Hydro scheme will change environment, Inuit tell Hydro-Québec

MONTREAL – Changing ice conditions and water currents, dying eider ducks, unhealthy sea cucumbers, hungry polar bears and sickly seals: last week, Inuit spoke out loud and clear at a hearing in Montreal on Hydro-Québec’s latest project to divert and dam two rivers in northern Quebec.

“When something this big is built, we know there will be effects,” said Pita Aatami, the president of Makivik Corp., at the environmental hearings on the Eastmain 1A and Rupert Diversion Project.

Speaking far from home, Inuit from Nunavik and Nunavut listed the numerous effects they have seen in Hudson Bay and James Bay since the first hydroelectric project of the 1970s.

The week-long hearings of the joint environmental review committee were held at an Polish community centre in east-end Montreal. More than 200 turned out for a four-hour session devoted to the project’s possible effects on James Bay and Hudson Bay.

Peter Kattuk, the MLA for Hudson Bay, spoke about the “heart of our culture” – that is, the animals and the waters around Sanikiluaq – and emphasized the direct impact on his constituents, who rely on seafood, of any changes in the environment.

The Nunavut Hudson Bay Inter-Agency Working Group, or Nunavuummi Tasiujarjuamiuguqatigiit Katujiqatigiingit, presented a package of scientific evidence and traditional knowledge about the decreases in the water’s salinity, increases in ice cover and changes in the bays’ currents.

NTK detailed its concerns about the effects of previous projects on the environment, marine mammals, fish and birds, citing the reduction of polynas, or areas of open water, due to increased ice formation, and a dramatic decline in the number of eider ducks nests.

“We worry that it is going to happen to Inuit, to us,” said NTK’s chairman, Lucassie Arragutainaq.

But Hydro-Québec told the hearing that its new project would result in little overall change in the two bays.

Hydro-Québec explained that after the diversion project is completed, the Eastmain River will send less fresh water into the James Bay, and the Great Whale River will send more – but the balance will be nearly the same.

According to the power corporation’s presentation, the overall impact of most changes to the James Bay and Hudson Bay would be “negligible” and fall within the range of yearly variability, or else be masked by climate change.

James Eetoolook, a Nunavut Tunngavik vice-president, told the hearing that the proposed mega-project, which includes four new dams, a spillway, dikes, powerhouses, generating stations and power lines, is more than just “dams and a little more fresh water.”

NTK – on which Eetoolook sits – said its members want to see a “clear statement” from the environmental review board that the Eastmain 1A and Rupert Diversion Project will produce impacts.

NTK called for more mitigation of its impacts, more help to Inuit to adapt to changes in their environment, and the creation of a new “Hudson Bay Bioregion” community-based monitoring group.

Called HUBB, the new monitoring body would involve Inuit, Cree and representatives from governments and other bodies such as Hydro-Québec.

NTK didn’t ask for the hydroelectric project to be shelved, but made a plea not to “wire the Hudson Bay to residences of people who live on the Eastern seaboard.”

The joint environmental review board members commended NTK’s case, saying it was logical, solid, interesting, well-presented and clear. Its “caution-ness gives credibility,” said a scientist on the committee.

The board is still conducting hearings.

But chairman Bernard Forrestel said its members would give “serious consideration” to NTK and Makivik as they draw up recommendations to the federal and provincial governments. These will say whether the huge project should proceed and, if so, under what conditions.