Quebec Innu want in on N.L. government's Churchill Falls consultations, says chief

The chief of the Quebec North Shore's largest Innu community says he feels the Newfoundland and Labrador government is excluding his band council from discussions on the future of the Churchill Falls hydroelectric dam.

"It's like we don't even exist," said Chief Mike McKenzie of the Innu of Uashat mak Mani-utenam, whose community's land claims, though never accepted by the Newfoundland and Labrador government, encompass a huge swath of western Labrador, including the Churchill Falls generating station and the Smallwood reservoir.

"The Newfoundland government is playing dumb when it comes to the Innu in Quebec," said McKenzie. "We've occupied this traditional territory for millennia, well before the arrival of the Europeans, before the creation of Canada, obviously, and also before the Privy Council decision of 1927 that established the border between Quebec and Newfoundland."

The Newfoundland and Labrador government has never negotiated land claims with an Innu community other than the Labrador Innu Nation, based in Sheshatshiu and Natuashish. Those talks began in 1996.

Innu communities were never consulted before British consortium Brinco built the Churchill Falls hydroelectric plant in the late 1960s and early '70s with the financial backing of Hydro-Qubec. A massive 6,500-square-kilometre reservoir was flooded for the 5248-megawatt generating station, destroying territory where Innu had hunted and fished for generations.

Transmission lines sending electricity south also cross through the lands of several Innu bands in Quebec, including those of Uashat mak Mani-utenam.

Negotiating process begins

The current Churchill Falls contract, allowing Hydro-Qubec to buy power at rock-bottom prices, expires in 2041, and official discussions on the future of the dam began in February.

Successive Newfoundland and Labrador governments have salivated at the prospect of reopening the deal, seen by many in the province as an historic injustice. But this time, said McKenzie, the Innu also plan to have their say.

Both provinces have promised consultations with Indigenous groups. But so far the Newfoundland and Labrador government has consulted with only three groups: the Labrador Innu Nation, the Nunatsiavut Inuit government and the NunatuKavut community council.

On Tuesday, Premier Andrew Furey said, "Indigenous consultations are very important in this process," but redirected to the Quebec government questions on whether Quebec Innu communities with land claims in Labrador should be included in consultations led by his government.

While talks with the Quebec government will also be important, McKenzie told Radio-Canada he and other Quebec Innu leaders also want a meeting with Furey, given the lack of visibility for Uashat mak Mani-utenam and other bands in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"It's very important to be heard. For us, in Uashat mak Mani-utenam, our claims are having to go through the courts at the moment. We're still waiting for Newfoundland to open a dialogue with First Nations here in Quebec," he said.

Lawsuit launched

On Jan. 20, the Innu of Uashat mak Mani-utenam launched a lawsuit against Hydro-Qubec and CFL(Co), the private company that operates the Churchill Falls project.

The band council argues the two corporations irreparably destroyed traditional Innu lands without consultation. It's asking for $2.2 billion in damages from Hydro-Qubec and $200 million from CFL(Co). The Newfoundland and Labrador government owns a 65.8 per cent stake in CFL(Co). Hydro-Qubec owns the remaining 34.2 per cent.

The Innu of Uashat mak Mani-utenam are also asking for a portion of future annual Hydro-Qubec profits, given that reselling Churchill Falls power represents about a third of the Montral-based Crown corporation's profits.

The Labrador Innu Nation launched a similar suit against Hydro-Qubec and CFL(Co) in 2020,demanding $4 billion in damages.

Conflicting claims

While arguing that his community should be included in consultations, McKenzie also called into question the participation of certain groups already at the table, including the Nunatsiavut government and the NunatuKavut council, who he said he believes "purport to have rights over our territory." A spokesperson for the Nunatsiavut government dismissed the criticism, saying, "Labrador Inuithave a settled land claim."

McKenzie also said the land claims of the Innu of Uashat mak Mani-utenam overlap with those of the Labrador Innu Nation, "who may have ancestral rights over part of the territory, but not all the territory they say is theirs."

"Any issue that Innu in Quebec have about the lack of inclusion by the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador is for Quebec Innu to address with the province," said a spokesperson for Labrdaor Innu Nation Grand Chief Etienne Rich. "Innu Nation has no role in facilitating a process for the Innu of Quebec with either province."

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador