Editing James Bay Project (section)

=== Great Whale River project ===
During the construction of the second phase of the James Bay Project, Hydro-Québec proposed an additional project on the [[Great Whale River]] (French: ''Grande rivière de la Baleine''), just to the north of the La Grande River watershed. Opposition among the Cree was even more vocal this time than in the early 1970s. In 1990, Grand Chief [[Matthew Coon Come]] organized a canoe trip from [[Hudson Bay]] to the [[Hudson River]], in [[Albany, New York]], and this very effective public relations stunt brought international pressure to bear on the government of Quebec. The Cree had experienced considerable culture shock with the introduction of permanent transportation routes to the south and very few Cree were employed on the construction site. Poverty and social problems remained prevalent in the isolated Cree and Inuit villages of Northern Quebec, even in areas where there were no hydroelectric or mining activities.

By the 1980s, the natural ebb and flow of the La Grande, [[Eastmain River|Eastmain]] and [[Caniapiscau River|Caniapiscau]] rivers had been severely modified, notably delaying the formation of a solid ice cover near the Cree village of [[Chisasibi, Quebec|Chisasibi]], and about 4% of the traditional hunting and trapping territories of the Cree had been lost to the rising waters of the reservoirs, including about 10% of the territories of the Cree village of Chisasibi. At the same time, new roads, snowmobiles and bush airlines facilitated access to distant hunting territories of the interior. While highly motivated, the Cree's opposition to the Great Whale River Project was mainly ineffective until 1992 when the [[State of New York]] withdrew from a multibillion-dollar power purchasing agreement due to public outcry and a decrease in energy requirements. In 1994, the Government of Quebec and Hydro-Québec suspended the project indefinitely.<ref>{{harvnb|Froschauer|1999|p=77}}</ref>