Sirros says Great Whale is on the Table

He came, he saw, and he left everyone scratching their heads. What was Christos Sirros up to on November 2 when he addressed the Grand Council of the Crees at its Annual General Assembly?

Sirros flew all the way up to Waskaganish to deliver a vague speech filled with nice ideas about cooperation and partnership. A typical sentence went like this: ” Both sides have devoted the effort and resources needed to create a climate of trust and to establish a solid basis for dialogue and mutual frankness.” But behind the rhetoric were some alarming signals on Great Whale. The Native Affairs Minister hinted that he is gearing up for negotiations on the $13.3-billion project. That would be news to the Grand Council of the Crees, which has repeatedly voted against entering talks on Great Whale. But Sirros is charging full speed ahead. He expressed satisfaction with prenegotiations recently concluded between Cree negotiator Billy Diamond and Quebec negotiator Yves Fortier, which he said should lead to full-scale talks on the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. These talks by themselves are good news. The Grand Council has long argued that the Agreement is flawed and needs to be amended. But will Great Whale also be on the table at the talks? Sirros thinks so. “During this round of negotiations, it will, obviously, be necessary to discuss the development of the territory, as the issue is of utmost importance for all of us,” he said in his speech. For the Quebec government, the biggest development issue is obviously Great Whale. Sirros didn’t actually use the words Great Whale in his speech. But the importance of development kept coming up. Afterwards, we contacted his press attaché, Marie-Josée Gagnon, and asked her what Sirros meant when he spoke of development. “Tourism, fishing, hunting…,” she answered. What about Great Whale? ” Mr. Sirros didn’t exclude anything. On the contrary, he did include it”, she said. We asked again, just to be sure: Did Sirros include Great Whale as a development issue? ” Right”, said Gagnon. ” It was mentioned.”