In May 2024, Hydro-Québec and the Innu of Unamen Shipu signed an agreement over the Lac-Robertson generating station . The agreement aims to settle all disputes relating to this North Shore power station, built in the 1990s, that's been the subject of a number of disputes and claims by the Unamen Shipu community.
Author
- Jean-Sol Goulet-Poulin
Doctorant en anthropologie, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Hydro-Québec will pay the community $32 million in royalties over a 23-year period.
Why did the Québec government only decide to offer these royalties in 2024, when the hydroelectric plant has been operating for nearly 35 years and has been contested by this community for so many years?
Could the battery industry, itself, be the explanation?
I've been interested in the issues of mining extractivism and Indigenous peoples' rights in the Canadian context since my master's degree . My doctoral research focuses on the role of the province of Québec in the mining industry, and on the issues of sustainable development, the energy transition and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples.
The agreement with the Unamen Shipu Innu comes at a time when the Québec government is seeking to develop its battery industry by assessing the potential for critical and strategic minerals and hydroelectricity on their territory, and more broadly, on Québec's Lower North Shore . The resources required for battery production are often located in Indigenous territories .
Northvolt's project to build an electric battery plant, announced in September 2023, is still on track, despite the company's significant financial difficulties .
Unamen Shipu territory
In September 2023, the Unamen Shipu Innu Council criticized the Little Mecatina River dam project on its territory for the lack of community consultation carried out after Hydro-Québec had already begun feasibility studies for the project.
Hydro-Québec reacted to this outcry in the media by saying that the goal of the preliminary study was to be able to provide information to the community in the future consultation process.
A few months later, in February 2024, the Band Council also criticized a mapping project for Lake Coacoachou, also on Unamen Shipu traditional territory . The project involved assessing the region's mining potential for lithium, graphite and other critical and strategic minerals required for electric batteries. Here again, the Band Council criticized the government for not adequately consulting the community.
In February 2024, the Band Council rejected both projects.
The May 2024 agreement between Hydro-Québec and Unamen Shipu is set against this backdrop of dissatisfaction with relations with the Québec government over the consultation process.
In fact, a few weeks before it was signed, Unamen Shipu Band Council Chief Raymond Bellefleur declared that the Little Mecatina River dam project would not be discussed without this agreement.
As a negotiating tool to convince the Unamen Shipu Band Council to consent to new mining or hydroelectric projects on its territory, the Mishta Uashat Lac-Robertson agreement between Unamen Shipu and Hydro-Québec corresponds to the approach announced by Premier François Legault in 2022.
According to this agreement, all development of the battery industry will be done with the social acceptability of the communities whose territory will be affected by these industrial projects.
Ties between Indigenous Peoples and Québec
There are many different types of relationships between Indigenous peoples, the Québec government and the mining industry.
Less well known to the general public, Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs) have been widely used for decades. These are individual agreements signed between an Indigenous community and a mining company. In the absence of such agreements, the state delegates its duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous communities to mining companies.
In other cases, the government is actively engaged with its Indigenous counterparts and the issue of consultation is framed within a public agreement. This was the case, for example, of an agreement signed in 2016 between Québec and the Abitibiwinni First Nation of Pikogan in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.
Continuing this collaboration, a new agreement was signed in 2022 for the use of the Abitibiwini traditional territory. Among other things, it guarantees royalties on mining revenues.
These relationships can be conflict-laden, as illustrated by the case of the legal dispute between the Barriere Lake First Nation and the Québec government over the obligation for consultation on mining claims. Since 2020, this community has been challenging the government in court to have its territorial rights respected.
These relationships can change over time, as illustrated by the case of Unamen Shipu, whose signing of the agreement with Hydro-Québec in early 2024 was more collaborative than confrontational .
The battery industry: A social project?
Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples seems to have become an essential element in the development of the battery industry by becoming a means to integrate environmental and social issues into the project.
Yet though central to the idea of reconciliation, the issue of land restitution is conspicuous by its absence from the agreement between Hydro-Québec and the Unamen Shipu Innu Council. This is because the Canadian and Québec governments do not wish to relinquish sovereignty over these territories , which gives them greater control over their resources.
Legault's enthusiasm about developing the battery industry hasn't wavered, despite Northvolt's setbacks.
Could the battery industry be for Legault's Coalition Avenir Québec what Hydro-Québec was for the Parti Québecois in the 1970s - an economic development project driven by nationalist aspirations ?
It's still too early to say. But it's clear that the battery industry embodies the link between the exploitation of natural resources and political issues. Its aim is to position Québec as a world leader in the energy transition, competing alongside China, Ontario and the United States.
Jean-Sol Goulet-Poulin ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.
