Damn those dams

Will Quebec's wilderness be open for business?

BY JOËLLE KOVACH

When the Quebec government decided to deregulate the province's energy industry last November, they may have thought most people would be happy to see Hydro-Québec's monopoly go down the drain. But now it appears that such is not the case.

Under the Bouchard government's new energy policy, American hydroelectric companies will soon be able to build small dams on any of Quebec's 525 wild rivers without first appealing to a regulatory commission. And as a parliamentary committee this week began reviewing the policy, 16 environmental groups have formed a coalition to oppose the project.

"With this new policy, it's open season on Quebec's natural resources," said Daphna Castel of the environmental group Au Courant, a member of the coalition. Castel said the government has classified these 525 rivers as "economically worthwhile" sites for small dams to be built, an invitation for American exploitation. "River classification must stop immediately," she said.

Tom Holzinger, spokesperson for the Comité Baie James, an energy activist group supporting the coalition, worries that the United States' frantic energy consumption means they will soon run out of fossil fuels, driving up the price of electricity and prompting them to drain Quebec's hydroelectric resources. "Quebec has everything to lose and nothing to gain," he said. "This is the worst environmental disaster we can conceive."

Holzinger also said his personal suspicion is that separatism is part of the government's hidden agenda. The Americans may be applying political pressure to Quebec, he says, promoting the free market as its key to independence.

But Ministry of Natural Resources official Pierre Régnier said that separatism has nothing to do with the decision to open the market. "There's nothing political about it. It's business. Period."

According to Régnier, Quebec has enough waterways to sustain further energy generation without environmental damage. "I don't understand how it could cause an environmental disaster," said Régnier. "We can sell electricity without a problem."

Yet Holzinger disagrees, noting that such projects preserve only a token number of rivers on the grounds that they are heritage sites. "It's unacceptable," he said.

But Au Courant's Castel argues that while Hydro-Québec may well operate with care, producing extra electricity is inherently damaging to the environment. "The best way to look after the environment is to generate less energy," said Castel. "And Hydro-Québec is not interested in energy efficiency."