ONE OF the reasons that former federal environment minister Lucien Bouchard pulled the pin and went back to the separatist side was because he found himself having to fight his home province of Quebec over the issue of the $6-billion expansion of the James Bay power project. Bouchard's difemma was due in part to Western pressure for him to take a tough stand on James Bay. The Federal Court of Canada had ruled against completion of the Raffert-Alameda dam in Saskatchewan and a drastic reduc- tion of the Oldman River dam in Alberta on grounds that proper environmental impact assessments had not been done. The same situation applies to the James Bay project. But Quebec is determined to push ahead no mat- ter what. As things stand, a two- stage environmental assessment is scheduled, but Quebec doesn’t want Ottawa or the Federal Court involved at all in the first stage, which will look at the planning for roads, airports and terminals. L Quebec does indeed break away Jrom Canada, the restraining head of the Sederal regulatory system will be lifted, and there will be nothing to stop Quebec from doing what its economic and political elite wants.”’ The second — and most critical — stage will examine the impact of reservoirs, powerhouses, dikes and dams on the environment. Quebec has demanded that this review be completed in four months, which is to say that the province wants to ram the project through. Such short hearings, measured against the scale of the project, would be virtually useless. Herein lies the nub of the en- vironmental problem so far as the separatist question is concerned. Clearly, federal regulations — backed up by the Federal Court — serve a useful purpose in applying a brake to overly-ambitious, ill thought-out provincial megapro- jects. Neither Saskatchewan nor Alberta was happy about having the Rafferty-Alameda and Oldman projects kneecapped. Premiers Grant Devine and Don Getty were determiner to make sure Bouchard didn't weasel out on applying the same firm regula- tions to James Bay. If the extension of the James Bay project, called the Great White development, goes ahead as planned, it will mean the flooding of 4,534 square miles of black spruce forest and the diversion of numerous rivers. Inevitably, there will be a hor- rendous impact on the ecosystem of Northern Quebec. An area half the size of Lake Ontario will be inundated. The wilderness involved has been described as ‘ta unique and valuable asset, something that not many other parts of the world possess.”* if Quebec does indeed break away from Canada, the restraining head of the federal regulatory system will be lifted, and there will be nothing to stop Quebec from doing what its economic and polit- ical elite wants. That may make Quebec na- tionalists happy. But it certainly won't delight the 9,700 Cree living in the doomed area. So far as environmentalists are concerned, it will be an unmitigat- ed ecological disaster, not simply because of the physical destruction involved, but because of the excess hydroelectric power that will be generated: the very stuff that will encourage the construction of ad- ditional aluminum smelters, mag- nesium plants and other forms of polluting industry. If we would look for other ex- amples of the federal system work- ing to the advantage of the en- vironment, we need look no fur- ther than to South Moresby, which would certainly never have become a park without enormous pressure coming to bear on Bil) Vander Zaim from Ottawa. Without intervention from the rest of the nation, South Moresby’s Lyell Island today would be a collection of sturnps. It should be noted that in all the above-mentioned cases, we are dealing with a federal government that is notoriously anti-en- vironmental. If Ottawa has acted as a brake on bad environmental policies set by greedy provincial regimes, it is only because the division of federal and provincial powers leaves en- vironmentalists in a position to play one set of bureaucrats off against another. While this may not seem like a profound a7 stirring reason to preserve Confederation, it is, in practical terms, an advantage that Balkanization of the country would eliminate, making preserva- tion of our natura! heritage that much harder to achieve. Left to their own devices, the Vander Zafms and Bourassas and Devines and Gettys could turn into unstoppable despoilers. Moreover, because we would all be poorer in a divided Canada, there would be more pressure than ever on provincial premiers — or presidents or prime ministers, whatever they wanted to call themselves — to go for the fast buck in terms of selling off resources or giving in to foreigners wanting to set up pulp mills and factories. 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