Why are Quebec's hydro-electric projects subject to environmental assessments? The Toulnustouc hydro-electric project comes to mind, and it represents 526 megawatts of clean energy. It is acknowledged that, environmentally speaking, this is clean technology.
Moreover, this project reminds me a great deal about what occurred in 2001. From time to time I meet with people from Hydro-Quebec. They are not very pleased with the lead times and the number of questions imposed on them with respect to these projects.
The act was adopted on 1995 and the first oil sands extraction project was assessed in 2003. However, meanwhile, Hydro-Quebec has continued submitting clean energy hydro-electric projects.
Why do we have to conduct environmental assessments for these projects? Perhaps I am completely off base, but I would like somebody to explain why we have to do environmental assessments for hydro-electric projects but not for oil sands projects.