No special debate on Muskrat Falls

Newfoundland and Labrador's government house leader Darin King says there will be no special debate on the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.

And he blames the opposition Liberals for the cancellation.

"Today, unfortunately, the Liberal party have decided that they are not prepared to compromise, they're not prepared to waive and adjust the rules of the house to allow us to move forward with a special debate," said King.

House leaders from each of the parties met this afternoon at Confederation Building to discuss the terms of a Muskrat Falls debate, but they were unable to reach a compromise.

"We wrote to the premier back in June on this, laying out some of the things we wanted to discuss," said Andrew Parsons, the Liberal deputy house leader. "We never got a response. We wrote to them in September."

"They wait until the eleventh hour to start the negotiations on the special debate, which was supposed to have unanimous consent." 

Disagreement over expert witnesses

The Liberals and the NDP wanted to be able to call expert witnesses to answer questions in the legislature, but the governing Progressive Conservatives rejected that idea.

In a letter dated Nov. 2 and obtained by CBC on Monday, King asked NDP Leader Lorraine Michael to reveal the names of any experts who have found evidence contrary to the government's facts on the $7.4-billion development.

"If you have evidence to contradict what Nalcor and others have said, it is incumbent on you, in the interest of public debate, to release that information," wrote King.

"To this point, all arguments against the project have been refuted by experts with their conclusions based on facts and empirical evidence." 

House approval not neccessary

The province does not need house of assembly approval to sanction Muskrat Falls, but the government has said it will find a way to debate the mega-project in the legislature under normal house rules.

The house of assembly will open for the fall session on Nov. 19.