Nations want "in" to new energy initiatives

This time, John Beaucage of the Anishinabek Nation vows his people won't be shoved aside as Ontario develops new ways of meeting the energy demands of the highly-populated southern part of the province.
"We foresee that within the next 10 to 20 years, energy production and transmission of energy are going to be a very big business," Beaucage, grand council chief and leader of 42 Anishinabek nations that comprise about one-third of Ontario's Indigenous population, said in an interview.
"Within the Anishinabek Nation, we are uniquely situated to take advantage of some of these opportunities."
Projects will be fostered through federal and provincial loan guarantees and long-term agreements under which the province undertakes to purchase power from proponents.
Beaucage is pushing for full participation by First Nations in new endeavors ranging from wind farms to high-voltage transmission lines.
"We've got hydro lines, we've got railroads, we've got highways, we've got pipelines running all through our territories which we don't get one single nickel out of," he noted.
"We agreed to share the territory and share the benefits, and yet nothing has ever been shared with us in the way it should have been after we signed the treaties.
"Now there are Supreme Court decisions saying you've got to involve the First Nations, so now they're coming to our door and knocking, and we will not let that knock go unanswered."
Ontario is working on a 20-year Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP) to address the anticipated energy shortfall. The plan, developed by the Ontario Power Authority over the past four years, must be approved by the Ontario Energy Board.
First Nations have complained of a process that paid only cursory attention to their concerns.
"Getting called at the last minute to sit in on an IPSP presentation is not meaningful consultation," industry expert Arnold May of Nipissing First Nation complained in a written submission to the Ontario Energy Board last July.
"Questions were put forward to the presenters at these IPSP presentations and there was no response to these questions until eight months after the presentation. This is not meaningful consultation."
In September, shortly after the board had started hearings into the plan, the whole process was abruptly interrupted by newly-appointed Ontario Energy Minister George Smitherman, who ordered his officials to include more renewable resources in the energy mix, and undertake more consultation with First Nations.
The hearings are to resume in March.
For Beaucage, Smitherman's intervention was an indication it's time for the First Nations to step up to the plate. As a result, the Anishinabek Nation has organized a series of focus sessions to allow its member communities across the province to bring forward their ideas and make recommendations.
Taking care of Anishinabek community needs will be a top priority in the development of any proposals, Beaucage said.
"Whenever a community has some kind of power project, that power is brought back into the community in some way with our own power company so that we set the rates for our own community members before it's sold onto the grid."
Greg Plain, executive director of the Anishinabek Nation Management Group, chaired the first session in Thunder Bay. Others are being held at Garden River near Sault Ste. Marie, Alderville near Peterborough, Aundeck Omni Kaning on Manitoulin Island and Aamjiwnaang near Sarnia, concluding on Feb 11.
Many of the communities are already seriously involved in energy generation, Plain said.
Pic River First Nation, on the shores of Lake Superior near Marathon, is considered a trailblazer, with three run-of-the-river hydro-electric projects. Run-of-the-river is less damaging to the ecosystem functions of a river than the dams that were built in the last century and resulted in the flooding of many important First Nations sites.
Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve on Manitoulin Island­the world's largest freshwater island­has identified some promising wind farm sites. A lack of capacity in the island's distribution grid is presently stalling development.
Among the speakers who will address the focus sessions are: Arnold May, owner of the consulting firm Beedaubun Enterprise, who worked in the electrical industry for 31 years, retiring from Ontario Hydro in 2002; Roger Peltier, energy planner for Wikwemikong and the First Nations Energy Alliance; Joe Gaboury, CEO of Five Nations Energy Inc., Ontario's only Aboriginal-owned and -operated electricity transmission company, which serves the communities of Attawapiskat, Fort Albany and Kashechewan, and the De Beers Victor diamond mine.
There are situations for remote communities that pose a particular challenge. One such nation is Gull Bay, with about 1,000 residents on Lake Nipigon. Like many Northern Ontario communities, it relies on expensive diesel-powered generators, which produce greenhouse gases.
Beaucage said a proposed Manitoba-Ontario transmission line would run past Gull Bay, but the cost of building a station to change the direct current carried by the line to the alternating current needed in the community would be prohibitive.
So Gull Bay is looking at a run-of-the-river project.
The $1.5 billion Manitoba-Ontario high-voltage transmission line is one of the most significant power developments being considered by the province. It would take electricity from the Conawapa hydro dam, to be built on Manitoba's Nelson River, to southern Ontario.
The proposal is controversial. It is opposed by environmental groups because it will increase fragmentation of the boreal forest, endangering survival of species like the woodland caribou that require vast undisturbed areas.
Opinion among affected Aboriginal communities is divided.
The Anishinabek Nation, one of several tribal organizations whose territories would be impacted, has taken a position in favor of the transmission line
Mitigating the environmental effects should be part of the province's consultation, Beaucage said.
"We are concerned about a negative effect on the environment, but then we also must be very pragmatic. This will probably go ahead­whether we're involved or not­because of the hunger for power in southern Ontario.
"We're saying 'Let's be part of it and let's do it in a way that is well thought out, well planned and looks after as many of the environmental difficulties as we possibly can. We would like to be involved as a partner.'"