The Innu are angry that a federal environmental review committee has recommended a doubling of the number of low-level military flights over their lands to 41 per day.
“Recommending an increase in the number of flights while recognizing that little information is available about the impacts is completely irresponsible,” said Innu Nation President Peter Penashue.
“The recommendations of the committee are based on economic considerations and not environmental ones,” he said in a press release.
The committee’s report, eight years in the making, acknowledges that little is known about the impacts of the flights, but concludes that the number of flights can be increased to 15,000 a year anyway.
The report stated that environmental fears aren’t as important as the jobs created by the local air base. thecommittee also authorizes the military to expand its training area from 100,000 to 130,000 square kilometres.
And it calls for the creation of a research institute to study the impacts of the bombing runs, conducted mostly in river valleys in eastern Quebec and Labrador rich with wildlife. “There exists almost no cause-and-effect study of the impacts of low-level flights in the region,” says the report. “We cannot remain in such ignorance.”
