Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Kathy Dunderdale was in Ottawa Monday for a long-awaited meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The premier requested the meeting last spring after public outcry over the search and rescue response to 14-year-old Burton Winters’ death on the sea ice off Labrador in February.
Burton was missing for three days before his body was discovered.
Dunderdale said she intended to call the federal government to task about the military’s lack of response to the crisis, federal cutbacks on marine search and rescue and Harper going back on a 2006 election promise to station a battalion at the Canadian Forces Base in Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
Also on the premier’s agenda was discussion of the federal commitment to back the Muskrat Falls project and changes to the employment insurance program.
The Prime Minister’s Office stated in a release that Harper and Dunderdale discussed a range of issues, including the economy. The release said the prime minister outlined the government’s actions in support of jobs, growth and long-term prosperity through Canada’s Economic Action Plan 2012, including a return to a balanced budget.
The prime minister also reiterated the government's support for the Lower Churchill project, the release states. In media reports the premier said that the province and the federal government will work to finalize the Muskrat Falls loan guarantee as quickly as possible.
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