Quebec eyes big hydro schemes for Nunavik

The Quebec government’s “Plan Nord” includes consideration of the once-controversial Great Whale hydro-electric project, a 2,500 kilometre electric grid connecting Nunavik communities, and wind mill farms located near Hydro Quebec’s huge reservoirs.

These and other recommendations are contained in a preliminary report prepared June 15 for Quebec’s ambitious northern development plan obtained by Le Soleil newspaper in Quebec City.

The report cites a suggestion, first proposed by former Quebec premier Bernard Landry in 2001, to link 13 of Nunavik’s 14 communities to Quebec’s main electrical grid.

This would reduce Nunavik’s dependence on dirty, expensive diesel fuel and also help the region get a high-speed fibre optic internet line — as well as a 2,500-km road.

The cost of this project would be between $1 and 1.5 billion, Le Soleil’s sources said.

But there would be an environmental price to pay, because the expanded grid would be fed by new hydro-electric projects on the Great Whale River.

This project, advanced by the government of Robert Bourrassa in the early 1990s, met with stiff opposition from environmental groups and was shelved in 1994.

The preliminary report also recommends hydro-electric projects on the Payne and Leaf rivers, which empty into Ungava Bay.

According to a July 31 story in Le Soleil, the report cites climate change studies by the Ouranos climate change think-tank, which say warmer temperatures may melt permafrost but could also build up water supplies in reservoirs, which could then be transformed into hydro power.

The report also mentions the idea of constructing wind power farms near the large reservoirs feeding hydro-electric projects.

But Quebec doesn’t plan to relaunch the Great Whale project, Nathalie Normandeau, the minister responsible for the Plan Nord told Le Soleil.

Normandeau said the final version of 13 preliminary documents for the northern development plan won’t be finalized until autumn, with the final plan slated for release in November.