancy Tower said that the company had no plan on what to do if the Nova Scotia utilities regulator turned down the Maritime Link. Tower heads Emera’s new Newfoundland and Labrador subsidiary. She made these comments before the UARB issued a conditional approval for the project, according to the Chronicle Herald.
Tower said the deal that Nova Scotia Power’s parent company has with Newfoundland and Labrador’s Crown-owned utility does require the companies to try to come up with a new subsea cable plan if this one is rejected.
But Tower said it is too soon to say how a revised link proposal could be funded.
No plan B.
Too soon to say how such a plan might be funded.
That’s exactly the opposite of what the politicians said.
Take your pick who you want to believe. There’s no question, though, that the the team behind the Muskrat Falls proposal and the Maritime Link are at odds over the project’s future.
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