[1] Starting from Lac Sevestre (53 km (33 mi) south-west from Fermont) on the Canadian Shield, the Caniapiscau River flows northward through a wide, timbered glacial valley until it makes a sharp turn at its confluence with the Rivière aux Mélèzes (Larch River).

Since 1985, the headwaters of the Caniapiscau River have been diverted into the La Grande hydroelectric complex.

Important variations in the water flow of the Caniapiscau River from 1981 to 1984, during the period when the Caniapiscau Reservoir was being filled, may have contributed to the death by drowning of 9,600 migratory woodland caribou in September 1984 at Chute du Calcaire[1] (about 1.5% of George River herd).

The Caniapiscau River basin has no permanent inhabitants, although Cree from the James Bay region as well as southern hunters do travel to the area by bush plane and via the Trans-Taiga Road.

In 1898, the geologist Albert Peter Low used Kaniapiskau, and by the middle of the 20th century, the current spelling came in use.