An event of historic significance is taking place in the Western Valley Region of New Brunswick, and the future of Mactaquac Dam and the Saint John River is at stake. All those who have become cynical about public agencies engaging citizens in matters of public policy should sit up and take notice.
In the past, public engagement has amounted to little more than meetings at which government and industry spokespersons attempted to tell citizens “what they needed to know” so they would agree with the decisions that government and industry had already made and on which they were ready to act.
A public meeting hosted by Transition Town Woodstock on November 25th, provided strong evidence that, with regard to the future of Mactaquac Dam, this time is different. Residents of the Woodstock area met with George Porter, the Director of the NB Power’s Mactaquac Project, and Deborah Nobes, the Project’s Manager of Communications. The upshot of this engagement is that, clearly, something very different is going on.
Both Porter and Nobes emphasized that, as far as they know, the process of broad-spectrum research and genuine public engagement that NB Power is undertaking before engineering decisions are made on the future of the dam and river are unprecedented in the industry.
As they started their presentation, they asked for audience feedback at any point, and they were not disappointed. After the presentation of information on the problematic condition of the dam and the three options under consideration, the questions, comments, and discussion took up the whole central part of the meeting.
The evening then moved on with Porter and Nobes presenting further technical and financial information, which sparked another round of lively discussion including expressions of scepticism about the whole process of public engagement. By the end of the evening, however, Porter and Nobes had been so forthcoming, receptive, and appreciative of the audience’s participation, that scepticism had pretty much vanished.
What NB Power is doing, leading up a decision on the future of Mactaquac Dam and the Saint John River, is truly different than anything we have seen in the past from government or government related agencies. The difference is centred in their research and public engagement programmes.
The research includes 1) a comprehensive biological and physical profile of the river area affected, 2) taking into account the key social and environmental factors involved in the region, 3) full integration of First Nations’ communities into the decision making process, and 4) the engineering and system wide power generation considerations that must also be satisfied before any decision can be made.
One member of the audience said, in effect, “Isn’t this just really an engineering, financial, and electrical system decision? Why doesn’t NB Power just tell us what the best option is?” Porter and Nobes’ response, and the discussion that followed, reinforced the thrust of their presentation: No, this is not just an engineering, financial, and power supply decision. That was the assumption when the dam was built and we don’t want to make that mistake again. More recently, and in a different context, these were the considerations behind the move to sell NB Power to Hydro Quebec and we know how that turned out.
The public engagement programme of the Mactaquac Project will be fully deployed in 2015. The Woodstock meeting was an early step. Judging by the presentation of George Porter and Deborah Nobes, they are putting the right foot forward to convince the sceptics that if they make an effort to engage this historic process on an historic public policy decision, they will not be disappointed.
What to do with Mactaquac Dam is real problem. As the engineers insist, “doing nothing is not an option.” A decision must be made, and this time citizens, as well an engineers will be fully part of the process. NB Power is modeling the change in public policy decision-making that is worthy of a true citizen-based democracy. Let’s hope they hold to it and that the NB government itself begins to follow this example.
Keith Helmuth is member of the Woodstock Sustainable Energy Group.