Bands reap $160M in dam funding

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This article was published 03/12/2009 (5811 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Hydro ratepayers have spent $160 million so far to bankroll First Nations as they negotiated deals with Manitoba Hydro to build the next generation of dams.

The money was paid to six northern bands over more than a decade to level the playing field, allowing bands to hire an army of lawyers, consultants, biologists, employment experts and environmental engineers to help negotiate complex flood compensation and joint ownership agreements.

The tally, released by Hydro following a request by the Free Press, also covers the cost of hiring band members to help with negotiations, long-term studies of traditional knowledge and ratification votes on the deals.

It does not include money Manitoba Hydro paid to outside lawyers and consultants to represent the Crown corporation’s interests during negotiations.

Manitoba Hydro will pay First Nations hundreds of millions more to compensate for flooding and give them a share of the profits from the next three dams — Wuskwatim, Keeyask and Conawapa.

Band members and even senior aboriginal political leaders have criticized what they say is a consulting industry that feeds off the complex world of aboriginal consultations, profits by dragging out negotiations and co-opts band leaders. During the Keeyask negotiations, some Split Lake band members harshly criticized what they called the waste and secrecy surrounding the band’s dealings with Hydro and consulting firms.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation Manitoba director Colin Craig, who has also been tallying the "process costs," said $160 million was spent on little more than "paperwork and chit-chat sessions."

"The costs are absolutely obscene," Craig said. "I think this will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The Manitoba legislature needs to look at this."

Hydro president Bob Brennan countered, "Nobody likes to pay that kind of money, but we’re dealing with First Nations people who have zero resources, like, zero."

"We’ve got to make sure they don’t feel duped and that they aren’t duped."

Brennan said the process costs are more than he ever imagined they’d be, but Hydro has created historic joint ownership deals that will allow impoverished bands to share in the profits of generating stations.

Hydro is also paying for past sins — the last generation of northern dams that flooded native land, devastated communities and left a legacy of mistrust.

"That is not a hefty number when you look at the potential profits Hydro will generate and the history of Hydro," said Manitoba Grand Chief Ron Evans.

No one will say specifically where the money went or which firms benefited.

The taxpayers federation has made several access-to-information requests asking for cost breakdowns, including which consultants got paid what.

But Hydro says that information is covered by confidentiality provisions in its agreements with the bands, who hire and pay the firms directly and expense the costs to Hydro.

Earlier this year, four First Nations — Split Lake, War Lake, Fox Lake and York Factory — voted to accept a joint ownership and compensation deal on Keeyask similar to the deal reached with Nelson House Cree Nation to build Wuskwatim.

The Keeyask negotiations cost a whopping $109 million, nearly three times the cost of the Wuskwatim deal.

Ed Wojczynski, Hydro’s division manager for power project development, cautioned that well under half of that money was spent on lawyers and consultants.

Most of the money was spent in the communities on consultation meetings, votes and in-depth studies of traditional knowledge, as well as direct negotiations.

Hobbs and Associates, a Winnipeg consulting firm that worked on the original Northern Flood Agreement, was the primary consultant hired by the First Nations to work on the Keeyask deal.

It’s not known exactly how much Hydro paid Hobbs to work for Split Lake and War Lake, and staff at Hobbs won’t say.

"I have absolutely no comment," said Nick Hobbs, the assistant to the president.

Once the dams start producing lucrative power, the bands will slowly reimburse Hydro for between a third and a quarter of the negotiation costs, plus interest.

Wojczynski noted that a lot of the studies commissioned by the bands will become part of an environmental licence application, so they would need to be done anyway.

The next big set of negotiations, to build the behemoth Conawapa, is at a relatively early stage, but Wojczynski said the process costs for a Conawapa deal will be much smaller.

 

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

 

First Nation process costs 

(The amount, in millions, Manitoba Hydro has reimbursed bands for negotiations, environmental and traditional knowledge studies, community consultations, legal advice and other costs associated with reaching complex dam development deals.)

NCN CNP/TCN Fox Lake Shamattawa York Total

Wuskwatim $37.4 $2.2 $39.6

Keeyask 75.7 18.4 14.9 109.0

Conawapa 3.6 5.0 0.3 2.6 11.5

Total $37.4 $81.5 $23.4 $0.3 $17.5 $160.1

 

Legend: NCN — Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (Nelson House):

CNP/TCN — War Lake First Nation and Tataskweyak Cree Nation (Split Lake): Fox Lake — Fox Lake Cree Nation: Shamattawa — Shamattawa First Nation: York –York Factory First Nation

Source: Manitoba Hydro