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First Nations support green run-of-river power projects
Ken Brown, Walter Paul and Darren Blaney, Special to the Sun
Published: Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Over the past few months the NDP Opposition, union leaders and organizations formed and backed by these political groups have implemented a campaign of public meetings and media misinformation on run-of-river power projects.
Seemingly lost in this disturbingly paternalistic and blatantly ideological campaign against run-of-river green energy projects are the interests of first nations communities partnering with independent power producers.
The majority of these green projects — whether they are run-of-river, wind, tidal or biomass — exist in the core traditional territories of first nations across this province. For many years first nations have been working to put what we believe are the appropriate environmental, economic and social decision-making processes in place to assess whether an individual project(s) should receive the consent.
Despite what the anti-IPP movement would have you believe, first nations are the front line environmental and economic stewards of our territories. These are the lands and waters that must sustain our nations in perpetuity. We participate in the environmental assessment process and often augment it with our own traditional use studies and archaeological studies. To suggest these studies are not done is blatantly untrue and is disrespectful. In many cases, these IPP projects are directly helping to re-build a sustainable economic base to replace what has been lost.
While there are undoubtedly projects and developers that have no business coming into our traditional territories, the suggestion that the entire IPP sector should be shut down is nothing more than self serving, politically inspired rhetoric. In our view there is a very welcome place for private sector partnerships, direct first nation equity ownership and better agreements with BC Hydro for our nations involved in the power production business. To eliminate any of these options, when our province clearly needs renewable energy to stop importing dirty power from foreign jurisdictions, is foolhardy and runs contrary to all of our interests.
For too many years first nations in this province have been purposely shutout of economic activities on the land base and therefore stuck in a negative and destructive framework of economic dependency. Despite its relatively short history, we believe strongly the IPP sector is resulting in more jobs, steady revenue streams, and capacity building for our nations. By working together, we believe this positive start can continue to mature and will become an even more important foundation for many of our nations.
The anti-IPP movement would be wise to tone down the rhetoric, get their facts straight and work positively with us to build a better industry.
Chief Ken Brown is with the Klahoose First Nation; Chief Walter Paul is with the Sliammon First Nation; Chief Darren Blaney is with the Homalco First Nation.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008
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