Finding the balance that works

Page 29

The Crees of northern Quebec have always had close ties to the land. It is where they lived, hunted, fished and trapped to provide food for their families. Even today, many Quebec Crees maintain links to the land, although those links are often more tenuous because of mining, forestry and hydro operations within their traditional territories.

You don't have to look far to see the effect these developments have had on the nine Cree communities of northern Quebec, from mines cutting through traditional territory, to previously forested areas where clear-cutting has left the land bare. Over the years, many of the communities have faced relocation, some more than once. The latest round of relocation took place in order to make way for hydro projects under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement (JBNQA) of 1975. But despite these challenges, the Cree people have worked to turn things to their advantage.

The most northerly Cree community in Quebec, Whapmagoostui, sits on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. A little further south, the communities of Chisasibi, Wemindji, Eastmain and Waskaganish dot the shore of James Bay. Further inland are the communities of Nemaska, Mistissini, Ouje-Bougoumou, and Waswanipi.

The nine communities are members of the Grand Council of the Crees, which earlier this year negotiated a new economic development agreement with the province dealing with hydro development in Cree territory.

The new agreement

"The Peace of the Braves", a nation-to-nation agreement that addressed many of the shortcomings of the [JBNQA], was signed this past February, with a focus on increasing the capacity of the Cree nations to manage their own economic development.

The new 50-year agreement has the Cree assuming the province's responsibility for Cree economic development initiatives, as set out in the JBNQA.

The new agreement also puts an end to lawsuits launched by the Cree concerning implementation of the JBNQA, and allows for more Cree involvement in resource-sector management through development of a Cree-Quebec Forestry Board and a Cree-Quebec Mining Exploration Board.

The agreement calls for the provincial government to make an annual contribution to help fund economic development, with the contribution amounts set at $23 million in 2002-2003, $46 million in 2003-2004 and $70 million in 2005. After 2005, the annual amount paid out will be based on the value of the resources coming out of the area in the mining, forestry and hydro sectors.

By signing the agreement, the Cree communities also give the go ahead for the Rupert Diversion-Eastmain 1A hydro project, which will see about 400 sq. km of land flooded, and the amount of water flowing through the Rupert River to Waskaganish cut in half. Another proposed hydro project, however, the NBR Project, has been cancelled under the agreement. That project would have seen 8,000 sq. km of land in the basins of the Rupert, Broadback and Nottaway Rivers.

The agreement also includes a commitment from Hydro Quebec to spend $105 million over 15 years to train and hire Cree people for technical positions at its dams, and has set aside $800 million in contracts for Cree companies.

Economies in transition

When it comes to economic development, many Cree communities of northern Quebec are in a transitional phase. Whereas years ago many Cree people were employed by non-Aboriginal businesses, they are slowly working towards becoming the employers, rather than the employees.

Donald MacLeod, director of community development for Mistissini, explained how the people of his community have made that transition in the tourism sector.

"One industry that we always have been involved in, even when Indian Affairs was still calling the shots, was tourism. We've always been involved in outfitting... because we live on a big lake, Mistissini Lake," he explained. "Since back in the '50s, we've been doing that, and today we're still involved in that. However, we went from being uides; we now manage, we own the camps."

Many of the camps started out as band-run entities, owned by the community, but even that is now changing, with individuals or groups from the communities starting their own camps, or having the community-owned camps transferred over to them.

But the shift from employee to employer doesn't happen overnight, with many of the Cree communities still in that transition phase.

In Waskaganish, most of the economic development is initiated by the band through the local development company, explained economic development officer Jack Diamond.

"I think that's the case in a lot of the communities," Diamond said. "If you go back in time, isolation was a factor. It's difficult for anybody to come in from the outside to invest in the community, so basically it had to be the band that provided a lot of the services."

A number of Cree businesses got their start that way, Diamond explained, in order to meet a need of the communities that no one else was interested in meeting. Air Creebec, for example, grew out of a need to provide air transport to the northern communities.

With the opportunities that are being offered by the hydro projects, Diamond sees the band beginning to take more of a back seat in terms of initiating economic development.

"There is a change where the band used to be up front... and the band or their economic development corporation used to do a lot of the up-front work to start up businesses and get work. Now you see the shift, where there are individuals that are in the community that are interested, or that are in business now, and they're looking at getting work," he said.

While in the past, Mistissini's approach to business development would have been for the local development corporation to start a business in response to community demands and then hire the people to run it, that is no longer the case, explained MacLeod.

"We're starting to move slowly away from that, because we felt it's more important or people to have their own professions," he said.

That is the approach Thomas Jolly, economic development officer for Nemaska, would like to see his community take as well.

Since Nemaska was relocated to Champion Lake in 1977, much of the community's efforts have been focused on community development, getting the infrastructure in place within the community, and less on economic development. In the 20-plus years that the community has been in this location, only two private businesses have started up, with the balance of the businesses and services in the community provided by the band through the development corporation.

The key areas where economic development opportunities exist in northern Quebec are all resource-based: tourism, forestry, mining, and the hydro projects.

Tourism

Whapmagoostui has something to offer that other Cree communities of Quebec can't boast-the community is comprised of both Cree and Inuit people, explained Maria Kawapit, Whapmagoostui's economic development officer. Although there is nothing in place currently, she said there has been some discussion about the two cultural groups getting involved in a joint venture in tourism, allowing visitors to come to the community and experience both cultures.

In Wemindji, while past economic development activities have been many and varied-from developing a mini-mall to operating the world's largest fox farm-these days eco-tourism is where the community is focusing its attention.

Tourism-related projects being undertaken in Wemindji include developing a motel and bed-and-breakfast, offering outfitting and adventure tourism services, and promoting arts and crafts through a local shop. But although attracting tourists is a big part of what the community is doing, it is far from the only sector the people are focusing on. A number of businesses have also started, and the community is involved in a number of joint ventures with other companies.

One of the largest of these joint ventures is Kpa, a transport company that operates as far north as Chisasibi, and as far south as Toronto. Another of the community's business ventures is Petro-Nor, a wholesale fuel company. And the diversification doesn't end there.

"We have our own drilling company, also our own mining exploration company," said Wemindji economic development officer Tony Gull. "One other main one is our own Air Wemindji. It offers bush service planes, such as Beavers and Caravans."

Ouje-Bougoumou is a relatively young community, which just celebrated 10 years of existence, but tourism has been the primary focus of economic development initiatives throughout the past decade, explained Nick Paradisis, financial analyst for the community.

"One of the sectors of economic development that we are focusing in is definitely cultural tourism-to combine the history, the culture and the traditions of the Cree with the needs of the modern eco-tourist.

"In addition to the village, which as an internationally recognized model community is a tourist attraction in and of itself, visitors to Ouje-Bougoumou can also get a glimpse of the traditional Cree lifestyle, " Paradisis explained.

"Close by are outfitters that are located on traditional traplines of the families that are running them, so the tourists can get a view of traditional activities, going out into the bush with the outfitters and having what we would term as a cultural experience in there."

Tourism plays a small role in the economic development activities in Chisasibi, but economic development officer Jimmy A. Fireman expects that role to grow. While some area tourism operators have been floundering recently, due to the high cost in getting clients to the area, others are flourishing, such as a couple of winter caribou hunting camps to the east of Chisasibi, and a tourism operator that takes visitors to the island the community had relocated from.

While the mere fact that the community is located on a large lake already gives tourists a