Quebec's northern waters : Eaux nordiques Québecoises : exportables ou non?

Former premier Robert Bourassa (1985) authored a book which looked back with pride at the completion of the first phase of his James Bay hydro project, opening the way for further hydro developments in the north, but he also included a chapter anticipating the export of water itself, influenced by the “GRAND Canal” model developed by Thomas Kierans in 1959. [...] And the potential remains to conserve more water in the future, especially in the highly-subsidized irrigation economies of the western states. [...] Gingras seems unaware is that the governments of Canada and the United States, the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the eight Great Lakes states have already moved during the past decade in precisely the opposite direction, toward prohibiting diversion of water out of the Great Lakes basin in any direction. [...] Shortly afterward the Great Lakes premiers and governors followed up this issue and negotiated two agreements, one (non-binding legally) among the provinces and states sharing the basin, and the other an interstate compact to prohibit substantial or permanent water removal from the Great Lakes, the latter ratified by Congress and signed by the President (P. [...] Nothing is said in the Northern Waters plan with respect to threats to aboriginal rights or to biodiversity in this region, other than that the authors are “respectful of the environment.” It is as though no value exists at present in the water of this area of origin.