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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
A familiar conflict in new territory
Hydro must now navigate way through southern bands
BIPOLE III could sideswipe as many as a dozen First Nations in southern Manitoba and some chiefs are none too happy about it.
Several chiefs say they were never consulted about the possible power line routes that either hug their reserves or pass through traditional land the bands have bought back, using outstanding treaty land entitlements.
"We never thought we'd be in the middle of a power grid," said Long Plain Chief David Meeches, whose band is located near Portage la Prairie. "Their obligation is to come knocking at our door."
Meeches, along with Rolling River Chief Wilfred McKay and Waywayseecappo Chief Murray Clearsky, say they haven't heard boo from Manitoba Hydro about the company's plans to build Bipole III.
Clearsky said one proposed route runs just south of his reserve on land the band believes is theirs and could soon be the subject of a land claim court case against the federal government.
"We're looking for compensation or maybe a better deal from Hydro on our power rates," said Clearsky.
Trouble brewing with the province's southern First Nations would be a familiar problem for Hydro, just in a slightly different location.
Hydro has spent years negotiating with northern bands over the right to build dams that flood traditional First Nations land, a process that has cost Hydro upwards of $675 million through the Northern Flood Agreement.
Deals to build the new Wuskwatim, Keeyask and Conawapa dams will pump hundreds of millions more into northern communities in compensation.
Sticky relations and the painfully slow pace of negotiations are key reasons the NDP government decided never to build the power line down the east side of Lake Winnipeg. There, any one of more than a dozen bands could have delayed the project, demanded compensation or turned the preservation of the boreal forest into an international cause célèbre.
But Hydro says it has contacted and met with many First Nations in southern Manitoba that are in Bipole III's path.
"If there are environmental effects that are not mitigable, this would be discussed with First Nations (and Métis) to explore whether there is any effect on their interests in an area they traditionally used," wrote Hydro spokesman Glenn Schneider in an email. "Where there is a direct impact -- on traplines, as an example -- compensation may be paid."
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 23, 2010 H16
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