Case Studies of Fish Habitat Compensation in Eeyou Istchee: Compensation Projects Prioritize Facility over Effectiveness : Fish Habitat Compensation in Eeyou Istchee: Is Trying Enough?

Industrial activity, particularly hydropower and mining projects and their associated road networks, are prevalent in Eeyou Istchee, the traditional home of the Crees in the James Bay region of Northern Quebec. Since the mid-1980s, industry proponents must outline plans for fish habitat compensation in order to receive authorization from Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans to engage in any development activity that will result in the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish or fish habitats. The goal of these fish habitat compensation projects is No Net Loss of Canada's fish habitat productivity, with fish habitat compensation serving as a compromise between continued industrial development and the preservation of Canada's fisheries resources. In this paper, we outline five recent industrial development projects and their associated fish habitat compensation projects in Eeyou Istchee. These projects include a hydropower project, two mining projects, a road extension project, and the repair of two existing roads. The inclusion of Cree traditional knowledge, the impacts of the development projects on fish and fish habitats, the avoidance and minimization measures taken during the habitat compensation work, and the implemented fish habitat compensation projects are summarized and compared for each project. The priority for these five fish habitat compensation projects was their structural integrity and potential ability to function as designed, rather than any proven beneficial effects on fish reproduction and fish population dynamics. In cases where fish populations continued to decline despite the habitat compensation projects, nothing further was done. Proponents were only held accountable for the completion of the planned compensation work, but not for the consequences of their fish habitat compensation projects.