Romaine Public Hearings
Pierre Cormier, chief administrator of Minganie.

Phase 1 – in which Roy boycotts the public hearings, and prefers to conduct his opposition through the media.

 
Date Activity Translations/Links
27 October 2008 Rivers Foundation, Nature Québec and la Société pour vaincre la pollution join forces to announce at a press conference that they're not going to attend the first phase of the Hearings.
The local supporters of the project are unimpressed.		 External video link

LaPresse 28 Oct
27 October - 30 October The first phase of BAPE gets underway.  Although Rivers Foundation are not represented, a 1,000 word prepared statement signed by Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny is read out at the start of the proceedings.
The documentary team (Nicolas Boisclair and producer Denis McCready) were denied permission to film any part of the proceedings.  The only media representation was by Radio CILE, while another team failed to turn up because of flooding on the road.
The proceedings were not transmitted live during the week, but were to be loaded in audio and transcribed format the following week, along with the documents presented in phase 1, and questions submitted by email for the 2nd phase.		 Rivers Foundation Statement (pp12-14) French only

External Blog Link


Submitted Documents (External Link)
30 October An open letter to Le Devoir, in Roy's name, suggesting that the process adopted by the BAPE in this case is less than democratic.  The tone is respectful. Le Devoir 30 Oct
11 November Roy appears on Christiane Charette’s radio show with Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny and Nicolas Boisclair. External audio link
12 November Roy has spent a week catching up with the BAPE material on the web, which seems to have made him rather tetchy as this interview in Le Devoir shows.  In contrast to the restraint of the letter of 30 October, he decides to take indiscriminate pot-shots at just about everybody. Le Devoir 12 Nov
13 November Pierre Cormier responds to several detailed questions set by an interviewer from an employment-related magazine.  Worth your consideration.
Hydro-Quebec responds to the accusations of corruption.		 Cormier's Response

Hydro-Quebec's Response
 

Phase 2 - from 2 December

  
10 December

The second phase is relatively uneventful.  Additional sessions are arranged, one of which is scheduled for the morning of the 10th, conveniently in the town hall in Sept-Îles, which is where the main airport is.  Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny and wind power specialist Réal Reid appear for the Rivers Foundation, and talk to their submitted report. 
The gist of the 99 page report was to offer an alternative to the Romaine dams in the shape of a wind farm at Minganie. It appears to deplore a 2005 decision by the Charest government to reject a proposal by Siemens to set up their North American wind-power division in Quebec (it eventually went to Iowa). The inference being that the option wasn't sufficiently evaluated and presented to the people of Quebec, in order to protect the interests of Hydro-Quebec.

 Rivers Foundation Report (pdf) (External link to the BAPE website, in French)
 

Conclusion

  
6 March 2009 The BAPE report is published, where it concludes that the Romaine dam complex is necessary and cannot be substituted by different technologies, such as the wind farm proposed by Rivers Foundation. The associated adverse environmental effects are negligible, but the report makes 24 recommendations to reduce the impact on the environment, including woodland birds, waterfowl, salmon and caribou. BAPE Report Feb 2009 (pdf) (External link to the BAPE website, in French)
8 May The Canadian government in Ottawa green-lights the project  
13 May The Quebec government green-lights the project and work begins.
Premier Jean Charest symbolically launches the construction from a bulldozer, by flattening a pile of sand at the spot where the road leading to the site begins. Afterwards he attends an official ceremony in Havre-Saint-Pierre, also attended by the Minister for Natural Resources and Wildlife, local Native American chiefs, and the president-director general of Hydro-Québec. 		 

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