February 2007 Edition

Pic River First Nation invests in power generation

BC Hydro and Tlingit First Nation install power plant

Harnessing the power of oceans and rivers

Creating energy, jobs and building capacity at Hupacasath First Nation

Chief Darryl Peters is leading Douglas First Nation at the north end of scenic, picturesque (even hallowed) Harrison Lake, BC, and works for 213 members whose aspirations have never been anybody's concern. They decided to work for themselves and the benefit of a scattered membership to change their prospects.

(Left to right) David Andrews, Barry Penner MLA, Minister of Environment, Mother of Chief Peters, and Chief Darryl Peters, and a young member of Douglas First Nation.

"I have worked for seven years to bring the run-of-river hydro project into being," said Chief Peters, even while untold megawatts of electricity hummed through giant transmission lines running over Douglas First Nation. He said, "We do this on a strictly economic stream. We found the business plan was very positive. The electricity will supply two other Inshuckch communities not presently found on the BC Hydro grid."

These communities are about 15 minutes from Whistler, BC as the crow flies, and are not the only Inshuckch communities not on grid; Canadians would be astonished by the ways and means that power is generated in this territory, and at what cost to the 11-community Stl'atl'lmx Nation (to which Douglas First Nation members belong).

This valuable electrical power is a true study in how larger interests control the destinies of little folks. Vancouver turned into one of the world's premiere jewels of economic development funded by huge amounts of electrical energy sold to Americans that is generated entirely in the Stl'atl'lmx Nation.

"This energy program reduces the costs of other projects for our communities," said Peters. "This grid provides us with badly needed infrastructure and ownership." They will run the environmental assessment and construction phase and the ensuing skills development will be both valuable and greatly appreciated by the membership.

"We needed to make the supply of electrical energy a priority. There was electricity once supplied to Douglas First Nation from a micro hydro system. We finally completed a renovation in 1999, with INAC assistance."

Micro hydro failed to produce enough electricity, and was prone to system failures. Nothing bigger than a cottage could be added to the grid.

"We could sustain a mere 70 of 213 members." The community Peters began to lead was hanging on with sheer determination. "We would have no community without more juice." At that point Peters encountered Cloudworks Energy and began consulting to clarify where they stood.
"We informed them about what we believed was appropriate impact on our rights and title in these lands. A negotiation began based on Cloudworks' prior success with Mt. Currie Indian Band," a larger, but no less determined community located closer to Whistler.

Elders endorsed Cloudworks' development proposal, which is, that Douglas First Nation own Douglas Creek Project and Tippella Creek Project, with four other run-of-river generators built in Inshuckch territory (of the bifurcated Stl'atl'lmx Nation) including Stokke Creek, Fire Creek, Lamont Creek , and Upper Stave River.

"The whole project develops 150 MW/H of new electrical energy, and we are attached, to join the BC Hydro grid," he said. "My negotiations with governments took us back to the days of BC Electric. Electrical transmission lines were installed on our lands," promises were made, rivers were dammed, waters were diverted in often bizarre constructions of dams, lakes, pipes through mountain-sides, down to other lakes; changes occurred to water courses, and water ecologies, in precedented ways.

Today they live in a separate world of drive-in forests, in dwellings of tiny houses often two or three perched on a corner of a logging road, four-wheel-drive access only, no telephone, no hydro, and no drive-in restaurants, (in barely drive-in-able forests). Hundreds of families live in tiny communities that seem to predate the hands of time, found in the middle of nowhere.

The construction for phase one of power development began with ground breaking December 8, 2006.

"We will soon open a facility to house 200 employees and carry forward these developments for the area. We established an Education Endowment Fund from Cloudworks Energy that will provide members with scholarships and badly needed funding for educational training opportunities and long term planning for programs."

David Andrews is a co-founder of CloudWorks Energy Inc., a BC company specialized in renewable energy, and presently working in partnership with Douglas First Nation and others. Cloudworks applied experience and wherewithal to the concerns of Inshuckch Nation people.

Andrews said, "These are small run-of-river projects that have received BC Hydro contracts." They received the go ahead to proceed with project developments as part of the 2006 provincial call for power. "Having met those conditions and in keeping with permits and all other regulations, we can start on building the projects."

He continued, "Next month we start with what will take four years to build. It involves First Nation communities with the primary purpose to get them connected to the BC Hydro grid. Douglas First Nation will be receiving electrical power as part of the benefit, and jobs, too, and so will other Inshuckch Nation communities and members.

"We build facilities that are urgently needed, and create jobs that have skills and transferable heavy construction experience." Cloudworks entered the territory by building a project in Mt. Curry Band (Lil'Wat First Nation at Pemberton). He said leadership organized a conference that tabled benefits to the community, then entered into business arrangements that were acceptable within forthcoming treaty negotiations.

It provides Mt. Curry with non-government income, and, furthermore, "Those Mt. Curry people trained in Pemberton are working in Olympic projects," said Andrews.

CloudWorks projects, "abide by the wishes of the people in their homes, their territories. We are a private company with 15 years of involvement in this line of work. My colleague and son set it up with me and we dedicated the company strictly to green energy and working with First Nations." Andrews said, "You do not dare develop resources without dealing with First Nations in BC."

Pic River First Nation made a decision to think of economic development as the priority for this Ojibway community. Byron LeClair was the Economic Development Officer who proposed investment in electrical power generation to create solid foundations for economic and social development on the northern shores of Lake Superior.

Funds that flow from ownership of power generation facilities are needed to grow strong, healthy communities for years ahead. Byron said, "Most First Nations are not into electrical energy development and few have any ownership, even though rivers and lakes affect our people from coast to coast."

He said, "My message to First Nations is always the same: Look for the opportunities to get involved in long term non-government sources of revenue. Look at developments in the territory and find the role to play. For First Nations who have no economic base, no developments around them, they are seriously challenged."

Byron said non-government funding provides a different structural basis to approach the future, "Electrical energy development made the biggest change in small ways. The number of challenges in our community was too high to be specific." Most of the problems stemmed from lack of funding.

"Today when proposals for development come into the community," he said, "you see First Nations have earned their place at the table. Companies that come to our communities demand far more than we can supply. We've made it worse for ourselves by having tremendous new responsibilities and lack of skills to meet them.

"To see our role expanded in things like forest management, watershed management," conducting reviews for mining prospectors, "where we have no expertise; Paying for it from outside is costing us a lot."

Nevertheless the Pic River experience provides a positive example in the business of resource sharing. "It's not the utility or anybody else proposing these developments. We have been successful building two generation stations, and now a third project is under construction, and the agreements include 50 years of investment income."

Pic River First Nation is part-owner of two facilities and in 2008 a new one is coming onstream, "enough power to supply 35,000 homes." They started at 5MWh, then added 18.5MWh, and are adding another 25MWh. The present investment to generate 25MWh is $61 Million. The new plant will be running directly east of the First Nation, a run-of-river hydro project.

Byron said, "Our electricity is sold into the Hydro One grid. We're in the middle of negotiations to develop wind power. Coming environmental assessments will determine the direction of wind; we have two or three more hydro projects impending. Life in our community has changed because the days of bogus deals are gone.”

Pic River has 1,000 members split 50/50 between reserve and elsewhere. "We have the lake. We have huge hills," strongly resembling mountain tops, and endless lakes. "We had a company in here tree planting last year."

David Carter began Regional Power to develop environmentally lean and clean energy programs that reverse notions that industrial footprints have to wreak havoc. Regional Power was Blue Planet Prize Winner at the UN Environmental Conference in Montreal this year (hosted by then-Federal Environment Minister Stephane Dion).

Carter said, "We've got a lot of issues to deal with about renewable energy, including poor air quality, often from sources of power," (not to mention automobile engines the world over), "and coal-fired power generation plants. Regional Power is developing power projects in Canada to produce electricity in pristine environmental conditions while leaving conditions pristine. It is do-able, and David Carter is doing it (often), with First Nations.

"Distributed energy developments benefit regional centres like Wawatay," Carter said, (Wawatay is Pic River First Nation's concern), and he worked with Byron LeClair, then, "a young economic development officer who wanted to invest the community into power generation."

Carter said, "Regional Power is owned 80 percent by Manulife," which he explained has been a financial boon to his ambitions of developing environmentally and economically stable projects. "It's a challenge that big governments have never been able to meet," he noted, with their monopolistic and bureaucratic operations.

"In days gone by the development of this kind of energy project was really tough. It used to be window dressing, if anything, and provincial power corporations had no incentive to change."

Now big energy companies have incentives to drop the monopoly and listen to their own governments telling them to buy 'renewable resource based,' sustainably-developed, energy.

"The moon and the stars seem to be lining up for renewable resources. Governments are behaving in a way they were not doing twenty years ago." Carter said, "Kyoto prompted at least some behaviour change. As popular culture hit the early 90s people were saying, 'We have to do things differently,' and Aboriginal people have had a huge effect on the changes in public policy about the environment. They are good lobbyists who know how the press behaves."

Regional Power installed 16 MW at Sechelt, BC, and won the aforementioned Blue Planet Award from the United Nations in late 2005. The company installed 3 MW at Dease Lake, BC to increase the region's hopes for economic development in mining and forestry.

"We operate as far north as the 59th parallel and provide the necessary expertise in three time zones across Canada."

A tiny community located 148 kilometres south of Whitehorse is entering into an agreement which will benefit the local economy and give members a cleaner source of energy. The Taku River Tlingit have struck a deal with BC Hydro to own and operate a power plant, to be built along Pine Creek at Atlin, BC, near the Yukon border.

Stuart Simpson is project coordinator for the Taku Land Corporation. “This is the first 100 percent-owned Aboriginal hydro project in Canada. Back in the 1990s, BC Hydro asked for expressions of interest from communities to switch from diesel-powered generation of electricity to hydroelectricity. As economic development officer for the First Nation at the time, I was pleased to help fulfil a dream of the members of the community to enjoy this cleaner source of fuel, so we began to work towards it then,” he explained.

Surprise Lake is located ideally nearby and the plan is to hold back the water there. “It will go naturally 15 kilometres down the creek where we’ll pick it up at an intake and convey it through a buried pipeline avoiding frost and eliminating any environmental damage, to a powerhouse where two turbines will supply power back to the community,” he said. “The plant will supply power for the 450 members of the community. Diesel fuel is not an environmentally-friendly or desirable source of energy and the risks of transporting the thousands of litres required annually, all the way from Alaska, were considerable,” continued Simpson.

An environmental assessment, arranging finances, and negotiating an energy purchase agreement with BC Hydro took an additional two years to complete, but the project is now a reality and construction on the plant is expected to begin this summer.

Many hydro projects in the past in Canada were developed in northern areas that have a considerable Aboriginal population which experienced negative effects on the environment, the communities and the traditional way of life. Often dams have flooded cultural and heritage sites and the change in the water flow of rivers and creeks have affected traditional hunting, fishing and trapping activities. Aboriginal people did not sit back and passively accept these occurrences, but instead, in recent years, have become increasingly concerned and vocal about the many impacts of large hydro projects on their lands.

An example occurred in the 1970s, when construction of the James Bay Project in northern Quebec hit the headlines across the country and raised controversy for its effect on the environment when huge areas of wilderness were flooded. This project and others, such as a campaign against the Great Whale Project in Quebec, further increased actions by Aboriginal groups and drew attention to the problem. Gradually, partnerships were begun, or at least public dialogue was instituted, on upcoming hydro projects which could affect Aboriginal communities, and developers have begun to work closer to address possible environmental impacts and to include these communities in new opportunities for employment and economic growth.

During the construction phase at Taku River, employment will rise for members of the First Nation and once the $10 million project is complete, there will still be a need for a small workforce. Over the course of the 25-year energy purchase agreement, more than 150,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions will be eliminated, as the diesel generators will only be used as backup if needed at all.

The community will further benefit by not having to rely on fuel being supplied from outside the area for the generation of its electricity, and will also realize a huge advantage in economic terms because the First Nation will own a hydro project with nice returns on its investment.

“In the meantime, we can develop economically because the money formerly spent on diesel will now circulate in the community and the profits will go toward First Nations programs such as housing or wherever there’s a need,” concluded Simpson. “There’ll be no government purse strings dictating how the funds are spent.”

A west coast consortium is leading the way to harnessing energy from Pacific North West tides. Chris Knight is president of Canoe Pass Tidal Energy Corp., operating where the world's largest tidal energy potential exists. Knight said, "The best thing for First Nations is that tidal energy is the renewable energy source where opportunity in economic development is wide open.

"We will see communities powered up by tidal energy. The International Energy Association, a cooperative that studies energy development, said tidal power is starting out cheaper to research and develop than windpower. Ocean energy will fall to within 4 to 8 cents per KWh kWh at commercial scale deployment."

The consortium, including partner New Energy Corp., is operating at Canoe Pass in traditional waters of the Cape Mudge Indian Band, next to Campbell River, BC and has been testing the EnCurrent Turbine at various sites in western Canada, including the outfall from the Bonnybrook Water Wastewater Outfall Treatment Plant in Calgary (they are presently 'beefing up' electrical generation in that site).

Robert Moll, New Energy Vice President, said, "The Canoe Pass consortium found optimum conditions for deploying the EnCurrent Turbine, vigorous currents with flows exceeding three to four knots." They also have close proximity to the transmission grid. "Two EnCurrent Turbines 250KW each, with 12 to 14 metremeter rotor diameter will generate 500KW as a demonstration, gradually expanding to the 7MW potential at Canoe Pass."

New Energy Corp. was formed December 2003, by people who researched the energy source for many years. "We are among a group looking at tidal energy developments," and bringing projects to market. Moll said, "We focus on man-made canals, irrigation canals, and water outfalls from sources like the Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment facility in Calgary; then river systems; and, perhaps greatest of all, tidal currents."

Moll said the market exists for renewable energy generation that delivers in the range of 2MW. "We are working toward a turbine and generator that provides that amount of energy. We are positioned to offer solutions to remote communities and resorts and fishing lodges. The economic drivers are short term savings in diesel, rural electrification, and satisfying the growing demand for renewable energy."

He noted, "We are working with a First Nation community to install a demonstration system, with a power generator that works in the 5KW range, and will configure several to create a total of 25KW. Our path forward is to make larger systems up to 2MW," said Moll.

Hupacasath First Nation took a running start at creating non-government income from energy generation, completing a project to generate 6.5MWh in run-of-river hydro electricity and they opened for business just over a year ago.

Chief Judith Sayers, LLB, said, "At full capacity we can power 6,000 homes. We operate at capacity (or very near it) year round, though available generation capacity drops off in dry spells," or at certain times in winter.

She said, "It was year ago in December that we started generating electrical energy," and their system has rarely dipped below capacity in the closely monitored operations. "Our community, the Hupacasath First Nation, led and developed this project, found partners, and equity, and spent two years in development before starting."

Chief Sayers said, "We chose China Creek, 10 km south of Port Alberni, for flows of water at a location that had no questions about impact on Hupacasath traditional use," neither anthropological nor environmental dislocation would be acceptable. In fact, the project ended up making no damage or imprint on the environment of central Vancouver Island.

She said, "We put the powerhouse in existing gravel pit, and the water intake was 4.5 km of construction buried, a pipe to create down-flow and 'head build-up' required to hit the turbine. We had a BC Hydro interconnect right there and the project was constructed on private land, through existing gate access."

Hupacasath economic strategy continues, "We launched another project and are now designing another 10 km further south of China Creek, to add 7MWh of power to BC Hydro's grid with a 20 year contract." Provincial water licenses are being acquired and proceedings with adjoining First Nations are underway, and Hupacasath consultants are doing preliminaries for environmental studies, especially on fish.

Chief Sayers noted, "There are no anadromous salmon on either of these creeks, neither China nor Corrigon. Our projects create new energy, employ Hupacasath people and build community capacity," which is so essential when the City of Port Alberni surrounds Hupacasath.

"Our community members have gone on to other related skilled jobs, and we retain many other construction benefits. We have had community members go into the environmental world for their careers," a particularly snug fit considering the surroundings.

The community enterprise employs two members full time to run the system, "Our main operator has computers running 24/7 remotely running, monitoring the generation station, water flows," and a host of environmental data inputs.

Chief Sayers said, "We plan to do quite a few of these projects. It is a good dollar generator from long term income sources. It is doing the province a favour creating Green credits." It is adding opportunities to the future of her community members.

She said, "Ours is a unique partnership with 72% in Hupacasath ownership, 10% in Ucleuelet, 12.5% in Synex Energy, and 5% owned by City of Port Alberni."

The chief is pleased to say the city of Port Alberni has become an exceptionally good neighbour to her First Nation community, and fully supportive of Hupacasath energy projects.