NL Challenges Qubec over Provincial Border

A document has been filed by the Newfoundland and Labrador government with the joint environmental review panel assessing a Quebec Hydro plan to develop three new projects on the Romaine River.

The documents identifies the provinces concerns with the process and the maps being used in the process which depict the head waters of the Romaine River as being inside the province of Quebec. The document was filed on November 27th 2008 but only came to light this week when it was discovered by local media.

A number of times in the past I’ve raised the issue of the Quebec government’s insistence that a large swath of the Labrador portion of Newfoundland and Labrador actually belong to them.

Maps displaying portions of Labrador as belonging to that province have been in wide spread use in Quebec for decades and are still in use today.

Not only are official Quebec provincial maps depicting a part of Southern Labrador as falling under Quebec jurisdiction but in addition to official electoral boundaries maps, tourist maps, mineral claims maps and those produced by Quebec Hydro including the erroneous border, Official Canadian Armed Forces maps depicting the Quebec patrol area now include that area of Labrador as well.

This ongoing attempt by Quebec to claim territory clearly belonging to Newfoundland and Labrador has been a concern for this writer for some time. I know that I, and others, have brought it directly to the attention of the Newfoundland and Labrador government on several occasions.

I don’t know how others have faired when it comes to getting any kind of response from official channels but I can tell you that I’ve had no response at all.

I’ve always felt that this problem is one of those “sleeper” issues that nobody in power seems to be concerned about but which can, and probably will, turn out to be much larger and far more important than most people realize.

Perhaps that concern is about to be confirmed. Only time will tell.

In the submission the government of Newfoundland and Labrador claims the border is “invalidly depicted”, and expresses deep “concern” about not being consulted by either Hydro-Quebec, the government of Quebec or the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency over the issue.

Among other concerns, including the depiction of a non-existent maritime boundary drawn through the Strait of Bell Isle, the submission also notes, "…the headwaters and entire watersheds of the Romaine and the four other major Quebec North Shore rivers appear, incorrectly, to be within Quebec."The submission by the Province requests that these inaccuracies be addressed before any assessment is completed and that issues related to potential environmental impacts inside Labrador be fully addressed.

The document officially presented on behalf of the government of Newfoundland and Labrador appears to be a major departure from its past practice of ignoring Quebec’s boundary claims and is in direct contrast to Premier William’s comments just over two years ago.

At that time Mr. Williams told the St. John’s Telegram, “I don't even understand why it's being raised ... the boundary is not an issue for us. Every so often it will come up on a Quebec map showing the border being wrong, but from our perspective it's not a concern.”"I wouldn't even raise it - by just raising it, with all due respect, even doing articles on it just acknowledges maybe there is an issue here, in the minds of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians."

This about face begs the question, why has Premier Williams, long viewed as standing up for his province, as ensuring “no more giveaways” and who has nurtured an image throughout Canada that he is willing to take on the biggest of the big, not more proactive on this issue?

It also begs the question of whether or not the government of Newfoundland and Labrador is finally challenging Quebec over this issue at the request of the Premier or in spite of him.