RUSSELL RELEASES VIRTUAL TOWN HALL RESULTS

LABRADOR, March 2, 2011 — Labrador M.P. Todd Russell today announced the results of the “virtual town hall” meeting on the proposed Muskrat Falls project, which he conducted by phone throughout his riding last Wednesday night.

“The sheer volume of participation was astounding,” Russell said. “It resulted in a large amount of data which took several days to fully process.”

Over 2100 callers participated in the virtual town hall, either by listening in to some or all of the 90-minute phone-in, going live with their comments and questions, leaving voice messages, or “voting” in touch-tone polling questions.

This means that about 20% of all households in Labrador took part in last Wednesday’s event.

“I thank everyone who took part in this process,” Russell said, “and I regret that the sheer volume of calls meant that not everyone who wanted to could come ‘on the air’ with their comments.”

Russell says that the touch-tone phone survey results are in close agreement with what his earlier mail-in survey revealed about public opinion in Labrador.

The nine touch-tone questions were taken directly from among the twelve asked in the mail-in survey. A total of 530 virtual town hall participants answered one or more of the nine questions asked over the course of the evening.

On the main question, “Do you support or oppose the proposed Muskrat Falls agreement?”,

· 44% of virtual town hall respondents strongly oppose and 16% somewhat oppose;

· 12% strongly support and 18% somewhat support;

· 10% are not sure

These results are almost identical to the results of the preliminary results of the mail-in survey, which were:

· 45% of survey respondents strongly oppose and 13% somewhat oppose;

· 12% strongly support and 20% somewhat support;

· 10% are not sure.

Results of the other eight questions asked during the virtual town hall were also very similar to the feedback from the mail-in survey:

Does the proposed Muskrat Falls development provide enough benefit for the people of Labrador? — 73% NO, 13% yes, 14% unsure. (Mail-in survey: 83% no)

Are you concerned about the environmental impacts of the proposed Muskrat Falls project? — 58% YES, 26% no, 16% unsure. (Mail-in survey: 78% yes)

Are you satisfied with the proposed employment benefits for Labrador residents? — 64% NO, 26% unsure, 10% yes. (Mail-in survey: 66% no)

Do you believe that Labrador will receive a fair share of revenues from Muskrat Falls power sales? — 83% NO, 9% unsure, 8% yes. (Mail-in survey: 86% no)

Should a dedicated Labrador development fund be a condition of a proposed Muskrat Falls project? — 62% YES, 31% unsure, 8% no. (Mail-in survey: 83% yes)

Do you support federal funding for transmission lines to Newfoundland or Nova Scotia? — 49% NO, 29% yes, 21% unsure. (Mail-in survey: 46% no)

Do you feel that Labradorians will be the primary beneficiaries of the proposed Muskrat Falls project? — 88% NO, 8% unsure, 4% yes. (Mail-in survey: 87% no)

Does the proposed agreement respect the Aboriginal rights of Innu, Inuit, and Metis in Labrador? — 61% NO, 31% unsure, 7% yes. (Mail-in survey: 67% no)

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Todd Russell, MP

Labrador

(613) 996-4630