Premier, ministers meet with Smith First Nations
Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Fort Smith (Mar 12/01) - The south will get the power and the North will reap the benefits.
That's what Premier Stephen Kakfwi and cabinet ministers Joe Handley, Jane Groenewegen and Jim Antoine told community leaders and aboriginal groups March 3.
Getting that power out will mean expanding the Talston hydro system, new projects like a massive 3,000 megawatt project on the Mackenzie River and 800 megawatt hydro system on the Bear River. Getting co-operation from First Nations is also essential.
The government is proposing to pool revenue from expanded hydro sales with other resource royalties.
"The plan is to do a partnership arrangement with oil and gas, diamonds and now, hydro," said Kakfwi.
Under the government plan, a surcharge from each volt sold would be put into the resource fund.
To do that, an agreement must be struck with the South Slave Metis, Salt River and Smith's Landing First Nations.
Antoine, aboriginal affairs minister, said preliminary talks have already been held.
"It's a very delicate, complicated process," he said.
Antoine added the first step is to get a revenue commitment from the federal government, then decide how the funds will be shared.
Salt River First Nation chief Jim Schaeffer said his council is in early discussions with other First Nations over the revenue sharing and said the band is well represented by the Akaitcho chiefs.
"We're always talking with Smith's Landing and we're always working very close with them," said Schaeffer.
Metis local president Gord Villebrun said this spirit of co-operation will bring new prosperity to Fort Smith.
Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger agreed, saying his constituents haven't benefited from oil and gas and diamond projects. He predicted it would cost between $800 million and $1.4 billion to upgrade the Talston system to 200 megawatts.
"(The GNWT) want to move this along. They've got the initial study, now let's work together and check it out," said Miltenberger. "It's a great idea, but now we need some more detail."
