Black Lake moving ahead on hydro project
- EFN Staff | November 23, 2015
The results are in, and Black Lake community members have voted in favour of proceeding with the $630M Tazi Twe hydro project. The community vote took place on November 18, with advance polls on November 10 and 13. Members of the band voted 63% in favour of the Tazi Twe Hydroelectric project; 44% of eligible voters cast a ballot.
The project has been in the works for over 20 years, and had already received federal environmental approval.
“Today is a great day for Black Lake First Nation,” says Chief Rick Robillard, “Today, we heard from our community members and I’m pleased to say that this project will move forward to the next steps. Many people have been working towards this day for many years, and I’m happy to hear that our community is in support of Black Lake First Nation becoming proud owners in a profitable, long term business.”
The Tazi Twe hydroelectric project is a proposed water diversion hydroelectric project that will supply 50 megawatts to the provincial power grid. It will be the first new hydro project in Saskatchewan in over 30 years, and is expected to bring $1.3 billion into the community over the project’s 90 year life span. It will be the first hydro project built entirely on reserve land in Saskatchewan. Black Lake First Nation selected SaskPower as their preferred partner to develop this hydro project, and an agreement in principle was signed in 2013.
The framework agreement between SaskPower and Black Lake First Nation establishes a 30% interest for Black Lake and will provide a cash flow stream to the band for the next 90 years.
“Black Lake wanted the Tazi Twe board to make sure we had a deal that was fair to band, but also provided the least amount of risk,” says Ted De Jong, CEO of Tazi Twe, “and we were also given very specific criteria by the band that the project would have minimal impact on the land and traditional activities. I think we succeeded in all the criteria, and the community members showed their support through their vote yesterday.”
The vote was held to determine the level of support for the project and partnership with SaskPower. It is not a legal requirement for the project to proceed, as this approval was previously achieved in 2007 when the community voted to designate the land for the development of a hydro project. The vote was requested by the Black Lake First Nation leadership to secure the mandate from the community they felt was needed for them to commit to the hydro project.
The partnership agreements still need to be finalized and SaskPower must obtain provincial government approval before the project can proceed to construction.
“This is an important step, but we still have work to do before this project is finalized,” says Chief Robillard, “I would like to recognize and thank everyone who came out to vote, as well as all the prior Chiefs and Councils who served the community of Black Lake and brought this project to where it is today.”
Construction of the project could start as soon as late 2016 or 2017.