A summary of our submission to the Review Panel
Grand Riverkeeper Labrador is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and protecting the Grand (Churchill) River and its ecological integrity. Our mission includes public awareness, monitoring, research, and habitat restoration to ensure the river’s water quality and ecological health for present and future generations. We are actively involved in advocating for environmental assessments of hydroelectric projects and participate in the Waterkeeper Alliance, a global network of river protection organizations.
GRK has serious concerns about the MOU between Hydro Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro (Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec) and would like to make this submission to the Independent Panel. We do understand from our review of the Committee’s mandate issued by the Province on December 15, 2025 that according to Premier Tony Wakeham, it is being established as a “public inquiry” under Part 11 of the Public Inquiries Act which grants the Committee broad authority to access information they deem necessary for determining their review. We also believe that The Act and the instructions from your mandate quoted below, give you the authority to consider any and all impacts and determine whether they are in the “best long-term interest of the people of the province”… as Premier Wakeham stated at the announcement of the Independent Review.
The attached submission addresses some concerns that we feel need to be addressed under the mandate of the best interest of the people of the province. This submission outlines these concerns and important components to consider. We have outlined some matters that we have researched, this research is rich and covers many other topics that we have addressed here. We are presenting questions about proposed economic benefits, concerns about damage to surrounding areas through contaminants such as mercury, trapped sediments, which leads to ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. and loss of cultural space for surrounding residents.
We intended to show in this letter and as many before us and many after us will document, mega dams and huge reservoirs are nowhere near as clean as proponents want you to believe. We hope that has been accomplished. They emit tons of greenhouse gas that, up to now, has not been counted or regulated. They destroy fisheries, phytoplankton, interrupt regional and global climates, especially in the Arctic; they impact the overturning of the Labrador Current, the massive ocean current that regulates climate for the entire globe; currently they are hugely more expensive than less polluting sources of energy like wind and solar.
Thank you for listening to our concerns.
Mega Dams create MEGA DAMAGE! Are you concerned about the Grand River and the impacts of hydro development? Follow our blog and stay tuned to the latest reports and studies on the subject! GrandRiverKeeper Labrador Inc. monitors what’s happening and will keep you posted on topics of interest. Follow this link. https://blog.grandriverkeeperlabrador.ca/
___________________________________________
Our goal is to preserve and protect the water quality and the ecological integrity of the Grand (Churchill) River and its estuaries for present and future users and for posterity through actions of public awareness, monitoring, research, networking, intervention and habitat restoration. As such one of our key objectives is to bring awareness both locally and globally of the cumulative impacts associated with megadams that we become aware of through our research.
Views: 2