The Muteshekau-shipu Alliance, which includes the Ekuanitshit Innu Council, the Minganie MRC, SNAP (Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society) Quebec section and the Association Eaux-Vives Minganie, is urging the Quebec government not to harness the Magpie River to meet future hydroelectricity needs.
The Alliance is concerned since the party in power, the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), did not rule out the idea during the fall election campaign of building new dams in northern Quebec. It is therefore calling for a firm commitment from the government to both definitively rule out any dam project on the Magpie and to protect most of the watershed draining this river.
The warden of the Minganie MRC, Luc Noël, does not appreciate the government's response to the group's concerns. "It is clear that there is no commitment on their part and we are disappointed with their position," he said. "Hydro-Quebec says that the project is not in the cards, without more, the government says it is not me, it is Hydro. One thing is clear, we don't want another dam on the Magpie, we want sustainable development, and their inertia in the file prevents us from doing so."
The Alliance is now counting on the presence of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Montreal in December to make its demands heard.
More details in the article in Le Soleil newspaper »
