Greenhouse gas emissions are making our world warmer and sometimes drier, so what do we propose in response? Cut the emissions? Maybe a bit, someday, but that’s hard to do — so why not try something easier and quicker? Just look at what the Montreal Economic Institute is proposing.
This group of economists, business leaders and former federal and provincial politicians suggests in a paper that water from the Waswanipi, Broadback and Bell rivers in northern Quebec should be diverted into the headwaters of the Ottawa, to raise water levels at the Port of Montreal.
Playing with water ecology is exceedingly risky. Look at what happened when we built the St. Lawrence Seaway. Economically, it was a good idea to allow small ocean-going ships to enter the Great Lakes, but from an ecological point of view the seaway changed the fresh-water balance of nature. Ships have brought sea-going lamprey eels and zebra mussels into the lakes. When we interfere massively with nature, nature bites back.
The Montreal study suggests a diversion of massive proportions, radically altering the flow of water in northern Quebec. It would drain wetlands of the rivers flowing north — those wetlands being the lifeblood of land and water environments. Also, the damning of rivers causes mercury to leach into the water, poisoning fish or rendering them unfit to eat.
On the other side of the barrier, water flow in the Ottawa River is likely to increase by 40 per cent. (One wonders if residents in flood-prone Britannia should run out asap to buy rowboats.) And there are the millions of effects that higher water levels would have on shoreline, fish, birds, animals, water quality — you name it.
Ottawa Riverkeeper Meredith Brown called the proposal “hare-brained.” She’s right.
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