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Hydro officials fly to blockade for talks

Protesters allowing dam workers to go

By: Aldo Santin

15/08/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 15

Several band members from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation constructed a roadblock at the entrance to the Wuskwatim dam in northern Manitoba on Thursday, Aug. 13. The blockade was set up between Highway 391 and the security gate to the dam. The proposed 200-megawatt generating-station dam is located about 45 kilometres southwest of Thompson on the Burntwood River. The band chief and council did not sanction the blockade.

CHRIS BRYNE / SPECIAL TO THE FREE PRESS Enlarge Image

Several band members from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation constructed a roadblock at the entrance to the Wuskwatim dam in northern Manitoba on Thursday, Aug. 13. The blockade was set up between Highway 391 and the security gate to the dam. The proposed 200-megawatt generating-station dam is located about 45 kilometres southwest of Thompson on the Burntwood River. The band chief and council did not sanction the blockade.

Manitoba Hydro officials met with organizers of the Wuskwatim blockade Friday night in hopes of settling the dispute.

Manitoba Hydro spokesman Glenn Schneider said senior utility officials flew to the site late in the afternoon and were to meet late in the evening.

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"We're hoping these talks will lead to a resolution," Schneider said.

By 8 p.m. Friday, there was nothing new to report.

The blockade, consisting of protesters, their vehicles and logs, went up Thursday on a private road leading to the Wuskwatim dam construction site, keeping about 880 Manitoba Hydro workers inside the work camp.

The blockade organizers are protesting the lack of jobs given to residents of the nearby Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN), which entered into a partnership with Manitoba Hydro on the $1.3 billion project.

The dam construction site is located about 45 kilometres southwest of Thompson, along the Burntwood River. Access to the site is from a private road off Highway 391.

When the dam project is completed, NCN has an opportunity to acquire a 33 per cent stake in it. Included in the partnership agreement between NCN and Manitoba Hydro are employment provisions that give hiring priority to qualified NCN members before other aboriginals and non-aboriginals.

Negotiations between the NCN chief and the blockade organizers resulted in Hydro workers being allowed to walk through the blockade, and 18 had done that Friday.

But Schneider said that wasn't much of a concession, adding it only helped those individuals who could arrange for someone to pick them up on the highway.

Manitoba Hydro and NCN officials refused to ask the RCMP to dismantle the blockade and the RCMP said their officers will be at the scene to ensure it remains peaceful.

NCN Chief Jimmy Moore said the dispute revolves around the employment issue, adding he hoped that having Hydro officials at the site would lead to the blockade being dismantled.

"We will have the Hydro officials there who can make the decisions," Moore said.

Schneider said that of the 880 workers on the site now, 44 are from NCN and 32 per cent of the total workforce -- 283 workers -- are aboriginal.

Since the project began in August 2006, Hydro maintains that of the 2,554 hires, half have been aboriginal and 424 workers, 17 per cent, have been from NCN.

Schneider said the hiring of qualified aboriginals who have registered with the provincial Job Referral Service remains the objective of hiring practices on the site, adding qualified non-aboriginals have been hired only when qualified aboriginals could not be found.

Moore said the blockade is not supported by the NCN council, adding he realizes the project's costs could climb as a result of the protest.

"It will cost us money if we don't allow people to go through," Moore said.

Moore said Grand Chief Ron Evans of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs was to join Hydro officials at the blockade.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 15, 2009 A4

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15 Commentscomment icon

Yes Jake,

The Jenpeg generating dam was designed by the Russians, and the light bulb was invented by a German. "Many light years ago", the native people new of the environmental damages plagued by hydro development and for what?..."lazy convenience" and more money.

Anyways, I'm sure the leadership of NCN have intervened with the protesters. Also, a good deal is only good when lawyers say it is.

Later.

"looking for even more free rides". Oh, yes, indigenous people have it made, so much so, that I'm sure you'd gladly trade places so you could get all that free stuff!!

Whenever people complain about all the "free rides" poor people get it reminds me of three things:

1. Ronald Reagan's famous off-the-cuff statement "the problem is that the poor people have all of the money", and

2. If the speaker is envious of poor people there is an easy solution - get poor yourself!


3. I'm grateful for my parents and family and I wouldn't want to trade it for anything. I'm happy with who I am. You should be too instead of complaining about the "free ride" of poverty.

Blocking roads is an extremely counter-productive form of protest. This is not to say the protesters don't have the right to act out in an immature manner, only that they are not serving their own purposes by doing so.

The grievances that native populations have, many of which are legitimate, should be dealt with by native leaders. Why, for example, does the NCN leadership try to distance itself from this protest, yet refuses to intervene in any meaningful way? I would call it inept leadership.

The "rogue" protesters need to be arrested and the blockade dismantled immediately. Most civilized Canadians are getting quite fed up with being held hostage by a bunch of out-of-touch natives who are looking for even more free rides than they are already getting. It appears they are simply refusing to accept the facts as they are: the white man's technology has progressed light years ahead of their own and it is now time to lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.

"Once the deal is signed, the deal is done boys snd girls. If you don't like it now, you don't kidnap innocent people and use them like pawns in your new game"

Are you speaking about the protesters or the Crown, who according to Supreme Court decisions of the past decade who as a result of treaties have an obligation to not just consult but co-plan and co-manage traditional territories, including the natural resources, and for the past 100+ years have ignored the law.

Or are you speaking of the residents of Selkirk who are living on land illegally taken from the Anishinaabe, so much so that the Federal government is settling this claim with Peguis to the tune of $120 million plus?

Or are the lessons of the treaties that laws mean little and might makes right?

@ erkey, you need to learn more about 1st nations, indian act, reservation system, imperialism etc. your commnts are offensive. I am certain there is someone out out there who could take that same hand with you, why are you so perfect and without fault? Indians have had their lands stolen, then culture wiped out, then held captive on reserves, without consultation, and this happend for more than a 100 years. So enough of the us vs. them. Point that criticism at your own self, you be the change.

For erkey,

So, because they don't belong to a union or are certified by a legal document they are thugs, they have no rights to protest? I feel bad for those people isolated out there, but sometime sacrifice happens.

Those profs took my my money and kept me away from class and held me as a captive, you don't hear me complaining, i ackowledged it , because they felt they had a substantial cause despite what inconvenience and lose i suffered.

Once a deal is signed its done... doesn't mean everyone agrees, because few made deals, also i'm sure there is the argument for the signing agreements in favor of the the notheren 1st nations too, afterall canada was partially stolen from the 1st nations. Can't argue that.

Professors at U of M and postal workers on strike, do not hold people captive at a remote site. Furthermore, they walk legal picket lines that exist because they have a union and are certified by a legal document. They are not a bunch of thugs holding people hostage because they decided that the deal their leaders signed for them is now, in their opinion, not good enough. Once the deal is signed, the deal is done boys snd girls. If you don't like it now, you don't kidnap innocent people and use them like pawns in your new game. Suck it up, they don't have the skills and didn't care to get them!

I guess, erkey,Pressreader, and cherenkov, who only had nothing worthwhile to say, now only have nothing to say.

Please consider that you may not be perfect, that you may not be the hardest worker yourself, and that all of your views are not devoid of prejudice. It's OK we all are prejudice to some degree (no matter what race or nationality), it's really about learning how to recognize it when it comes up, apologize when you have to, and trying to do better (with commitment and without guilt).

It's what's called trying to be a better person....

The professors at university of manitoba, when on strike, block the road, not allowing people in or out, so the profs are terrorists too? Of course not!!! This just gives the readers another oportunity to insult and put down the 1st nations involved!! Shame on you guys. Thanks again to the few educated comments-

thanks-just sayin, you make a good comment, i was so upset with comments yesterday, i couldn't even look at them anymnore. thanks again for showing me there are some decent thinkers and people out there.

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