ST. JOHN’S — The Grand chief of the Innu Nation says the Indigenous group will not support a new energy deal with Hydro-Québec unless the Newfoundland and Labrador government changes its stance on Innu history in Labrador.

Jodie Ashini says Premier Tony Wakeham must apologize to the Innu people and acknowledge the harm his government has caused them.

She has said that Wakeham’s government believes a “fringe” theory that suggests the Innu arrived in Labrador about 300 years ago, after the Europeans.

She says Wakeham insulted the Innu people when he announced his government would audit all the research at the provincial archeology office related to Innu history.

Ashini says Innu history spans thousands of years, and it did not begin when the government of Newfoundland and Labrador began documenting it.

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro’s draft deal with Hydro-Québec proposes several new energy developments along the Churchill River, in traditional Innu territory known as Nitassinan.

“This is all our land,” Ashini said in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t know how they expect to collaboratively work with the Innu people when they continuously keep denying our history.”

She said the Innu people are anxious and hurt, adding that she cannot bring the draft energy deal to them until the issue is resolved.

Wakeham said Tuesday his government needs to meet with the Innu leadership to discuss their concerns.

“We have work to do with the Innu Nation,” he said.

When asked how long the Innu have been in Labrador, he said: “I’m not an archeologist or a historian. I’m not going to make any comments on that right now.”

Ashini said the premier has given her the same response. She told him he has had plenty of time to learn, she said.

Wakeham opened the provincial legislature this week for a four-day debate about a framework agreement with Hydro-Québec to share power from the Churchill River, which cuts through central Labrador and empties into Lake Melville, along the region’s southeastern coast.

Hydro-Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro co-own and operate the 5,428-megawatt Churchill Falls generating station, described as the second-largest underground hydroelectric plant in North America.

The framework agreement proposes developments worth billions of dollars in the Churchill River area, including a new power station at Gull Island and a possible wind farm.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2026.

The Canadian Press