ABSTRACT
The Lower Churchill Joint Review Panel was established in 2007 to carry out a public environmental assessment review of a proposed hydroelectric power generation project in Labrador, Canada. Labrador is located along the Atlantic coast of Canada, north of the island of Newfoundland, and south of the territory of Nunavut. The project involved two dams on Labrador’s Churchill River with a combined capacity of about 3000 megawatts of electricity. As such, it offered the potential for secure, renewable, low greenhouse gas-emitting energy for much of Atlantic Canada and beyond. At the same time, large-scale dam projects are known to cause adverse biophysical effects and a range of positive and negative social and economic effects. The potential for sustainability criteria to contribute to good decision making, including whether and how such a project should be permitted to proceed, was considerable in light of this combination of potential benefits and adverse impacts. This chapter explores the efforts made by the Lower Churchill Joint Review Panel to develop and apply sustainability criteria, and what lessons this experience may offer.
