A recently announced energy project on the North shore may already be in jeopardy.
Pic River and five other first nations are asking the courts to review the province's decision to award a $600 million contract for a transmission line from Thunder Bay to Wawa to Florida-based Upper Canada Transmission. And until the review is done, they're asking that no work start on the project.
Pic River, Pic Mobert, Pay's Plat, Red Rock and Fort William First Nation put a proposal together along with Brookefield Renewable Energy and Hydro One for the project. Pic River chief Roy Michano said the province's decision to turn down that proposal was wrong. This was a chance for First Nations to be a part of development in their own territory.
"It is now time for us to own what is ours properly to own," he said Friday.
"We've always took second seat to any development. This one's going to be different."
Pic River energy project director Byron LeClair said the community's lawyers are still trying to figure out how the project was awarded and why it wasn't given to a proposal that includes First Nation and Ontario components.
"The proposal itself was largely ignored," he said.
They will file the request before Sept. 7.
