Waswanipi trappers and community leaders remain deeply concerned about Chief John Kitchen’s $5.8-million sawmill project, according to a study done for the band’s forestry company.
The 146-page review of the joint Waswanipi-Domtar project shows the community is divided over the benefits of the project, concerned about its effects on the environment and Cree way of life, and skeptical about its financial wisdom.
Nearly all the tallymen and trappers interviewed said logging has already had serious impacts on the area. A major concern is that logging roads have given non-Natives greater access to Cree lands, which has put strains on wildlife and led to robberies of hunting equipment.
Others opposing the sawmill include CTA Fur Officer Paul Dixon, Robert Kitchen of the Cree Business Development Bank and Jimmy Moore, economic development agent at the Waswanipi Development Corp.
Billy Cooper, tallyman for the W16 trapline east of Waswanipi, said all his equipment was stolen three years ago, except his canoe. Not long afterwards, thieves came back for his canoe.
“Half my land is clearcut,” he said in an interview at his camp on the Chibougamau River. “It’s very easy to walk there! I can’t find even one portage. They’ve all been destroyed by Barrette-Chapais.
“The sawmill project contradicts everything we say about protecting the Cree Territory. How can it help the community when my children suffer from cutting the trees on my trapline? This project is first and foremost a question of money for its promoter, the president of Mishtuk.”
Tallyman Harry Capississit said he’s also been robbed and no longer leaves equipment on his trapline, W15.
Capississit said he doesn’t want the sawmill built on his land because pollution would leave nothing to hunt or fish. All three proposed locations are within miles of W15.
Jackie Gull, tallyman of the trapline where the sawmill is likely to be located, W20, said forestry operations on his land “have been disturbing.” But he added he would support the sawmill if Mishtuk Corp. listens to the concerns of trappers.
Gull said forestry companies should clean up before leaving, especially industrial wastes. They must also leave more trees standing along riverbanks, he said.
Mishtuk signed an agreement in March to build the sawmill with Domtar Inc., a $2.1-billion company 43-per-cent owned by Quebec government agencies. Concern for the environment in the community forced Mishtuk to agree to an environmental impact review of the sawmill and of the cutting of trees for the project The review was completed in August by Roche Ltd. Consulting Group, which in the past has done work for Hydro-Quebec.
The community will discuss the review at a public meeting this week.
The review has been criticized for devoting 126 pages to describing the details of the sawmill project and only 16 to the impacts. Interviews with community members are included in an appendix, but only in French. The document is difficult to understand because of poor translation from French to English. It is not available in Cree.
