Speech by President Michael Dan
November 22, 2007
…to the Lac Lacroix First Nation Community at the Lac La Croix First Nation Roundhouse November 22, 2007
The world around us is changing in ways that most non-aboriginal people cannot easily grasp. The reason for this is that the western view of the world prevents westerners from seeing the full extent of the problems that we have created. Quite simply put, the industrial revolution that began around 1830, and which was based on the fantasy that there would always be an endless supply of coal, oil, and natural gas, is itself ‘running out of gas’. Take, for example, the case of the United States.
There was once a time when the US was the world’s number one oil producer. Yet today, in spite of all the sophisticated technology that is available to it, oil production in the lower 48 States has never been higher than it was in 1970. So we now have a situation where instead of being a net exporter of oil, the U.S. imports 67% of its oil—and most people don’t know this—the number one exporter of oil to the US is not Saudi Arabia, but Canada. In fact, Canada exports half of the oil and natural gas it produces to our friends to the south, and even more ironically, Canada now uses a significant amount of its own natural gas to make oil to sell to Americans. I am referring here to the tar sands in Alberta, which are an ecological disaster in every possible way.
Canada has the second largest oil reserves in the world (some 1.79 trillion barrels), 97% of which is mixed with Alberta sand and spread out over an area the size of Florida. To produce one barrel of synthetic crude oil from tar sands, you need to process 4 metric tonnes of earth (which includes pristine and irreplaceable boreal forest and wetland), 5 barrels of fresh water from the Athabasca River (which ends up as toxic waste that’s so poisonous it must be stored in giant tailings ponds that are big enough to be seen from space), and 1500 cu ft of natural gas. Since the tar sands mining operations first began, not a single acre of land has been certified as reclaimed, and it is doubtful that any mined land can ever be returned to the pristine freshwater delta that it once was. This is the price that Canadians are willing to pay so that they can wait in line at Tim Horton’s in their SUVs with the engine idling.
Today, we are starting to hear a lot about the Green Movement and sustainable living. Al Gore’s movie and Nobel Prize did quite a bit to raise public awareness about climate change, but amazingly, the media hasn’t yet made the connection between energy use and global warming. Everyone seems to think that technology will miraculously rescue us from our own stupidity, and that the whole world can embrace a western standard of living AND cut back on energy consumption at the same time. I find this absolutely fantastic. If I were a psychiatrist, I would say that westerners are in frank denial of the dangers that we pose to ourselves and the rest of the world, and I would prescribe a prolonged stay in a rehab centre so that we can all break our addiction to energy and environmental destruction.
The truth about sustainable living is that nobody in the west has a clue what it really means to live comfortably and sustainably at the same time. Right now, there are some 6.5 billion people on this planet, and the amount of sustainable energy that we use today—which is only about 11% of the total energy consumed—is about the same per person as it was in 1850. What I find utterly amazing is how the west seems to have completely forgotten that the aboriginal peoples of the world already possess the vision and culture of sustainable living, and that in Canada in particular, First Nations have been living sustainably on the land for the past 10,000 years. To the young people here today, I want you to know that your elders are the coolest people you will ever meet. They are a living treasure; a link not only to the past, but also the future. Their view of the world traces its roots back to the last ice age, and they know how to live on the land for generations without ever taking more than the land can give. I wish I could say the same for my own ancestors.
The fit between First Nations and sustainable energy is a completely natural one, and I am honored to be with this community today to talk about our common future. By the time the next generation reaches adulthood, any person or group that has access to a source of abundant, sustainable energy (and I might also add, fresh water) will be truly blessed. This community is fortunate because you have an excellent hydro site on your lands, which we would like to develop with you as a partnership.
Partnership for us means sharing a vision and helping one another to be the best we can be. We believe in complete openness and in responsibility to the community. We want to work with the community to build something that we will both be extremely proud of for years to come.
Gemini Power Corporation, together with Chant Construction Company, will work with Ojibway Power and Energy Group to oversee the financing and construction of a hydroelectric plant at High Falls. Assuming we receive a favorable Environmental Assessment, construction of the plant should begin in the fall of 2008 and should be completed by the end of 2009 or early 2010. Once the plant is built, it can generate power for at least a century. For a westerner, that’s an extremely long time.
We want to be part of this community for the next 100 years, but not as owners or landlords. The hydro plant is actually a business, and the deal we agreed on is that once the business is up and running and generating income, we will get our money back plus a fair profit, then hand over the keys to the community. This could happen in as little as 11 or 12 years from now, if things go well and conditions are favorable.
In the meantime, the project will provide scholarships so that the children of this reserve can train to be the engineers, technicians, lawyers, and businessmen and woman of the future, so that when we depart, this community will have a hydro business that is 100% First Nations owned, 100% First Nations operated, and able to produce power for another 90 years. We feel that our approach preserves the dignity and spirituality of the community, gives the young people something to reach for, and secures an economic future for generations to come.
I want to take a moment to talk about the gift that I brought. It is a small statuette entitled “Partnership”. It is forged from steel, so it is very strong. It consists of two figurines, identical in height, in fact identical in every way, but fitting together to form a whole. I am giving your chief, Leon Jourdain, permission to whack me over the head with this statuette if I ever forget what partnership means, and I will do the same to him if he forgets.
So let us all work in partnership together, to preserve the dignity and spirituality of this community, to build a sustainable energy business that will also help to sustain this community economically, and to care for the land the way that our First Nations ancestors taught us.