The Fondation Rivières submitted a brief to the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) concerning the hydroelectric development project on the Romaine River, of which here are the conclusions.
A social choice to make
The study of the La Romaine project, even if this is not the immediate aim of this Commission, gives us the opportunity to review the large hydraulic sector in terms of energy development but also in terms of economic development and
social of Quebec. This Commission also gives us the opportunity to revisit the relevance and functioning of some of our environmental practices and institutions.
We strongly urge this Commission not to avoid these opportunities to dust off our systems and to frankly address the social choices before us. More precisely, and while remaining within the particular framework of La Romaine, fundamental questions can be raised by this Commission.
Let us mention these in particular:
1. Sustainable development
“Satisfaction of essential needs with regard to employment, food, energy, water, sanitation”. Let us recall the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), signed in 2000 by the UN member states who agreed to achieve them by 2015. The seventh objective consists of ensuring a sustainable environment and is based on 4 targets. Two of these targets are relevant in the case of the La Romaine study.
- First target: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into national policies and programs and reverse the current trend towards the loss of natural resources.
- Third target: Reduce the loss of biodiversity and achieve a significant reduction in the rate of loss by 2010.
This Commission has the power and authority to examine the La Romaine project within the framework provided by the Millennium Goals and the agreed definition of sustainable development. This Commission can raise, in a relevant manner, questions on the real or anticipated loss of biodiversity, and on the integration, in Quebec policies, of options reversing the trend towards the loss of natural resources with a view to preserving the natural environment. 'water.
This Commission can recall that technologies with less impact but just as effective as the La Romaine project can be used to achieve the desired results in terms of energy production, profitability and jobs, which would be more consistent with the objectives and the definition of sustainable development.
This Commission can remind the government of Quebec and its energy manager Hydro-Québec that the projects they will present from now on must fall within the framework of the precepts of sustainable development and will be judged according to its criteria.
2. Environment
Mitigation and compensation measures form the fundamental bases of project recommendations. It is time to pause and ensure that this formula is adequate to justify projects and that all the tools are available and adequate to judge their effectiveness. It is also time to think about the limit that should be set regarding the number of these measures for a single project and their degree of complexity and uncertainty.
The credibility of environmental monitoring is completely undermined by the fact that it is not or hardly available, or, worse still, that it is carried out solely by the promoter, without any independent monitoring. The opportunity is offered to this Commission to clearly establish that only independent monitoring, the results of which are disclosed and accessible, constitutes the essential basis of any environmental authorization. Furthermore, based on the results of these independent monitoring and to establish their credibility and relevance, the projects carried out should be subject to evaluations over the years, evaluations which could lead to modifications or even to a halt. activities if the impacts do not comply with the objectives or are considered too severe.
3. Democratic institutions and democracy
The Office of Public Hearings in Environmental Assessment and public participation are major social achievements for Quebec. However, the credibility and legitimacy of the BAPE are wavering among the public, particularly in terms of its independence from political power and the growing inability of the public to effectively participate in the process.
This Commission could take the opportunity to remind the government of the BAPE's obligation of independence and appearance of independence by recommending that measures be taken regarding the appointment of commissioners and the mandates entrusted to them. The Commission could also recommend to the government to entrust the BAPE with generic mandates on sectors rather than only individual mandates per project, which has the consequence of fragmenting the overall vision of the impacts of a sector, including for the BAPE, thus preventing it from playing its role.
This Commission could recommend to the government to consolidate public participation by guaranteeing it, like the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, the financial resources required to effectively review the impact studies of promoters. In the same vein, if it is true that budgetary constraints have prevented this Commission from truly communicating with the Quebec public via technical means or through additional hearings, it could recommend to the government to increase the budgets granted to the BAPE.
Ethics: This Commission could, with relevance, identify and rule on the problems of ethics and transparency raised by a promoter who uses public funds for advertising purposes before studying his project or even, for the purpose of forming secret alliances elected representatives for promotional and lobbying purposes. The Commission could note that these secret monetary agreements with communities as part of a project are in no way subject to external scrutiny and contravene the principle of accountability.
These are only partial questions. But they all concern, in a direct way, our capacity to envisage, decide and influence our collective future in any democracy. In this sense, they appear essential to us.
Photo from the film Look for the current
