The Opposition Progressive Conservatives were forced to explain on Wednesday why Hydro-Québec CEO Thierry Vandal was a special guest of then premier Bernard Lord at the province's exclusive fishing lodge in 2005.

Tory MLA Bruce Fitch, who was the Progressive Conservative government's energy minister in 2005, said the weekend of fishing at one of the province's prime salmon-fishing lodges was about "rapport building."

Larry's Gulch guest list Aug. 22-22, 2005

  • Bernard Lord
  • Thierry Vandal
  • Marc-Andre Blanchard
  • Alain Dubuc
  • Daniel Audet
  • Bob Scott
  • Derek Burney
  • Ravi Baichwal
  • Gary Mar
  • Yvon Long
  • Rodney Weston
  • Pierre-Marcel Desjardins
  • Percy Mockler

Fitch was at the Larry's Gulch lodge for part of that weekend back in 2005, but he said there was no discussion of selling all of NB Power to Hydro-Québec.

However, the Lord government had passed a law to allow the sale of the Coleson Cove generating station earlier that year.

"So that's no secret, and that would be, you know, when we say 'discussed,' that knowledge was shared amongst everyone there," Fitch said.

The Tories have been railing against the proposed deal to sell NB Power to Hydro-Québec since the legislative assembly returned in November.

The Progressive Conservatives were put on the defensive when reports surfaced suggesting that they had been ready to sell the power utility when they were the government.

According a guest list, Thierry Vandal, the president and chief executive officer of Hydro-Québec, was joined by Lord, Conservative Senator Percy Mockler, who was a senior cabinet minister, and Saint John Conservative MP Rodney Weston, who was Lord's chief of staff.

As well, Derek Burney, the chairman of NB Power, and one of his officials joined the group.

The New Brunswick government uses the northern fishing lodge on the Restigouche River to entertain out-of-province guests they are hoping to do business with or departments use it to allow civil servants and groups who deal with specific files to share ideas.

Energy Minister Jack Keir said the meeting doesn't surprise him given Lord's Tories restructured the utility with a view to selling it off.

"I don't know what they were talking about up there and I don't want to suggest anything, but one of the obvious buyers, always, is Hydro-Québec, because they're the only ones with deep enough pockets to get the job done," Keir said on Wednesday.