HOW DITCHING DIESEL IS FUELLING COLLABORATION BETWEEN MINERS AND FIRST NATIONS.
INDUSTRY AND INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES TEAM UP TO TAKE ON SHARED PROBLEM
One of Chris Angeconeb’s first jobs was documenting diesel spills near schools, health clinics and airports on northwestern Ontario reserves for his Lac Seul First Nation.
Today, 25 years l ater, as vice- president of junior miner AurCrest Gold Inc., he’s trying to forge bonds between his company and nearby indigenous communities over a shared goal: ending their reliance on diesel.
Using diesel energy means companies and residents alike are prone to blackouts due to shortages as well as hazardous leaks and spills. The lack of reliability, volatile pricing and cost of hauling the fuel, often via ice roads or planes, in addition to the increasing viability of alternatives, has made getting off diesel a priority for both miners and remote communities.
Angeconeb believes First Nations- owned renewable energy could be a potential solution to two of the biggest challenges faced by miners in remote locations: power generation and inclusion of local indigenous people.
For decades, industry has clashed with indigenous communities over resource exploitation in their traditional territories. As a result, local First Nations, feeling excluded, have blocked or delayed resource projects. But Angeconeb is convinced that giving them the chance to participate in a sustainable solution will smooth the duty to consult and accommodate process.
For instance, after Torontobased AurCrest discovered gold at Richardson Lake in 2012, “We had an opportunity to carry on and do exploration work just like it had been done for decades in Canada, or try to take a different approach,” he said. “I know what a bunch of First Nations across Canada have been striving for and, in this case, what’s easiest is if the position we’re taking on doing the exploration work at Richardson Lake actively involves our First Nations partners.”
As a result, AurCrest, whose mine borders three First Nations including Angeconeb’s Lac Seul, formed Wiigwaasaatig Energy Inc., a clean energy partnership between the company and local First Nations. The goal of the partnership is to give indigenous people a chance to participate in the economic benefits of the mine, while providing power to their communities at the same time.
Wiigwaasaatiig i nked an agreement with Cat Lake First Nations last March to build a solar power project on the reserve that could provide 40 megawatts of energy — enough to power the equivalent of 6,650 homes. The First Nation owns 51 per cent of the project and the company owns 49 per cent, with the company’s stake decreasing over time.
Angeconeb is now trying to get two other nearby First Nations involved by hosting projects on their lands or taking a stake in Wiigwaasaatiig.
Angeconeb knows first- hand both the lack of economic development in those communities as well as their band councils’ lack of funding to make it happen. The solution, he believes, is to negotiate a partnership in which the community’s contribution would not require capital, but willing participation.
A confluence of factors is helping him to sell his idea to in- dustry, investors and indigenous communities alike.
Renewable energy s ol utions, such as solar, wind and even geothermal, are becoming cheaper and more viable fossil fuel alternatives.
Solar power is now more economical than coal in some parts of world and could become the lowest-cost option within a decade.
Until progress is made on energy storage solutions, remote areas will still have to be partially powered by diesel, but at least they won’t be beholden to it.
At least two Ontario First Nations have declared diesel-related states of emergency in the past: Poplar Hill First Nation’s lack of sustainable power from its diesel generator forced it to call a state of emergency in September 2014, and a diesel spill that contaminated Dokis First Nation’s water plant system meant it had to declare one in June 2015.
On many remote reserves, diesel generators are already at capacity and don’t have the power required to fuel muchneeded infrastructure upgrades such as housing, health care or broadband connections.
Companies and communities are not the only ones paying for a reliance on diesel. The cost of hauling the fuel into remote communities is $1 billion a year, according to the draft Ontario Remote Community Connection Plan released in 2014, a cost that is subsidized by all Ontario electricity ratepayers.
As a result, the federal and provincial governments reiterated their commitment at December’s First Ministers meeting to “helping Indigenous Peoples and remote and northern communities reduce their reliance on diesel by connecting these communities to electricity grids and implementing renewable energy systems.”
The Ontario government last summer awarded a $ 1.35- billion contract to Wataynikaneyap Power ( Watay) to build a 1,800- kilometre transmission line to connect 17 communities that remain reliant on diesel. The line also has the potential to power mine sites such as Goldcorp Inc.’s Musselwhite mine about 480 kilometres north of Thunder Bay.
Goldcorp provided early development funding for Watay, a partnership between 22 First Nations, FortisOntario Inc. and Renewable Energy Systems Canada Inc. The communities currently own 51 per cent of the company, with plans to eventually expand that to 100 per cent.
There are opportunities for other mining companies to become Watay customers and their shared interest in getting off diesel could help bridge the historical gap between the two sides, said Margaret Kenequanash, chair of Watay and executive director of the Shibogama First Nations Council.
“I think that definitely could be a starting point in how we work together,” she said.
Construction is expected to begin next year and should be done by 2024, creating in the process more than 680 jobs in a part of Ontario where development is rare.
The investment fulfils First Nations’ needs on three fronts: it will make the dream of indigenous- owned power infrastructure a reality, provide clean energy and improve the socioeconomic conditions on northern Ontario’s reserves, Kenequanash said.
In any case, the diesel generators at 10 of the remote First Nations involved in Watay are already at capacity.
“They are unable to pursue any further development in the community and it compromises basics such as water, food and shelter because of outages and housing can’t be connected,” Kenequanash said. “Millions of dollars are being spent on bandaid solutions and temporary fixes right now, but they don’t last.”
Watay is focused for now on the transmission lines, but some First Nations are already using small-scale solar and wind projects in addition to diesel to supplement their major buildings such as water, sewer, band offices and schools.
Chris Angeconeb was one of the first community members involved in Watay after 13 chiefs mandated a steering committee in 2008 to investigate the development and ownership of a transmission line.
That experience, along with a decade negotiating with companies on behalf of Lac Seul, taught him that it is in miners’ best interests to have local communities provide power for projects, rather than have fuel hauled from thousands of kilometres away.
Other communities across Canada are already experimenting with renewables including solar panels in Colville Lake in the Northwest Territories and Deer Lake in northern Ontario, while in Nunavik, Que., a wind turbine installed at Glencore PLC’s Raglan Mine has displaced some 3.4 million litres of diesel and could help power nearby Inuit communities.
Several First Nations also have ownership stakes in various energy projects, including Fort McKay First Nation’s 33- per- cent interest in a northern Alberta oil storage terminal and Moose Cree First Nation’s 25- per- cent equity stake in an Ontario Power Generation hydro development.
JP Gladu, chief executive of the Canadian Council of Aboriginal Business, said such partnerships suggest industry is catching up with the original idea behind land treaties: sharing resources.
“The important part about this trend is it’s creating economic opportunity for the communities: they begin to drive some of the business solutions, they drive socio- economic activity, they develop their own source revenue,” he said. “They buy into projects so why the heck would they produce blockades and go to court when they’re a part of a project?”
Wiigwaasaatig marries the trend toward renewable energy on reserves and First Nations’ equity stakes in projects, a model Angeconeb believes could work for other indigenousowned renewable power companies. But first it needs funding. Angeconeb said he is making progress in bringing other local communities into Wiigwaasaatig, while AurCrest’s president Ian Brodie- Brown is working Bay Street, seeking an initial capital investment of about $ 1 million for the company’s subsidiary.
Brodie- Brown sees a “once-in-a- millennium” opportunity to include First Nations in resource development with full participation and ownership.
“The ability for a community to provide that energy to the mine site that is in their traditional territory changes the game and it alters the meaning of participation,” he said.
Brodie- Brown said several investors, solar panel producers such as Samsung and even an international mining company have shown interest in the idea.
“It doesn’t need government control or government finance: Bay Street is prepared to finance this effort,” he said. “It’s going to happen, it checks off every box that everybody’s considering right now.”
THIS TREND IS ... CREATING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY.