Hydro’s already been posting YoY decreases in energy output due to dropping water levels, it’s why we’re ‘buying’ back more and more energy from US downstream dams. One reason the Trump admin down south had been eye’ing the thompson river treaty, is because they know BC already isn’t energy independent, and they could use that leverage to further chop up the country - especially with a US fascist enthusiast in Alberta.
Osoyoos is a desert, and could likely use a new industry or two to bolster jobs in the area. Solar farms would make sense in the desert, other countries have built them on that terrain because it’s … got a lot of sun, and not a lot of precipitation.
The nation-building crap is a shitty predicament though. If rights aren’t suppressed, nothing will get built due to FN blocking everything for generally racist reasons (that we’re not allowed to call racist, or else we’re racist). What few Solar projects we seem to have on the go, appear to be mired in FN reviews / trying to placate numerous FN special interests. So if race-based benefits for racially defined special interests aren’t part of the projects, they don’t go forward. The few we have in the works, heavily favour FN communities, and involve huge spends by the govt.
And it seems clear that the main rights needing to be dealt with in terms of development problems, are FN things – just looking at the Aspen Solar project, which aims to develop a relatively small area of land near Merritt, they’ve gotten 7 different FN groups each wanting a piece of the pie, needing to have their specific special interests met, in order for the project to move forward. It’s been sitting in planning for over two years as they try to placate FN. In that sense, it’s reasonable for FN groups to be opposing the C5 legislation – though at the same time, a business needing to suck up to 7 different race-based groups and provide each with their own benefits in order to move forward on something like this is absurd. And to put it in context a bit, one of the bands holding it up has fewer than 400 band members, 85% of which live outside their traditional lands. So a tiny band that’s generally no longer in the area, is able to hold up a renewable energy project until they get paid. That’s also the size of group where a chief is like “Yo, the PM needs to respect my authority! We should be at the G7 meetings!”…
If the nation-building stuff helps to ‘streamline’ those issues by suppressing rights, not only will the FN likely start protesting, but the change’ll get used by primarily US-backed interests to extract Canada’s natural resources. So it’s lose-lose in many ways.
I think one of the issues is that “meaningful consultation” has been very wishy-washy. In practice though, it works out that every band that might have any right to consultation can tie up anything in interminable lawsuits. In trying to avoid clarifying what constitutes “meaningful consultation” we’ve sleepwalked into this current environment where nothing can be built.
I still remember the mess around the Wet’suwet’en “hereditary” chiefs infighting and vs. the elected band council.It doesn’t matter if you are pro-pipeline, anti-pipeline, whatever. It highlights what a mess “meaningful consultation” is. Who do you consult with? The traditional chiefs successfully ousted 3 traditional chiefs and won a court case saying they had to be consulted as well.
Extrapolate this across the country and it’s a nightmare for any project that wants to respect indigenous rights.
I expect some replies along the lines of “Canada’s an illegitimate country” and such, and good riddance, and there is some truth. Between the Proclamation of King George III, and a good chunk of BC First Nations not having treaties, it’s a bit of a pickle. I don’t know the way out. I like how the Nisga’a Final Agreement finally sorted all this out for the Nisga’a, but there hasn’t been any further agreements along this line since.
Hydro’s already been posting YoY decreases in energy output due to dropping water levels, it’s why we’re ‘buying’ back more and more energy from US downstream dams. One reason the Trump admin down south had been eye’ing the thompson river treaty, is because they know BC already isn’t energy independent, and they could use that leverage to further chop up the country - especially with a US fascist enthusiast in Alberta.
Osoyoos is a desert, and could likely use a new industry or two to bolster jobs in the area. Solar farms would make sense in the desert, other countries have built them on that terrain because it’s … got a lot of sun, and not a lot of precipitation.
The nation-building crap is a shitty predicament though. If rights aren’t suppressed, nothing will get built due to FN blocking everything for generally racist reasons (that we’re not allowed to call racist, or else we’re racist). What few Solar projects we seem to have on the go, appear to be mired in FN reviews / trying to placate numerous FN special interests. So if race-based benefits for racially defined special interests aren’t part of the projects, they don’t go forward. The few we have in the works, heavily favour FN communities, and involve huge spends by the govt.
And it seems clear that the main rights needing to be dealt with in terms of development problems, are FN things – just looking at the Aspen Solar project, which aims to develop a relatively small area of land near Merritt, they’ve gotten 7 different FN groups each wanting a piece of the pie, needing to have their specific special interests met, in order for the project to move forward. It’s been sitting in planning for over two years as they try to placate FN. In that sense, it’s reasonable for FN groups to be opposing the C5 legislation – though at the same time, a business needing to suck up to 7 different race-based groups and provide each with their own benefits in order to move forward on something like this is absurd. And to put it in context a bit, one of the bands holding it up has fewer than 400 band members, 85% of which live outside their traditional lands. So a tiny band that’s generally no longer in the area, is able to hold up a renewable energy project until they get paid. That’s also the size of group where a chief is like “Yo, the PM needs to respect my authority! We should be at the G7 meetings!”…
If the nation-building stuff helps to ‘streamline’ those issues by suppressing rights, not only will the FN likely start protesting, but the change’ll get used by primarily US-backed interests to extract Canada’s natural resources. So it’s lose-lose in many ways.
I think one of the issues is that “meaningful consultation” has been very wishy-washy. In practice though, it works out that every band that might have any right to consultation can tie up anything in interminable lawsuits. In trying to avoid clarifying what constitutes “meaningful consultation” we’ve sleepwalked into this current environment where nothing can be built.
I still remember the mess around the Wet’suwet’en “hereditary” chiefs infighting and vs. the elected band council.It doesn’t matter if you are pro-pipeline, anti-pipeline, whatever. It highlights what a mess “meaningful consultation” is. Who do you consult with? The traditional chiefs successfully ousted 3 traditional chiefs and won a court case saying they had to be consulted as well.
Extrapolate this across the country and it’s a nightmare for any project that wants to respect indigenous rights.
I expect some replies along the lines of “Canada’s an illegitimate country” and such, and good riddance, and there is some truth. Between the Proclamation of King George III, and a good chunk of BC First Nations not having treaties, it’s a bit of a pickle. I don’t know the way out. I like how the Nisga’a Final Agreement finally sorted all this out for the Nisga’a, but there hasn’t been any further agreements along this line since.