Lower Churchill hearing going ahead

A member of an environmental assessment panel looking at the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric project says hearings about the plan will go ahead Thursday despite opposition from Labrador Metis.

On Tuesday NunatuKavut, the group formerly known as the Labrador Metis Nation, filed an injunction to stop the hearings from beginning this week.

"We will have to review what this is about and what it all means," said Lucille Jamault, a spokesperson for the environmental assessment panel. "We can also say that the hearing will proceed Thursday night in Goose Bay."

The hearings are expected to last 45 days.

Members of NunatuKavut said the hearings must be stopped because the Newfoundland and Labrador owned energy company, Nalcor, hasn't consulted them about the proposed development.

A member of the environmental group Grand Riverkeeper said its members support the application to stop the hearings.

"If an injunction is what it takes to make people sit up and listen then so be it," saidClarice Blake Rudkowski, of the Grand Riverkeeper group.