Natural Resources Minister Jerome Kennedy is not worried that Muskrat Falls could face the same spiralling costs that afflicted a recent hydro project in Manitoba.

“I feel confident that, based on the engineering work that Nalcor has done at the dam and on the transmission line that we will not see numbers like that in this province,” Kennedy said during an interview for this week’s episode of On Point with David Cochrane.

Nalcor, Newfoundland and Labrador's Crown energy corporation, plans to tap Muskrat Falls on Labrador's Churchill River for hydroelectric power. (CBC )

Earlier this week, Ontario-based energy analyst Tom Adams told CBC News there are many similarities between Muskrat Falls and the Wuskwatim hydro project in Manitoba.

According to Adams, Wuskwatim was initially supposed to cost around $900 million.

But costs turned out to be 85 per cent higher than expected. The facility came online earlier this summer.

Manitoba Hydro was one of the two partners in the over-budget Wuskwatim project. Its wholly-owned subsidiary, Manitoba Hydro International (MHI), is helping crunch the numbers to assess the feasibility of Muskrat Falls.

Kennedy said he is “not familiar” with the Wuskwatim project.

But he is confident in the ability of MHI to assess Muskrat Falls, even though the Manitoba dam came in well over budget.

“This is an example of how governments can’t win,” Kennedy said.

He said the provincial government chose MHI because the Public Utilities Board had already picked the company for a previous Muskrat Falls review, through a request for proposals.

It was a “good choice,” Kennedy said.

“We stick by that."

Earlier this week, Nalcor and Emera Inc. of Nova Scotia announced that 1,500 pages of final legal agreements have been signed on Muskrat Falls.

Final cost projections should be made public soon, with a decision on whether to sanction the project expected this fall.