Monday, June 1, 2009

Removing one roadblock to growing First Nation communities

Five Nations Energy Inc. provides an essential service in a remote region, an electric transmission service that serves three First Nation communities on the shores of James Bay. Joe Gaboury is the General Manager of FNEI, “First Nations Energy is the only First Nations-owned electricity transmission company in Canada. It is a federally incorporated non-profit corporation owned equally by Attawapiskat Power Corporation, Fort Albany Power Corporation, and Kashechewan Power Corporation.” The electricity, in addition to powering these Cree Nation communities, runs down a 90 km extension to the De Beers Canada Victor Mine that opened in 2008.
     
De Beers is producing a quarter of a billion dollars in diamonds each year and employing 400 people. Gaboury said the mine has been good for the area, creating jobs for people especially in Attawapiskat and Fort Albany. “They say it has a 12-year life span and the company is continuing to explore leases in the James Bays Lowlands for more diamonds. They may be here a lot longer.”
      
Gaboury is a businessman, educated in accounting at Laurentian University and University of Sudbury and has a Masters in Business Administration. He began to manage FNEI late in 2008 after a three-year stint running Attawapiskat Power Corporation brought him to complete awareness of transmission operations. His task is straight-forward, “Increase reliability for the customers and keep the system growing.” DeBeers added an extra line to the transmission system to increase the wattage capacity.
    
 Delivery of enough electricity changes the way communities operate, “Electric heating is displacing the use of wood energy in heating homes,” said Gaboury. “The system is able to support this, nevertheless, upgrading the transmission system is an on-going challenge.” Delivering this much electricity is important, “Making the communities expandable was one of the driving forces to developing a transmission network,” said Gaboury. “Diesel was restricting the size of the communities, it was loud, it was an environmental mess, and these communities had outgrown the capacity of diesel electrical generation.”
      
He said a regional transmission grid linked to Hydro One takes away all the former constraints on schools, recreation facilities, and the ability to add new housing subdivisions. “It changes the game; at least it removes one road-block to expanding these communities."
     
Each town-site on the western shore of James Bay, from the southerly Ft. Albany, to Kashechewan, and Attawapiskat at the other end, has established its own distribution corporation, which do billing, service, and general maintenance, he explained, “They each have their own employees and operations.”
      
FNEI has four full-time employees working maintenance and emergency services. “We’ve been going ten years now and we’re still here. It does offer us a bit of notoriety,”  Gaboury finds it sadly amusing that they are the only First Nation high voltage transmission company in Canada, but, “it allows us to serve as a role model.”

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