Review of 'Dérivation Eastmain-Opinaca-La Grande. Premier rapport d'environnement sur les parties aval des rivières détournées,' Cultural, Social and Economic Aspects

• Main Author: Feit, Harvey A.
• Other Authors: Anthropology
• Format: Report
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1974
• Subjects: Environmental Impact Regimes; Politics of Impact Assessment; Negotiating Social Impact Regimes; Local Expertise; Negotiating Recognition of Aboriginal Rights; James Bay Cree; James Bay Hydro-electric Project; James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement; Canada; Eastmain; James Bay
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24333

This report was prepared at a time when impact assessment legislation, procedures and bureaucracies were just being developed and initiated by the governments of Canada and Québec. The negotiations initiated by the James Bay Cree with governments in response to the hydro-electric project on their lands included, at their insistence, creating an assessment process for development projects that was specifically designed for the region, and that Cree had jointly designed and would jointly operate. It would be part of what became the James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement. During the negotiations the Cree undertook critical reviews of government assessments, such as this review, as well as initiating assessments of the hydro-electric project. See for an example of an assessment: Alan F. Penn and Harvey A. Feit. 1974. “The Northward Diversion of the Eastmain and Opinaca Rivers as Proposed: An Assessment of Impacts on the Native Community at Eastmain Village.” Montreal: Grand Council of the Crees. Pp. 70. These were intended both to contribute to the negotiation of an effective assessment regime, and also to indicate how if negotiations faltered the developers’ impact assessments, which were used to justify the project, could be challenged in public and in court actions by Cree experts and consultants. Anecdotal evidence suggests that these studies contributed to that outcome. This review examines the James Bay Energy Corporation's report "Derivation Eastmain-Opinaca-La Grande. Premier rapport d'environnement sur les parties aval des rivieres detournees." The JBEC is the Crown corporation responsible for planning and building the James Bay hydro-electric project. This review evaluates the methodological and factual foundations of the 'aspect humain' section of the JBEC report, and it questions the logical and analytical relationship between environmental assessments and human impacts which the report authors use. Numerous methodological and factual errors are found in the ‘aspect humain’ section of the report, and ...