PUB says not enough time for full Muskrat review

The province's Public Utilities Board says it's not getting the time it needs to properly review the $6.2-billion Muskrat Falls hydroelectric project.

The Tory government has imposed a deadline of March 31 for the PUB report.

Premier Kathy Dunderdale says there will be no extension, to ensure the report can be debated during the spring session of the legislature.

'We've got to do basically now in two weeks what we had allocated two months for.' — PUB chairman Andy Wells

The government has already extended the deadline once. The original due date was Dec. 31.

PUB chairman Andy Wells says Nalcor Energy — the Crown-owned corporation that is leading the hydro mega-project —  is not co-operating with the review.

"It's been a torturous process," Wells said.

He calls Nalcor's response "inexplicable."

The PUB expected "a truckload" of documents from the energy corporation last summer.

Instead, Wells says, it got nothing.

Government decision

Wells stresses it's the government's right to set whatever deadline it wishes.

But he says that will affect he quality of the review.

"We've got to do basically now in two weeks what we had allocated two months for," Wells noted.

Planned public hearings across the province will now be scrapped, with only one event to be held in St. John's.