Human Rights and the Environment

Case Study: Dam Construction in Quebec

Country: Canada

Region: North America

Issues: Public Participation, Water, Infrastructure, Indigenous People, Litigation

In 1986, Quebec's energy corporation, Hydro Quebec, launched the Great Whale River hydro-electric project, the second phase in a master plan to dam almost every major river flowing into the James and Hudson Bays. The reservoirs behind the Great Whale series of dams would have cost US$13 billion and flooded nearly 2,000 square miles, including land belonging to the Cree people of Manitoba. The Cree vigorously opposed these plans, and with the help of US and Canadian environmentalists, persuaded the state of New York to cancel its plans to purchase electricity from Hydro Quebec, thus reducing demand for the energy the Great Whale dams would produce. The Cree and their allies achieved another major victory when a federal court concluded that environmental assessments of new dams must account for the cumulative ecological impacts of dam, mining and forestry projects. In November, 1994, three separate government committees concluded that Hydro Quebec's 5,000-page environmental assessment was inadequate. Faced with the delays involved in drafting another assessment and the loss of New York's business, the government of Quebec withdrew its plans to develop the project. Nearly a decade later and millions of dollars poorer, the Cree finally triumphed over the Great Whale.[1]

[1] See Sierra Club, "Hudson Bay/James Bay Watershed Ecoregion," 1996; See also Grand Council of the Crees, "Cree Legal Struggle Against Great Whale Project," 1995.

Last Updated: 09/09/05