More than 200 academics from across Canada and the U.S. have added their names to an open letter directed at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling for a temporary halt to federal government support for the Muskrat Falls project.
“It was very, very clear to me, from my own eyes, from the accounts I heard, from residents, from Indigenous people and from the research, the independent research that’s been done — that this project really needs to halt,” said Deborah Cowen, a University of Toronto geography professor.
Cowen was part of a group of researchers who travelled to Labrador in June and met with local Indigenous community representatives and Nalcor officials to discuss the dam and its impacts.
The $12.7-billion hydroelectric project is 90 per cent complete, with first power from it flowing from Labrador to Newfoundland expected in 2019. The infrastructure to transmit that electricity has been in operation since late June.
Environmental concerns
The letter asks the federal government, the provincial government and Nalcor to end all Muskrat Falls work until three demands regarding Indigenous and environmental concerns have been fulfilled.
Deborah Cowen, a University of Toronto professor, travelled to Labrador in June. (University of Toronto)
“We heard the very, very frightening, and really, really powerful accounts of the ecological disasters to come. I say ‘to come,’ because some of them are potential, and some of them are just clearly going to unfold with this dam project as planned,” Cowen told CBC Radio’s Labrador Morning.
Cowen said there are two “ecological disasters” waiting to unfold, involving methylmercury and the North Spur.
The issue of possibly elevated methylmercury levels in waterways once Muskrat Falls is complete was brought to wide attention after a study conducted by Harvard University researchers.
If your land claim is contingent on support for a dam, that’s really not meeting the standards of free, prior and informed consent.– Deborah Cowen
“It was very clear to us that the independent research that’s been done by a team at Harvard, the recommendations of that team had not been followed,” said Cowen.
The letter asks for all of the 2016 Harvard study’s recommendations to be implemented. The province is currently reviewing an independent committee’s recommendations on how best to mitigate possible effects from methylmercury, with no decision yet released.
The academics’ worry with the North Spur — a landmass jutting into the Churchill River, that acts as a natural dam and is being used in the project — is that the only assessments of its stability have been commissioned by Nalcor.
“These are consultants working for the proponents of the project. For scholarly research the benchmark is independent research, and that’s what communities have been asking for, ” said Cowen.
A photo released by Nalcor, shows the North Spur, a naturally-occurring landmass that juts out into the Churchill River. It creates part of the span that will eventually dam the river when the Muskrat Falls project is complete. (Nalcor)
Indigenous concerns
Cowen also questioned whether Indigenous stakeholders had been properly consulted prior to the start of Muskrat Falls construction. She pointed to the government deal with the Innu Nation requiring it allow Muskrat Falls to proceed in exchange for a land claim agreement.
“If your land claim is contingent on support for a dam, that’s really not meeting the standards of free, prior and informed consent,” said Cowen, referring to the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP).
Article 32 of UNDRIP states, in part, of the need “to consult and cooperate in good faith with Indigenous peoples … in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources.”
“Maybe a more just agreement could actually be reached,” said Cowen.