Syntaris Power

Squamish – The Squamish Nation has lashed out against the B.C. Utilities Commission (BCUC) following a ruling that refuses to endorse B.C. Hydro’s massive call for clean energy.

The decision creates regulatory roadblocks to B.C. Hydro’s long-term call for 3,000 gigawatts of power from public and private power producers.

The ruling was seen by most as a challenge to the B.C. Liberals’ Energy Plan, and a blow to the independent power industry, which has signed some $31 billion in private power contracts with B.C. Hydro to date.

Chiefs Gibby Jacob and Bill Williams signed off on a strongly-worded letter, which arrived to the BCUC July 31. According to Jacob, the band’s potential private partners on 10 run of river power proposals have already spent approximately $300,000 in preliminary studies.

“If they [the projects] don’t go, that’s money down the tubes for us,” said Jacob in an interview with The Chief. “It’s one thing that we’ve been able to accomplish is to get some opportunities with them. Plus enhance fisheries values. There’s a lot of positives in it for us.”

by Sylvie Paillard and Dave Burke

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Native leaders insist clean energy is the way to go

Several first nations have challenged the B.C. Utilities Commission for putting up a regulatory roadblock to development of wind and water power within their traditional territories.

They were reacting to the commission’s decision to withhold endorsement of B.C. Hydro’s latest call for proposals to build wind farms, run of the river developments and other “clean power” projects.

Instead, the commission ruled that Hydro could make do with increased reliance on power from Burrard Thermal, the seldom-used-because-polluting, natural-gas-fired generating station near Port Moody.

This apparent preference for “brown power” over “green power” provoked a major push-back from the leaders of the Squamish and Sechelt nations, both of whose territories included projects that were submitted for consideration as part of the clean-power call.

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New $7-million fund will give first nations groups money to own run-of-river projects

British Columbia aboriginals are ratcheting up their support for independent power projects.

A new $7-million “First Nation Regeneration Fund” announced Tuesday will give aboriginal groups access to capital to participate as co-owners in run-of-river power projects, proponents say.

Two aboriginal capital corporations, Ecotrust Canada and the federal government have all kicked in the money — which David Lantin, chief operating officer of Tribal Resources Investment Corporation (Tricorp), said will enable “four or five” first nations to borrow money to take an equity share in power projects in their communities.

First nations have struggled to ramp up their participation in power development, largely due to difficulty accessing capital — a situation aggravated by the recent global economic meltdown.

“Originally, we envisioned a larger-scale fund, but this is a start,” Lantin said in a telephone interview from Prince Rupert, home base for northern B.C.-focused Tricorp. “We will not be adding to it, but we will be looking at probably a second fund if this one works out according to plan.”

Tricorp’s shareholders include several of B.C.’s major northwest tribal groups — Haida, Nisga’a, two Tsimshian bands, Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en.

By Scott Simpson
Vancouver Sun

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First Nations betrayed by green energy backlash, environmentalist warns

A prominent B.C. environmentalist struck a conciliatory tone with green energy critics in Whistler April 9, saying that blanket opposition to independent power producers (IPPs) is based in ideology, not pragmatism.

Tzeporah Berman, a co-founder of ForestEthics B.C. and now executive director of the PowerUp Canada citizens’ initiative, led a discussion last Thursday put on by the Whistler Forum for Leadership and Dialogue in which she outlined B.C.’s energy needs and addressed the “backlash” against the government’s attempted solutions.

…Just a week earlier, Save Our Rivers Society spokesman Rafe Mair held an event in Whistler and said that First Nations are being “bribed” by IPPs – a comment that former Mount Currie band administrator Sheldon Tetreault said he found “offensive” when he read about it in Pique.

As an example, Berman invoked efforts by Guujaaw, president of the Haida Nation on the Queen Charlotte Islands, to build a wind energy project on Hecate Strait, as well as numerous other projects in which B.C. First Nations have a stake.

“We should certainly not be opposing the Haida when they do their IPP wind project,” she said. “We should not be opposing the Hupacasath or the Klahoose or the many other First Nations who have spent decades protecting their territories and are doing an admirable job finding sustainable development and green jobs.

“This is our historic moment to stand together, to stand together with First Nations and unions and, yes, private companies to try and figure out how we solve the climate crisis.”

By Jesse Ferreras

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