By Stephanie Landers
Stephanie Landers is
communications and public
outreach coordinator for
the Ontario Waterpower
Association (OWA).
This article is based on
the documentary “Our
Heritage, Our Future –
The Kapuskasing River
Waterpower Project,”
available from OWA.
When infrastructure and towns were frst being
developed in Ontario, people naturally came to
rivers, frst for transportation, then for economic
opportunities such as log driving, grist mills, local
electricity and/or mechanical generation. Waterpower was the economic engine upon which the
initial prosperity of the province was built.
Up until 1951, all of Ontario’s electricity came
from falling water. In the 1960s and 1970s, new
development in the province moved to coal and
nuclear facilities, but Ontario’s hydroelectric
feet has remained the backbone of the electricity
supply. In the late 1990s, with the commercialization of Ontario’s hydroelectric sector, there was
renewed interest in the development of waterpower sites.
To support this renewed interest, the Ontario
Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) introduced
the Waterpower Site Release Policy in 2004 —
outlining the process for accessing Crown land
to develop waterpower resources. The goal of the
Ontario, Canada. Construction on the project
began in 2005. What is unique about this project,
is how it successfully demonstrates a new business
model for hydropower, perhaps the frst of its kind,
through the collective partnerships of the fve own-
ers, which includes three First Nation communities
(Brunswick House First Nation, Chapleau Ojibwe
First Nation and Chapleau Cree First Nation), the
municipality of Kapuskasing and the private devel-
oper, Hydromega Services Inc.
“What we are seeing with this
partnership and elsewhere
is economic and business partnerships being
brought forward by the
communities themselves,” says Paul Norris,
president of the Ontario
Waterpower Association
(OWA). “Now, the communities are equity partners on the project. They are
not just consulted in terms of
the potential effect on their interest or Aboriginal and Treaty Rights,
they are partners in the project. That’s a new
business model in hydroelectricity and one that is
spreading across the province in our and in other
renewable energy sectors.”
Waterpower in Ontario
Canada’s Aboriginal people have been using natural river systems as a means of transportation and
sustenance since long before European settlement.
The land and the rivers that run through it remain
a central part of Aboriginal culture and the relationship remains very sacred and respected by the
surrounding communities.
Aboriginal Project Ownership
on the Kapuskasing River
The 22-MW Kapuskasing waterpower project in Ontario, Canada, successfully demonstrates
a new business model for hydropower as it brings together three Aboriginal communities, a
municipality, and a private developer in a strategic development partnership, sharing equity
equally between community and developer.
New Development
Kapuskasing is a small community located on the Kapuskasing
River in Northern Ontario.