Out of the Rhetoric and Into the Reality of Local Women’s Lives

This submission is presented by the Mokami Status of Women Council (MSWC) with the support of FemNorthNet to the Environmental Assessment Panel on the Lower Churchill Hydroelectric Development Project. The MSWC is a feminist, equality-seeking organization that has been operating in Happy Valley-Goose Bay since 1979. This paper raises three concerns: i) the local socio-economic impacts of a large-scale development like the Lower Churchill hydroelectric project; ii) inadequacies in NALCOR’s current Environmental Impact Assessment and related labour market issues; and iii) recommendations for preventing and/or mitigating the negative social impacts of this development on the women and communities of the Upper Lake Melville region.