News & Events
Manitoba Hydro feeding off First Nations' resources
March 13, 2010
Boozhoo! Tansi! Ho Dakota! Han Dakota!
The Southern Chiefs' Organization filed papers to obtain intervener status at the Public Utility Board hearings scheduled for sometime in late spring. This move is designed to ensure that southern First Nations interests are protected and that future Manitoba Hydro risk assessment and risk strategy initiatives include transparency, accountability and full public disclosure.
When I was elected SCO Grand Chief in 2007, I committed to take on the issues that matter to our people and their respective communities - big and small.
There is probably no opponent that is bigger than Manitoba Hydro. This includes the provincial government, which uses Manitoba Hydro as a cash cow. This cow feeds on Indian (water) grass - for free!
We have the real solution for us to clean up the mess left behind in wake of the GREED of overuse and careless management of our water. First Nations are the rightful owners of the land and not the federal or provincial governments.
PUB is supposed to act as a wise decision-maker, a panel that investigates and settles disputes. It is to look after the interests of everyone including us: the southern First Nations making sure that everything is on the up and up.
That is how it works - in theory anyway.
To continue the cash cow analogy, in the past PUB has mostly looked at things such as milk prices and ignored issues such as pasture stewardship and fair payment for grazing. These are the issues that are important to us - the owners of the pasture.
By getting involved in the PUB process as an intervener, SCO will continue to focus attention on the day to day concerns that our communities are dealing with, but have been left out of the picture.
In the past both Manitoba Hydro and its customers have benefitted at the expense of First Nations. Manitoba Hydro can produce electricity at an artificially low cost because First Nations have not been fairly compensated for environmental and economic damage to their lands and communities. We also haven't been paid for construction of existing transmission lines across traditional Treaty lands.
Our position is that the real costs of providing electricity should be factored into operations, which means that rates should be raised to alleviate the on-going destruction of First Nation lands or Manitoba Hydro should funnel less money into the provincial government's treasury until a comprehensive environmental audit is completed and First Nations have full and unencumbered participation.
We always knew that taking on Manitoba Hydro would make us unpopular in some powerful circles, particularly within the provincial government. Fortunately our Chiefs decided to take bold action. In November, at a summit at Peguis First Nation, they passed a resolution calling for an environmental audit, which would calculate the environmental, cultural and economic damage done by Manitoba Hydro.
The public often thinks of the impacts of Manitoba Hydro as limited to northern Manitoba where the dams have been built in recent decades. However, southern First Nations have been affected significantly. When water levels are kept artificially high this is evident through-out the SCO territory and the interconnected lake and river systems. The righting of the wrongs of the past needs to be undertaken immediately.
Also, governments and resource companies are coming to realize that First Nations can no longer be ignored, when projects such as pipelines and electrical lines pass through traditional Treaty lands. These projects must become a source of revenue - annual revenue - to First Nations. These are our resources.
A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision in BC regarding a mining project that was broken into smaller projects was highly critical of the Federal Government and their agencies and departments for allowing this activity to allow Industrial interests to save costs, time and money. This strategy denied proper crown consultations and public participation into a bigger project known as Red Chris Mine to circumvent the federally required and legislated environmental assessment process.
We need to have resource projects of our own. Wind energy, this can be the direction toward creating our own White Buffalo. The White Buffalo can support the Grandchildren and future generations into the foreseeable future.
Pidamayepido, Ekosi, Meegwetch
Grand Chief Morris J. Swan Shannacappo