Noront Resources

Batchewana First Nation hopes to begin reaping the economic benefits of the country's largest First Nations wind farm partnership as soon as next year.

Batchewana and its partner, Calgary-based BluEarth Renewables, are finalizing a renewable energy approval application for the 60-megaWatt Bow Lake Wind Project which is expected to go to the Ontario Ministry of Environment this month. If all goes as planned, construction on the first phase of the wind farm could begin later this year.

Money would start to flow to the First Nation through a 20-year Ontario Feed-In-Tariff agreement as soon as the project is plugged into the grid, which is projected to take place in 2014, said Batchewana Chief Dean Sayers.

“There's so many shortfalls with our relationship with the Crown, with Canada, and this will help us meet our basic needs,” said Sayers.

Sayers said the money will help pay for education, housing, infrastructure, healthcare, as well as efforts to preserve language and culture.

Batchewana commemorated the partnership in an event on Thursday. The deal was finalized in December. The First Nation is a 50-50 partner in the $240-million project, which would be built in the Bow Lake area, just south of Montreal River close to the eastern shore of Lake Superior.

Once both phases are complete, the wind farm would consist of 36 turbines, generating close to 60-megaWatts of electricity.

Wayne Greer, president of a company called Aboriginal Business Network, has been working with Batchewana on the Bow Lake project and others. Greer said Batchewana's share of the project is $30-32 million, with about $23 million of that coming from the province's Aboriginal Loan Guarantee Program.

What the First Nation gets back from the project will depend on how much energy is produced, but Greer said projections are that it will bring in around $2 million a year, after the debt is serviced.

“If you come back to what we're getting for what's essentially an $8-million investment, it's a pretty good return for the First Nation and its people,” said Greer.

Deputy Chief Denis Stonefish, of the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, of which Batchewana is a member, hailed the partnership as a step forward for First Nations in exercising their jurisdiction and looking to economic opportunities.

“I'm sure a number of First Nations will look forward to hearing exactly how you did this,” Stonefish told Sayers during a presentation at Thursday's event.

Not everyone is happy with the project. A group that calls itself Save Ontario's Algoma Region released a report this week asking the government to turn down Batchewana and BluEarth's proposal, and asking for more consultation and more study on the project's potential impacts to tourism and the environment. A formal public consultation process ended in December.

Sayers said the First Nation is comfortable with the environmental aspects of the project, having done its own approval process on top of the provincial one, though he said the door is open to further talks.

“We want to look at all of the concerns, because ultimately those concerns may be something we really need to look harder at. Maybe we need to tweak things,” said Sayers.

Sayers said Batchewana met with Michipicoten First Nation on Wednesday and continues to work to accommodate the Wawa-area band, which had earlier objected to the project on territorial grounds. Sayers said he does not expect that to hold the project back.

“We've had a very long history with our friends, our brothers, our cousins, next door to us here. We don't foresee any issues there,” said Sayers.