No change in Ottawa: social entrepreneurs

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This article was published 30/05/2016 (3395 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For all its talk, the federal Liberal government hasn’t shifted its thinking in the way it deals with First Nations, say social entrepreneurs trying to get their economies growing.

Last week, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) pulled the plug on an $8-million geothermal project that would create jobs and lower energy bills at Waywayseecappo First Nation in western Manitoba.

“It seems that every time we try and save money and create employment, they cut us off,” Waywayseecappo Chief Murray Clearsky said Friday.

‘It seems that every time we try and save money and create employment, they cut us off’– Murray Clearsky, chief of Waywayseecappo First Nation

Waywayseecappo was preparing to work with the social enterprise Aki Energy to retrofit houses there with geothermal systems when it learned the project was nixed Thursday.

“The department will not be considering any new geothermal projects via the Income Assistance program,” a federal government email to Aki Energy said.

The social enterprise works with First Nations to start green businesses in their communities, create jobs and grow their economies. So far, Aki has been involved with retrofitting 350 houses on four First Nations — Peguis, Fisher River, Long Plain and Sagkeeng — with geothermal systems that cut heating costs by 40 per cent.

Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source that’s particularly suitable for electrically heated homes. Through the use of a geothermal heat pump, these systems transfer thermal energy between the ground and the building.

Manitoba Hydro and the province have been very supportive, and First Nations are eager to get involved, said Shaun Loney, who helped found Aki Energy and seven other social enterprises.

“We cannot get the federal government on board when we’re asking them to support something that will save money,” said Loney. “The partnership agreement we have with Waywayseecappo is for an $8-million investment — all to be paid back out of utility-bill reductions,” he said. “The geothermal work will not cost (INAC) anything,” said Loney.

“Waywayseecappo First Nation had proposed a Geo-thermal project as part of a pilot project that would require financing of a loan under the department’s Income Assistance program.  Officials are pursuing whether this project could be funded through other areas in the department,” the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada said in a statement Monday. 

In 2014, Manitoba Hydro announced the Community Geothermal Program using PAYS (pay as you save) financing to work with Aki Energy and expand the program to First Nations across Manitoba. Hydro committed to investing $19 million in the program.

Last fall, the provincial government announced additional funding to allow Aki Energy to roll out consultation and community-engagement services in order to select and train managers and installers on two First Nations with the hope of being ready to start work in the 2016 construction season. Waywayseecappo, located 322 kilometres west of Winnipeg, was one of them.

With 70 per cent unemployment in his community of just over 1,400 on-reserve residents, Clearsky said the geothermal project would have created decent jobs for at least six residents to start and more as projects expanded to other communities. “People could save money on their power bills,” said the chief of the First Nation where most homes are heated electrically. “We could save money and pass (the technology) along to other communities in our area, but they don’t want to do it anymore.”

“With the new government we haven’t seen any results yet. We’ve been promised the world, but we haven’t seen anything yet,” said Clearsky.

 

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca