THREE ANISHNABEG ALGONQUIN COMMUNITIES SOUND THE ALARM – Quebec is interfering with our constitutional rights and “allows” itself to ransack our environment!

Anishinabeg Algonquin application to the Canadian Energy Regulator

KITIGAN ZIBI, QC, April 25, 2023 /PRNewswire/ – In an application addressed today to the Canadian Energy Regulator, three Anishinabeg Algonquin First Nations are requesting that the Regulator intervene with the Government of Quebec in the matter of the export of electricity to New York City. The First Nations of Abitibiwinni, Kitigan Zibi and Lac Simon state in their request that Quebec is deliberately interfering with their constitutional rights guaranteed by section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.

In their brief to the regulator, the Anishinabeg believe that Quebec’s Minister of the Environment, Benoît Charrette, used unfair and immoral manoeuvres to subordinate their constitutional rights to his discretionary power. They accuse him of changing the regulation requiring the government to conduct an environmental assessment for any increase in the capacity of hydroelectric generating stations on the sly (on December 31, 2020!). In the case of the Anishinabeg territories, the power increases are directly related to the export of megawatts to the United States.

Adding insult to injury

Such changes to the regulations mean that Quebec can now increase turbine output and equipment productivity without considering the impacts on the traditional territories of aboriginal people and without even consulting them. Subsequently, Minister Charrette denied the Anishinabeg the right to be heard in the consultation on the Hertel-New York Interconnection Line project. The Anishinabeg are now faced with a double impasse: on the one hand, they are refused to be consulted on the impact of the power plant increases on their traditional territories and, on the other hand, they are refused to be heard on the question of the destination and use of electricity produced and transported on their ancestral territories to New York State. Their constitutional rights are thus violated twice over by the Quebec government.

An outrage!

Some 1,250 MW of power from Quebec is expected to be available at New York City’s Astoria substation as a result of the government’s successive and illegitimate attempts to exempt the refurbishment of hydroelectric plants from the regulatory approval process. This is an outrage,” said the three Anishinabeg Band Councils in agreement. Power increases directly related to the export of hydroelectricity to the United States threaten fish habitat and the very survival of many species, many of which are already at risk. There is a direct relationship between export demand, hydroelectric production, the sustainability of fish resources and our traditional activities. The casualness with which Quebec is increasing the power of hydroelectric plants without environmental guidelines and against our constitutional rights is unacceptable, especially since these facilities have never even been subject to impact studies. Is this the way to reconciliation? Is this how the Legault government intends to manage energy issues in the future?

Enough evasiveness!

What do the Anishnabeg want? They are asking the Canadian Energy Regulator and the Government of Canada to intervene with the Government of Quebec to recognize their constitutional right to be consulted and accommodated in the protection and preservation of their Nitakinan. They demand that Quebec put an end to the prevarication and petty legislative maneuvers designed to subordinate Aboriginal rights to its own intentions; that it recognize once and for all that increases in the power of hydroelectric installations have significant impacts on the fauna and flora of the Anishnabeg territories; and that it adopt an approach based on the precautionary principle that takes into account the fragility of ecosystems, the sustainability of fisheries and First Nations food resources, as well as the available scientific information and Aboriginal knowledge.

See the document entitled: Application for Intervention by the Canadian Energy Regulator and the Federal Crown before the Provincial Crown/Hydro-Québec/Hertel – New York Interconnection Line Project on the Canada Energy Regulator website.

SOURCE Anishnabeg Coalition – Abitibiwinni , Kitigan Zibi, Lac Simon