Ontario program supports small water power projects in northern communities
First Nations important to energy future: minister
April Lindgren, CanWest News Service, June 14, 2007
TORONTO -- Aboriginal land claims in Ontario represent both a challenge and an opportunity in terms of the province's future energy security, Energy Minister Dwight Duncan said yesterday.
"First Nations are extremely important to our energy future, particularly our renewable [energy] future," Mr. Duncan told reporters after announcing a program aimed at encouraging the development of small water power projects in northern Ontario.
The minister acknowledged the slow pace of resolving land claims has caused delays in some cases.
"I wouldn't call it a threat [to the province's future energy security] but it causes too much time to go by ... We believe they [land claims] have to be resolved."
The Ontario Power Authority, for example, last year outlined a long-term power-generation-and-transmission plan that aims to ensure adequate supplies of electricity in the future. Release of the final report, however, has been delayed by several months until August in order to consult more fully with aboriginal groups.
In addition to encouraging the development of small hydro projects in the province's north, Ontario's Liberal government is negotiating a major purchase of electricity from Manitoba that would require the construction of a long-distance transmission line across large tracts of land claimed by aboriginal people.
Mr. Duncan noted aboriginal leaders have expressed an interest in becoming partners in a range of electricity-related projects and "our view is that we have to involve them intimately."
Michael Fox, a resource development adviser with the Nishnawbe Aski Development Fund in northern Ontario, said yesterday aboriginal groups see the power projects as a major opportunity to generate jobs and investment.
He said there are at least two dozen hydro and wind projects in the north that First Nations groups expect to participate in either as the principal developers or through minority or majority partnerships.
An alliance of First Nations is also exploring the impact of the proposed transmission corridor from Manitoba with a view to perhaps becoming the main proponent for the project, he said.
Mr. Fox said aboriginal groups in the north are also benefiting from an Ontario government policy that says only aboriginal groups can apply to develop hydro projects on northern rivers.
"That's a quantum leap from the old Ontario Hydro days, when they would come in and cherry pick" the best projects, he said.
Mr. Duncan's comments come as Ontario First Nations chiefs prepare to vote on a proposed deal that could bring them $2.5-billion in provincial lottery and casino revenue over the next 20 years.
The agreement in principle was signed a year ago and negotiators have been working out the details since then.
It will go before Ontario chiefs for ratification on Monday.
Under a pre-existing contract that runs until 2011, First Nations in Ontario were entitled to a share of gaming revenue from a single site, Casino Rama.
That was worth about $60-million annually.
Once the existing deal expires, the new arrangement will give 133 aboriginal communities about $125-million a year from all provincial gaming operations.