We are deeply concerned to learn that Hydro-Québec intends to launch preliminary studies to assess the hydroelectric potential of the Petit Mécatina River, on the North Shore, especially following the broadcast of the documentary After the Roman on Radio-Canada, which highlights the exceptional character of the Magpie River.
If this project were carried out, 43% of the watersheds of the North Shore would be subject to hydroelectric development and a modification of their hydrological regime, which would bring the number of power stations in Quebec to 174 out of 121 rivers. This is what we learned from the commission of inquiry of the Bureau of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) on the Romaine River project in 2009.
There are few large intact rivers like the Petit Mécatina, the George and the Rivière à la Baleine. Places of ancestral anchoring of indigenous cultures, they are at the heart of ecosystems preserved from industrialization. Your government has made a commitment to protect 30% of the territory by 2030, but where are your commitments to protect our last great rivers which ensure the health of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems? No river has yet obtained the status of aquatic reserve, a biodiversity protection mechanism announced more than 20 years ago.
Moreover, we were surprised to learn that the Political Commission of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) presents the construction of new hydroelectric power stations as an essential condition for the success of the electrification of Québec. Nothing, to date, allows us to make such an assertion. Even Hydro-Quebec has not published a notice to that effect.
In addition, the CAQ presents hydroelectricity as a clean energy. However, we know that the hydroelectric sector has major social and environmental effects. These consequences could be more important than we think: the cumulative impacts of all the dams in Quebec have never been evaluated.
The firm Dunsky Énergie + Climat, which your government has mandated to provide you with tools to establish strategies towards carbon neutrality in Quebec, emphasizes the potential for reducing energy consumption and the potential for wind power. The construction of new hydroelectric dams is not one of the options favored by this firm of experts.
This opinion is shared by the vast majority of specialists, including the director of the Chair of Energy Sector Management at HEC Montréal, Pierre-Olivier Pineau, the professor of physics and scientific director of the Institut de l’énergie Trottier at Polytechnique Montréal, Normand Mousseau, and engineers Bernard Saulnier and Réal Reid. In fact, according to the latter two, Quebec could save approximately $3.2 billion per year, become carbon neutral and ensure its energy self-sufficiency by combining the production of wind and solar power with the storage capacities of Hydro-Québec’s hydraulic reservoirs currently operating.
Keeping the door open to dams on untouched rivers keeps us in our old ways. There is better to do: your government has a duty to support public policies that limit as much as possible the demand for electricity associated with the electrification of transport by promoting active and collective mobility, to modernize construction standards and renovation plans to move towards buildings with net zero energy consumption, to improve the insulation of buildings, to encourage the installation of heat accumulators and heat pumps, to promote geothermal energy, to diversify the sources of supply of renewable energies such as solar and wind power, to optimize existing dams and wind farms. Let’s show vision.
The energy choices we are about to make are too important to be made in haste. Considering that we have already artificialized too many rivers and that the effects of dams are permanent, we invite you to take the time to consult Quebec society, including Aboriginal communities, as you promised, through extensive public debate.
Pending an answer on your intentions on this subject, please accept, Mr. Prime Minister, Ministers Fitzgibbon, Charette and Lafrenière, our best regards.
* Also signed this letter:
Richard Rémy, founder and guide, Karavaniers
Emilie Dubé, project manager, Eau vive Québec
Emmanuel Laferrière, director of operations, Canot kayak Québec
Chantal Levert, General Coordinator, Quebec Network of Environmental Groups
Irène Dupuis, President, Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly – Living environment
Elisabeth Gibeau, Coordinator, Common Front for Energy Transition
Rébecca Pétrin, Executive Director of Eau Secours
Emmanuelle Rancourt, project manager, Nature Québec
Jean-François Boisvert, President, Montreal Climate Coalition
Alex Beaudin, municipal councilor of Rivière-Saint-Jean and Magpie
Carole Dupuis, spokesperson, UNEplanète eco-citizen movement
Christian Bélisle, Administrator, Friends of the Kipawa River
Jean-Pierre Finet, Spokesperson, Group of Environmental Energy Organizations
Mathieu Bourdon, founder, Noryak adventures
Charles Kavanagh, Association Eaux-Vives Minganie
Caroline Desbiens, Professor, Department of Geography, Laval University
Laurie Guimond, Professor, Department of Geography, University of Quebec in Montreal
Étienne Boucher, Department of Geography, University of Quebec in Montreal
Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush, Innu filmmaker
Gabriel Rondeau, resident of Magpie and guide for Noryak adventures
Geneviève Lalumière, resident of Magpie and market gardener at the Coop de solidarité agroforestière de Minganie – Le Grenier boréal