Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Kent was in Florida last weekend while he did radio interviews and sent out social media updates on the Newfoundland-wide power blackout.

Kent was the first minister in Premier Kathy Dunderdale's government to comment publicly on the power outages, which started on Jan. 2 when Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro was unable to stabilize its power supply.

Kent did radio interviews on Saturday morning, Jan. 4, shortly after power went out across the island, and sent out dozens of messages on Twitter the same day.

Kent was in Florida on a family vacation, but did not indicate during any of his interviews or postings on social media that he was out of the province.

Premier Kathy Dunderdale did not comment to media on the widespread outages until a news conference at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 5 at Confederation Building.

Kent's office issued a statement about the minister's whereabouts on Friday afternoon.