Hydro-Québec to address ‘repercussions of the past’ with Inuit, First Nations: report

Hydro-Québec has released a strategy for reconciliation with Inuit and First Nations.

It’s aimed to address the “repercussions of the past,” Michael Sabia, Hydro-Québec’s president and CEO, said in the introduction to the strategy released Thursday.

“We acknowledge that our relations with First Nations and Inuit have at times been difficult and complex.”

The Crown corporation’s Strategy for Economic Reconciliation and to Strengthen Relations holds a number of promises, including to boost usage of Indigenous suppliers and partner with Inuit and First Nations on projects.

Hydro-Québec manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in Quebec. It set up more than 30 meetings with more than 100 Indigenous representatives in spring 2024.

“Inspired by these discussions,” Hydro-Québec released a summary of concerns directed at the corporation and the commitments in addressing them, Sabia wrote.

The concerns by Indigenous representatives touched on a variety of economic, environmental, labour and historical issues.

Now, Hydro-Québec vows to spend more than $1 billion in goods and services from Indigenous suppliers between 2025 and 2029 to meet the needs of its wind, solar, hydroelectric and other infrastructure projects.

Hydro-Québec also promises to support and partner with First Nations and Inuit businesses to “determine with them the best approaches for diversifying the sectors in which these businesses can bid on contracts and increasing the proportion of contracts awarded to them,” the strategy said.

And the corporation said it will increase Indigenous participation in shaping Hydro-Québec’s future projects, making them more environmentally friendly.

“[The Indigenous representatives] also shared their desire to be compensated for what they consider to be past losses and damages associated with land use and energy development,” the report said.

The strategy makes no financial commitments on this issue.

In May, Hydro-Québec signed a $32-million “economic reconciliation” agreement with the Innu community of Unamen Shipu for a dam built on their ancestral territory in the 1990s.

There have been tensions between Hydro-Québec and Indigenous nations in Quebec in the past year, most recently over an estimated $250 million in utility bills that 15 mostly Cree and Innu nation communities are not paying in protest.

The debt, which has accumulated since 2016, represents 90 per cent of utility debt in Quebec’s Indigenous communities.

“Trust needs to be rebuilt or strengthened,” Indigenous representatives say, according to the report.