The 'Great Whale River' (French: ''Grande rivière de la Baleine'') is a 724 km long
river in
Nunavik,
Quebec,
Canada. It flows from
Lac Bienville west to
Hudson Bay. Its drainage area encompasses 42,700 km² and its average discharge is about 680 cubic metres per second.
[1]
Both the northern village of
Kuujjuarapik, whose inhabitants are mostly
Inuit, and the
Cree village of
Whapmagoostui are situated at the mouth of the river, near the site of the former RCAF Station Great Whale River. The villages were formerly known collectively as "Great Whale River" and "Poste-de-la-Baleine."
The state-owned power utility,
Hydro-Québec, planned in the early 1970s to construct three
hydroelectric power stations on the Grande-Baleine River as a part of the
James Bay Project.
[2] Although detailed planning for the project was only begun in 1986, opposition from Crees, Inuit, environmental organizations like
Greenpeace and the
Friends of the Earth and other activists led the
Premier of Quebec,
Jacques Parizeau, to announce in November 1994, that the project was suspended indefinitely.
See also
★
List of Quebec rivers
Sources
1. The Atlas of Canada Site
2. James Bay and Northern Québec Agreement, ch. 8.1.3, pp. 114-115.
★
Cree Legal Struggle Against Great Whale Project
★
The Great Whale Project
External links
★
General description, map and images
★
Photos
★
Hydro-Quebec and the Great Whale Project. Environmental/development negotiations; stakeholder analysis.