Story

Our Power, Their Pain: An Interview With Journalist Matt Hongoltz-Hetling

Rigolet, a town of about 350 people, is the southern most Inuit town in Labrador and sits about 90 miles from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. Image by Michael Seamans. Canada, 2019.

Rigolet, a town of about 350 people, is the southern most Inuit town in Labrador and sits about 90 miles from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. Image by Michael Seamans. Canada, 2019.

The public debate over Central Maine Power’s controversial power line project that would bring electricity from hydrodams in Quebec down to Massachusetts has mostly been focused on economics and on the potential environmental impact on Maine’s western forests.

But critics also point to the impacts that Canadian hydro-power is having on Inuit communities hundreds of miles to the north in Labrador. Journalist Matt Hongoltz-Hetling has chronicled those impacts in a two-part series for Maine Public.org. He spoke with Maine Public’s Nora Flaherty from Vermont Public Radio's studios to discuss what he learned on a recent trip to Labrador.