From of Earth Action
Action also reported in the Journal Pioneer (Summerside), December 1.
On the afternoon of Friday, November 30, a dozen concerned Islanders
gathered in front of the Maritime Electric / Fortis office in Charlottetown.
(Note: Fortis Inc. owns the Maritime Electric, PEI's only electricity provider).
The demonstrators spoke out loudly against Fortis' plans to build a hydroelectric dam that will flood rainforest in Belize, destroy the
habitat of rare, threatened, and endangered species, and inundate
unexplored relics of the ancient Maya civilization.
Demonstrators handed out factsheets about the dam, and spoke to pedestrians and people going to pay their bills at the Maritime Electric office.
People carried placards with colour pictures of the Scarlet Macaw and Jaguar, and phrases like:
"FORTIS DOESN'T CARE ABOUT US"
"AT RISK - THANKS TO FORTIS"
"DAMN FORTIS' DAM"
A megaphone amplified explanations of the issue and initiated chants such as:
"Maritime Electric, PLEASE! Don't you dare flood Belize!"
"Listen Fortis. Don't ignore us. Don't dare flood, the rainforest."
"DAMN THE DAM"
After a while we were belatedly greeted by Maritime Electric public relations representative .
A number of people were well briefed on the issues, the economics, the
alternatives, and the British Natural History Museum study, and they
debated the issue lively for roughly 1 1/2 hours with Maritime Electric
representatives, who provided standard Fortis arguments in favor of the dam.
One demonstrator entered the Maritime Electric offices, and distributed
factsheets to those inside.
Following the meeting with Angus Orford, by chance, we met Jim Lea, the CEO of Maritime Electric <[email protected]>. As he was opening the door to enter an office we offered him a factsheet. He took it and looked at it, then stopped for an impromptu 45-minute debate.
During the discussion, Jim Lea said "Whatever we do has a negative impact.
Nothing comes without an environmental impact." and "The dam will result in
loss of habitat. I agree with you." Then he continued that the impact would
be small.
Follow-up:
On Dec. 6 there was a phone in show on CBC's "Island Morning" radio show.
On this show I was able to raise the Fortis dam issue and key arguments, mention the protest and the website.
The host mentioned the Halifax demo and the costumes, etc.
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