Dogrib Council signs $115 million hydro deal

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The Dogrib Nation is planning to finance, build and own two hydroelectric dams in their region of the vast Northwest Territories to supply power to communities around the Great Slave Lake.

In a $115 million deal, the Treaty 11 Dogrib Council, consisting of 2,300 members in five communities, will build a $35 million, 4.3-megawatt dam at Snare Cascades on the Snare River. The dam is scheduled for completion in 1996 and will be located between two existing dams on the river. The second, an $80 million 20-megawatt dam, will be built on the Lac La Martre River.

In a deal signed March 18 between the newly-created Dogrib Power Corporation and the NWT Power Corporation, the Dogrib people will build the dams, and the NWT Power Corporation will rent them. The Canadian International Development Agency says the native run project is the first of its kind in the world.

Both projects will be subject to environmental reviews. It is unknown how much land will be flooded by the dams. But there are burial grounds, trails and traditional native areas in the flood zone of the Lac La Martre river project.

The Dogrib region will control every phase of the project such as construction, engineering and environmental management. The project will create up to 130 jobs in the North Slave region, covering the communities of Rae, Edzo, Snare Lake, Rae Lakes and Lac La Martre, said Eddie Erasmus, one of the main architects of the deal. He is the former chief of the Treaty 11 Dogrib Nation, and a member of the Dogrib Power Corporation board.

The Dogrib are providing 15 per cent of the cash and the rest will be borrowed, said Joe Rabesca, Dogrib Power Corporation board chairman and Dogrib Treaty 11 council grand chief. Joint investment with other native organizations, such as the Gwich in Tribal Council, is also possible, he said.

For Erasmus, the projects signal a new step in Dogrib economic development: balancing, traditional native values with jobs.

"The environment has always been our concern. We know that we have to protect our land, our waters and our wildlife. It's part of our custom, our culture, to protect these things. But, in order to get into economic development and create jobs for our people, we have to give something in order to gain.

"It may be the environment, to a certain extent," Erasmus said.

The development reflects the Dogrib region's economic strategy, which includes a comprehensive land claim to be negotiated with the federal government, Rabesca said.

"We're looking at all development that's happening within the Treaty 11 council's land. We're looking at the road construction (and) mining companies in the area. We want to make deals such as we did today. We want to make deals with everybody," he added.

The deal is good for the NWT Power Corporation, said president Ron Kidd, because it will replace polluting diesel generators with environmentally safe, low-cost power.

"The other thing it will do, is it's a good cornerstone for further development," Kidd said. "I think it points the way to the future. The control of the project in the hands of the people who live in that area."