Dam's fate up to band in late-summer vote
Hydro says project dead if referendum fails to pass

By Helen Fallding
helen.fallding@freepress.mb.ca

Tuesday, March 16, 2004 - THE proposed Wuskwatim dam is dead if the Nisichawayasihk Cree reject it in a referendum expected in late summer, Manitoba Hydro officials confirmed yesterday.

Members of the First Nation based in Nelson House voted in 2001 to tentatively partner with the utility on the 200-megawatt dam on the Burntwood River.

However, a final binding vote must be held before Manitoba Hydro puts a shovel in the ground.

Support for the partnership, which would allow the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation to own up to a third of the $800-million dam, could be eroding as opponents air their objections at a Manitoba Clean Environment Commission hearing.

As the third week of the review got underway yesterday, Manitoba Hydro's power planning manager Ed Wojczynski confirmed that the utility would not "proceed with construction -- certainly not in the foreseeable future -- if NCN did not support the project."

Power

The utility has made that promise in meetings in the affected communities, but participants in the environmental review said it is the first time they have heard it officially put on the record.

The commitment leaves the Nisichawayasihk Cree's 2,100 eligible voters, including those living off reserve, with the power to make or break a project that Manitoba Hydro argues would help keep rates down for all customers in the province.

Lawyer Dennis Troniak said that puts the Nisichawayasihk Cree under pressure to approve a deal that might not be in their best interests.

He is representing a group of Nisichawayasihk Cree band members who left South Indian Lake after it was flooded during Manitoba Hydro's first round of northern dam building in the 1970s.

Wojczynski clarified in an interview that he cannot promise Manitoba Hydro would not go ahead with the Wuskwatim dam several decades from now, even without Nisichawayasihk support.

"You can't bind social policy that far in the future."

Dead deal

Nisichawayasihk Coun. Elvis Thomas told the commissioners yesterday that if less than 50 per cent plus one of the band members who vote accept the business partnership, the deal is dead and no further vote will be held.

More than 50 per cent of band members will also have to turn out to vote, but he said turnout has not been a problem in past elections and referendums.

The Clean Environment Commission panel rejected a motion yesterday by another South Indian Lake group to suspend the hearing until Manitoba Hydro finalizes a compensation agreement with the Nisichawayasihk Cree.

Thomas vigorously defended the Cree nation's leaders, who recently survived an election court challenge, from accusations over that last few weeks that they are not protecting band members' aboriginal rights.

Deals between the Quebec Cree and Hydro Quebec that are being touted as superior cannot be compared to the Wuskwatim agreement because northern Quebec did not already have treaties in place, Thomas said.

The First Nation's lawyer, Valerie Matthews-Lemieux, said an independent study for the Community Association of South Indian Lake confirms Manitoba Hydro's claim that the Wuskwatim dam will have no impact that far upstream.

Return to RiverWatch News Page

View archived river stories from The Winnipeg Free Press