The dark underbelly of Opemican - the Elephant is in the Room

An ecological calamity

Many have serious reservations concerning the proposed Opemican Provincial Park.

This is an enormous land grab on the part of the province of Quebec.

The proposed boundaries for the park follow the natural shore line of Lake Temiscamingue for over 25 kilometers between Pointe Opemican and the Kipawa River except for the area around Lost Creek.

At Lost Creek the park boundary becomes narrowed where Hydro Quebec has proposed its Tabaret project. Tabaret would divert the majority of the water that flows down the Kipawa River into a man made channel then into a hydro dam that would be constructed within a few hundred meters of the park boundary.

This would greatly diminish the integrity of the Kipawa River and create a backwater on Kipawa Lake between Stenhouse Bay and Laniel which is the natural drainage for the lake.

The rapids of the Kipawa River and the waterfall at Grande Chute are two of the main assets and natural wonders of the proposed park yet they do not merit protection from diversion by Hydro Quebec.

Ministry of Parks and Environment officials promoting Opemican Park have admitted that Hydro Quebec and the Tabaret Project were too big and powerful a consideration.

Now is the time to protest too much.