The IJC's grand farce
The public has a chance, for the next week or so, to weigh in with the International Joint Commission on its proposed “new” water regulation plan, Plan 2007. In the north country, the proposal has raised a furor because the plan pretty much completely ignores a $20 million study that gave three essential options, none of which was Plan 2007. The study suggested that Plan B+, which would most closely adhere to natural rhythms of water levels, would be the most environmentally beneficial, and it has been strongly embraced here.Along the south shore of Lake Ontario, however, Plan B+ is regarded as the worst possible option, because it would allow fluctuations of lake levels that would, at times, swamp docks, decks and perhaps even cottages with high water. And thus the battle lines appear to have been drawn: the north country's desire to return to a prepower project situation in which water levels follow nature's course, and the lake country's fear of losing valuable waterfront improvements.
Sounds like a classic battle – but it likely isn't a battle at all. The reality of the IJC deliberations is this: the die was cast long before the public ever even saw the plans. The IJC will march to the tune that the Seaway Corp. and its affiliated shipping interests play, and that tune is “Don't Rock the Boat.”
When the Province of Quebec told the IJC that it didn't want ANY changes in the water level rules, it was telling both the north country and the lake region that their concerns don't really matter. What matters is that the St. Lawrence River have consistently navigable water levels at Montreal and beyond so that valuable shipping traffic has a reliable and consistent navigation channel. Period. End of debate.
There is absolutely no reason to believe that the IJC will be swayed from whatever path they have decided to embark upon. Through every period of outcry and angst – high water woes or low – the IJC has remained aloof and unyielding. It has a tiny constituency – the St. Lawrence Seaway – and all the other voices are just noise.
You have to give Save the River and other north country organizations credit for a marvelous job of marshaling the forces in favor of Plan B+. Jennifer Caddick and her merry band have fought a good fight. And I'm certain that the groups who have united on the south shore of the lake have likewise effectively organized their lobby. They might as well, however, have been throwing paper airplanes into a stiff offshore breeze. It won't help, especially here, where Plan B+ is so far removed from what the IJC is going to select that there will be no one even remotely happy with the decision. For the lake region interests, it won't be perfect but at least it will offer protection against their worst fears.
That will leave the north country once again out in the cold, while the IJC goes blithely marching along to the drumbeat of its real master. But only for another 50 years, when the grand farce will play out again.
posted by Kentsboss @ 11:20 AM
4 Comments:
The St. Lawrence Seaway is a modern transportation system that has consistently lived up to all expectations and will be a viable shippng mechanism for the next 300 years. An environmental nightmare? Sure. But without this marvel of engineering and forethought the city of Toronto would collapse -- that's a fact. Four years ago Seaway Corp. reps told me that the crown jewel of the Canadian riviera almost ran out of sugar because the river was closed for the winter. Is that what the Thousand Islands tree huggers want, bakeries without cookies, coffee with just cream, dentists without overtime? America, if you screw this up, heaven help you.
A Canadian Patriot
To anonymous 10:06AM-- You fat Canucks can do without a little sugar... or maybe get it by rail.
You want Canadians to get their sugar via rail? RAIL? Listen good, trains are for Jesse James and 19th century American presidential candidates. I'd rather eat a bucket of bilge water from a Black Sea freighter than any baked good containing so much as an ounce of sugar imported by rail.
A Canadian Patriot
I have lived on the river my entire life and have seen how much it has changed. You can't catch perch or pike or muskellunge like you used to. You have to wear shoes now so as not to get cut on the zebra mussels when you walk on bottom. Don't even get me started about the round gobies. The water levels drop so much in late summer that if your boat is still in the water in September, you'd better hope you have enough money to pay for the repairs from the damage it sustains trying to get it out.
Whether Canadians have enough sugar for their afternoon tea is not my concern.
This river is our way of life. For many of us, it is directly tied to our livelihood. I've seen too many changes in it over my short 30-year life to want to allow the status quo to continue. The IJC wasted $20 million on a plan that everyone up here liked, only to turn around and scrap it because the southern shore of Lake Ontario didn't like it. I'm sick of the St. Lawrence River being treated as a drainage ditch for the Great Lakes, just so ships can pass by but never stop, our local port can be largely ignored, our shoreline can be ravaged, and our tourism industry will continue to flounder.
What's next? Winter navigation? Grow up, Canada. Get back to your roots and learn how to make maple sugar, hosers!
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