Participation, presentation and review - Introduction to Environmental Impact Assessment - page 172

Box 6.1 Grande-Bakine hydropower complex, Canada
Hydro-Québec has applied for permission to build a hydropower
complex in northern Quebec province, which could generate 16.2 TWh of
energy annually. The complex would include three dammed-up reservoirs
with a total area of 3,400 km 2 , three generating stations, 136 dykes, a road
system and three airfields. Likely environmental impacts include impacts
on flora, fauna and water quality (particularly methylmercury levels which
would result in restrictions on fish consumption). The project would also
affect about 500 Crees, 450 Inuit and 75 people of other origins, for most
of whom hunting, fishing and trapping remains central to their identity as
Native Peoples of northern Quebec. As part of project planning, Hydro-
Québec undertook extensive public consultation and description. The
following description is verbatim from a leaflet summarising Hydro-
Québec's communication activities
(Hydro-Québec 1993):
Local populations were regularly consulted and kept informed from the
start of phase I of the feasibility study for the Grande-Baleine complex,
which ran from 1977 to 1981, when work was temporarily suspended.
Hydro-Québec organized regular meetings with the Native communities
directly affected by the project; their views were taken into consideration
in conducting studies. These communities were subsequently informed of
the study results and, once again, consulted about proposed mitigative and
environmental enhancement measures. Based on these consultations—to
take just one example—Hydro-Québec revised its scenario for the
diversion of the Petite Rivière de la Baleine to eliminate environmental
impacts on the drainable basin of the Rivière Nastapoka, further north.
In 1988, with the start of phase II of the Grande-Baleine feasibility 'study, Hydro-
Québec relaunched its information and communication initiatives. At the local level, the
communication program consisted of three phases: the general information phase,
designed to provide information about various components of the project; the
information-feedback phase, designed to gather reactions and data to guide Hydro-
Québec in its decision making; and the information-consultation phase, in which Hydro-
Québec presented options to the interested parties, analyzed the opinions expressed, and
explained its decisions as they were made. Shortly after the phase II of the feasibility
study was under way, the Crees informed Hydro-Québec that they no longer wished to
maintain dialogue and that all communications should be addressed to their legal
advisors. Starting in January 1989, Hydro-Québec's local information and consultation
activities were directed mainly at the Inuit, who had formed a working group in 1988.
In the general information phase, Hydro-Québec held meetings with various
organizations and clarified key aspects of the project, including the project rationale,
environmental studies, employment opportunities, and the overall development calendar.
A bulletin summarizing this information in French, English, Cree, and Inuktitut was sent
to the persons, groups, and organizations that requested it, and all interested parties were
able to express their concerns.