September 1992: The committees conducting the assessment and review of the Great Whale hydroelectric project released guidelines which Hydro-Quebec must follow in preparing its EIS. Nearly 100 pages in length, these guidelines are detailed, comprehensive, and require the proponent to describe and evaluate the proposed project from the standpoint of sustainable development, including the "carrying capacities of ecosystems and human societies". In addition, the proponent is asked to describe the environment not only in the light of scientific knowledge, but according to the precepts, values and knowledge of aboriginal peoples to whom the North is home. In this, the guidelines break new ground and place significant conceptual and research burdens on the proponent. Hydro-Quebec faces a difficult task. In preparing and defending the EIS, Hydro-Quebec is being asked to move from the 1950s into the 21st. century.

Interests in the Northwest Territories should be pleased with the guidelines which require the proponent to address potential impacts of the project outside Quebec, specifically in the marine environment of Hudson Bay. In addition, Hydro-Quebec is asked to address the cumulative impacts of the Great Whale project in the context of other hydroelectric development projects, both planned and built, in northern Quebec and elsewhere in the Hudson Bay region. These requirements reflect, in part, the advocacy of territorial interests and CARC, at the scoping hearings.

The guidelines deal with the thorny issue of the need for and economic justification of the project. This is ground upon which some intervenors-particularly those who oppose the project-will stake all. The guidelines may very well spark a long overdue debate on Quebec's energy policy and policy choices.

EIS Table of Contents 1. Introduction

2. Project Justification

3. Description of the Biophysical and Social Environments 4. Project Description

5. Impacts of the Project

6. Mitigative and Compensatory Measures

7. Environmental Surveillance, Monitoring, and Long-Term Management Programs

Quotable Quotes From the Guidelines

Cumulative Impact

 page 6, para 124 -

 page 6, para 126 -

page 3, para 112 -

"The proposed project must be developed in accordance with the carrying capacities of ecosystem and human societies involved."

The Final Guidelines to Manitoba Hydro for the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed Conawapa Project, released in draft form in Winnipeg on November 16, 1992, contains the following paragraph:

"Manitoba Hydro shall cooperate with, and if possible, participate in the review of cumulative impacts on Hudson Bay initiated by Environment Canada, and in the Hudson Bay Program being conducted by the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee and the Rawson Academy of Aquatic Science." (page 54)

This is the first time in the history of public environmental impact assessment in Canada, that a proponent has been directed to participate in an independent research initiative conducted by a non-governmental organization as part of the environmental assessment process. CARC is pleased with this recognition, and welcomes the full participation of Manitoba Hydro in the Hudson Bay Program.