Chinook salmon are disappearing and management changes could fix it

We ask a Chinook salmon expert to answer the question, Is it too late for the last of the Chinook salmon stocks?

It is a very real and serious situation, declining numbers of Chinook salmon returning to rivers in many areas of Canada’s Pacific coast. The disappearance has happened to countless water sheds on Vancouver Island. There is a large collection of fish hatcheries operated by Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and others in conjunction with community organizations and Indigenous communities. All hatcheries must follow DFO standard rearing practice model which is growing an S-zero type smolt released at 6 months old, i.e., adult spawn in October and juveniles are grown rapidly to attain a 3 to 5 gram release size by the following May. The number of DFO funded hatcheries adhering to the S-Zero approach is listed in the Integrated Fisheries Management Plan.

According to the expert, this ongoing 40-year approach is not working and the release of millions of juveniles chinook have ever diminishing number of adult fish returning to spawn in the rivers.

"We know the harvest of wild seafood products has flatlined in the past 10 years, and demand for sea food products now sees upwards of 60% of what is being consumed provided from "aquaculture worldwide."

Our expert operates a Pacific salmon hatchery and research program formerly growing Chinook salmon for aquaculture and a few hard-to-obtain enhancement projects. We asked what is the reason for, and solution to, the Chinook salmon problem?

"Over the past 12 years I have provided information to the DFO on how to improve and reverse the down-turn for Chinook salmon. This is based on 35 years hands on growing Chinook salmon. We looked at what DFO’s enhancement approach is, what we've learned growing Chinook for aquaculture and compared everything to the wild salmon lifecycle.

"Since 2003 we have submitted proposals to demonstrate that by incorporating changes at the fresh water rearing stage, ocean survivals can be drastically improved. DFO current ocean survivals are .17 to .6% or less. By our assessment this can be increased to 3 – 10%.

"In 2009 we were allowed to bring in eggs and grow Chinook smolts using our methods. Preliminary adult returns in 2013 to the Sarita River are showing 15-times or greater ocean survivals compared to DFO smolts. Simply put; our 48,000 juvenile releases of S-One should see 1500+ adult returns whereas 450,000 S-Zero releases by DF0 in the same river are seeing 700 to 1700 adult returns."

What are the reasons for your higher survival rates?

"The key to smolts higher survival is due to the type of smolts, their condition and how they are grown in fresh water. Information we have gathered demonstrates the predominant lifecycle for Vancouver island Chinook is a fish that spends one year rearing in fresh water before going to the ocean. This information is supported by technical reports and simple lifecycle profiling which demonstrates wild Chinook are .5 to 1.1 gram by the first of May, then spend an additional 12 months rearing in freshwater before they migrate to the ocean in April and May at 2 to 5 gram size, referred to as an S-One. By comparison, Coho, Steelhead and Sockeye all have a fresh water rearing duration from one to three years before going to the ocean.

"The freshwater nursery stage is extremely important for proper physiological development of the immune system. By not having this fresh water development duration most of the enhanced S-Zero Chinook juveniles die from a common ocean bacterium in the first 4 months of ocean entry.

"In 2009 I gave a presentation at the Annual Aquaculture meeting entitled, 'Freshwater Hatchery Management Practices' which could be incorporated to "Re-build Wild Stocks of Chinook salmon”. AAC Advance Spec. Publ. No. 15 (2009). Dr. Beamish also did a study on Cowichan Chinook whereby only 1.8% of DFO’s smolts were alive 4 months after ocean entry verses 33.8% for wild."

What has DFO’s response been to this information?

"DFO maintains that all Vancouver Island Chinook are S-Zero type fish and go to the ocean by the first May at 3 to 5 grams. Under the Wild Salmon Policy they are obligated to grow fish similar to the wild. DFO also did several past S-One Trials saying they produced a large number of jacks and 3 year old instead of 4 year old females, with overall ocean survival similar to their S-Zero releases. This information has been their bench mark on what to expect when rearing S-One smolts and why they do not work."

DFO’s comments on the higher survivals and returns, saying, "the number of adult returns are “substantial and extremely important."

How will this play into DFO’s future approach to chinook salmon management?

"Listed in the SEP 2014 IFMP are several 'New S-One Trials' for Chinook. A number of these are for projects we have annually proposed but never been allowed to do."

Does this mean you will be growing the fish for the Trials?

"We annually submitted projects since 2003, from our hatchery and through committees to continue S-One projects. Only after I read the 2014 SEP IFMP on line posting for public comment, did I become aware that DFO has planned to do several new S-One Trials."

Were you part of the IFMP Process, which allows public and all small hatchery’s the opportunity to attend DFO meetings and submit proposals for the upcoming 2014 Season?

"Over the past four years DFO had instructed me to attend the local IFMP hatchery meetings. This year I was told I could not attend, for I was not part of their PIP program, and instead to attend an afternoon session for 'others', which ran out of time, so we simply had to email our projects.

"As well, since the ocean survivals have been so low for Chinook entries into Georgia Strait, I have asked over the past three years to be given an opportunity to attend the IFMP meetings for the Cowichan and present a proposal to grow a 50,000 entry group in the S-One program at our hatchery. I still have not been given any opportunity by the Department and have simply had to submit the projects by email.

"The Salmon Enhancement program prides itself through Public Involvement Program (PIP) working with hundreds of organizations and as part of their community outreach program. Through its PIP, DFO collaborates with community volunteer groups to undertake fish enhancement programs that are supposed to be open and unbiased. If this is not happening with regards to allowing you to participate, especially after what is most likely the “most important ocean survival information to come across DFO’s desk in the past 25 years from your efforts," all I can say is, what is going on?"

"We were told in order to participate we would need to gather letters in support. To date we have 16 letters in support from Huuayaht and Ucluelet First Nations and others, including the City, Regional District, Recreational Fishing, Oak Bay Marine Group, Salmon Festival Society, Port Authority, BC Wildlife Federation etc. who have written directly to DFO specifically requesting to allow our participation and to work with us on this topic. It has been tough, I participate on a number of fisheries committees locally, and put a lot of my time, effort and resources to trying to make a difference and help to get the Chinook issue addressed."

What do you think needs to be done next?

"To date our hatchery program is the only one that has delivered proven S-One results, demonstrated by actual adult returns to the Sarita River. No one from DFO has ever asked what our program is. With several new Trials listed it is important the smolts be grown in our hatchery 'proven program’, allow the true results to come in and we will transfer the protocol and assist DFO facilities to set-up a program at all locations which will ensure success. Too much time has already gone by and it should not be subject to further set-backs. We know we can provide a Chinook smolt that has more predictable, higher returns.

"DFO needs to make a common sense decision “or the betterment of the Chinook stocks, which is expected by the Canadian citizens who have entrusted DFO with the responsibility to best manage the fish. They need to read all those letters and allow our participation to ensure the future S-One trials are successful. My assessment is, there is enough information present to support immediate integration of an S-One smolt component to many of the ongoing projects, currently releasing over 20 million S-Zero smolts."

If the right decisions were made, what do you see for the Future?

A successful program is not solely measured by the number of juveniles released but more importantly the number of fish surviving to return as adults. Done properly, the integration of a successful S-One program will drastically improve many outcomes which are dependent on healthy large Chinook runs. It will, increase adult returns from a few hundred, back to historic thousands, ensuring the many runs currently at a few hundred adult returns are less vulnerable to extirpation.

"It would revitalize economic prosperity to local First Nations, recreational and commercial fishers, in turn coastal communities who would all benefit through greater access of Chinook for harvest, reduce the number of brood stock removed and juveniles required for smolt releases, leave greater numbers of adult fish to naturally spawn in the rivers, provide food to wildlife such as Orcas who target specific species and be a cost-savings to the Salmon Enhancement program as a whole."

Freelance Writing by Mack McColl 

Don’t Let a Nickel Hold Up a Dollar FNNBOA President's Message, Spring 2014

RETROSPECTIVE

 Housing inspection services delivered by FNNBOA to First Nations communities

A national non-profit organization is fighting in the trenches of First Nation housing. First Nations National Building Officers Association (FNNBOA) is a volunteer organization that represents a profession offering technical services in residential construction and renovation on-reserve.

FNNBOA members are qualified to deal with house plan reviews, inspections, recommendation of repairs, and they provide technical advocacy and advisory services for on-reserve housing.

Chief Keith Maracle, Tyendinaga, Ontario, is secretary of the volunteer board, “There are approximately 250 to 300 employed in this sector,” a small number in relation to the number of First Nation Indian Act-governed communities in Canada, no less than 700 inhabited Indian Reservations.

FNNBOA faces a peculiar challenge to expand the role of its officers in First Nation housing, “We are seen as regulatory,” said Chief Maracle, and regulations are apparently not something to be desired in the fractious world of First Nation housing.

FNNBOA members are qualified to inspect housing construction, “We have occupational standards, a code of ethics, and certification procedures to inspect houses on reserve.” Chief Maracle says FNNBOA members are qualified to support CMHC and mortgage approvals, INAC leasehold guarantee programs, and reports to Environment Canada.

Richard ‘Bud’ Jobin is co-President of FNNBOA who hails from central Alberta. Since 2002 when they laid the organizational groundwork, these two men have been advocates of professional First Nation housing services, “Certified inspection of First Nation housing is becoming a compliance issue,” says Bud, “which impacts on mortgage and insurance.”

It may not be here but the age of reason is coming over First Nation housing policy and FNNBOA intends to have First Nation housing inspection services in the ready. They have training affiliations with George Brown University, Humber College, NAIT, and Vancouver Island University to produce qualified First Nation Housing inspectors.

Bank creating viable housing market

Royal Bank of Canada illustrates the growing importance of certified inspection services in First Nation housing. RBC introduced a program this spring to help First Nations capitalize on economic growth opportunities.

RBC announced a new mortgage program called the Leasehold Mortgage Program to, “provide First Nations members with greater flexibility and choice when it comes to financing the purchase or construction of a home.” It also helps create marketable housing in reserve communities.

“RBC has worked with First Nations leaders/governments for many years to find and provide options for financing a home in the same manner that is offered off a reserve,” said David Cutway, manager, Residential Mortgages Policy, RBC.

“This new CMHC default-insured program . . . allows qualified borrowers on qualified reserve lands to obtain a home mortgage, benefitting both the purchaser and the First Nation community.”

Financing of on-reserve housing has been limited in the past, said Mr. Cutway. “For example, First Nations members had to obtain a band or Ministerial Loan Guarantee (MLG) to secure a loan to purchase a home on reserve land. In addition, the First Nation government was responsible for the construction, maintenance and repair of these homes.”

The Leasehold Mortgage Program can help First Nations improve economic development through the construction of new homes, renovations to existing homes, purchases of new or existing homes, and construction of duplexes to four-plexes.

First Nations communities may also use the program to attract non-Aboriginal homebuyers to properties developed on leasehold land, such as the housing development projects undertaken by the Westbank and Tzeachten First Nations, both of which are located in British Columbia. Ed note There is no advertising sold in support of all the research and writing, so feel free to donate in aid of the important message delivered:

Birch Bark Biting Fundamentals -- Art of Angelique Merasty Levac

Angelique Merasty Levac has been an ambassador for the Woodland Cree nation through her expertise as a birch bark biting artist from Northern Manitoba. She is prolific at producing the art from birch bark.

“I go home once a year and search for my birch bark in Manitoba. It takes me about three to four days to find the bark, free of knot, white birch, with few branches.

"I have to search for the straight tree and when I find it usually the first layer is weather damaged, and that’s no good, and sometimes the second layer is too. You use the third, fourth, and sometimes fifth layer if you’re lucky,” explains Angelique.

“I don’t cut the trees, don’t want damage the tree. I go and sample and cut it a bit and test it, since sometimes they look good but aren’t. What I do is, I try to get most of it from one tree, far as I can reach. Now I cut the layers up, and peel it a bit, cut into squares, and do it again by finding another tree, in Manitoba, mostly Pukatawagan area,” north of Lynn Lake, Manitoba.

“I bring the birch bark home and have to rest and get into a my own little world, when I am doing this birch bark biting. I store the pieces. I have to be thinking clearly, then I will bring out the birch bark, and it has to be peeled into strips. Sometimes peeling the bark causes a lot of ripping. At all times I am aiming for a large piece but this is not often possible, due to ripping the bark as I am peeling it.”

Angelque says, “I will fold the piece into a small square by folding it again, but instead of doing a cut-out, what I do is make a tooth impression, bite a design, for example, a hummingbird, and I picture his wings and his body, and I start to bite at his beak, and then his head and the wings and the body, and that’s how I picture it in my head.

“By biting, what I should say is you cannot bite too hard or you puncture a hole through the bark. You have to bite hard enough to produce a bruise with your teeth but if you bite too hard the pressure will destroy the bark. It’s a matter of pressure, also to create the image and the contrast in the image by bruising the bark.

"I use the teeth on each side, with the sharpest tooth, and however I feel comfortable, and it depends on the design, and that is how I bruise the birch bark which makes the designs come out.”

It is intricate work, “And when I finish I open it by unfolding, once, for I cannot refold the bark, it will not line up properly twice. All my designs have to be done exactly in one effort with each part, flowers, wings, eyes, other parts to a piece, complete in my head, until it’s finished.

"When it is finished I leave quarter or half inch on each side so it can be framed. It has to be framed with acid free matting, and the birch bark cannot be left long on paper that is not acid-free.”

This art is becoming rare, “Everybody’s teeth marks are different, and I didn’t learn this overnight. I started in 1980, and I have had a lot of practice, and I owe my teacher, Angelique Merasty. She said, ‘Whatever I taught you here you cannot learn overnight. You have to go home and practice,' and I went home and did that.’”

Regarding the medium in which she works, “If you store it properly birch bark has an endless shelf life, but it’s getting harder to find. I think the good bark is going fast, and when I am travelling, I watch the forest and I wonder if the ozone or the environment is affecting the tops of the trees, the branches at the crown at the top of the trees are dying, and breaking off.

"When I am travelling I am looking at the birch bark and what I see is all the trees are damaged on the top, in all provinces. I am not looking for prospective trees, just looking at birch bark. Nevertheless I continue to work at my art and currently I have orders from Toronto, among other places, and I still produce lots of the the art every year.”

Angelique’s book, God Opens Doors (Kisemanitow Peyohtena Iskwatem) came out from a Winnipeg-based, Canada-USA publisher, summer of 2012.

Freelance Writing by Mack McColl 

The Pacific Trail Pipelines Limited Partnership, a CBC report

Bob Rae to head First Nations board for B.C. pipeline

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/07/24/pol-bob-rae-chairman-board.html?cmp=rss

Klahowya Village - The Legend of the Spirit Bear

 See more culture, and content http://www.mccollmagazine.com

You can do anything with God's help: God Opens Doors: Kisemanitow Peyohtena Iskwahtem

 

 Angelique Merasty Levac has done it again, achieved great things out of her faith in God, when the Individual Achievement Award was awarded by the B.C. Achievement Foundation, Jan. 27, 2009, at the Pan-Pacific Hotel in Vancouver, B.C..

 "I flew up there and they paid all my expenses. Me and (my sister) Marie went. She was my helper and we flew inthere and they booked us at the PanPacific Hotel. It was themost beautiful place I ever stayed. I felt like a princess," she laughs.

 Then she said, "We took a taxi to Value Village in East Hastings to spend three or four hours there on our first day. We walked all of East Hastings. I wanted to see  where all the street people hang out. We went shopping in  there and oh how our feet were sore. I was shopping for a  skirt, and I got a nice like top to go with it.

"It was really sad," however, "My heart went out to people. It was really sad to see all the street people. It's like George Street in Prince George but a larger size. Seeing our own people living the life in the street was hard. We just prayed for them. I told my sister, 'Marie these are our own people.' You wanted to help. I wanted to give money to everybody. My sister kept saying, 'We got to keep going.'"

The next evening was the banquet and ceremony. "We had salmon with a sauce with wine and my little sister got a little tickled. They said I had two minutes to deliver my speech. I really wanted to reach these people. It's not all my doing. God is doing for me. I had a standing ovation. They clapped one minute, and when I turned around  to look at the Premier's helper, he said 'Turn around,' and that's when I felt like a person from a trap-line."

But "You could hear a pin-drop while story. It was part of the story that I wrote for a book that I have written called Kisemanitow Peyowhten Iskwahtem -- God Opens Doors. I had to condense it into two minutes. I wanted to share my belief in what God has done for me. It was over 400 people (and they were only expecting 300). It was the the most beautiful room with crystal hanging from the ceiling."

"I began my speech with 'Tansi,'" Angelique said, and then she told how she proceeded in Cree: "I thank my Creator for blessing me with this gift of birch bark biting. This gift has given me opportunities I never would have dreamed of."

And she continued, "And now the great honour of receiving this award. With great respect I thank my teacher Angelique Merasty. I began birch bark biting in 1980. I knew it was the Creator who directed me to this ancient art work.  . . And now here I am."

Angelique said, "I got a standing ovation for that speech. I prayed to God and I said I want to praise You in my speech.   It took us two days to write it. I got a lot of help from a lady who walked in to my store a week before.

"She was the Premier's speech writer, and she told me "You know what the people want to hear Angelique? They want to hear your personal story." The evening went wonderfully, but "It was really stressful for whleuntil I did my speech."

She won the award for the success of running Angelique's Native Arts for 15 years in Prince George, B.C., which she started after learning to create one-of-a-kind birch bark biting art works, a tradition of the Northern Woodland Cree women.

During the speech, she said, "I touched a lot of people. When I was standing up there and receiving the standing ovation I was smiling and my face was getting sore from smiling. The Creator said this is honouring me."

"I had to raise my hand to Him when I was coming down the stairs. I had to give him the glory. And a lady sitting at my table said, 'Oh Angelique! You made me cry.' I had people from Prince George who came up to me to thank me. I felt overwhelmed."

She added, "I didn't know how to deal with the attention so I gave God all the glory. Can you imagine? If there were some people sitting there feeling down I probably encouraged them."

Out of this engagement Angelique received an offer, "I may be going and doing speaking engagements; motivational speaking is going to be in my future. I can encourage people. The lady who suggested it said, 'Angelique, you are a walking artist."

She relishes the motivational speaking opportunity, "I have a great outlook. You can do anything with God's help."

God Opens Doors by Angelique Merasty Levac (with Mack McColl)

Angelique Merasty Levac is author of a book entitled God Opens Doors, Kisemanitow Peyohtena Iskwahtem, in print September 2012. The publisher is Indian Life Books of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and they have followed her art and business career and admired her Christian walk for many years. 


God Opens Doors – Intertribal Life Ministries

Angelique with granddaughter Mercedez

     

"I was born at Midnight Lake, Manitoba," said Angelique Merasty Levac. "It is bush and nobody lives there,” in the far northern reaches of central Canada.

Marcus Alfred, a monumental carver on the west coast of North America

RIP Marcus Alfred

McColl Magazine Features: In Memory of Marcus Alfred; Second Video Features his Dad, Wayne Alfred, Alert Bay Artists of the Coastal Tradition

Hydropower development is about relationship and early stage planning

Veresen Inc. is engaged in construction of a hydropower project in northwest B.C. that speaks to the development opportunities in this area of the province. The pace of development is indicated by the demand for skilled labour in a growing number of projects in the northwest Pacific. Alexi Zawadzki, Vice President, Hydropower Development, Veresen Inc says a 20 MW project cluster is under construction on Dasque Creek and nearby Middle Creek.
 

“We signed three Impact Benefit Agreements with Kitselas, Lax Kw'alaams, and Metlakatla First Nations. The consultation process took three years with Kitselas and Coast Tsimshian business developers,” says Zawadzki, “who are savvy on training and contract opportunities. We were flexible in discussion and careful in finalizing these IBAs so as to consider the many interests came to the table from each organization. I am very pleased to see a new community bus for Lax Kw’alaams and a rescue vessel in the works for Metlakatla, made possible by our project.”
 

First Nation contractors have been clearing the penstock and access routes for a year. The timeline of the Dasque Project calls for completion in 2013. “We had a tough winter last year plus flooding issues on Skeena which threatened the 20 km access road. We had to build up the road during freshet, which was conducted by a First Nations contractor. Winter road maintenance was conducted by a local top-notch First Nation contractor, which we hired for a second year.” With two large dumps of snow already the crew has been out maintaining access to the construction site for a few weeks already.

 

“We have a turbine installed at Middle Creek,” says Zawadzki, “and we are putting in penstock on both projects. Soon we will be starting construction of the water intakes,” on this $75 million run-of-river hydro development with a 40 year electricity purchase agreement with BC Hydro. When the power comes on stream depends on a 20 km transmission line being finished, “which is relatively a simple build on this project.” The transmission line interconnects at the Skeena substation near Terrace.

Veresen is B.C.-oriented in pursuit of new energy, “What we find is a lot of opportunities for First Nation business to get involved, including civil works, and transmission line construction, and it ought to be a focus in the education system to build the skill sets and capacity for working in construction. In this territory there is a concentration on forestry in First Nations and it's done them well but there is an opportunity to diversify by expanding skill sets into construction in order to mitigate the ebb and flow of the lumber markets. There are opportunities in project management, scheduling, concrete works, earth works, electrical/mechanical and projects across the province are demanding people with construction skills.”

Recruiting First Nation personnel is integral, “We have an office administrator in Terrace from Kitselas who is a very competent, well- educated professional. However, had she had difficulty finding the right school until she landed at Capilano University in Vancouver. It's a matter of finding the right fit for learning.”
 

Veresen Inc is working on another hydro development located north of Squamish. The Culliton Project is in the permitting stage, and the company has an IBA with the Squamish First Nation that has developed over a number of years, providing once more a process for contract opportunities, employment and training. That's a $50 million investment by Veresen into an area that contains a strong First Nation vision, “The Squamish have great understanding of the investment and top leadership in balancing economic development and environmental stewardship.”
 

Veresen Inc operates across North America building new infrastructure that deliver jobs. Over 350 people have been put to work thus far in the Dasque project, he says, “and it will add value to community. We try to hire locally for there are advantages in having people who know the terrain, the relationships, and where the skills are available. We are in a situation in the northwest Pacific where a lot of other projects have drained the labour pool. It’s great to see people back to work in the north.”
 

Veresen sees a bright future in power development in BC and does it in various ways, “We do wind power, gas-fired power generation, and hydro throughout the country and we see a bright future in partnerships with First Nation groups. We always engage First Nations group at the earliest stage, when the project is just a concept. The people we deal with have a depth of understanding in culture, environment, and land use planning. We have a history of conducting environmental and permitting work with First Nations service providers. This allows us to plan projects to fit the landscape. At the end of the day, it’s about relationships, doing our best by others, and if something fails we have a level of trust to fall back on.”

Minigoo Fisheries alive in lobster fishery once again

Minigoo Fisheries re-opened for business in the month of September 2012. It may be a modest celebration but this is a major achievement. Lobster licenses and processing will operate under the same name thus everything was sorted out to the satisfaction of trustees and business in the lobster and fish plant is proceeding as of the first week of September 2012, says Don Bernard, general manager. They employ 70 people at the Minigoo Fisheries processing facility. It is nine months a year of employment for members of the Mi’Kmaq Confederacy of PEI (MCPEI) and others in the surroundings of Lennox Island First Nation. That is the hope.

Business success lies within the grasp of Chief Darlene Bernard who has history and antiquity on her side. The fisheries in these waters thrived before Europeans arrived in North America, when ancestors of today's Mi'kmaq people came in ocean-going canoes to harvest shellfish and lobster from the shallow bays and harbours of Prince Edward Island. Two decades ago this ancient practice was revived by the Supreme Court of Canada. The court ruled that aboriginal people enjoyed treaty rights giving them access to the resources of Canada to earn "a modest living". Aboriginal nations began entering the lobster fishery along Canada's Atlantic Ocean coastline, fishing the lobster grounds alongside non-aboriginal boats; selling their catch to processing plants scattered across Prince Edward Island.

A number of licences were awarded to the Lennox Island First Nation. Boats owned by the band, as well as independently owned vessels, became participants in the fishery. And then, one morning in early August, 2009, two people met to discuss the idea of setting up and operating a lobster processing plant on lands owned by the Lennox Island First Nation. Chief Darlene Bernard was interested in the potential of a for-profit processing industry located on Lennox Island to provide employment for her people, and earn money for additional economic development to their benefit. Chief Bernard harboured a dream of creating greater economic self sufficiency for her people as a way to breaking the cycle of dependency under the Indian Act, which held them back.
Jon Osmann Aranson was native to Iceland, that Norse island in the North Atlantic where fishing is in the genes of every inhabitant. From his teen years he worked in the commercial fishing industry, a career that took him to Russia, China and Japan before he fetched up managing the processing plant in Prince Edward Island. Aranson had a dream to create a processing plant from scratch; to put his international experience to work designing, equipping and operating a processing plant to exacting specifications that would meet and exceed international standards.

\The dreams of these two from dissimilar backgrounds came together in a single unified purpose. The dreamers had nine months to make it reality - including several in the dead of winter when snow-laden north winds blow fierce over Prince Edward Island. There was a critical challenge to be met - financing. A key decision was made to seek financing from private sources. Minigoo Fisheries was to be a profit-making enterprise - not another government make-work program. A business plan was prepared. The Bank of Montreal came aboard. The project was a "go". Work began in early December 2009 to convert and expand an existing building on Lennox Island into a world-class processing facility.
\

Aranson led a core staff and a group of local contractors through twelve hour days, six and seven days a week in the race to complete the task of being fully operational when the lobster fishing season opened on May 1, 2010. On April 21, hundreds of visitors from Lennox Island and surrounding communities celebrated the Official Opening of Minigoo Fisheries with ceremonies that included aboriginal drumming and singing, and a cutting of a ribbon by Grand Chief Shawn Atleo of the National Assembly of First Nations.

"I think I have been preparing myself for a moment like this,” said Aranson. “It is not often you are given the opportunity to design a seafood processing plant where you can put in place all of the techniques you learn over the number of years in different situations. I am a happy man". On May 1, 2010, Minigoo Fisheries processed its first lobster for the international marketplace. His was a short-lived bliss.

Minigoo Fisheries went into bankruptcy almost immediately after the grand opening in 2010.  First came announcement of the surprise departure of Aranson, Icelandic national who had arrived in Lennox Island First Nation an avid proponent of reconstruction of a dilapidated fisheries plant. What ensued was a shocking and somewhat expensive lesson in management.

Compounding the problem was a valuable catch that spoiled and contract and supply creditors fell on the hook when everything ground to a halt. It took two years to sort out the details and re-open the facility, proving Chief Bernard remains steadfast in her goal toward capacity-building the Lennox Island First Nation.

Success breeding success by building on existing strengths

George Morrison beside Burrard Inlet

George Morrison, 44, is an urbanite from Vancouver with family roots and Status membership in Namgis First Nation. The Namgis (‘numb geese’) homeland has traditional territory in the surroundings of North Vancouver Island and islands of the Broughton Archipelago.

Morrison is a business person whose career has ranged far and wide in the First Nations economy. The process of being a business person in the world of First Nations is something of an exploration to everyone.
 

“I think the First Peoples Group of Companies is an amazing model for Aboriginal business,” says Morrison, of the brainchild he works with as an entrepreneur. “I did a $15,000 feasibility study that looked at things including the name. I picked ‘First People’ over First Nation because the term First Nation has become too politicized and even contains the ‘hand-out’ mentality,” that prevails with people living under the Indian Act, says Morrison. Meanwhile, the term First People had overwhelming positives in the recognition factors found in the study, a fresh look.

For over a decade Morrison operated Morgroup Management where they specialized in Co-Management as well as Third Party Management with financially distressed First Nation communities. “The Indian Act creates policy and a system to break out of,” says Morrison, candidly. “When I was working in third party management, I was, as far as INAC is concerned, nothing but a glorified accounts payable clerk. We evolved First People GOC by learning how to break out of the core-funding cycle,,” a valuable lesson.
 

“I was ten years ahead of my time when INAC core-funding was sparse,” as always, “and I started a company called Canadian Native Lumber to access First Nation fibre. I ended up working with First Nations using a model that permits the community to maintain independence. The Indian Act stops progress. Elections intervene in communities. The whole environment is unstable on, among other things, the economy.”

Morrison took to setting up development corporations and incorporating business success from role models like the Tahltan Nation Development Corporation (TNDC) and the immense developments surrounding Chief Clarence Louie in Osoyoos. He spent a number of years in consultation working with Tahltan, “TNDC could end up with possibly 50 Partnerships.”

He says, “I am building a blueprint for First Nation economic development that leads to independence,” in mind, spirit, and prosperity. “We will build long-lasting careers that give back and inspire others, scholarships, bursaries, funding for elders, community activities, and sports. We have looked at the organizational abilities of other communities like the Korean, Vietnamese, and East Indians who work together.”

Morrison sees urban opportunity gone to waste with skid row property long the close street-level purview of First Nation people in Canada, properties falling to the possession of savvy developers from the mainstream economy, and no First Nation investment or equity to really speak of. He sees a future when First Nations claw back millions of dollars being squandered under false pretences and put those funds into projects that create real jobs.

“When I go to a First Nation community and see people standing around, it makes me very excited,” says Dean Iverson, co-founder of First peoples Group of Companies, “and I am smiling because I am seeing a huge potential in human resources, social capital builders, men and women who are available to build the economic development capacity of First Nation communities.” There is a growing number of people outside these communities who see it the same way as Iverson, and in this way the world is changing fast.

He decided to make economic development of First Nations the highest priority Iverson has in doing business. He gained knowledge in the forestry industry, and his company, Iverson Forest Management, is engaged in all kinds of forestry operations in the province of B.C. with First Nations forestry licensees.

First Peoples Group of Companies has a number of divisions, economic development orientations toward forestry, environment, construction, natural resources, architecture and engineering, venture development, and a management division to take a wide view of the interests in First Nations communities. “These are places needing strategic support and professional development,” he says. “We work with First Nation members who want to build economy and capacity.”

First Peoples Group of Companies is the outcome of dealing with long-term strategic development issues in communities in forestry, and Iverson recognized a First Nations economy was progressing in a diversity of sectors. More opportunities show up in First Nations every day, “In a really good way,” says he, “these communities are making interesting gains and good things are coming up for them. For me it’s about hearing ideas, sharing their visions, and it is about listening.”

 Putting together a group specializing in First Nation economic development has been quite an effort, “We are excited about what we are doing and where we are going. First Nations are learning they have more capacity than previously understood. It's growing from a desire to live free of the systems that prevail. The Indian Act is what keeps First Nations from real progress. First Nation membership want to work! They just need the opportunity. First Peoples Group of Companies wants to make those opportunities a reality through job creation and training.”

Iverson says, “First Peoples Group of Companies contains a diverse number of development portfolios and each division recognizes First Nations are required to build an economy of their own that fits within the larger Canadian (and world) economy. Our management group recognizes this reality.”

The group is designed to work from a First Nation perspective, take that sense of direction and put business plans to it, “which could be anything. The management group will look at what is available for economic development and train people to seize the opportunity. Our goal is to walk away leaving the development running with it’s rightful owners.”

The message from listening over the years has been that First Nations want to bring home their membership and to do this they need infrastructure and management to make home a place of prosperity and opportunity. First Nations exist amongst a growing wealth of opportunities in natural resources and have an abundance of human resources to employ, and First Peoples Group of Companies is designed to work with the development corporation model or the independent operator in a community.

They take development envelopes that are dormant, empty, and fill them with the cash that comes from professionally managed opportunity. “So many Bands are resource rich and cash poor, so we answer the question of how to change this. We build on strengths, put people in situations where unique skills add new capacity to the community. We build on what they want to do, and take it through feasibility study, schooling, training, financial management, or construction. We are starting with business plans and collaborating until they have an operational office or turn-key enterprise.”

First Peoples Group of Companies has a role in liaison with industries that are making commitments to First Nations in skill development or joint venture economic development. Practically every sector of the economy contains skilled labour deficits. Looming labour crises confront mining, forestry, construction trades, and transportation industries. Professional development is needed for First Nations across the board as they take ownership of large assets like hydro development, commercial fisheries, and forestry licenses.

“First Nations have it, they have everything, and they need to work together to make opportunities happen. They must change the situation from what has been there in the past. They have a desire to go forward but do so without the wherewithal. They need to break out of routine and get past bad experiences. Bands with business failures in their history have to pick it up in the present. It’s time to end the sleight-of- hand that outsiders inflict on unsuspecting First Nations.”

Starting from a position of even a single strength, First Peoples Group of Companies will bring in other components to ensure success. Expanding opportunities will be seized by managers who have established relationships of trust in the business world, and when they know they can turn to a trusted management source. Transparency in dealings with First Peoples Group of Companies will spread to every business relationship in the future. Success will breed success. 

Tla-o-qui-aht’s Canoe Creek Hydro a work of reclamation and restoration

Sayo Masso is liaison officer for the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation in one of their major initiatives, the Ha'uukmin Tribal Park, including the Upper Kennedy watershed, as a place of cultural and economic importance, "We conducted ceremonial gatherings and visited sacred sites," said  Masso.  "Pools in the river provided an abundant fishery to families and there was a village at the mouth of the Kennedy River."

The tribal park contains (in part) the Upper Kennedy River, "Our people moved through lakes in the winter and returned to the ocean in season," said  Masso. "We lived on the coast during summer and as a whaling people we observed the migration patterns of gray whales." Potlatch culture is hereditary and Nuu-Chah-Nulth communities like Tla-o-qui-aht are linked by close families, common meetings at winter feasts, and a lot of kinship with other coastal communities; interestingly, said  Masso, "Some of our closest ties are with the Makah Nation in Washington State."

Bringing the Ha'uukmin Tribal Park to life on behalf of Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation "seemed to take forever," said  Masso, "and years of research was followed by years of implementation including the last couple of years of serious dialogue. We had to study the area closely in terms of hydrology and fish habitat, institute a stream keeper’s course, and begin teaching members to be park guardians and stream keepers. We're really happy this is happening as we speak."

The Tla-o-qui-aht desire to share the magnificent lands and waters of their heritage is not carte blanche; visitors will be made aware of Tla-o-qui-aht stewardship, said  Masso, "Self-determination is on the horizon. We have focussed the initial effort on the Upper Kennedy before we construct new hatcheries," Chinook salmon and sockeye to be reared in separate hatcheries, Chinook hatchery to be built first.

The Tla-o-qui-aht place name for Kennedy River Basin, Haa'uukmin, is "roughly translated as Feast Bowl." The Kennedy Basin is about 60 km from Tofino and the Canoe Creek Hydro project presents the administration with an infrastructure opportunity to create wider visitations to their tribal park. "We are planning to establish a family-oriented picnic area by the Canoe Creek Run-of-River hydro generating station and we have envisioned our land use plan for long-term development in outlying forestry, gravel pits, and out-posts for adventure tours. Guardian and stream keeper courses are giving the administration a professional presence in our tribal park 

He added, "In upcoming phases of the Tribal Park, we will be providingrangering services and safe transit through a network of trails, and access fees will contribute to building and implementing tribal park objectives. We are examining carbon credits to value our trees while they're standing. Tla-o-qui-aht faces systemic issues in Canadian forestry," and will use every means to circumvent the slaughter of forests, "Carbon Credits help us assert a role in using and managing the watershed in a manner that reflects Tla-o-qui-aht Laws of Iisaak, (~Respect), and Hishukish Tsawaak, (Everything is one ~interconnectedness of Life)."

Tla-o-qui-aht implemented two land use zones in their traditional territory; one is entitled Uuyaathluknish Management Zone, which means 'We take care,' and  Masso said, "This is a management area that needs gentle impacts and restoration plans. Use and access must be sustainable and not negatively impacting water quality objectives and fish stock objectives." Qyaasinhap, the second management zone - Leave as you've found it, is generally allocated to the Old Growth Forest corridors in Clayoquot River Valley and Clayoqout plateau.

Uuyaathluknish is already impacted and needs rehabilitation, which is being done in part through the Canoe Creek Hydro project, "We promoted the hydro development in the rehabilitation area, an area already impacted by the highway and logging," an area that requires careful management for the multiple uses that are visioned. "On this side is the low-impact sustainable use area our plans says, Let's deliver fish out of this watershed."

Qyaasinhap is putting wider stewardship back in the local area of the central westcoast and Tofino, said  Masso. 'Leave it as you found it' means the Clayoquot Arm and Plateau Preserve will continue to serve as ground zero for research in climate change and education-oriented relations with colleges and universities. There is a research Centre up Clayoquot Arm and we working with the University of Victoria and with other education institutions to college-certify training in stewardship, and other research partnerships.

"Meanwhile we have two forest licenses in our territory," said  Masso, "and the thinking is that we have to do whatever is needed to move forestry to be more sustainable for our grandchildren and to create a 150-year rotation on harvesting rather than the present 80 rotation. We will examine timber uses and plan the harvest ourselves. We will evaluate the forest companies by how many jobs they create for how many trees they take, not by how many millions it makes."

History contains a couple of important drivers for the established tribal park. "Families quarantined themselves back in the Kennedy watershed during the introduction of plagues," and later, "The Meares Island court case acknowledged the Island in Clayoquot Sound as Tla-oqui-aht TitleLand in 1984, which laid the groundwork for the Hawiih (hereditary chiefs) to work on establishment of the Meares Island Tribal Park declaration.  This declaration formed the framework for the Tribal Park at Kennedy Lake."

As a matter of purely cultural concern the nation requires a quantity of old growth fir and cedar to carry on traditional practices of the potlatch, "We have canoe carvers and totem poles and Long Houses to build."

Angelique Merasty Levac discusses how God Opens Doors

Angelique is author of a book entitled God Opens Doors, Kisemanitow Peyohtena Iskwahtem, in print September 2012. The publisher is Indian Life Ministries, and they have followed her art and business career and admired her Christian walk for many years.

"I was born at Midnight Lake, Manitoba," said Angelique Merasty Levac. "It is bush and nobody lives there,” in the far northern reaches of central Canada. Angie holds close to her memories of a distant place spent with her grandparents in the decades of the 1950s and 1960s. She was toddling around the wilderness with her grandparents from the time she was a one year old. That was when she was born, and her mother had a rush of kids come, and so Angie was given to the grandparents to raise. Today, the same place is as wild as it once was, when she was a babe in the woods. “Once in a while a few of my siblings or family members traps there.” It is a Cree people’s playground and belongs to no one else.

I lived beside a nice lake," and she enjoyed the company of loons going 'co-co-op' in the morning hours, she recollects, "My grandparents tried to teach me how to trap when I was six years old." Her grandmother gave her a tiny squirrel trap and showed her where to set the trap under a bundle of roots at the base of a tree.

They were on the lakeside close to the family dwelling, which was a large canvas tent, and Angie would not stray. Her grandmother, she recalls, provided explicit instructions about being very patient when trapping. She had to leave the place alone to permit the process to take its course.

Little Angie couldn’t wait till the grandparents went to sleep and she approached her fledgling trap-line to see if she was enriched. She stuck her six year old hand into the squirrel-sized cubby hole and trapped herself, snap. “Ouch,” she hollered, with a sudden affinity for nature, for the squirrel that wasn't there.

It was a lesson that she can freshly recall, and she smiles about the painful few minutes while she inspects her feminine fingers. This trapping snarl proved to be the end of Angelique Merasty Levac's life as a trapper (and a few families of bushy tailed squirrels have reason to chatter in gratitude).

Those years in the lakes district straddling the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border were made up of the old itinerant way of connecting with the land and which had ever made the vast domain their home. Angie’s grandpa always found it necessary to break camp and find a different place every few weeks, for he was a trapper, hunter, and fisherman.

"My grandpa never lived in one place," Angie explained, and the family packed their large tent and barrel stove and set off looking for the right place in a particular time of year. She said it was a lean existence.

"I used to help my grandmother gather branches she used to make a floor inside the tent. There was nothing to play with when I was a child,” a fact she once pointed out to her grandma. She told her she wanted a doll, so her grandma made Angie a doll. “Do you know what my doll was? We had a flour sack and she tied up the bag into a rag doll, eyes made from the soot of the fire. That was my doll.”

At 9 years of age Angie began to spend more time with her mother and less time with her grandparents when she came to be old enough to be more help to her mother, who was by now raising most of the twelve children she bore on the Lynn Lake railroad line in northern Manitoba.

At this point Angie remembers watching the birch bark biting when she went out with ladies on berry picking sojourns. “The blue berries found in burned out areas, and cranberries found in forested places.”

It was the cranberry picking trips where she saw the women take respite to conduct little competitions. They would peel birch bark and make pieces of art with their teeth but Angie was too young to think much about it. It was a first impression of the way the ladies had social exchanges by causing exquisite artistic impressions by birch bark biting. She remembers a few of them got tossed away.

It was not until much later that she herself would adopt and perhaps help to preserve a fast disappearing cultural practice of the Woodland Cree. It was her destiny to become a Cree cultural icon and reigning expert of a disappearing form of First Nation culture. Over the past three decades Angie garnered a lot of attention for the artistic skill at birch bark biting. She still does, with beautiful straight teeth, with which she takes on the task of an ancient artistic craft (she flosses regularly).

It is a strangely important coincidence that when she met her mentor of the art form the woman was also named Angelique Merasty (Angie’s maiden name). The mentor Angelique Merasty has passed away but not before she almost miraculously passed the legacy onto Angelique Merasty Levac, doing so under the most difficult conditions imaginable.

Angie’s gravitation to the art form is partly owed to bingo. Her mentor Angelique Merasty loved to play and was sitting waiting for a taxi ride to the bingo hall one evening in Beaver Lake, Saskatchewan. Part of the miracle was that the mentor sat in the company of an anthropologist while she waited, and to pass the time sitting beside the fire in winter she reached over and peeled a piece of birch bark off a log that had thawed, and she bit into it, and an exquisite piece of art was born.

The taxi arrived and she cheerfully, wordlessly (for she never spoke English) handed the birch bark biting to the professor who promptly sent it to the Manitoba Museum of Man in Winnipeg, and this prompted a full investigation and revelation of her ability. Soon articles began to appear detailing the art and the artist. And the mentor while being interviewed once expressed a wish to pass the craft along to someone before it was forgotten. Angelique the student saw this quote in a magazine article when she was 24 years of age

It is important to realize the way Angie grew up. She did not speak English until she was between 14 and 15 years of age; she spoke only Cree. She grew up in the days prior to Bill C-31 in Canada when a lot of Indian people were cut off from their Status by marriage, and Angie had no access to school, therefore, because her mother had been stripped of her Status by marriage to a Metis man.

Indeed, our Angie did not read English until she taught herself by reading the Holy Bible, and by the time she was 24 she had proficiency enough to read, and there she stood in a line-up at the post office in Uranium City, amazed to see her name described in a magazine.

She stared at the magazine story about Angelique Merasty, but it was not herself, except it was her name, a woman who was a practitioner of an ancient art form, a Cree culture art form, the artform she had seen her grandmother and mother practicing in the berry patches, and this same Angelique Merasty in the article described how she, "would like to pass this Native art form onto another."

Angie had those recollections of the ladies in the berry patches taking a rest to bite into birch bark and she decided thereabouts that the passing ought to be to herself. She credits the worship of God, "The Lord put that in my heart. Since I did it, it opened doors that I never dreamed of," including a visit to Bill Cosby in Philadelphia, USA, with a guest appearance on his remake of the TV classic 'You Bet Your Life.' She was interviewed by Keith Morrison on CTV, and appeared on BCTV, APTN, the Knowledge Network, and in numerous print articles, including this one in the nationwide Native Journal, and more awards to come in 2009. 

(For more information email dialogueondevelopment@gmail.com

Teaching a treasured and ancient craft in birch bark

The Bark Canoe Store opened in 2000 in Spokane, “originally operating by making birch bark canoes,” explains John Lindeman, owner, “and it expanded to providing birch bark for cabinet and furniture and construction, then expanded to accessories and things that might go along with birch bark canoes like Hudson Bay axes, packs, materials, then came delivery of birch bark canoe building classes.

 "We are known for taking courses to communities," often First Nation communities. "I wanted the building of birch bark canoes to revive by going to the people who originally built them, starting in Minnesota, going as far as Alaska, also to Nebraska, school museums around the country, wherever they wanted, building birch bark canoes in as little as three weeks to a month.”

 These canoe construction classes reach everyone from kids to elders, “and we were doing camps in Canada, also holding classes in Spokane where people got together and each made a single canoe in a group project. In other classes individuals came to build one for themselves.” Birch bark is one medium of construction for the canoes, but usage is demanding on vessels, especially in activities such as film-work or cultural reenactments, “a crowd that wanted a resilient fibreglass replica, so we make a whole variety ot those.”

The company sells birch bark laminates that work over substrates of plywood to make panelling for walls, cabinets, a birch bark finish that is, “very pretty,” says Lindeman, “lots of Canadian customers.” Panels, likewise canoes, have sold in Europe. Most of the birch bark comes from New Hampshire, Maine, Minnesota, before he found a contact in Siberia, “Now I am importing from Siberia, which birch bark is used in building the canoes.”

 A lot of the birch bark is reclaimed from dead trees found near the border of Nelson, B.C., “There is a lot of dying birch, I take the birch bark found there for furniture, not canoes.” Regarding the dying birch, Lindeman says, “the birch tree is a canary in the coal mine,” it's telling us something about the environment. The spindly hardwood like alder, birch, maple, poplar grows up first in clear-cut, “what they will do is defoliate to kill hardwood and do this because no market exists for the hardwood,” essentially done after a clear-cut with the potential to stay in the ecosystem for 5000 years, he says, with an invasion with chemicals.

“I deliver courses year-round and am very portable with this. It is an intensive three weeks, whether making one canoe, or ten.” Where individuals are making their own canoe, up to four can participate in a course, in which it takes over 200 hours. The program works well at structured settings like museums, schools, and other institutions, “My goal is teaching the teachers at places like community centres, showing how to build any style from Great Lakes to Athabascan, Dogrib, we do all different traditional styles.”

There’s been some study done on this on Lindeman’s part, “I took a class in Wisconsin in 1992,” when he had a place in Port Wayne near Lake Superior, “Ojibway country,” he notes. He was taught by David Gidmark, who was trained by Algonquin elders in Quebec. “I’ve done two-seat miniatures up to 26 foot long, most typically 14 to 18 feet.” One fibreglass replica 36 foot canoe he made was used on Hudson River in New York,  “They bought a 20 foot birch bark and 36 foot that featured in the 500 year anniversary of Henry Hudson going up that river.”

Lindeman has done canoes for movies, “There is an on-going demand for this kind of building, every customer has their own unique situation from store to museum, and some canoes may never been seen alight on the water. The original canoes are not surprisingly kind of expendable, like the 26 foot Ojibway canoe that travelled from Keese River, Wisconsin to the Pacific by the Mackenzie River, and at the end the canoe was ceremonially burned. To those who lamented this happening, it is worth knowing even Mackenzies' canoes were destroyed by the end of the voyage.)

The aim is to restore the art of the birch bark canoe. “I want to revitalize the building of these canoes, which were formerly utilitarian, and now exist as an artform, I want to see more building going on.” He explains that the birch is used in multiple ways, building to medicine, “Medicinal companies are exploiting the birch tree, and it is known that birch bark is resistant to mold, and furthermore is used as an inner sole for shoes because it kills athletes foot.”

The fact is that those in the market for buying canoes for schools, say, to start a ricing program, “they would have aluminum and plastic canoes, they don't want to bang around birch bark canoes. That is the idea of the fibreglass ricing canoe, to re-establish a cultural practice in this form of canoe it handles like a ricing canoe, but it's fibreglass it will take a beating. You take care of the wood on the gunwales but the hull, you can leave it outside, you can ram it into the shore.”

August 2012 Dialogue on Development (west edition)

July 2012 Dialogue on Development business section:

Innergex investing in all kinds of renewable energy

Richard Blanchet is the senior vice president for the western region at Innergex Renewable Energy Inc. and In recent history Innergex made a major acquisition of Cloudworks Energy in British Columbia, “We’ve been expanding the past 11 years, especially in British Columbia, and today 49 percent of revenues for Innergex are coming from B.C..” Innergex is generating power from projects spread over three provinces. and each jurisdiction has a concentration on First Nation economic development as the “core part of our development.”

In B.C., Innergex is operating 9 run-of-river renewable energy projects and presently engaged in the construction of two new projects “pipeline development of, and two projects in run of river renewable energy for 178 MWh. “We are very busy and these two new run-of-river projects together represent $270 million investment in BC,” said Blanchet. The really important statistic is the employment situation with First Nations. First Nations occupying well over 40 percent of the jobs in the largest construction project. company. “We are deeply engaged in First Nations training and capacity building and the fact is we have second and third generations of First Nations in our projects. These folks are advanced and moving up the ladder into skilled jobs, providing mentorship, building the social licensing (or social capital) of their communities.”

Innergex takes pride in their long record of successful First Nation partnerships, “and we look at the long term plans for First Nations in these partnerships toward sustainable development of energy projects and what the projects mean in these communities.” Communities are transforming in very positive directions like the Douglas First Nation who took on a hydro project with Cloudworks at the beginning of the last decade. “These projects are building the business activities in local communities through sub-contracting and business building. A good example is the Umbata Falls hydro project in Ontario with Pic River Ojibway, 51 percent owned by the First Nation and opened for power generation in 2009,” says Blanchet. “Here we are starting to see the benefits to these communities.”

Founded in 1990, Innergex formed in anticipation of a call for independent power production by Quebec Hydro. “The first call for private power production in Quebec came in 1991,” and Innergex was successful and expanded to Ontario, then B.C., then the USA in early 2000. “We have an office in B.C. with 30 staff, nine projects in operation in B.C.. In Ontario we have three four operational projects and in the USA one.” In Quebec they run seven hydro projects and five wind farms.

Blanchet says, “The First Nation aspect has been a key success in our development. It was during the first few projects in Quebec that this came to be at the centre of Innergex core values. We asked ourselves, what is in it for the First Nations? These communities will see the impact in construction and will see change occur in their communities and these communities must have something in return.”

In B.C. presently, the Kwoiek Creek Hydro Project is under construction near Lytton in the Fraser Canyon, “an area that has been bereft of opportunity with downturns in forestry, but now we have a $180 million investment underway with 90 plus jobs.” There are new skilled workers, and money is being spent with on-site training that will be opening the doors to employment on other projects. Blanchet notes, “And that's the thing about these projects, they are capital intensive.  It's a huge commitment in up-front costs while operational costs are low and renewable energy flows for decades. Water rentals are becoming an ongoing expense paid to the province and apparently the province of B.C. has started arranged to share an important part the water rental revenues they receive from us revenue-sharing with the First Nations in the province to share an important part something like 70 percent of provincial water rentals.”

The future of Innergex is based on building partnerships based on core values of integrity, responsibility, transparency, teamwork, and resource-sharing. “Most projects involve First Nation in the review process, and we provide capacity for land use studies and other background proceedings. These projects are long term and we obtain financing from investors like pension funds. These investors like the stability of renewable energy.” 

Innergex did a solar project recently in Ontario, “33 MWh came into operation in Ontario, and that's a new one. We arrayed the solar panels on 300 acres of non-arable land.” Blanchet came to the west coast to work in Vancouver eight years ago, “I commuted from Quebec for the first two years,” he laughs.

“Things are advancing very well in the Fraser Canyon. We built a tram to transport building materials, and the neat aspect of the tram is the way it travels from reserve to reserve at Kanaka Band.” This tram may have a future since they had been losing access to their side of the river, it’s a long drive and under certain conditions it is a long with very bad driving conditions. Presently they are pouring concrete at power house (on-reserve), and at site the construction of penstock underway, with the transmission line under construction. Innergex expects Kwoiek to be generating electricity beginning in October 2013.