BC Hydro's attempts to engage first nations in meaningful consultation over the controversial multi-billion-dollar Site C dam project on the Peace River is in trouble, as a press release Wednesday from the McLeod Lake Indian Band suggests.
BC Hydro will receive a $100,000 cheque from the McLeod Lake Indian Band after the first nation decided to opt out of a consultation process Hydro was funding for the Site C hydroelectric project.
The McLeod band said Wednesday in a news release that it is "dissatisfied with the consultation process and [that] the province and BC Hydro are using the power of the public purse to shape the consultation process and silence the band's true concerns."
The band said Site C, which includes a major new dam on the Peace River in northeast B.C., will have "significant impacts" on their traditional territory and treaty rights.
"We have brought our concerns to the table but BC Hydro isn't listening," Chief Derek Orr said in the release.
"The decision to build Site C has already been made, and it was made without us. They say money talks – well, $100,000 says a lot about how upset we are at government's unilateral decision to destroy our way of life.
"They can have their money back if they aren't going to listen to us."
The band noted that it suffered an "immense" loss when the first major dam on the Peace, W.A.C. Bennett, was closed in 1967 in order to flood the reservoir behind it – submerging McLeod's traditional territory along the Peace River Valley.
The band said in its release that when it entered into consultation this spring with Hydro, it raised concerns about the historical impacts of dam construction on the Peace – "and about the cumulative damage to their traditional territory through the multiple dams on the Peace River."
"They were told by BC Hydro that consulting on these issues was not within their mandate."
Orr said the band "cannot allow BC Hydro to manipulate our participation in the process or provide us with a script and pretend that it reflects McLeod Lake's perspective on Site C. We oppose this dam. We must allow our voices to be heard."
The band said it has sent a cheque in excess of $100,000 to Hydro president and CEO Dave Cobb – representing the unspent portion of their original unspecified disbursement when consultation began.
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