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22nd Annual Kipawa River Rally
June 21 and 22, 2008 |
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The Kipawa River Rally is Back in 2008!
After the troubles with PWGSC that marred our 20th anniversary festival in 2006, and after having to cancel the 21st annual festival in 2007, again because of problems with PWGSC...we are back, and very hopeful that we can once again host a trouble-free community river festival on the Kipawa in 2008. We have been in touch with PWGSC. They have given us some assurance that traditional water levels will be available for the festival and that they will co-operate in making our 22nd annual festival a success. |
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2007 Kipawa River Rally Cancelled
(see details below) |
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Les Amis English Media Contact: |
Les Amis French Media Contact: |
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THE PRESS ROOM
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PARLIAMENTARY PRESS CONFERENCE
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On June 20, 2007, three days before opening day for the 2007 Kipawa River Rally, prepresentatives of Les Amis de la Rivière Kipawa were in the Parlamentary Press Gallery of Canada in the Center Block of the Canadian Parliament buildings, giving a press conference on the role that PWGSC played in the cancellation of the 21st annual festival.
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ABOUT LES AMIS
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| Les Amis de la Rivière Kipawa is a registered non-profit organization, entirely run by volunteers with no paid staff. Our mission is to protect and promote the ecological and recreational values of the Laniel-to-Lake-Temiscamingue section of the Kipawa River. Protecting ecological values means ensuring the aquatic ecosystem is protected, maintained or enhanced, protecting fish habitat in the river and in Lake Temiscamingue around the mouth of the river. Protecting recreational values means promoting the area's rich history and natural heritage, recognizing the river's recreational use, and protecting and promoting the future tourism and recreation potential of the river and the region. Les Amis maintains this bilingual website providing information about the Kipawa River as a destination for paddlers, a description of all of the rapids, and a description of some of the threats faced by this river. In 1998 Les Amis initiated a project to have the Laniel to Lake Temiscamingue section of the Kipawa River nominated as a Heritage River under the Canadian Heritage Rivers program. At the time, the Canadian Heritage Rivers program fell under the jurisdiction of Parks Canada. A draft nomination document was produced. It had the support of the local municipality. Unfortunately the process was discontinued because we learned that the Québec government refuses to participate and there are no rivers in Québec designated as Heritage Rivers. Les Amis continues to promote the recreational and ecological values of the Kipawa River to interested groups such as at the Canadian Heritage Rivers Conference held in Guelph, Ontario in June of 2004 and Winnipeg in June of 2007, and at various other conferences relevant to river use and preservation. Les Amis has monitored potential impacts to the river such as the proposed Hydro-Quebec Tabaret diversion project and participated in consultations with Hydro-Quebec in 1998 and 1999. We informed the public about the threats to the Kipawa consequent to these plans. In 1999, Les Amis launched an effort to build a seven-km trail along the banks of the Kipawa River, in partnership with the local municipality. Funds raised by Les Amis and contributed to this project totalled about $35,000. Les Amis has continued to support the trail by providing maintenance grants to the local municipality. The Les Amis constituion clearly stipulates that all funds raised by the organization must to directly to projects that benefit the Kipawa River. Over the years, Les Amis has become recognized as a legitimate stakeholder concerning issues affecting the Kipawa River and watershed. |
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ABOUT OUT LEGAL CASE
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In March 2005 Les Amis learned of the plans of Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) to replace the flood control dam at Laniel, Québec. This dam was built in 1910-1911.
Les Amis fully supports the effort to replace this aging structure. It should have been replaced many years aog. However, Les Amis' public and clearly stated position has been that the new dam structure should not make navigation more difficult or less safe than navigation has been with the old structure, either by design or through future operation. Les Amis has taken every possible step to make PWGSC and Transport Canada (TC) aware that the Kipawa River, including the spillway of Laniel dam, is navigable and to document and provide background history of the safe navigation. Les Amis believes that replacement of the dam and specifically the spillway in a manner that does not destroy navigation can be achieved at no additional or minimal additional cost to the project overall. Given the age and state of deterioration of the dam, Les Amis, supports its refurbishment and modernization. Les Amis made this support clear verbally and in writing during the environmental screening process, however, it has asserted on behalf of all users of the river at this location that modernization of the dam should not be used to destroy the historical right of navigation at this site and that once the Project is complete water flow through the new spillway should mimic hydrological conditions of the current dam that has been operating since on or about 1911. Despite the historical evidence and knowledge of safe navigation, PWGSC has ignored impact on navigation rights as part of their environmental screening for the dam project. In fact PWGSC has never acknowledged that such a right ever existed in the first place. On the erroneous and uninformed premise that the spillway has never been legally navigable or is too dangerous to navigate, PWGSC has proceeded with the project to alter the structure of the Dam to render the history, right, and safe practice of navigation by recreational and commercial craft an extinct practice. Les Amis launched this application, as a last resort when all efforts to engage PWGSC in meaningful dialog had completely failed. The membership of Les Amis is comprised of ordinary citizens. As volunteers serving on the executive of our non-profit group, we do not have knowledge or past experience with environmental screening processes. Les Amis never launched legal proceedings before. What we do have is many years of experience navigating the Kipawa River safely and the purpose of our application for judicial review in federal court is to obtain an unbiased and independent judicial determination concerning navigability of the Kipawa River at Laniel. PWGSC has never acknowledged that the Kipawa at this location constitutes a navigable waterway under the Navigable Waters Protection Act, and has failed to consider or acknowledge the loss of that right of navigation as a significant environmental effect. PWGSC, based on an misguided assertion of ensuring safety to the public and an unsupported claim of illegality, based on vague concerns about potential liability and on uninformed assumptions and prejudice, and juxtaposed against contradictory facts and evidence presented and never refuted or discredited, is proceeding with a project that will prohibit safe navigation of the river at Laniel now and in the future. PWGSC has never articulated or substantiated to Les Amis why and how the evidence and history Les Amis tendered of safe navigation of the spillway at Laniel has no value worth preserving, carries no weight and deserves no proper consideration. Les Amis seeks to preserve the navigation rights and heritage value of this navigable waterway. As a volunteer run, not-for-profit association Les Amis participated in good faith and made best efforts in the face of roadblocks and stonewalling by PWGSC, to bring forward relevant historical background to the project proponent and the responsible authorities for the environmental assessment, the history, the economic, social and heritage values surrounding navigation of the Kipawa River, so that these factors would be considered and weighed in the environmental screening of the project and in assessing whether changes or modifications would be necessary to the project to ensure that these values were preserved. However, once PWGSC learned of Les Amis' position on navigation of the spillway, PWGSC proceeded to throw a cloud of secrecy over its processes, hide information in the EA public registry, and purposefully marginalize and actively work against and discredit Les Amis, in contravention of CEAA. We believe PWGSC's arbitrary and agressive actions against our volunteer organization were intentionally retributive and punitive. For more inforamtion about our legal case and to view documents filed with the federal court, see our Navigation Rights page. |
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