The Great Whale Project

The societal debates around the Great Whale Project, a 3,000-MW installation proposed by Hydro-Québec for the Great Whale River, bordering the Cree and Inuit territories in Northern Quebec, in a sense paved the way for the creation of the Helios Centre.  In the early 1990s, Executive Director Philip Raphals acted as Deputy Scientific Coordinator of the body created to carry out a joint environmental assessment of this project.  The multi-disciplinary team led by Dr. Michel Bouchard developed a unique crosscutting roadmap (the “Guidelines”) for the assessment. The project was withdrawn by the government after the Crown Corporation failed to provide the information required by the panels.