While Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador began formal negotiations on the long-term lease of Churchill Falls hydropower about ten months ago, to date there has been no consultation with the Innu Nation.
Former great leader Peter Penashue says the Innu country is concerned about any discussion at this time.
“We don’t know anything,” Peñashue said.
“You can do that in the ’60s, in the ’70s, you know, completely ignoring Aboriginal rights and continuing with the project. But in those days, I don’t think it’s going to work. “
In February, at a convention held in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Premier Andrew Furey and Quebec Premier François Legault announced formal talks on the long-term of the famous 1969 Churchill Falls contract.
The contract, which allows Hydro-Québec to acquire 90 percent of the 5,428 megawatts produced in Churchill Falls at an unbeatable price, does not expire until 2041. But the Legault government, faced with an imminent electricity shortage, has expressed its willingness to reopen the agreement, if Newfoundland and Labrador allows hydroelectric advancement on the Churchill River to continue.
Penashue said the Innu Nation’s call for a new agreement over Churchill Falls, built on land historically used by the Innu, is not a given. He added, however, that it was mandatory and that the demanding legal situations and protests would remain if further advances on the Churchill River were announced without the consent of the Innu nation.
On the final day of the House of Assembly’s autumn consultation last week, Furey said his government and Legault’s government were committed to holding consultations “at the right and appropriate time. “
“We said that once we were in the right scenario, all the indigenous teams would be consulted,” Furey said. “We’re not there yet. “
According to Penashue, the Innu Nation’s consent is based first and foremost on a compromise on revenue from the hydroelectric allocation on the Churchill River: the 824-megawatt Muskrat Falls Dam.
In 2021, Ottawa and Newfoundland and Labrador restructured the project’s finances, well beyond budget, a move that has prevented a rapid increase in electric power rates for Newfoundland customers. However, this re-equipping has come at the expense of the Innu. Nation, which will lose about $1 billion in projected profits over 50 years, according to Penashue.
“We’re telling the government . . . You have necessarily told the other members of the Innu Nation that your word is worthless, that you should keep it. There is no honor in your signatures. And, you know, a lot of people have been frustrated and disappointed. The custom of the province,” Peñashue said.
Penashue said the Innu Nation should also be fully involved in discussions about the long-term Churchill Falls contract and any long-term structure projects on the Churchill River.
Two projects are currently being discussed: generation at Churchill Falls, which could provide only 1,600 megawatts of additional capacity, and a new 2,200-megawatt dam at Gull Island, further downstream.
“I don’t see how the task could continue without the participation of the Innu Nation,” Penashue said.
When the existing Churchill Falls complex was built in the 1960s and 1970s, thousands of acres of land historically used by the Innu were flooded. Smallwood Reservoir alone is larger than Prince Edward Island.
The Innu were not consulted before the destruction of the land, said Mary Adèle Penashue, who at 95 is the oldest user in the Labrador Innu communities of Sheshatshiu and Natuashish. Despite his complex age, he remembers spending time in the domain in his youth. He said he never returned after the floods.
“They violated our hunting grounds. They violated our rights because at the time we didn’t perceive what was happening. We didn’t speak English,” the unilingual great-grandmother said in Innu-Aimun. His son Basile helped translate.
“This has been devastating to our classic way of life,” he added. “We want to be consulted before any new hydroelectric development. “
In the 1990s, former Innu Nation President Daniel Ashini scoured the flooded domain of Churchill Falls with a team of archaeologists in search of any and all cultural sites they could find. His daughter, Jodie Ashini, said the organization discovered what they believe to be a burial site partially hidden by floodwaters.
“I don’t forget the lie in my father’s arms when he came back from and told me the story and I heard this defeat in his voice, like this sadness,” Ashini said. Her father’s experience led her to become an archaeologist. and cultural father of the Innu nation, he added.
“They discovered a rusty bucket and some porcelain plate fragments, and voila. There is no evidence that the Innu ever existed there. And this is a great gathering place for the Innu. We’ve used it for thousands of days and there’s nothing. »
In 2008, the Innu Nation, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro, which owns 64. 5 percent of the shares of CF(L)Co, the company that manages the Churchill Falls task, reached an agreement to compensate the Innu for environmental destruction through the plant structure.
The New Dawn or Tshash Petapen agreement pledges $2 million annually to the Innu nation until 2041 and 3% of Churchill Falls province’s revenue when a new agreement is signed.
Penashue says the Innu Nation will have to ensure that the revenues recently pledged at Churchill Falls are not adversely affected by the ongoing negotiations.
The Innu Nation has a “responsibility to future generations” to take full advantage of the benefits of hydropower projects for its people, he said, taking into account the social, educational and housing wishes of the 3,200 citizens of Sheshatshiu and Natuashish, where part of the population lives under the age of 19.
The Innu Nation recently sued Hydro-Québec for its role in the environmental damage caused by Churchill Falls. It is not easy for Hydro-Québec, a minority shareholder of CF(L)Co, which owns 34. 2% of the company, to pay $4 billion. .
Since last January, the Innu of Uashat mak Mani-utenam, the largest Innu network on Quebec’s north coast, have also sued Hydro-Québec for $2. 2 billion. Last April, the head of Uashat mak Mani-utenam, Mike McKenzie, also indicted Newfoundland and Labrador. his other friends’ government of the discussions about Churchill Falls.
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Patrick Butler is a CBC journalist founded in St. Petersburg. John’s. In the past, he worked for CBC News in Toronto and Montreal.
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