The James Bay Project: Three Gorges Dam of the West
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ย. 2024
- It's like China, but with more caribou.
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As a French Canadian, I’d like to state that this video was very well researched and executed. Congrats to Simon and the team.
I would say NOT very well executed. The pictures were inaccurate, kept showing the same pictures during different subject areas. Maps were just general maps with hardly any description because the author only knows where James Bay is because he googled it. Where are the historical maps showing the changes over the time of all this building?
@@billy-go9kx The script is well researched. I won't blame Simon for his French pronunciation. But yes, the whole visual support aspect is very very thin. Maybe they made the error of asking Hydro-Quebec for footage and they got the usual price tag with pages of legal agreements and veiled threats of consequences for copyright infrigment. Dealing with Hydro Quebec PR and Communications dept is bureaucratic hell and they want to veto everything.
Large sections of it are cribbed verbatim from the wikipedia page about the project... :/
I liked it too. but I missed a good front picture of La Grande 1 with its arches. An actual architectural beauty.
Yes indeed well explained project :)
As a Canadian, "arse numbing" might be the single greatest way to explain how long drives here can be🤣🤣🤣
as an Australian, I totally agree...
As an Australian born in Canada, I have experienced the Big Nothing of both countries. Long drives are therapy for me. Next fuel stop 146 km? Give my regards to Mad Max.
@@cmonkey63 Wouldn't that make you a Canadian living in Australia?
Also mind numbing. I've driven across Canada and the prairies go on for ever. I was going a good 80mph and spotted a grain silo in the distance. It didn't look to be getting any closer for a long, long time. All we could see from horizon to horizon was gold...wheat, with this thin black line I was driving on in the middle of it. It felt great.
Oh I dunno. I rode a bicycle from Vancouver to Winnipeg in my youth...the drive back seemed positively brief.
Quebecer here: My father worked on those project i have a bunch of pictures during construction of many of these dams. If you wanted to work (like 16hours a day, 7 day a week kind of work with couple week time off each 4-6 month) you could make insane salaries for the time. The upside to those project that has not been said in the video is that we have power at a stupid low price (under 8 cents per kw/h) with even LOWER rate for the first 45kw/h per day. it's one of the cheapest rate in the world.
Its also a great revenue generator fir your province as you sell power to New York and other US states do you not? Isn't that one of the reasons you're rates are so cheap?
@@loganholmberg2295 it help. But its not the main reason it is as cheap. Its just cheap and efficient energy.
@@loganholmberg2295 yes and no. we are not burning anything, it's water flowing thru turbines. Also, it's not a private power company , it's ''state business'' which mean they have to ask the gov for price increase.. they mostly raise the rate at the same rate as inflation. Since it's a nationalized thing, they do not need to please investor with obscene profit (looking at you private power company in texas)
Also the province of Quebec is one of the few places on earth where we do not use coal, oil, gas or nuclear for electricity. 99.9% of electricity here is from hydro electric dams. (Hydro Quebec does have 1 natural gas powered station as a backup but it almost never comes online)
Something that always surprises my relatives who visit from Europe, is that we use electricity to heat our homes and warm our food and soon to power all our new cars and bikes. In France or Italy or Switzerland, that would be unthinkable and insanely expensive.
On the subject of Canadian megaprojects, you should do a video on the confederation bridge linking New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. It’s quite something.
Ya!
Coming across the bridge after buying my way off PEI I found out it was falling apart. 1998, I was grateful it didn't fall apart while I was on it. Glad to see its still holding up.
15:00 small correction : Methylmercury levels got back down to normal after 20 to 30 years depending on the reservoir, which was way faster than even Hydro-Quebec own estimates.
Also, the crees and inuits got it much better than their counterparts in other provinces, with ontario being the main point of comparison (a point that the cree recognize themselves, as they do see the differences between the cree in quebec, and the cree in ontario), a consequence of the CBJNQ and the follow-up agreement, La Paix des Braves, which also gave the cree and inuits a modicum of political autonomy that others first nations don't have (through Eeyou-Itschee for the Crees, and Kativik Regional Government for the inuits)
Finally, concerning GHG form the reservoir, the james bay is in a boreal region.
And finally, the canadian government don't bring attention because it's not under their purview, but under the provincial government purview (and the Quebec Government is notorious for being extremely protective of the fields it have juridiction into, to the point that many provincial fields that are under a pan-canadian program, Quebec actually use it's right to retire with compensation to manage it's own programs instead)
As a québecois, good job Simon! The whole story is much more complicated of course .
More complicated ...., does this mean corrupt?
@@russellfitzpatrick503 Corruption? In Québec? with 3 levels of governement and unions? It was called business as usual back then.
@@normandboucher6973 like the olympic stadium construction :P
Ben voyons ya pas de corruption au Québec. Pour les fédéralistes ça s'appelle garder le cheap labor à genoux
@@russellfitzpatrick503 No, technical innovation, Quebecer had to create a new high voltage standards to deliverer this electricity because of the distance: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydro-Qu%C3%A9bec%27s_electricity_transmission_system. The dams was only the half of the challenge. The electric grid was a bigger problem.
I’m a native Montrealer, Quebecer, Canadian and a civil engineer. I did not know how massive this project truly is and was. Had learnt about it briefly in high school and a bit in university but not much detail was explored. I think Canada likes it that way tbh lol. As proud as I am to be Canadian, we are experts at preserving our reputation as the polite, sustainable and less obnoxious neighbour of the US, while shoving the negative under a massive rug. Incredible feat nonetheless though, and having been constructed decades ago is pretty amazing.
psst - nobody thinks that.
As a First Nations Canadian born in the communities he's mentioned, I'm glad he didn't gloss over the social and environmental impacts of the project. It's a grey area for me as the $225 million he mentioned has benefitted my family and myself through funding education and health benefits, but the toll on the people from having their traditional way of life uprooted, especially if you consider the presence of residential schools at the same time... it does not seem any amount of money is worth that. The youth are lost souls as their parents could not transition into a new way of life successfully. Suicide rates are incredibly high and drug/alcohol abuse is rampant. The school funding allows some of us to escape that life, but most of us take those learned skills and leave our communities for greener pastures, leaving behind communities that struggle to get healthier. Of course, not everyone is lost or leaves, but the impact of the James Bay project is certainly plain to see.
Of all the races of Mankind, only the Canadian Indian thinks having to go to school is a human rights violation.
@@jbrisby kids in residential schools had as high a chance of death as soldiers in world war 1. They forcibly took children from their parents, they were punished for speaking their old language, and subject to horrific physical and sexual abuse. This is highly documented so ignorance to the subject is not an excuse.
@@jbrisby Being forced to do anything is a human rights violation for anyone.
You've just been brainwashed by your masters to love them for it.
@@jbrisby thats not fair. Rez schools were bad news and u should choke on your ignorance. Yes injuns can b slow and lazy, like lots of people
having roots of my own in the labrador inuit, you have my support!
The James Bay project is literally going to "Hold back the river" 😂
The James Bay Project - formed from the remnants of The James Gang after they broke up.
Legendary comment
@TheKalaxis you beat me to it!!
literally exactly what I was going to say lol
this is the comment I came here for
As a Québecois, I really enjoyed this. This is a project that most of us are still very proud of. Great work on the research!
Dude you are Canadian get over it
@@alexamg6675 yep!
The lakes up there look frightening on a map.
@@alexamg6675nope, we are not… thank you for respecting this.
This is the "I'm french Canadian and this is better than anything I've learned about the dams in school" button.
Our schools do a really poor job on most of the topics following world war two. That's sad because this period defines our current society.
Regarde la serie les "bâtisseurs d'eau" ;)
How french canadian of you. Always gotta let everyone know that you're french canadian 💀 what next, gonna give me shit for not knowing french? You can't fool me, you're just northern Cajuns lmao
@@dadinkle jesus dude calm down. That was entirely unprovoked. He's probably saying "I'm french Canadian" cause as we just saw in the vid its a part of quebec and its history. Its exactly like watching a vid on the statue of Liberty and seeing "Im from new york and this is better than school".
@@dadinkle That’s because sometime international people don’t even know that we speak French in Canada
I read the title as the "James May" Project and was really confused for a second.
Me to
that would have a been a super slow subject
I mean unless he can Drive" a dam. I wonder how he would critique it. Bulky, slow, and little to no horse power.
Yeah I don't think the making of the Dacia Sandero would qualify as a megaproject.
Cheese
This project is powering my house right now. My grand-father worked on those dam.
Mine built the power lines that brought down the power from the James Bay
@Martel Samuel Ontario is better though, The GTA is powered by Nuclear and Niagara Falls
dam
Yves LaLumiere is hard at work, keeping me warm tonight
English peoples get mad when we build backyard project bigger than theirs Island in that one province they can't quite keep under control in Canada ...
They should do a video of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
That was an amazing project.
oh please... the yt little nerdy video maker is going to make one on it crying disaster so he get more subs
@@CllrJohnCowan right!! two dredges going up and down the river digging 0.5inchs a years.... guess what!! it's ongoing!
The issue is that the Seaway became functionally obsolete within a couple decades of its construction. It can no longer accommodate modern ships of any real size, not even legacy Panamaxes. It’s only really of historical value, kind of like the Erie Canal.
@@michaelimbesi2314 You might want to better educate yourself on the situation.
It can pass 1000 ft long ships through its locks, and moves significant amounts of bulk goods, like taconite, wheat, etc, from ports as far inland as Duluth, MN, Superior, WI, and Thunder Bay, ON to ports ranging from Cleveland and Hamilton to Montreal and overseas.
It doesn't have the ability to move Panamax ships, but neither does any other canal system to the interior of a continent. It just isn't practical.
Back then, carrying electricity on such long distances was impossible. Thank to engineer Jean-Jacques Archambault who came up with the idea of 735kV lines, it is now possible and the technology is now used around the world.
One of those actual heroes.
That's just silly. You just run wires and apply voltage, as has been done for more than 100 years.
@@greeceuranusputin Seems like he just built a really big step up transformer. Most transmission lines for shorter runs go up to 135Kv , not 735Kv.
@@greeceuranusputin the longer the distance of transmission, the higher you need that voltage to be to overcome resistance of the transmission cable itself.
@@greeceuranusputin And Hydro-Québec received a Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Milestone Award for the 735 kV transmission technology.
Bonus fact: The short clip showing a Native American man, in a green canoe with markings HBC-312... is actually a fur-trading canoe commissioned to the Hudson's Bay Company. I'm not being critical, just sharing fun trivia.
SUGGESTION: cover the moving of an entire *town* , namely Kiruna in northern Sweden. This is an ongoing project since 2004, when it was discovered that the nearby mining for iron ore had caused the ground underneath the town to become very unstable. If this isn't a mega project, I don't know what is.
Broke Salming
As a Quebecer I want to nuance the negative effects of these projects. James Bay, along with other hydro-electric projects that were completed lately, are usually a great source of pride. They rallied a majority of the Quebecers behind a single project in which we were world leaders. The La-Grande 2 power plant was for a long time the largest of its kind in the world. The power line that bring the electricity down south were the first in the world to be 735 000 Volt. All these dams, while not perfect, have been producing electricity for very cheap (4-5 cents per KWh - our electricity is much cheaper than our neighbors) for many years, displacing coal and diesel and other more polluting power generation methods. Quebec is still today a major player and leader in this domain and have been implicated in many hydroelectric projects around the world. Thank you Simon for speaking about it.
Dams aren't green.
I love when Simon does Canadian projects, histories, geography etc.
And not one pathetic joke attempt about $#@#$% maple syrup or $@#$@# aboot. Thank you, Simon. But then Simon is not an American so he's not going to say $$#@#$#@@ stuff like that. Sorry for all the swearing.
@@livinginvancouverbc2247 I do notice that the rest of the world views Canada much differently that some/most Americans. You’re right, most of the stereotypical jokes come from Americans.
@@JeffKing310 I feel like if the world actually knew more about us and our contributions to history, along with our big projects like this, they'd take us a lot more seriously.
@@pancake_crab4457 I think some do take us seriously. But I’m with you, we should get more respect.
Same. I know many of the US ones so these tend to be new.
"James Cameron and Michael Bay working on a project" So this will be a terminator/avatar movie with 200% more unnecesary explosions and big shape-shifting robots. I don't have a problem with that.
Actually, just as a historical/social pic alone it would be a pretty good one
Dont forget probably about $200 million overbudget because of Cameron being anal about his shots, and another $200 mil to accommodate the cgi used to make all the explosions and make them look as realistic as possible
Yes, but it's in Canada; our giant robots are very polite, and tend to apologise for the unnecessary explosions...
KABOOM!
"Sorry..."
KABOOM!
"Sorry."
You forgot adding transformers on the top and some blade runner esque world building. All in all it sounds like the future we need but the one we're never gonna get.
@@jessiesratrods1210 big shape shifting robots, didn't know about blade runner, I was just being generic.
I thought the title was the James May project at first. And found myself thinking. Oh good we get to see someone sorting spanners in a box for a while.. :D
S l o w l y
And naming them, too
James May built a bicycle for his nephew. That's a project
@@henrymach is it finished?
@@aceundead4750 Yes. And it's on the youtoobs
Except the Quiet Revolution is exclusively a Quebec thing, spawned by Premier Jean Lesage in the early 1960s. My father (as well as a whole generation of newly-minted engineers) worked on this project. And Bourassa was a friend of the family. Also bit of trivia; it is Dr. Bourassa (PhD). He did his PhD on Machiavelli. And once you know this... you understand everything.
Every politician in Quebec paid their respect to Bourassa when he died and it didn't took long for places to be named in his honour. It didn't matter if you were against his politics, he was one of the most intelligent and effective politician we had and everyone agrees to that.
He said (Bourassa) to a journalist who was asking about is motivation to be Prime Minister:
“... pour le Pouvoir et l’exercice de ce Pouvoir” ... that was honest!
As a worker on those projets , I'm proud to see how that project keep the interest after all these years.
Thank you for your good work!
I did the public tour of LG1 in 2014. Impressive doesn’t do it justice.
I’m hoping to take my daughter up to see it someday. Helluva road trip.
FLQ and War Measures Act is why my parents left Montreal... Mom got stopped on her way to work, was detained and had car searched.. Called my dad who was working up north and informed him she was moving to Ontario and he was welcome to follow....
So, did he follow?
@@drone_video9849 ha, i was going to ask.... good thing i read the reply... bet 5 cyber dollars he DIDN'T!! lol
If you check historic population figures for Quebec and Ontario you will find that was the approximate turnaround time at which the growth rate of Quebec began to fall behind Ontario as many people were nervous that Rene Levesque might accomplish his desire of Quebec separation from Canada. Montreal was Canada's largest city when I was a kid in the 50s and 60s, but during the 70s and 80s it was surpassed by Toronto as many businesses re-located there. As it turned out, separation was voted down by a thin margin and the nervousness persisted for a couple of decades, but by now most Quebecois realize that Quebec on its own is not really all that viable in the modern world and would be in danger of slipping into third world status if separated. Also, a separate Quebec might have to give up the north, which was Rupert's Land at the time of Canadian confederation in 1867 and was only added to Quebec later. Apparently the Cree and Inuit who inhabit that area can decide to stay with Canada rather than becoming part of a separate Quebec, so that would mean that almost 2/3 of the geographic area of the province would stay in Canada, possibly even including the James Bay Project.
Hang in there with us Quebec. We appreciate having your French Canadien culture to visit and enjoy. You've actually got it a lot better than you realize.
@@sandyjohnson4182 im so glad English peoples appreciate visiting... you seem to forgot Quebec still have the most seat in Ottawa... so its a lot more than a forgotten culture... it's actually mean; it run the country!!
damn fking right we got it... lol if it wasn't for Quebec,
we would still all at worshiping the queen...
All civil liberties were suspended for 90 days. No recourse. I was 19 and picked a flower and was enlightened by a huge police officer. Thankfully he didn't arrest me. By the way if Quebec has another referendum let all of Canada vote. I wouldn't mind if they left. At least we'd all be rowing in the same direction.
Even if it shows that the author used English language primary source, he did a good job.
He skipped over the 1997 treaty between Quebec and the cree named "la paix des braves", solving many issues he decried at the end.
He also doesn't understand the political subdivision of Canada; the Canadian gouvernment have nothing to do with this, only Quebec.
He also skipped over the "why" Quebec had to go to New York for funding instead of Canadian bankers... It's because English Canada was not happy with francophones taking control of their own provinces in the quiet revolution . The "relationship" up to that revolution was anglophones= bosses, francophones= worker underclass.
That ressentiment haven't really yet subsided, from both side. Quebec economy is still slowly catching up to this day.
It also explain why quebecker go along better with american, even with the sometime huge difference in culture... Because american dosent have an ingrained bias against québécois.
Francophone = Traitor
@@timgilhuly1834 why? And traitor to who?
@MLWATKK If the Leafs don't win it this year they will tie the Rangers for the all time futility record of 53 seasons.
Yeah I'm pretty sure the bosses are upset all the québécois on welfare 🙄. Basically live their whole life off the government. It's the only way Québec keeps a French government. Take away their free money and you'll see a better Québec with people willing to work instead of staying at home drinking rc cola, Labatt bleue, smoking cheap ciggs and eating maywest all day. Gov't should change the law, if you're on welfare, shouldn't have voting rights since you're not contributing to society. You want to vote, go get a job.
@Frank Harris your mom has given me some ideas and the rest came from your sister.
As a Québécoise who grew up on Quebec’s large hydroelectric projects, I found this video quite well done. I have read comments that gripe against the omissions and the lack of certain details, but little more could be done in under 20 minutes. My father worked on those projects and I worked on the sidelines of the Agreement negotiations. As a matter of fact, the only glaring mistake here was about this very agreement, which was between Quebec and the Cree and Naskapi, not the Cree and Inuit. the Naskapi are Innu, not Inuit. And by the way, once the agreement was all negotiated, they realized that the Cree had really, really effed them up. Sic transit gloria mundi.
It was actually all three: Cree, Naskapi, and Inuit
Sweet! A video on something in Canada. Now do the St. Lawrence Seaway or Rideau Canal!
Or the CNR. the story rivals the US transcontinental railway, and the back story on politics, and the fear of the US makes it more than just a railroad.
Rideau canal for sure!
I lived in Radisson during the construction of the LG2 Dam, I was a school kid and my Dad worked on the Duncan Dikes. For the family’s that lived in Radisson I am sure this is a time in their lives they will never forget. Quebec Hydro and the construction companies did a lot to make our lives comfortable, the closeness of the community made for life long friendships and memories. Smile On
The James Bay project: the Three Gorges Dam if it had safety standards
That actually made me chuckle a little lol
it was made in china failure is expected
You were more at risk of getting hurt in a fight with your union's safety rep that also controlled the import of black market alcohol on the work camps ...
Learned more here about James Bay Project than was ever coverred back in high school... and I'm Canadian
Unless you're québécois, you won't learn as much. Especially not the fact that the federal governement did everything to hinder our progress and refused to buy our electricity
Sorry, Quebec didnt pay for the project and majority of the power goes straight down east coast of USA.
@@1iota1420 If you actually watched the video they said that the power goes to the USA and all obviously Canadian taxpayers including Quebecois paid as per usual when the government is involved, it was $250M for the land alone
We don't learn s*** about history.
@@slcpunk2740 The project has since paid for itself in hydro sales a couple times over.
My dad worked Ina few of those project in the 90's. The last year that he worked there he brought the whole family to live in one of the pre-fab houses that were part of the small temporary villages I acer for the workers. We lived at the LaForge 1 village...it was such an interesting and unique experience although I was completely oblivious to the social and political dramas as I was only a young teen at the time.
I was only 7 in 95 when the referendum was voted on, but I remember my mom telling me that Quebec voted to stay in Canada.
My family has lived in 2 such towns in northern Manitoba.
I think we were one of the last families to move out of the second one before it was shut down.
As a 63 yr old Canadian I found that video really interesting and quite fantastic. Thank you so much for producing it in what I would describe as an accurate and fair manner. It is important to remember that the majority of Quebec residents and the government do not believe they belong to Canada and are superlatives to this day. I side with the Cree and Inuit's as it is unlikely they prosper from the funds raised in the sale of power to NY.
Indeed, i was just a baby during the referendum, but my father was always furious that the vote failed by such a narrow margin. Though quebec nationalism has died down, many still wish we had seceded
To correct that, it is a minority of Québécois that wanted to separate.
Just FYI, "hydro" is what anglophone Canadians call our electricity companies regardless of how they actually generate power.
Weirdos
Yeah its very weird. I heard that once and I was like your water bill? LOL
We call our power company 'hydro' in Quebec also, but our power company is hydro quebec so it makes more sense xD
@@MetricImperialist Fair enough. The majority of anglo Canadians say "hydro" when talking about electricity.
Andy you have no clue, as another commenter said, nobody west of Ontario calls anything to do with electricity "hydro". If you are going to post something, especially if you are speaking for a whole country, get your facts straight. Clown!!
Business Blaze Simon is slowly leaking into the middle-european intellectual type Simon
you mean BS story on how the greenest power plan in Americas is a environmental disaster ???
I recently discovered and have been catching up on Business Blaze, coming back to the Projects is like watching Simon get back on his meds. lol
@@joseph-mariopelerin7028 No, he means how Simon is talking a bit how he talks on one of his other channels: Business Blaze
@@tomvandijk9706 ok... like ...talking sht so it make any story look like big drama... he do that on other channels yes!
Great video as always. Thanks for the fair way the story was told about the quiet revolution and the many obstacles faced during the project, including the impact on the First Nations.
As for the mercury problem, no one knew about this when the damn and power stations were built. It was discovered many years later to everyone's dismay. I remember learning about the "first symptoms" of the mercury issue back when I was in school circa 1988. And at the time, it wasn't clear where the mercury was coming from.
Back in the 80's I was a commercial diver, we spent a summer underwater logging! Many of the valleys didn't have the trees removed before the flooding started. Years later there was an issue with the trees wondering downstream and causing issues at the dams. We used hydraulic powered chainsaws, and you never knew what the tree would do, sometimes they'd float up, sometimes they would crash down and sometimes just sort of hover. The scariest were the ones that rocketed to the surface, if the umbilical ( air, heat, comms, power for the lights and recovery line) got snagged you might have a tough ride to the surface.
If this video does well, then you may wish to look into Manic. Series of 5 dams (have Manic 5 hoody). Quebec again! Can help with some content.
The Manic project was way before James Bay.
@@joecrachemontange4613 Look at Muskrat Falls!!!!!!!!!!! :)
@@joecrachemontange4613 :)
And talk also about the Manicouagan reservoir aka Quebec's eye. A lake that was caused by a meteorite.
@@mathieulevasseur4082 Mathieu, look above - Manic! Used to drive on Manic 5 on way to Fermont Quebec and back. Wonderful country up there. Love it :)
2 Megaprojects from my country, Romania: the "People`s House" aka the palace of the parliament and the Danube to the Black Sea canal, both constructed with forced labor during the bloody communist regime. Cheers @Simon
One of them has been made.
@@bobfg3130 Which one? Thanks, cheers! 🙂
@@nicolaecampan2385
People's House although it might be on geographics.
@@bobfg3130 Yep :). Covered that on Geographics :)
@@megaprojects9649 Thanks! Will You do an episode about the Danube to the Black Sea Canal? Cheers! 🙂
Confederation bridge has been covered a lot but would certainly make a good megaprojects video
I'll check it out.
@@megaprojects9649 Project Habbakuk would be pretty cool (ba dum tss) too.
Thank you Simon for this video. I’m from Montreal and I was impressed that you made the detour through the quiet revolution, etc. It’s a huge and amazing topic that is hard to describe in a few minutes; Quebec went from a backwards state to one of the most forward thinking, along the likes of Scandinavia. But I wanted to share some more info on the project with you, for kicks. I have this map in my office, from the government, which shows more of the scale of the project. You can see how far north the road (red line) goes. Montreal is in the far lower left. The road veers to the coast, but also right (east) for something like 400 Km’s to the Caniapiscau reservoir, where there are more diversion dams, etc. Basically a whole chunk of the North has parts of the project covering it. There is also an adjoining project on the river Manicouagan that leads into the St-Lawrence river. It start from the crater like lake, formed from flooding, in the lower right of the picture, to the St-Lawrence. There are a series of huge dams there as well. This project is called Manicouagan
Project Idea: USS Nautilus, worlds first Nuclear powered Submarine.
I like it. I'll check it out.
@@megaprojects9649 Also look at Ian Scott (Moltex) and Ed Phiel (Elysium). They have molten salt nukes that burn high level nuclear waste.
So cool! I was part of a group of pilots that worked at the LA-GRANDE 1 sight. Ton of fun!
Not for THIS project but another hydro project. Dang wish I could remember the name of the exact site. Either way very familiar with the area.
"The Canadian Mafia"
Anyone else picturing a mobster bashing someone's leg in and appologising on each swing?
With a hockey stick, and yes lol.
Canadians are only that way in Ontario... in Quebec we only apologize once... at the very end when it's purely an insult...;)
"The Boss would like his bribe money, if it's not too much trouble. If that doesn't happen our only option will be to write you a strongly worded letter. So sorry."
@@tncorgi92 You forgot to mention it would be written on a maple bat, and left, politely, in your skull... 😃
They have French Canadian they will say rude things before they bash your leg with a hockey stick, then they will apologize
I just asked for more Canadian content and it feels like my voice has been heard. Truly can't thank you enough Simon ! Thanks so much :)
The shenanigans must seem bizarre to anyone who hasn't been involved in large civil project.
the shenanigans? i know a whole Province of elderly who would get so mad at ti-cul simon for thinking that way, and to make it look like a disaster for anyone that don't know any better....
@@joseph-mariopelerin7028 even successful civil projects have all sorts of shenanigans going on.
Obviously, you know better...
@@joseph-mariopelerin7028 I'm usually in the office as part of the project management team, so yeah...
I'm a a french Quebecer and you have brilliantly covered this subject of national pride.
Thank you.
I've travelled the James Bay Road and most of North America's most remote roads. The longest stretch without a gas station in Canada is no longer 381km the JBR, but the Trans-Labrador Highway, once it was completed circa 2010, about 410km between Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Port Hope Simpson.
No Tesla cars going to Canada soon I take it.
@@Crashed131963 80% of Canadians live in cities, so there are plenty of Teslas. The south end of the JBR is >600km north of any true city, so there are no charging stations near or on it, and no EVs. It's unusual to see ICE cars on the James Bay Road too - most travel is by pickups and logging trucks.
I did the JBR in 2014, I hope to do the TLH this September
@@brentfoster9138 Winter is easier. However, they have paved a lot since my trips on the TLH, and if they are still holding, it'll be good. If they've already become potholed, it's a terrible ride except in winter. Bring a sat phone or Spot device or similar. Book a tour of Churchill Falls station well before you leave. If in September, suggest checking out Battle Harbour (book via Mary's Harbour), Red Bay NHS, Pinware River, various trails on the Straits. The Straits are one of most fantastic Canadian locales that very few know about.
Does the Trans Taiga road (that runs east hundreds of kilometres to nowhere from the James Bay road) have a gas station? Because if not, I would have thought that would be a longer stretch.
Well done! Best description of the Quiet Revolution I've heard. Appreciate the attention paid to the problems the have been and continue to be faced by First Nations.
Megaproject: The Boise Project. Created the Arrow Rock damn which used to be the tallest dam in the world at one point. Also created at least 2 other larger damns that control the Boise River in Idaho.
That last line makes me think that someone, somewhere is watching this and saying "Looks like Simon is gonna have himself an accident."
Simon has never been to Hamilton, Ontario. Or read too many news stories out of Montreal.
This brings a whole new meaning to "Hold Back the River"
While you are on the subject, there is another #Megaprojects of Hydro Electricity on the more eastern part of Quebec : Manicouagan, total of 5634 MW of Electricity !!!
It's crazy too think that la grande 2 at itself produce as much as the 4 Manicouagan dam. I've roadtrip to manic 5 last year it's really empressive to see !
Ah bein calice y parle dla Baie James!
Ben oui esti! Lol
Tabarnack est bonne celle-là
Tin, un "los tabarnacos"...!
Calice de Crisse!
I rode my motorcycle all the way up there from Atlanta Ga about 10 years ago. we had to carry gas cans to make the distance on the James Bay road. it is a beautiful area and the Cree people were very friendly.
The impact on both the Cree and the environment were massive. This to service lands and populations to the South. On the plus side, I'm glad that the Quebec Inuit and some Cree (further north) got to have administrative control over the relatively new Nunavik region - it occupies the northern third of the province. They now have say on development, including mines.
The impact on the environment was healed after several decades, now Quebec's homes are run on green energy.
There is one important point you left out, which is "La paix des braves" signed in 2002, between the Government of Québec and the Cri Nation. Bernard Landry and Ted Moses, respectively Prime Minister of Québec and Grand Chief of the Cri Nation, signed an historic agreement that vastly improved the development perspectives of the James Bay Cris. While it did not erase or solve all the problems created by the James Bay Project, it did a lot to improve things and paved the way to other "equal terms relations" between Québec's Native Nation and the Government.
Now we know how many dams it takes to fill the Albert Hall
You're welcome.
An idea while you're in Quebec, either for Megaprojects or Sideprojects - the Montréal subway system - Notre-Dame Island - Expo 67 and/or the underground city that is interconnected to it.
Along with the Decarie and the Metropolitan...and poor Mirabel airport (sigh)
I read the James Bay article in Wikipedia two weeks ago when I was following a rabbit hole from the Texas power grid fiasco.
It really sucked in Texas when those awful windmills not only stopped making electricity but then those awful windmills also walked over to the coal and gas plants and knocked them all out of commission, too! Those awful windmills. Bet you didn't see that story in the liberal news. 😉
@@livinginvancouverbc2247 This is comedy gold
@@brianjonker510 Not only that, those awful windmills are Satan-worshippers that eat ceiling fans.
EDIT: kicking it up to platinum level. 😃
@@livinginvancouverbc2247 The gas well heads weren’t winterized. Supply would have ground to a halt regardless.
@@brentfoster9138 Yes they froze, but they froze free of regulations! Freedom!
The St Lawrence seaway is a good 1 for this show
Great motorcycle trip! After James Bay go east down the Trans Taiga trail. Lots of Trees and Lakes, and great camping.
Bucket list trip. I even bought a DR650 in view of making it. Instead I ended-up with a bunch of hardware holding my foot together for non-motorcycle related causes. Maybe when I retire in a not very long while. The new KLR looks perfect for the task.
@@CaptHollister I definitely like the new KLR. I'm hoping to go again once my kids get older
I did the JBR in 2014, but passed on the trans taiga. I want to go back.
Coming from manitoba, that cold weather is just normal
What do you mean by "I know road building doesnt get people excited"? Yes it does! As does large holes! We need moar holes!
Hey, awesome , my dad worked on this project!!! 😍
Hey ça va? Ça te dirait de discuté?
Check out the Churchill Falls Project,
Largest Man Made lake in the world
Will do.
I have worked up in radisson and have been inside the dam, it's crazy. Same with the james bay high way, so long to drive but worth it.
Jesus Christ, I clicked in anticipation of watching a video on an engineering project in my backyard (so to speak) and here I sit, angrily remembering a lot of shit I had half forgotten from my formative years. I could go on, but I won't. Water over the damn at this point I suppose.
I went to visit the LG-2 complex a few year ago. It is ridiculously impressive to see in person!! Those "stairs" we can see are SO F**KING HUGE!!!! Each step has the area of 2 football field and are 10 meter high!!!! They are so big, when you are at the bottom at the sight seeing spot you can't see the top steps and when you go up the thing you can't see the last ones!! Thank you Simon for showcasing this amazing project from Québec!
Great episode.
Can you do one on Duff's Ditch (around the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba)?
I'd really dig that!
Yo Simon, have you thought about doing a story on the Al-Can Highway (Alaska-Canadian Highway) on MegaProjects or SideProjects ? In 1986, when my youngest broth graduated high school for his senior trip, he wanted me and him to drive to Alaska to see the Northern Lights.
This was a MAJOR undertaking since we lived in Lafayette, Louisiana. After witnessing the Great Northern Lights display, we drove across Canada to Ottawa, then back to Lafayette. The entire trip took 3 months (God, how I wish that digital cameras had been around at that time !)
Thankfully, we were very young at the time (he was 17 and I was 21) ! We did some of the stupidest things on this trip (like, sleeping on the ground at night in the Canadian wilderness) ! It's a wonder that we have now made it to 60 years old.
We signed VERY generous agreements with the Cree and Inuit people. What their leaders did with those billions of dollars..,..
talking about dams and hydro electric projects, if you go to read some wiki article on list of dams and their sizes, the three Gorges dam quickly become the most over-hyped dam of them all, beside efficiency (which is very good at producing electricity), it doesn't rank that high on all other categories, there's larger, heavier, and/or taller dams out there,
My uncle negotiated the sale of power generated by Baie James to New York state.
and then promptly changed his name from Peterrini to Peters!
I am surprised this was covered by this channel but it was fun to know about it a bit better. I remember my dad being gone for a few months when I was a first grader. He told me after that the ground was always frozen.
1 suggestion :The Internet, you've covered undersea cables and Alan Turing, now cover something we take for granted but has only been around for 30 years or thereabouts….(?)
This was interesting. In the 80's I worked for the Canadian Wildlife Service as a biology technician. We banded shorebirds and documented the James Bay Lowlands. My field camp and study area was North Point about 20km North of the effluance of the Moose river. I did research of the salt marshes and mud flats from the Albany and South to the Moose rivers.
Your documentary was very well presented and sufficiently nuanced to give an accurate picture issues
Although it was an extremely remote area, I can honestly say those were some of the best years of my life.
Always love me some Canadian content!
Love the way he pronounces LaPorte, LaPort-eh
@@jaygray7102 And Mattagami, lol. But still, he's doing... better?
@@amb163 Sure
@@amb163 good one, by the wee
@@amb163 NOOO - my spell check changed "w-eh" to "wee"
No one expects the mysterious Canadian mafia!
The Italian Mafia are a problem in Quebec if you want to look it up. I think they are an offshoot of the Genovese crime family? Not that up on it myself.
Thank you for covering The James Bay Project. Would you do the Confederation Bridge and SNOLAB as well please?
Thank you so much for finally covering my much-requested subject: Quebec's hydro power! Love the channel!
As a French Canadian, this is a bit insulting:
- Whenever something good is portrayed, it's leaning towards "Canadian" such as the Quiet Revolution...
- While whenever something bad is portrayed, it's leaning towards a "Quebec" presentation.
When it was the other way around.
The Quiet Revolution was the "Quiet Revolution... OF THE QUEBECERS", not of Canada.
Put in other terms (although more extreme):
- It would be like attributing to China's CCP all good things Taiwan does under the pretense that "Taiwan is Chinese".
3-Mile Island, Empire State Building, Sears Tower, White House, US Capitol, Hover Dam, just to name a few future videos. Love your work Simon (and team), keep it up!!
Fun fact: 20 percent of the world's fresh water is in Canada, much of it in Quebec and Ontario.
Thanks Simon! Im happy that you finally did this vid on our hydro-electric projet.
The Canadian Mafia: I'll make you an offer you can't refuse eh. It includes back-bacon and beer eh.
Add more bacon and you have a deal because you can never have too much Bacon.
I am a Québécois and, after watching exactly 5:26 of your video , I'm in awe. You sir did your research and you were able to sum up in short how this mega project happened during a very special socio-political context. Merci beaucoup
Pierre LaPorte. The e at the end is silent
And so is he.
@@livinginvancouverbc2247 oh my there is certainly no doubt. But I always wondered why kill the Frenchman instead of the Englishman. But then again I really don’t know the whole events leading up to the crisis and there about. I did in high school but shamefully I have forgotten.
I went to LG2 one time to work on one of the 1200 HP diesel fueled gas turbine backup generator. There are four of these units at this site and you access them by going to the main building at this site then get on an elevator that goes down into the ground. It is like any elevator in any large office tower. You walk down a hallway and enter a room with an airlock door system. The four units are in this room with polished floors and it is spotless. After I replaced the failed fuel control on the one unit we ran it up and synchronized it to the grid to add its massive 900 Kilo Watts at full load for a test run. When the test run was completed I had some time to wait for the return flight and since I was able to get the unit running again within the time frame of the standards for this site Quebec Hydro would not have to shutdown one of the bigger hydro generator units. These backup generators are to power the control systems and provide emergency power for the site while providing power for the oil pumps for the hydro turbines in the case of a major power failure. The four units needed to be available with in a 36 hour period or else the station would have to curtail their output from the main units.
My chaperone asked me if I wanted to see the main generator units so we walked down the hall to another door airlock set. When we came out of this second door you are standing on a cat walk above the power house at the level of the overhead crane and about 150 Ft below are the 8 hydro generators on that side of the power house. Until you go out that door it is hard to fathom that you are under ground. The power house was drilled and excavated out of solid rock. It is unbelievable the size and scope of this project when you see it from this view point.
The Quebecois mafia actually runs a large part of the maple syrup trade. Seriously, this is real and super interesting, there is a Quebecois Maple Syrup OPEC, but there are also black market producers, runners, and all the other associated acoutremon.
Thank you for whomever turned that light in back off.
Great work kid... love the info hitting the channels hard lately
When showing la grande 2, you were showing the diverters, not the damn itself. The damn is way bigger
Exactly.
It’s so big, it’s actually hard to tell where it begins and ends. It’s not as striking as say, Hoover dam or Manic 5.
As a Canadian there is a certain amount of pride with the project and also my typical Canadian feeling that we could have done better, can do better, will do better. It's actually on a bucket list of places to visit.
You should take a look at the Hibernia Gravity Base Structure
Yeah Hibernia would be a great story. So would confederation bridge. Especially considering how both were designed to take on icebergs.
Merci beaucoup Simon! There are a few colleagues of mine that worked on these projects back in the day and even I didn’t know all the context behind it. Thank you for telling the story how it is.
The last time i was this early simon had flowing locks of hair
As a member of the Canadian mafia, I'm telling you to mind your dam business!
A video on the series of dams and locks along the Columbia River in the border of Washington and Oregon would be pretty cool
In the video you say that the mercury in the soil was naturally occuring , it's not , it did not exist 300 years ago , it got there because of coal burning in the US ! the mercury level has dropped off after all those years , also the Cree and Innu health and living condition have improved significantly due to this project , be careful of not just listening to one side of this story.
In 2003, in Ottawa, I shared a class with a Cree fellow from Moosonee which is on the Ontario side of James Bay and he told me how he and his father used to fish and hunt on one of the smaller rivers there that was flooded out, permanently affecting their way of life.
Could you do a video on the road that is being built around Madagascar?!?!
What road is this?