Posted: May 13, 2021 5:58 PM CT | Last Updated: May 13
Manitoba Conservation and Climate Minister Sarah Guillemard says she will not hesitate to impose further conditions on Hydro in the future in order to operate the two projects.(Ian Froese/CBC)
The provincial government has issued licences with new operational terms to Manitoba Hydro for two programs that critics say have devastated the environment and economy in parts of the north.
Manitoba Hydro s Churchill River Diversion and Lake Winnipeg regulation projects both control water levels of the Nelson River. Created in the 1970s and renewed annually since 1986, both have been controversial when it comes to impacts on Indigenous communities.
Article content
O-Pipon-Na-Piwin and Tataskweyak Cree Nations are calling for improved consultations on the potential for a Final Licence on the Churchill River Diversion and the end of the Augmented Flow Program, which they say has devastated their fisheries.
Manitoba Hydro has been operating on annual interim licences since the project was completed in 1977 and the province has said a final licence will be granted to take Hydro through to 2026. The Augmented Flow Program has been in place since 1986 and has permitted Hydro to operate at a range of water levels and flows above and below what is stipulated in the original licence.
Winnipeg Free Press Posted:
SUPPLIED
Priscilla Spence, Tataskweyak FN member, working as part of an ongoing Sturgeon study on the Lower Churchill River.
REPRESENTATIVES for two northern First Nations are asking the provincial government to deny approval for a permanent Manitoba Hydro permit that allows the utility considerable flexibility in manipulating two rivers.
REPRESENTATIVES for two northern First Nations are asking the provincial government to deny approval for a permanent Manitoba Hydro permit that allows the utility considerable flexibility in manipulating two rivers.
In the 1970s, Hydro diverted water from the Churchill River into the Nelson River at Southern Indian Lake, in order to increase its generating capacity along the Nelson. The diversion caused devastating and ongoing impacts to the environment along both river basins, and ripple effects in the First Nations communities throughout the region.
WINNIPEG Two Manitoba First Nations are asking the provincial government to hold off on granting a final licence to Manitoba Hydro’s Churchill River Diversion until their concerns are addressed. The Churchill River Diversion, which has been functional since 1976, brings more water to Hydro’s generating station on the lower Nelson River, which is helpful for power generation. It has been operating on an interim licence, but the province is considering granting a full licence. However, O-Pipon-Na-Piwin and Tataskweyak Cree Nations want their concerns addressed before a full licence is issued. The First Nations said some of the issues brought about by the Churchill River Diversion include ruined shorelines, disruptions to local fish habitats, and declines in commercial fisheries.
Additional conditions have been added to the licences in an effort to address concerns raised by affected Indigenous communities about the effect these hydroelectric megaprojects have had on the environment and their way of life. “The province has undertaken rigorous and decade-long consultations with the Indigenous communities affected,” said Conservation and Climate Minister Sarah Guillemard in a statement emailed to media. “Manitoba Hydro will be held to multiple licence and non-licence conditions in the operation of these water-power licences. Consultation will continue into the future, by the province and by Manitoba Hydro. Constructed in the early to mid-1970s to redirect water from the Churchill River system into the Nelson River system in order to power the Crown corporation’s hydroelectric dams that provide more than 70 per cent of Manitoba’s electricity, the Churchill River diversion has operated with an interim licence for 44 years and annual approvals of h