James Bay Project

[2] The eight power stations of the La Grande Complex generate an average of 9.5 GW, enough to meet the total demand of a small industrialized economy such as Belgium.

In the 1990s, forceful opposition by the Crees and their environmental allies caused the cancellation of the Great Whale Project, a proposed 3,000 MW complex north of La Grande River.

Relief has been eroded by successive glaciations in the Pleistocene era, as recently as 6,000 years ago, leaving depositions of loose materials: moraines, clay, silt and sand and reshaped the hydrography of the territory.

[11] With the nationalization of privately owned utilities in 1963, Hydro-Québec inherited the preliminary studies conducted by Finlayson and his team on the hydroelectric potential of James Bay rivers.

Dozens, then hundreds of people were sent by helicopter and seaplanes in inaccessible areas of the taiga to perform surveys and geological studies to identify potential sites for hydropower development.

[16] On December 16, 1969, Liberal Backbencher Member of the National Assembly Robert Bourassa met with the president of Hydro-Québec, Roland Giroux over lunch at the parliamentary dining room in Quebec City.

[20] Moreover, Bourassa argued his 1969 estimates showed demand for electricity would outstrip supply by 11,000 MW by 1983, concurring with forecasts made at the time by Hydro-Quebec.

[23] Several Parti Québécois spokesmen, including energy critic Guy Joron[24] and economic adviser Jacques Parizeau[25] voiced their opposition to the Bourassa scheme.

In an interview with Montreal's Le Devoir, the former economist and public servant who later became premier of Quebec commented: "We don't have to dam every single river just because they're French Canadian and Catholic.

"[25] However, Bourassa himself[26] and Hydro-Québec senior management — including President Roland Giroux and commissioners Yvon DeGuise and Robert Boyd[26] — were firmly behind the large hydroelectric development to be built in northern Quebec.

[27] The Quebec premier received an unexpected backing when the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, Alexei Kosygin visited Montreal in October 1971.

Responsibility for the project would be overseen by the Société d'énergie de la Baie-James, a newly created mixed corporation (public/private) controlled by Hydro-Québec, headed by Robert A. Boyd.

As environmental assessments were not then required under Quebec law, construction of the 700 kilometres (430 mi) James Bay Road to the La Grande River was begun in 1971 and completed by October 1974 at a cost of about $400 million.

In 1973 and 1974, a temporary winter ice road was used to bring in the heavy equipment required for the construction of the roadbed and some 13 major bridges spanning the many rivers of the region.

[31] Canadian historian Desmond Morton noted that there were 540 different incidents between the two main construction unions in Quebec on sites associated with the James Bay Project between 1970 and 1974, many of them "very bloody".

[31] In the 1973 election, after the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) union had donated generously to the Parti libéral du Québec, Bourassa announced that only companies employing workers from the FTQ-affiliated Conseil des métiers de la construction headed by André "Dédé" Desjardins would work on the James Bay project.

"[33] Desjardins was called before the Cliche commission several times starting in November 1974, where it was established that he was closely associated with the Montreal Mafia, and engaged in thuggish practices as president of the Conseil des métiers de la construction union.

The federal Indian affairs minister Jean Chrétien intervened on the side of the Cree and the Inuit, hiring lawyers to argue their case in the courts.

Poverty and social problems remained prevalent in the isolated Cree and Inuit villages of Northern Quebec, even in areas where there were no hydroelectric or mining activities.

While highly motivated, the Cree's opposition to the Great Whale River Project was mainly ineffective until 1992 when the State of New York withdrew from a multibillion-dollar power purchasing agreement due to public outcry and a decrease in energy requirements.

Former Grand Chief of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee) Matthew Mukash[38] (elected in late 2005 and served until 2009) opposed the Rupert River diversion and favoured the construction of wind turbines.

Alteration of annual precipitation patterns, increased abundance of low stratus clouds and fog, and warmer autumns and cooler springs, leading to a delay in the beginning and end of the growing season, have all been observed in the vicinity of the project's major reservoirs.

The resultant increased ice content at the northern section of the project in the winter has cooled warm air currents more than usual, bringing harsher Arctic weather, including strong winds and less precipitation, to south-central Quebec.

The James Bay area's water flow is most affected by the hydroelectric project from January to April because rivers have their lowest runoff rates in the winter months when freezing occurs.

Additionally, runoff rates in the damming system can be altered to meet power needs, which are highest in the winter and lowest in the summer, thereby more completely reversing the natural water flow cycle.

[46] The result has been considerable decay (decomposition) of dead trees along the shoreline, consequently releasing stored mercury into the area's terrestrial ecosystem through bioaccumulation in decomposers and detritovores and eventual biomagnification up the food web.

[47][48] Other changes in the delicate balance of the James Bay ecosystem can be illustrated through the animal migration patterns, salmon spawning, and destruction of wildlife habitats.

[36] Caribou populations, which have been expanding since the 1950s, have adopted migration routes throughout much of the Quebec-Labrador Peninsula and have thus been increasingly abundant in the James Bay area, the valley of the Caniapiscau, and around George River (Quebec).

These roads, opened between 1995 and 2001, have further facilitated access to hunting areas of the interior and encouraged commercial and social exchanges between the Cree villages and with southern Quebec.

Such activities are furthermore sustained by an income replacement program financed by the government of Quebec that offers the equivalent of a modest annual salary for hunters and their families who live in the bush for at least several weeks of the year.