Photo: Yesterday’s Generation for the Nation rally in Winnipeg. Photo by Paul S. Graham.
The Council of Canadians Winnipeg chapter was present at a rally outside Manitoba Hydro yesterday in support of the Pimicikamak occupation of the Jenpeg dam.
Last Wednesday (October 15), more than 100 people from the Pimicikamak Cree Nation occupied the grounds of the Jenpeg hydro-dam. The dam is located near the Cree community of Cross Lake, which is about 700 kilometres north of Winnipeg. Chief Catherine Merrick has said the First Nation is taking control of its traditional territory and evicting Manitoba Hydro. She has also stated, “The project has turned a once bountiful and intimately known homeland into a dangerous and despoiled power corridor.”
The rally was organized to demand that “Hydro and governments honour their decades-old promises of environmental clean-up and fair treatment.”
The Winnipeg Free Press reports, “The peaceful rally saw about 30 members of the Pimicikamak First Nation protest over the Jenpeg generating station… Among several speakers at Thursday’s rally were Derek Nepinak, the grand chief of the Manitoba Assembly of Chiefs, and Dalton McKay, the Pimicikamak youth council representative. …While the protest was peaceful, Hydro locked down its building at 4 p.m. and a police presence of at least five marked cars was seen parked a short distance away and around the block.”
“Pimicikamak council member Mervin Garrick spoke [at the rally and] said the action is being taken to force the government to restore a fair relationship with Pimicikamak [given the] government’s failure to honour the Northern Flood Agreement, signed in the 1970s after the Jenpeg station was built. …The province was given a list of five solutions in a meeting last Friday — a public apology, environmental cleanup of the shorelines, a say in how water levels are managed, an aggressive PowerSmart program to lower the community’s hydro bills and a revenue-sharing arrangement. Garrick said the Pimicikamak people are waiting on a meeting between Chief Merrick and Premier Greg Selinger that will, they hope, propel the government into action.”
Photo: Winnipeg chapter activist Mary Robinson at the rally. Photo by Michael-Yellowwing Kannon.
The provincial government has said it believes in the spirit of reconciliation (in this decades old situation), wants to continue to work on the water levels and flooding issues (the dam floods 65 square kilometres of Pimicikamak land and causes severe damage to thousands of kilometres of shoreline), supports the idea of energy-efficiency programs to lower the cost of hydro bills (which are about $600 a month), has restored power to some of the 287 residents disconnected due to non-payment of their hydro bills (which are among the highest in the province), and that a revenue sharing agreement isn’t easily done but that they’re open to that discussion (an advance payment of $1.8 million has been offered and a federal arbitrator appointed).
Last May, the Winnipeg Free Press reported that Manitoba may build more dams. That’s because the pumping stations for the Energy East pipeline and the Alberta Clipper pipeline would require much more energy than Wuskwatim, the province’s newest dam, can produce. So two new dams may be built – the Keeyask generating station by 2019 and Conawapa by 2026. The Keeyask dam would be located about 725 km northeast of Winnipeg, where Gull Lake flows into Stevens Lake, and would flood approximately 46 square kilometers of boreal taiga lands.
Further reading
Cree nation occupies hydro-dam in Manitoba (campaign blog)
Pimicikamak Occupation of Jenpeg (Facebook page)
