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DAM-L LS: Canadian Press Release on Chamera I (fwd)
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Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2001 10:29:28 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: LS: Canadian Press Release on Chamera I
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Probe International
PRESS RELEASE
June 6, 2001
Government secrecy threatens Canadian democracy,
puts Third World lives at risk
Power to cover-up dooms Canadian agencies to repeat
mistakes, says watchdog group to Federal Task Force
Probe International issued a stinging rebuke of federal
government secrecy in its submission to the Federal
Access to Information Task Force last Friday.
"The Canadian government's predilection for secrecy
is alarming," says Probe International Executive Director,
Patricia Adams. "It threatens Canadian democracy
fundamentally."
The Government makes excessive and unreasonable
use of certain clauses in the Access to Information Act to
protect corporations it awards contracts to from public
scrutiny at the expense of the public interest, says the
Toronto-based environmental and foreign aid watchdog.
Last August, the federal Government set up the task
force to review how the Act is working, and how federal
departments can improve the public's access to information.
The task force is expected to release its final report this fall.
Not only does Probe argue that the government
should apply the access law more in the interest of public
accountability and public safety, it should also apply the law
to the Export Development Corporation, which is presently
exempted. EDC is a Crown corporation that subsidizes
Canadian exporters and foreign investors involved in such
notorious projects as the Three Gorges dam in China and
the Omai gold mine in Guyana.
To illustrate the need for disclosure, Probe cites the
case of the Chamera I dam in India, financed with a $645
million joint loan from the Canadian International
Development Agency (CIDA) and the Export Development
Corporation (EDC) and completed in 1994 but under repair
until 1999.
Probe obtained some 1,600 pages of project-related
documents from CIDA using the Access to Information
Act, but approximately one-fifth of those pages were
severed, often on the grounds that the information
contained in them was submitted confidentially by a third
party. What was released, however, shows that the $1.3
billion Chamera I dam project has been plagued with
problems so severe that consultants hired by CIDA warned
about geological instability around the dam site that "could
lead to a catastrophic event involving not only a major
shortage of power production but, more important than all,
potential losses of lives in the communities installed
downstream of the dam."
"This information has never been released before,
despite its obvious importance to the public interest," says
Patricia Adams. More troubling, a second dam 30
kilometres upstream of Chamera I is now under
construction. But this time only EDC, which is exempt from
the Access to Information Act, is financing it with a $175
million loan. EDC is legally obliged to release nothing, says
Probe International, and under EDC's draft Disclosure
Policy -- due to become official policy at an EDC board
meeting in September -- virtually all of the same types of
documents that divulged extensive problems with
Chamera I, would be classified as confidential for
Chamera II and kept under wraps.
The Canadian International Development Agency
also came in for heavy fire from Probe International for
bowing to corporate clients' demands for confidentiality
instead of upholding the public's right to know.
In one case Probe cites, CIDA refused outright to
disclose the feasibility study for a Vietnamese hydro dam,
Dai Ninh, part of which CIDA paid for and SNC-Lavalin
carried out, because SNC-Lavalin didn't want it disclosed.
Yet CIDA is empowered by the Access to Information Act
to release information such as this, despite corporate
objections, if it is "in the public interest as it relates to public
health, public safety, or protection of the environment,"
points out Gráinne Ryder, Policy Director of Probe
International. "There is a clear case for disclosure here,"
says Ms. Ryder. "The project plans are not available
for review in Vietnam and yet if the dam is built thousands
of Vietnamese peasants will lose their livelihoods."
In the case of another Vietnamese hydro dam,
CIDA's consultants failed to examine how downstream
communities would be affected once the dam began
operating. Last year, when the dam did start up, erratic
water releases drowned 32 people and livestock, and
washed away the crops and fishing gear of thousands in
downstream Cambodia who were unaware and unprepared.
Early disclosure of the CIDA consultants' technical,
economic and environmental review of the project would
have forewarned citizens that proponents had neglected to
assess the risks to downstream communities.
"Secrecy robs citizens of the information they need to
scrutinize government actions," says Ms. Adams. "As such,
the government has created an environment where poorly-
informed decisions are repeated with impunity, and
unchecked risks can be taken with public health and safety."
Probe International has submitted approximately 100
Access to Information requests to nearly a dozen
government departments over the past 15 years.
-30-
For more information contact:
Patricia Adams, Executive Director, Probe International
tel: (416) 964-9223 (ext. 227)
E-mail: patriciadams@nextcity.com
Gráinne Ryder, Policy Director, Probe International,
tel: (416) 964-9223 (ext. 228)
E-mail: grainneryder@nextcity.com
Probe International's submission to the Access to
Information Review Task Force, "Government Secrecy
Threatens Canadian Democracy," can be found at
http://www.probeinternational.org/pi/edc/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=214
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