Since the Seperatist Party gained power in Quebec in the election of 1994, the debate over James Bay Phase II has had some major developments. The most important of these was a declaration by Quebec Premier Jacques Parizeau on November 18, 1994, that the Great Whale phase of the Projects are postponed (see Rutland Herald, Nov. 19, 1994, p.1; Washington Post, Sunday, Nov. 20, 1994, p 34A-35A). Since a major goal of the larger movement has been to prevent the Great Whale Project, this was at first greeted as a major victory. However, two important facts remain: 1) While construction itself is now "postponed", the regulatory and environmental review processes which will allow construction to occur are still ongoing (and, as pointed out above, the reviews themselves are bureaucratic self-stimulation). This fact gives every indication that Hydro-Quebec has no intention of giving up on Great Whale; although the bulldozers are not moving, the legal paperwork is.
We cannot consider Great Whale to be shelved until all regulatory procedures to allow construction are halted. 2) This development still says nothing regarding the fundamental issue of native self-determination in northern Quebec. The separatists still want to drag the northern indigenous peoples away from Canada with them; the extinguishment provision of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975 (legally stripping the native peoples of their rights to protest future developments on cultural grounds) is still a racist tool of manipulation; there are still major problems with HQ's enactment of the Agreement itself.
Rather than being shelved, the announced postponement of the Great Whale Project is more likely a political move to take some steam out of the native rights movement in Quebec, which is highly critical of the current drift towards secession from Canada. As stated (perhaps by mistake) by Hubert Thibault, an adviser to Quebec Premier Parizeau, "The project has not stopped. No one has asked Hydro-Quebec to stop the project irreversibly." Eliminating the debate over the Great Whale phase of the James Bay Projects would be an effective way of reducing the dialogue which has been damaging to the secessionist movement. Quebec must know, however, that those who opposed Great Whale will continue to do so, and will continue to address the issues which allowed the James Bay Projects to begin in the first place.