Winneway wants to take over dam

Page 5

What a long, strange road it's been for the people of Winneway, an

isolated Algonquin community at the end of a winding, gravel road 400 km

north of Ottawa.

Forced to relocate twice in less than 90 years, Winneway now finds

itself battling British bankers, devious Quebec politicians and a

Montreal developer arrested in the U.S. on a money-laundering charge (he

was cleared) in an effort to assume control over a hydro-dam located

just 100 yards up the river.

Winneway wants to buy a small, 2.4 megawatt dam built on the Winneway

River in 1938 so it can sell the power to Hydro-Quebec. The community

of 500 believed the dam, if managed properly, could bring in $415,000 in

annual profit from hydro sales by the year 2000.

It may seem like a lot of money, but band officials say it could go a

long way to easing the housing crisis plaguing this community where

nearly half the band members live off-reserve due to lack of housing.

The extra cash could also help out Winneway's 62 per cent unemployment

rate, a problem that's getting worse since half the band's members are

aged under 10.

For Chief Jimmy Hunter, the battle to get the dam has a certain irony.

"Both my grandparents on both sides were flooded out and here I am

trying to get into the power business," he muses. Chief Hunter's

grandparents on one side used to live at nearby Long Point, a site

flooded by another hydroelectric project in 1912. The other side of his

family used to live at Rapid Seven, another nearby spot that's been

under water since 1936.

The floodings, which both took place without any consultation with

Algonquins, caused many band members to abandon their hunting and

trapping way of life. Now, the community wants to take control of its

future, said Chief Hunter.

"In the last 10 years, people were getting fed up with being on

welfare. They want jobs."

But so far, no luck with the government. The community has yet to be

recognized as a reserve and therefore doesn't qualify for much federal

support. And Winneway's attempt to buy the dam is getting little support

in Quebec, despite assurances from the PQ government that Natives would

have a share in resource development. Indeed, officials in Quebec seem

ready to hand the hydro-dam over to just about anyone except Winneway.

The dam has flipped hands three times in under 10 years. The situation

got really strange when the dam was sold to Peter Kuczer, a Montreal

developer arrested in May 1994 for alleged money laundering in the U.S.

A U.S. Customs affidavit alleged that Kuczer had proposed to a paid

informant to launder drug money through his company HydroP-1, the same

company that owns the Winneway dam. Kuczer was cleared of the U.S.

charge in September 1994.

Kuczer bought the dam from the Quebec town of Belleterre, 21 km away,

in 1991. The sale took Winneway by surprise since at the time the band

was in the midst of lobbying provincial officials to take over the dam

itself.

At the time of the sale, the Liberals were in power in Quebec City.

Curiously, the Liberal Party, received a $3,000 donation from Kuczer in

1993, the maximum allowed under the law.

To this day Belleterre still hasn't been paid in full for the dam by

Kuczer's company.

After Kuczer's legal problems, UK-based Barclays Bank took over the

dam. But instead of getting Winneway involved in the dam, the bank is

now courting yet another outside interest, Cascade Energy Inc.

Not only that, the dam is poorly run and badly needs repairs, according

to band officials and an engineering consultant's study financed by the

federal government and completed last month.

The dam overflowed twice last year. Elders say they can't remember the

dam ever overflowing before in its 57 -year life.

On a visit to the dam in early April, an investigative team from the

Cree magazine The Nation witnessed water all over the floor in the

generating station. If water had gotten into the generator, Chief

Hunter said, the entire structure could have been severely amaged.

The water was seeping into the generating station from cracks in a

large tube that carries water to the station from the dam's reservoir.

These cracks need to be repaired, Chief Hunter said. Winneway residents

say if they were in charge, they could run the dam more safely and

efficiently, and save the government money in lower welfare payment.

"It would mean a beginning," said Winneway's economic development

officer.

"We've been pushed aside for so many years. We're always at the bad

end of the stick. We want to change that."