Hydro-Quebec deal would place N.B. among greenest provinces: Miles

FREDERICTON - Ahead of global climate change talks in Copenhagen, New Brunswick's environment minister says the tentative sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec would make his province one of the greenest in Canada.
After tabling a report in the legislature Wednesday on the environmental benefits of the proposed power pact, Rick Miles jetted to Ottawa to meet with his federal counterpart, Jim Prentice.
"Environment ministers from across Canada came to the table to relay our climate change concerns and what we'd like to see come out of Copenhagen," said Miles.
The aim of the Copenhagen talks, a two-week conference that gets underway Dec. 7, is to hammer out a new international climate-change treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
In anticipation of new global targets, Miles said the sale of NB Power to Hydro-Quebec would help reduce the province's annual greenhouse gas emissions by 11 per cent.
John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada, said New Brunswick has some of the dirtiest oil and coal burning power plants in the country.
"Taking these offline and using the surplus hydroelectric capacity of Quebec is a significant step for the environment," he said.
Bennett said oil and coal power plants release harmful pollution into the air, which cause climate change and can affect human health.
"For people in New Brunswick - especially for people in the towns around these power plants - using more hydro power will mean a cleaner environment to live in," he said. The closure of all of NB Power's carbon-based facilities would result in annual reductions of more than six megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, 33,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide, 13,000 tonnes of nitrogen oxides, 6.5 tonnes of volatile organic compounds and 96 kilograms of mercury, according to the government report. While the Grand Lake and Dalhousie power stations are already set to close mid-2010, the agreement could accelerate the closure of the Coleson Cove and Belledune stations.
"It's true that we could hit some of these targets without the deal," Miles said. "But this allows us to reduce emissions more quickly and in fact exceed the targets we set for the province in 2007 with our climate change action plan."
Dale Marshall, an Ottawa-based climate change policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation, said the deal with Hydro-Quebec would be a boon for the environment.

"I think the environmental benefits are quite substantial," he said.
But Marshall said new mega dams that Hydro-Quebec has planned for northern Quebec are cause for concern.

"Many people would vehemently oppose any expansion of these mega dams in Quebec," he said. "There is significant environmental damage caused from flooding large swaths of land and it can also ruin animal habitat and interfere with native hunting."


The plan, announced during the run-up to elections in Quebec last year, is aimed at developing resources in the region, particularly on the La Romaine River, which would be used for a $6.5-billion hydroelectric project.

"If the deal is about shipping excess power from Quebec into New Brunswick - which means just running more water through the already existing turbines - it's an excellent deal for the environment," said Bennett.

"But if it's a move by Hydro-Quebec to ship more power to the U.S. then it will inevitably create additional environmental problems there with these mega dams."