Inuit groups pour cold water on Quebec hydro project

Inuit from Nunavut and Nunavik expressed grave concerns, at public hearings held in Montreal this past week, about a proposed hydroelectric project for northern Quebec, saying the development could threaten Inuit and their environment.

In the 1990s, Sanikiluaq opposed damming of the Great Whale River because of worries about the negative effect on water currents, ice, and marine life in waters around the Belcher Islands.

Inuit are rasing these concerns again in connection with the new hydro project, which involves the Eastmain and Rupert rivers.

But now, Makivik Corp. is echoing Sanikiluaq’s criticisms. In the early 1990s, Makivik supported the Great Whale project, which Hydro-Québec eventually shelved.

The new proposal is called the “Eastmain 1-A and Rupert Diversion Project.” This week’s public hearings were held jointly by a provincial review commitee and a federal environmental review panel.

The project would alter the flow of two rivers, changing and increasing the amount of fresh water that pours into two bays.

It includes plans for four new dams, a spillway, dikes, powerhouses, generating stations, power lines, and other structures. When completed, the project would produce 880 Mw of electricity, enough to provide electricity to more than a half a million homes.

Last year, the Nunavut Hudson Bay Inter-Agency Working Group, or Nunavuummi Tasiujarjuamiuguqatigiit Katujiqatigiingit, unsuccessfully asked for a public hearing in Sanikiluaq.

They also questioned whether the project’s environmental impact statement was even a satisfactory document on which to base public hearings.

But, obliged to appear in Montreal, NTK produced a lengthy set of documents for the review bodies, with a 27-page traditional ecological knowledge section.

The NTK’s recommendations called for:

• more attention to the cumulative impacts and trans-boundary effects of development around two bays, which are bordered by Quebec, Nunavut, Ontario and Manitoba.

• the establishment of an inter-jurisdictional body to oversee the stewardship of the Hudson and James Bay and development of “a multi-jurisdictional basin study,” to provide more information on the region.

They accuse Hydro-Québec of avoiding any “serious consideration of critical trans-boundary issues of local, regional, national and even, as in the case of eider ducks, beluga whales and polar bears, international significance.”

Both Makivik and NTK want to see a program to monitor the effects of hydroelectric projects on James Bay and Hudson Bay.

This monitoring would touch on the marine and coastal areas, and would incorporate both Inuit knowledge and western science, focusing, among other things, on sea ice conditions, salt levels in water, contaminants, marine currents and productivity, and the impact on Inuit harvesting and health.

Makivik and NTK also want an agreement on measures to mitigate any impacts from the project.

In its brief, NTK details particularly disturbing evidence about the changes in water flow and salt content of the water in the bays, which affect the formation of ice.

They say these changes quite possibly contribute to climate change in the bay region, and are “a direct threat to Inuit subsistence and lifestyle and survival of Hudson Bay Arctic marine species.”

Enough damage has already been done to the bays, says Alec Tuckatuck of Kuujjuaraapik, in an annex to the Makivik brief.

“The ice used to form very solid [so that] that we use to hunt seals, polar bears at the south end of Belcher Islands. It is now only history, since we may never reach by ice to that territory again, and it is sad for Inuit hunters and their families,” Tuckatuck said.

Makivik’s brief also says consultations on the proposed project have ignored the 120 Inuit who live in the mainly Cree community of Chisasibi, and the 600 Inuit of Kuujjuaraapik, who neighbour the Cree community of Whapmagoostui, and residents of nearby Umiujaq.

Many other groups, including Cree organizations, communities and individuals, submitted briefs to the review.

The brief from Cree communities of Eastmain and Wemindji notes their concern over the short and long-term impacts of the project on the environment, wildlife and people.

“We believe that the economic impacts in the short term will bring about their own social problems, and that we will be left a few years from now, struggling to adapt.”

To consult an electronic version of Nunavut’s submission, go to www.geoarctic.com/sanikiluaq. For the hearings and other submissions, go to www.ceaa.gc.ca/010/0001/0001/0017/001/1220_e.htm