First nations lawsuit seeks to halt power line to Lower Mainland
RICHARD J. DALTON JR.,
Vancouver Sun
November 16, 2009
A lawsuit filed by first nations in the Okanagan seeks to quash a key certificate needed for a proposed high-voltage power line to the Lower Mainland, claiming the province never consulted with aboriginals about the project and two existing high-power lines.
The lawsuit, filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver last week by the Upper Nicola Indian Band and Okanagan National Alliance against three provincial ministers and BC Transmission Corp., says the province should discuss with first nations the two existing power lines before getting an environmental assessment certificate for a third line.
The $600-million expansion project would add a high-voltage power line connecting the Nicola substation near Merritt to the Lower Mainland. The power lines would pass through at least two first nations' lands: Upper Nicola, which is part of the Okanagan Nation, and the Nlaka'pamux Nation.
Existing high-voltage lines pass through first nations lands in the Okanagan.
Chief Tim Manuel of the Upper Nicola Indian Band said, "This came in 35 year ago, and they never ever consulted us."
"The impacts are certainly both cultural and spiritual and medicinal," he said. "It has impacted everything we do: our traditional lifestyle, our hunting, our food gathering."
The Nlaka'pamux Nation Tribal Council is expected to file a separate lawsuit soon.
Tim Howard, a lawyer with the Vancouver-based law firm Mandell Pinder, which is representing the Upper Nicola Indian Band and Okanagan Nation Alliance, said the province has refused to discuss the existing power lines with his clients.
The minister of energy, mines and petroleum resources and the minister of environment, two of the defendants in the lawsuit, issued an environmental assessment certificate June 3, despite the lack of consultation with first nations, Howard said. The third defendant in the suit is the minister of aboriginal relations and reconciliation.
"It's like someone builds a great big house on your land without ever asking you, without ever talking to you about the impacts, without ever dealing with you at all about the house," Howard said. "And they've always planned an extension to the house. And later on they say 'We want to build an extension, and we only want to talk to you about the new room.' And you say, 'No, no, no. It's connected to the house. Let's talk about the house.
We've never talked about the house.'"
BC Transmission Corp. spokesman Michael Witherly said the provincial Crown corporation received the lawsuit on Friday and hasn't had time to review it yet.
But he said, "BCTC takes its obligations to consult with first nations seriously."
First nations did win a victory earlier this year, when the B.C. Court of Appeal suspended another certificate needed for the project, ruling the BC Utilities Commission didn't consult with first nations before issuing a certificate of public convenience and necessity. The commission is now reconsidering whether to issue the certificate.
Howard and Manuel noted that the province bought homes in Tsawwassen after residents complained about a new power line.
Manuel said his band also seeks monetary damages, but that determining an amount would be difficult. "How do you measure the impact of a way of life when it's been disturbed, the right to hunt and gather?" Manuel asked.
"How do you measure the impact of that?"