April 6, 2020: Nalcor responds to travel concerns for the Muskrat Falls Project
The following statement is from Stan Marshall, President and CEO, Nalcor Energy:
During the COVID-19 pandemic Nalcor has put a number of measures in place for the Muskrat Falls Project to ensure people’s health and safety while protecting the community. These include temperature checks before travelling and while at site, pre-screening questionnaires, on-site screening and monitoring, flight and bus travel protocols, and social distancing to name a few measures.
Prior to travelling from St. John’s to Happy Valley-Goose Bay today, all workers had their temperature checked and completed health screening questionnaires as per established protocols. Once in Labrador, workers stay at site for their two-week rotation and do not travel back and forth to town, except for emergency reasons.
Today there was a turnaround of approximately 80 essential workers at the work site including workers from central Labrador.
This morning following their arrival at the airport in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, some members of the Nalcor LCP team went to their homes to gather their safety equipment and personal belongings prior to proceeding to the Muskrat Falls worksite for their two-week rotation. At the beginning of this month these individuals received information that it was okay to travel to pick up their belongings. Since that time, the travel protocol was changed and therefore they were not aware they were not following the current travel protocols for the project.
This should not have happened and I apologize for this mistake.
This afternoon I spoke with Mayor Wally Anderson and Councillor Dyson from the Town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay and together we discussed their concerns and frustrations. I committed to Mayor Anderson and others that Nalcor will share information on any travel arrangements in and out of Happy Valley-Goose Bay for the Muskrat Falls Project, as well as our COVID-19 safety protocols. I assure Mayor Anderson and all our stakeholders that we take their concerns seriously and am committed to working with them during this challenging period.
