Power to empower communities.

• Author: Muir, Ross
• Position: Aboriginal Business

If all goes well, the First Nation communities of Fort Albany and Kasechewan will be able to turn off their diesel generators and begin receiving 'clean' electricity from the provincial power grid by mid- November. Whether or not this becomes a reality, though, is contingent on legal and political man between the federal, provincial and Aboriginal governments, as the hydro infrastructure is already in place and ready to be turned on.

"The technical requirements are all ready," reports Ed Chilton, the project co-ordinator for Five Nations Energy Inc., a non-profit corporation formed by the Northern Ontario First Nations of Fort Albany.

Kasechewan and Attawapiskat (which is slated to be hooked up to the provincial enegy grid this winter), as well as the Moose Cree and New Post (near Cochrane). The latter two First Nations already have provincial power, but joined the consortium in support of their northerly neighbours.

"But other issues need to be resolved," adds Chilton. "We need interim rate approval from the Ontario Energy Board and we have to finalize the legal agreements." This includes agreements between First Nations Energy Inc., Hydro One, the Ontario Electrical Finance Corp., Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), and a number of private financial institutions. The agreementsare needed to transfer the electrical distribution network, which includes the power lines, towers, transformers, substations, and even the hydro meters in individual homes, to the First Nations.

"There is a lot of legal wrangling when six sets of lawyers are involved," Chilton notes. In the past, the First Nations have only owned the diesel generators.

Chilton is worried that the agreements and rate approval will not be in place-before James Bay begins to freeze this fall. Traditionally, the diesel for the power generators has been shipped to these remote communities by barge while the water was still navigable. It has not been shipped to Fort Albany or Kasechewan as of yet, since it was originally hoped that the transfer of power would have taken place this summer. Once the shipping lanes close on James Bay, the diesel will have to be flown in.

"That is very costly," compared to transporting it by barge, he points out.

The parties met in mid-October in Timmins, in an effort to finalize the deal. Chilton describes the long-standing relationship between INAC and Hydro One as "less than cordial. It's going to be challenging, to say the least," he says of...