A Manitoba Hydro board faced with a mandate to advance Indigenous reconciliation held a meeting in the North for the first time in nearly a decade.
Board members made the 1,000-kilometre trip to Gillam on Aug. 13, touring the Keeyask generating station and meeting with local First Nations leaders.
“It was a facility visit, a board meeting and a great opportunity to spend some time with (Indigenous leaders), hear about their vision for the future of their First Nation and how we can look at win-win possibilities and partnership,” chairman Ben Graham said in an interview Tuesday.
Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Files
Manitoba Hydro chairman Ben Graham, right, and the rest of Manitoba Hydro’s board travelled 1,000-kilometres to Gillam to tour the Keeyask generating station and meet with local First Nations leaders.
The board toured the massive hydroelectric facility and saw some of the impacts it has had on area First Nations, including Fox Lake Cree Nation.
“We made sure they saw the everyday impacts of hydro development on our lands, where the majority of Manitoba Hydro’s largest infrastructure is situated,” said Fox Lake Chief Morris Beardy. “We had a lunch on the bank of the Nelson River and they could see the ongoing effects on our territory.”
The last time members of the Crown corporation’s board met in the north was in 2015.
“I’d like to think we’re going to be doing it more than once a decade,” Graham said.
He was appointed Hydro chairman in December after the NDP government replaced the Tory-appointed board. The new board fired chief executive officer Jay Grewal in February and appointed an interim CEO before hiring Allan Danroth, who took the helm on Aug. 6 and accompanied the 10-member board to Gillam.
Graham said the board invited leadership from four nearby First Nations to meet: Fox Lake Cree Nation, War Lake First Nation, Tataskweyak Cree Nation and York Factory First Nation. Tataskweyak and York Factory leaders were dealing with wildfires and other issues and were unable to attend, “which was a shame,” Graham said. The board was able to meet with Fox Lake’s Beardy and War Lake Chief Betsy Kennedy, he said.
“Gatherings such as this is how relationship building should have begun decades ago,” Beardy said. “Unfortunately, it didn’t at that time and we are still living with the impacts. We were clear that Manitoba Hydro’s future does not need to reflect its past.”
Graham was given a sweeping mandate from the minister responsible for Manitoba Hydro, Adrien Sala, that includes advancing Indigenous reconciliation. It calls for the establishment of an Indigenous advisory circle with representatives from First Nations, Métis and Inuit nations, including membership from Manitoba Hydro-affected communities, that answers to the board.
“I think it’s just simply, how do we make hydro development in the future a win-win for everybody?” Graham said.
Beardy said the publicly owned power corporation has traditionally come out the winner, while impacted First Nations have lost their traditional lands and livelihoods.
“Our nation sent a strong message that the land and the people are one, and the harmful legacy of Manitoba Hydro will not be fixed in a single day. Our energy future depends on a different approach to the development and operations of hydro in Manitoba, one that includes partnership with Indigenous communities and holds economic reconciliation at its core.”
The next hydro board meeting will take place in Winnipeg. Graham couldn’t say when the board would next meet with First Nations leaders.
“The Indigenous reconciliation piece is not something we take lightly but it obviously involves a lot of travel for an entire board to get to places, and we need the executive team. At this point in time, we’re saying that it’s a one-off … I think that this was a good first step, to sit and listen and understand a few of the issues with hydro development.
“I think that there’s a real spirit of collaboration and moving forward … of ‘how do we work together in the future?’ Chief Beardy is a very strong advocate for that and so were all the other attendees from Fox Lake.”
Graham said he’s been kept busy by developing an energy policy that is in the final stages.
“I’m drinking from a fire hose,” he quipped about his new role and three-page mandate letter. The board is also expected to keep hydro rates affordable, develop a plan to freeze rates for a year, and help Manitoba get to a carbon-neutral economy by 2050. He expects the Indigeous advisory council to be set up “momentarily.”
carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.