On February 24, three days after a big loss for the Liberal Party in a provincial by-election in the riding of Bonaventure, Premier Johnson gave the green light to the Sainte-Marguerite-3 hydro-project on the North Shore of the St-Lawrence River. Earlier that day, Hydro-Quebec announced that its energy demand forecasts had actually decreased from 2.2 per cent to 0.5 per cent in the past year, and that further decreases were expected in the future.
Two years ago, the Solidarity Group With Native People greeted delegates of the Innu Coalition For Nitassinan, who had walked 1,100 km from their community located just east of Sept-Iles all the way to Montreal. Together with 300 supporters, we walked the last mile to Hydro-Quebec headquarters. The Coalition’s message: “No to SM-3 and No to the further violation of Innu territorial rights.”
Then in June 1993, the provincial Environmental Hearings Board (known as BAPE) ruled against the project and the diversion of two large rivers in a nearby watershed. The project’s short-term necessity was also questioned by Hydro’s own engineers in November 1993 because of energy surpluses in Quebec and the saturation of energy markets in the U.S.
A pro-SM-3 coalition from the North Shore literally buried the BAPE’s 450-page report on the banks of the Sainte-Marguerite River with a bulldozer after it was made public. The municipal Environmental Protection Corporation in Sept-Iles, which had opposed the river diversions, was muzzled when city hall threatened to cut its annual budget of $55,000. And on February 4 of this year, exactly one year after public hearings on the SM-3 project opened in Sept-lles, the Johnson government demoted the author of the BAPE report and vice-president of that organization, Andre Delisle.
What’s important for us to remember as non-native Quebecers is the fact that no one has ever elected M. Johnson to be premier, not even members of his own party. We’ve certainly never voted for SM-3. And despite widespread opposition, the $3-billion project was given the go-ahead. After an intense 10-year period of construction, 20 full-time workers will run the SM-3 complex for its expected life-span of 50 years.
The New York Power Authority won’t be buying any of SM-3’s 820 megawatts. And in September of last year Vermont’s
largest electric utility, the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation, announced that it was sell i ng back—at a loss—7 5 of the 7 7 megawatts of power it was buying from Hydro-Quebec because of energy surpluses. On the world aluminum market, there’s a 15-per-cent annual surplus which equals an overproduction of 1.5 to 2 million tons every year. Will Hydro-Quebec have to sign more secret contracts to sell its excess energy at a loss and add to the $2.9-billion deficit these contracts will incur between now and the year 2010?
As we continue to soak up the losses, watch basic infrastructures in Quebec erode and watch Hydro’s debt break the $34-billion mark, we can well imagine Liberal Party coffers fill up in this pre-election period in Quebec. Mega-builders and engineering firms in Quebec will be grateful for SM-3 which will provide them with enough contracts to tide them over until Great Whale gets some kind of go-ahead. And they’ll probably thank M. Johnson generously for his understanding. Instead of cutting welfare, health care, day-care and education, M. Johnson should be cutting the Liberal government’s welfare policy for private corporations.
But in the meantime, 12 percent of the adult population in the Innu community of Mani-Utenam has gone to jail in the last year and a half, and 41 people went back to court in June for having peacefully protested the SM-3 project and the pro-SM-3 Innu Takuaikan Uashat mak Mani-Utenam Band Council.
In December 1992, the Band Council obtained a Quebec Superior Court injunction against all protests in Mani-Utenam. In January of 1993, the injunction became permanent fora period of 30 years. More protests against SM-3 are expected and the Solidarity Group With Native People will continue to organize in Montreal for solidarity with the Coalition For Nitassinan and the traditionalist Innu Council of Mani-Utenam, which has literally been outlawed by the local powers that be in that community.
We still have much to learn from the Innu in their struggle against SM-3, and we’ll walk that extra mile to do so.
Marc Drouin is a member of the Solidarity Croup With Native People in Montreal (Regroupement de solidarité avec les autochtones).
