Joint Review Panel Commission D'examen Conjoint
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
LOWER CHURCHILL HYDROELECTRIC GENERATION PROJECT JOINT REVIEW PANEL PROJET DE CENTRALE DE PRODUCTION D’ÉNERGIE HYDROÉLECTRIQUE DANS LA PARTIE INFÉRIEURE DU FLEUVE CHURCHILL COMMISSION D’EXAMEN CONJOINT CANADIAN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT REGISTRY 07-05-26178 REGISTRE CANADIEN D’ÉVALUATION ENVIRONNEMENTALE 07-05-26178 HEARING HELD AT Hearing Room - Salle d'audience Carrefour La Baie 391 Avenue Brochu Sept-Îles, QC G4R 2W6 Friday, April 8, 2011 Volume 31 JOINT REVIEW PANEL Mr. Herbert Clarke Ms. Lesley Griffiths Ms. Catherine Jong Dr. Meinhard Doelle Mr. James Igloliorte International Reporting Inc. 41-5450 Canotek Road Ottawa, Ontario K1J 9G2 www.irri.net 1-800-899-0006 (ii) TABLE OF CONTENTS / TABLE DES MATIÈRES PAGE Opening Remarks 1 Presentation from Nalcor by Mr. Burlingame 9 Presentation by the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach 21 Questions by the panel 31 Presentation from Nalcor by Mr. Burlingame 85 Présentation par la nation Innu Matimekush-Lac John par M. McKenzie 96 Questions by the panel 153 Questions by the proponent 191 1 1 Sept-Îles, Québec 2 3 --- Upon commencing at 9:09 a.m./ 4 L’audience est debute à 9h09 5 --- OPENING REMARKS: 6 CHAIRPERSON GRIFFITHS: Good 7 morning, ladies and gentlemen. 8 I think we’re now ready that we 9 can begin this morning’s session, this community 10 hearing for the community of Kawawachikamach. 11 My name is Lesley Griffiths. I am 12 one of the two Co-Chairs of the panel. On my left 13 is my fellow Co-Chair Herb Clarke. Next to Herb is 14 Meinhard Doelle. On my right is Jim Igloliorte, 15 and on Jim’s right is Cathy Jong. 16 We’re very pleased to be here in 17 Sept-Îles and to welcome you to this community 18 session. 19 Supporting the work of the panel 20 we have a number of Secretariat members who are 21 identified by a gold badge they’re wearing with 22 their names. If you have any questions about the 23 process please feel free to talk to them. They’re 24 there to help you. 25 I just want to say a few opening INTERNATIONAL REPORTING INC. 2 1 remarks. Following that we may have a few 2 housekeeping items. And then we will move onto an 3 overview of the project and some remarks by the 4 Proponent. 5 Then I would like to invite all of 6 our presenters this morning to come forward to the 7 table and we can proceed as you wish. Either you 8 may wish to ask some questions of the Proponent at 9 that point or you may wish to move on to your 10 presentation. Obviously we can be very flexible 11 about what we do with the morning. 12 I’m sure the panel will have some 13 questions for you and the Proponent as well, so we 14 will work out what is best. 15 So I just want to say a few things 16 about the panel and our job that we have. We were 17 created -- we were appointed in January of 2009, 18 jointly appointed by the Government of Canada and 19 the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. 20 Our mandate is to conduct an 21 independent and impartial review of Nalcor Energy’s 22 proposed Lower Churchill Hydroelectric Generation 23 Project. 24 We went through the two year 25 process of receiving information from a wide range INTERNATIONAL REPORTING INC. 3 1 of participants, including communities here in 2 Quebec, and the panel prepared a number of 3 information requests for Nalcor. 4 Once all of the information had 5 been received back from Nalcor, response to those 6 requests, the panel determined that we had enough 7 information to move forward to hearings and this is 8 where we are. 9 Our Terms of Reference have given 10 us 45 days to carry out the hearings. We began 11 March the 3rd. We will be finishing next Friday on 12 April the 15th. 13 We obviously want to hear from 14 participants their views about the potential 15 effects of the proposed project of a wide range of 16 factors in the biophysical and in the socioeconomic 17 environment. 18 But we also have a mandate to 19 address two areas relating specifically to 20 Aboriginal persons and communities and I will just 21 address those quickly here. 22 Firstly, we’re required to invite 23 information related to the nature and scope of 24 potential or established Aboriginal rights or title 25 in the area of the proposed project, and also INTERNATIONAL REPORTING INC. 4 1 information on the potential adverse impacts or 2 potential infringement that the proposed project 3 could have on those asserted or established 4 Aboriginal rights or title. 5 We will be including that 6 information in our report, however, we have no 7 mandate to make any determinations or 8 interpretations regarding the validity or strength 9 of any Aboriginal group’s claim to rights and title 10 or treaty rights, nor will we be making findings 11 regarding the scope or nature of the Crown’s duty 12 to consult, and the third factor, whether either 13 Canada or Newfoundland and Labrador have met their 14 respective duties to consult or accommodate. 15 So those are the areas we report 16 what you tell us, we don’t make findings, and 17 that’s in our mandate. 18 However, the secondary, where we 19 do have a mandate to make findings and to make 20 recommendations is with respect to the current use 21 of land and resources, including aquatic resources 22 by Aboriginal persons for traditional purposes. 23 So we are very interested in 24 hearing from you about that area of information. 25 As I say, we can make findings, we can make INTERNATIONAL REPORTING INC. 5 1 recommendations. 2 After the hearings are completed 3 we have 90 days to complete our report and the 4 report will have a summary of what we’ve heard and 5 also are the panel’s conclusions and the panel’s 6 recommendations. 7 We give that report to the Federal 8 Minister of Environment and the Minister of 9 Environment and Conservation for the Province of 10 Newfoundland and Labrador. The two Ministers will 11 make the report public. 12 I must emphasize that we have an 13 advisory role. We are not the decision makers in 14 this instance. It will be government that makes 15 the decisions on the project. However, we have -- 16 positive experience has shown the panel reports 17 have been taken very seriously. 18 I’d just like to draw your 19 attention to the fact that we finish out the 20 hearings with two days set aside for closing 21 remarks on April the 14th and 15th. We’ve recently 22 issued some procedures for these sessions that you 23 can find on the registry website. If you intend to 24 make closing remarks I suggest you can find more 25 information about that if you’re going to register INTERNATIONAL REPORTING INC. 6 1 to make closing remarks the deadline is April the 2 10th so it’s kind of coming up. 3 So, as I said before, in a moment 4 I will ask the Proponent to make their presentation 5 about the project and then I will invite you to 6 come forward. 7 Just before we do that, I believe 8 that the Proponent -- I’m going to ask the 9 Proponent if they have any housekeeping matters to 10 deal with. 11 MR. G. BENNETT: Thank you, Madam 12 Co-Chair. 13 Yes, I do have a couple of items 14 before I turn over to Mr. Burlingame for this 15 morning’s presentation. 16 We have three outstanding 17 undertakings. I just wanted to review those 18 quickly with the panel. 19 The first one that I’d like to 20 talk about is Undertaking 94, which was in respect 21 of the transmission of power to coastal 22 communities, and there were two aspects to that 23 question. 24 The first one was a discussion on 25 the merits of having AC and DC transmission lines INTERNATIONAL REPORTING INC. 7 1 on the same structure. So we have a brief note put 2 together. We’ll be filing that with the 3 Secretariat some time today. 4 The second question spoke to the 5 cost of transmission in the coastal communities. 6 And this was formally looked at by the Public 7 Utilities Board in Hydro’s 2001 General Rate 8 Application and at that time the cost of the 9 transmission facilities was in the order of $300 10 million. It was greater than $300 million. Now 11 since then we’ve got escalation and commodity and 12 labour. 13 But the other thing, of course, 14 that’s interesting right now is that Vale has 15 expressed interest in having an interconnection to 16 their mine at Voisey’s Bay, so that’s certainly a 17 new dimension that’s into this process now. 18 And from what I understand from 19 messages from back home and things being reported 20 in the media, that there is a renewed interest in 21 this interconnection question and certainly Hydro 22 will be taking that on within their regulatory 23 regime and I suspect they’re going to be reporting 24 back to either government or the Public Utilities 25 Board on updates to those costs with that new INTERNATIONAL REPORTING INC.