Alcan project to get hearing

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A controversial hydroelectric project in British Columbia that threatened salmon stocks won't be stopped, but it will be subject to a long overdue public hearing, provincial officials said.

On the heels of a report saying Alcan's so-called Kemano Completion Project has a legal right to proceed, the B.C. government announced review plans it hopes will set aside long simmering disputes.

"This huge project was approved without formal public hearings," Premier Mike Harcourt said in a press statement announcing the public hearings.

"My government rejects the kind of deal-making that leads to the project's approval...(But) breaking the agreement could cost B.C. taxpayers well over half a billion dollars."

Alcan's Kemano project, a $1 billion hydroelectric project that will reduce flows in the salmon-rich Nechako River, has been subject to years of opposition and controversy.

About $500 million has already been spent on the half-finished generator, which was approved in Ottawa in 1987 without an environmental review. Since then the project has been in and out of courts on challenges to its environmental review exemption launched by Native communities and environment groups. Project opponents are currently trying to have the Supreme Court of Canada rule on the issue of federal review.

Last week, Victoria lawyer Murray Rankin, a special adviser to the province on Kemano, released a report saying the province should hold a review but had no power to stop the project.

The economic benefits flowing from Kemano outweigh negative environment impacts, which would be limited to specific regions, Rankin said. He also said the province would have to repay money already invested by Alcan if steps were taken

to block the project.

But Rankin also recommended the creation of the review panel and said the Nechako salmon habitat can be maintained through careful management of the river's water level.

Native communities and environmental activists, however, has not put their stamp of approval on the Rankin report or the province's plans.

Justa Monk, chief of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, called Rankin's report

a "legal opinion designed to protect the provincial government."

"We are shocked that the Harcourt government would suggest the Kemano Completion Project should proceed when there are so many unanswered questions,"

he said.

One of the main questions demanding answers from communities along the Nechako is whether Ottawa approved the Alcan development for political reasons.

Several documents leaked to researchers for the Cheslatta band suggest scientists for the federal fisheries departments were coerced into changing the tone of their studies to meet political ends. The leaks fuel beliefs among project opponents that Ottawa and the province ignored data that suggested river flows could dwindle to 13 per cent of their pre-development volume. Such a reduction could devastate the fishery.

Rankin said he hopes the review will bring to light much of the information causing concerns about political influence in the scientific process. Most of the documents relating to the 1987 project approval have been kept secret.