On December 1, 2017, CUSJ President Margaret Rao wrote to the Prime Minister, select ministers of the environment and natural resources, and a few newspapers, to request that the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project be put on hold. There are too many issues that have not been addressed. In particular, the government has not fulfilled its obligation to consult with indigenous peoples.
The letter was published in the Newfoundland paper The Telegram. However, CUSJ has not yet heard back from Justin Trudeau, Catherine McKenna, Minister of the Environment; Jim Carr, Minister of Natural Resources Canada; Hon. Dwight Ball, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador; or Hon. Siobhan Coady, Newfoundland’s Minister of Natural Resources. We hope that this project will be suspended, if not cancelled, as we watch the Site C dam boondoggle proceed against all better judgement, because the government has succumbed to the so-called ‘sunk-cost fallacy‘.