Protests the latest hurdle at Muskrat site

Hundreds of workers aband on e d Ne wf o u n d l a n d ’s troubled Muskrat Fa ll s hydroelectric site Sunday, as protests against the costly, controversial project stretched into a second week.

Demonstrators breached the main entrance to the work site, near Happy Valley-Goose Bay, on Saturday. About 50 of them remained 24 hours later, blocking the entrance to the site, according to Nalcor Energy, the Crown corporation behind the multi-billion project.

The protests are the latest in a seemingly endless series of troubles for the Muskrat Falls development. The project was already set to be the most expensive publicly funded venture in Newfoundland and Labrador’s history before construction delays and a “major dispute” with Italian contractor Astaldi Canada helped push its estimated cost from $7.7 billion to a whopping $11.4 billion earlier this year.

First power from the development was originally expected to be online next year. Now it isn’t scheduled until 2019. And even that timeline could be in doubt as protests against the development continue to grow.

Demonstrators have been restricting access to the construction site for more than a week. They’ve drawn support from across the province and country in recent days over concerns about methylmercury contamination. Nalcor has so far refused to fully clear the land that will be flooded to create a 41-square-kilometre reservoir.

The project is upstream from 2,000 Inuit and other residents in the Lake Melville region who rely on fish and seal meat.

Nalcor says methylmercury — a neurotoxin linked to intellectual issues in children, heart problems and other issues — will likely increase between 2.3 and 4.8 times in the lower Churchill River before falling back to baseline levels over the next 15 years.

The protests escalated Saturday night when demonstrators broke into the site and formed a blockade around it. They remained through the night and into Sunday, when about 700 workers were pulled from the site for safety reasons, Nalcor said in a statement.

Police remained on the scene Sunday, monitoring the situation. RCMP have, however, re-opened the main highway leading into Muskrat Falls, which was closed Saturday due to safety concerns related to the protests.