Largest Battery Storage Project in Canada on Haudenosaunee Grand River Territory
The Canadian state refuses to deal with Indigenous Nations as nations and instead, to prevent them from affirming their rights as peoples, is pushing ahead using band councils imposed under the Indian Act.
The federal government, the government of Ontario, NRStore, Northland Power and Aecon are listed as "partners" in a project at Six Nations of the Grand River -- with the Six Nations Grand River Development Corporation (SNGRDC) -- to build a large battery storage facility. Premier Doug Ford says the project will begin operating in 2025.
On February 10, the Ontario government issued an Order-in-Council and Ministerial Directive to the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to enter into a 20-year deal with the Oneida Energy Storage (OES) Project. The project has been in development for years and is currently under construction. The OES Project will use large-scale lithium batteries to draw and store electricity off-peak, when power demand is low, and return it when demand increases. This will supply the Ontario electricity system through a 250 megawatt/1,000 megawatt-hour Tesla Megapack System.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Ottawa is investing $50 million more -- in addition to the $170 million in funding from the Canada Infrastructure Bank -- to build the "largest battery storage project in Canada and one of the largest in the whole world." She said, "This project is going to help create great jobs for people in Ontario.... It will store and supply the clean electricity that our province needs, and it will help create economic opportunities for Indigenous communities like Six Nations."
Freeland's talk about "communities like Six Nations" is to hide that the federal government and its coteries refuse to deal with Indigenous peoples on a nation-to-nation basis. They use instead the Canadian state-imposed Indian Act band councils to try to claim they have the consent of Indigenous peoples, when they do not.
Six Nations Band Council Chief Mark B. Hill, at a news conference in Ohsweken, said, "Today's announcement is one way in which we are doing our part to create a sustainable future, reducing emissions, as well as providing reliable source of green energy for the benefit of all of our families."
SNGRDC CEO Matt Jamieson said "There's going to be an economic return and those economic returns will go a long way to help plug things that are important to our community. Like right now, we are facing a $1.6 billion infrastructure gap in our community. We can't wait for funding from federal transfer payments, and we need to take control of our destiny and this is one example of how we can do that."
Jamieson said construction for the project has put $50 million into the community, and the workforce building it is 97 per cent Indigenous. He is referring to the fact that many of the construction elements of the energy storage facility will be undertaken by A6N Utilities, a joint venture between SNGRDC and the construction monopoly Aecon, which operates with a 95% Indigenous workforce. The SNGRDC claims that it "manages the Six Nations' economic interests in 20 renewable energy projects and numerous economic development opportunities, in and around the Six Nations territory."
Colin Martin, co-chair of Haudenosaunee external relations committee and police liaison for the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council (HCCC) indicated clearly the nefarious divide-and-rule politics being used by the Ontario and federal governments, when he revealed that HCCC was not consulted about the project and only learned about the announcement earlier that morning, right before the news conference began.
"Band council has decided to move ahead and have discussions about something that they don't have the sanctions, the authority or permission from Confederacy Council to be talking about," said Martin. "We were here to voice our opinions and our thoughts on that and unfortunately, they locked the doors on us."
The Confederacy, made up of the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, was intended as a way to unite the nations and create a peaceful means of decision making. Through the Confederacy, each of the nations of the Haudenosaunee are united by a common goal to live in harmony. Each nation maintains its own council with Chiefs chosen by the Clan Mother and deals with its own internal affairs, but allows the Grand Council to deal with issues affecting the nations within the Confederacy.
According to their website "Often described as the oldest,
participatory democracy on Earth, the Haudenosaunee
Confederacy's constitution is believed to be a model for the
American Constitution. What makes it stand out as unique to
other systems around the world is its blending of law and
values. For the Haudenosaunee, law, society and nature are
equal partners and each plays an important role."
To read the statement of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy
explainng its position on elected band councils click
here.
(With files from Canadian Press)
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 4 - April 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M530046.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca