NAN energy conference concludes Far North should be linked to power grid

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Nishnawbe Aski Nation chiefs want their communities connected to Ontario’s power grid by 2018.

That objective was the result of a three-day energy conference held in Thunder Bay this week. Officials with NAN invited all levels of government and members of industry, the private sector, economic development corporations and area chambers of commerce to the conference to see what the political territory’s vision looks like.

Their long-term goal is to see the power grid extended to put all 49 NAN communities on the power grid and allow them to move away from their reliance on diesel fuel.

“Diesel is very costly; the fuel goes up every year,” said Grand Chief Stan Beardy.

“But also the operations and maintenance of those power plants is very costly and it’s not necessarily environmentally friendly.”

“If you have a spill it causes a lot of damage right in the community and your source of drinking water,” he added.

With about 26 First Nations dependent on winter ice roads to transport in fuel and other goods, getting the communities on the power grid will save on transportation costs.

With increasing mild winters, the winter road season doesn’t always last long enough to transport enough fuel into the communities and they have to resort to flying in the fuel, which can triple in cost.

NAN chiefs have determined they need a strategy in place to ensure there is committed funding to supply diesel fuel to the communities.

“I think the chiefs need a letter of comfort from the government that if they take that to their supplier, there is assurance that resources will be there to offset the cost of hauling that fuel whether by land or in many cases when they’re forced to use air travel,” Beardy said.

Independent Power Authorities deliver about eight million litres of diesel fuel every year at an annual estimated cost of $9 million.

Many NAN First Nations have already developed plans and negotiated with private sector industries and the government on connecting to the power grid and Beardy said the long-term objective is look at power generation, transmission and distribution being owned and operated by NAN regional utilities.

“Ideally, what the chiefs are saying is that they want to be developers of energy so that it becomes part of our economic base,” said Beardy.

Beardy said the next step is to put together a framework with their objectives and the necessary steps to achieving their energy goals, which means negotiating with governments and the private sector so their plan will become a reality by 2018.

Minister of Natural Resources Michael Gravelle spoke at the conference and said the province’s goals are similar to NAN’s.

“We would like to see as many First Nation communities in the NAN territory that are presently on diesel taken off,” said Gravelle.

“We have, as part of our long-term energy plan, a number of priority projects in place.”

There are many renewable energy opportunities in Northern Ontario, which Gravelle said are a priority for the province. Many of those projects are being worked on with First Nations, he added.

As for NAN’s six-year goal for connecting their communities to the grid, Gravelle said it is realistic to think a number of First Nations will be taken off diesel fuel dependency by then, but wouldn’t commit specifically to NAN’s timeline.

“With the projects we have in place, with the priorities being put on it by Nishnawbe Aski Nation themselves, I think we’re going to make some real progress,” he said.

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