Cross-Currents: Hydroelectricity and the Engineering of Northern Ontario

CHAPTER ONE: The Rites of Development

Chapter One The Rites of Development Most people in southern Canada give little thought to the rivers that flow north into James Bay. They remain largely unknown and unknowable; mysterious entities located somewhere ‘‘up there’’ or on the reverse side of the Ontario road map. While some people might have received descriptive snippets of information about the rivers from friends, family and the media, these vicarious experiences of the northern rivers have often left the impression that they are perhaps pleasant to visit but not to live by, surrounded by bush and swamp, epitomized by mosquitos and black flies, and harsh, windchilled winters. Yet the rivers have sustained thriving aquatic and animal communities for millennia and have supported human activities for centuries : they have acted as major transportation routes for Aboriginal peoples, fur traders, explorers, surveyors, and recreationists; they have quenched thirst, and the fish living within them have eased hunger. Many of these rivers have been the heart of logging, mining and other industrial developments and many of them are part of Ontario’s energy grid and thus provide its citizens with electrical power. Because of the central importance of the rivers to all of these activities , a lack of knowledge about them is a lack of knowledge about Canadian development and society. If we do not understand the role rivers play in industrial development, and how they act as a source of sustenance , recreation and communications, we do not understand these activities fully. If we do not understand the process of interaction that rivers foster, then we do not understand the process of interaction between nature and human activity, nor do we understand the process of development; a process that is characterized as much by co-operation as by conquest, as much by interaction and intermingling as by dominance 11 and control. Proof of this assertion comes from an examination of the development of the hydroelectric system in northeastern Ontario, particularly on the Mattagami and the Abitibi Rivers, during the twentieth century. The Mattagami River flows north out of Lake Mattagami just east of Gogama and drains into the Moose River at a point 96 kilometres upstream of James Bay. Total drainage area for the Mattagami River is approximately 35,612 square kilometres. The Mattagami drainage basin, comprising the Mattagami, the Kapuskasing and the Groundhog Rivers, lies between the communities of Kapuskasing and Smooth Rock Falls in the north and Chapleau and Timmins in the south. The Mattagami , for the most part, flows in a north-northwest direction before angling north-northeast between Timmins and Cochrane, and covers a distance of approximately 418 kilometres between Mesomikenda Lake and the Moose River. Total fall over this length is approximately 329 metres. Like the Mattagami River, the Abitibi is also part of the Moose River drainage system, flowing into the Moose River thirty kilometres upstream of James Bay. The total drainage area exceeds 950,000 square kilometres. The Abitibi River drainage basin lies to the east and north of Timmins, but its southwest extension crosses the Ontario/Quebec border . The Abitibi runs generally in a north/northeast direction, approximately 400 kilometres from Lake Abitibi to its confluence with the Moose River. Total fall over this length is approximately 254 metres. When surveyors commissioned by the federal and provincial governments explored these rivers, they were as mysterious to the surveyors as they are to most Canadians now. It is likely that the surveyors were aware of the rigorous travelling conditions, the mosquitos and the black flies, and they may have gathered substantial information from fur traders, and from the Cree and Anishnabe1 peoples about the rivers during their expeditions, but little of this information is recorded in their journals. What is recorded is the sort of information wanted by their federal and provincial government employers who were eager to learn about and exploit the natural resources of the region. Thus, the surveyors who were first sent out to the Mattagami and Abitibi Rivers noted agricultural landscapes, timber stands, mineral finds and hydroelectric potential. As a result of the surveyors’ reports, various business groups, including power companies, became very interested in the northeast. The 1901 report of J.M. Bell’s survey party is indicative of the type of information contained in a surveyor’s report and offers a detailed 12 Cross-Currents The Rites of Development 13 description of the Mattagami River. According to Bell, the country inland from...