When Britain’s Privy Council ruled last month that the Canadian-backed
Chalillo dam in Belize should go ahead, Fortis CEO Stanley Marshall
declared victory for his company and for the people of Belize.
("Environmentalists lose battle to stop Canadian dam in Belize,"
January 29, 2004, www.cbc.ca)

Victory, what victory? True, Fortis narrowly escaped an injunction
to stop construction of the Chalillo dam. Three out of five judges
decided the Belizean government’s environmental approval of the dam was
not illegal, just flawed.

But two out of the five judges wanted the project stopped. They
said the dam’s environmental impact assessment, which was paid for by
the Canadian International Development Agency, failed to comply with
Belize’s Environmental Protection Act, and was "so flawed by important
errors about the geology of the site" as to be unacceptable. They said
that "Belize has enacted comprehensive legislation for environmental
protection and direct foreign investment, if it has serious
environmental implications, must comply with that legislation. The rule
of law must not be sacrificed to foreign investment, however desirable."

Even more disturbing, the dissent noted Fortis’ failure to
disclose "highly relevant" information to the Belizean courts
confirming that its consultants, Toronto firm AMEC, had made a serious
error that would require changes in the dam’s design.

"Not even the most protracted and determined paper chase could
have got at the true facts" in this case, wrote dissenting Judge Lord
Walker. One report kept under wraps for nearly two years, until just
days before the Privy Council’s final hearing, warned that the Chalillo
reservoir could "leak like a sieve" due to the presence of karst
limestone. The report by two consulting geologists pointed to the
"disastrous history of dam building" under similar conditions in
neighbouring Guatemala.

Fortis failed to inform Belizeans about these risks or how it
affects public safety and the dam’s final costs. One thing is certain
from court documents: Belizeans, not Fortis, are on the hook if
anything goes wrong. Back in 2001, Fortis signed an agreement with the
Belizean government that protects the company from liability in the
event that the dam fails or the reservoir leaks or construction costs
double.

Even in the best-case scenario, Belizeans will be paying almost
twice the market rate for Chalillo’s output, while losing one of the
country’s prime tourist attractions. One in four people in Belize earn
their living from nature-based tourism, the country’s leading industry.

That’s no victory for Belizeans. That’s tunnel vision and monopoly abuse by a Canadian power company.
Gr√°inne Ryder is the Policy Director for Probe International.