The Fondation Rivières is pleased to note that several recommendations from the Report of the Commission on Quebec's energy issues, titled Mastering our energy future, echo his repeated requests for several years, in particular:
- Immediately suspend the Romaine 3 and 4 hydroelectric projects in order to assess the financial interest of completely stopping less advanced construction phases – Recommendation 41.1;
- Stop new calls for tenders for electricity production (including small power plants) and cancel contracts being renewed, or renegotiate them based on the value of electricity in the off-peak export market, also with regard to the renewal of all APR 91 – Recommendation 40 contracts.
Recommendations to apply without further delay
The Romaine 3 and 4 projects will soon be too advanced to be stopped and certain contracts for small private hydroelectric power stations APR 91 are already being renewed. Considering the urgency to intervene quickly in these two files, the Fondation Rivières demands that the government immediately implement these recommendations tabled by Roger Lanoue and Normand Mousseau. In addition, recommendations aimed at protecting rivers were included in the briefs of several stakeholders and are highlighted in the report, in particular:
- Resume the exercise of river classification, initiated by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment in the 1990s, [would be an exercise] healthy and would encourage investment for recreational tourism or conservation purposes for future generations;
- Protect ecological flows and aquatic ecosystems in future hydroelectric developments, including the recommendation to integrate the systematic and quantified evaluation of the existence value of wild rivers and the whitewater heritage of Quebec in the development of the hydroelectric sector;
- Establish a river classification system and accelerate the process of designating aquatic reserves.
To know more
- Stop projects, says report, Alexander Shields, The duty
- The beautiful report, editorial by Josée Boileau, The duty
- A radical and inevitable shift, article by Alexandre Shields, The duty
Photo: La Romaine – The Coastal North
