"Band/Capital Power deal for $7 Million over 20 years"

Six Nations is being offered almost $7 million in compensation in a wind partnership deal between band council and Capital Power.

But the offer is coming six months after the company's Port Dover/Nanticoke wind project went online in November 2013.

Talks between Capital Power and band council's consultation and accommodation process (CAP) team halted early in 2013 after a group of Six Nations people stopped construction of the project in January 2013.

An injunction was filed against the Haudenosaunee Development Institute, the Confederacy Council's planing department, who were protesting the stalled negotiations between Capital Power and HDI on the project.

Both Six Nations band council and the HDI are on an Ontario list mandating developers consult with them on projects, says Amy Lickers, Six Nations community planner with band council's Economic Development department.

The CAP team resumed talks with Capital Power later in 2013, after the company underwent "internal restructuring", with the company currently offering Six Nations $3,350 per MW, per year over 20 years. as well as $300,000 in scholarship funds.

The CAP team held its first and only public meeting on the project last Thursday at the community hall. The consultation period for the project ends on May 23.

The project, which sits on 1701 Nanfan Treaty land, consists of 58 wind turbines and aims to generate 105 MW of power to be sold to the province under its FIT (Feed in Tariff) program.

The CAP team is keeping an eye out for job opportunities associated with the project after coming under fire for failing to secure jobs at other sites.

Capital Power has held two job fairs on Six Nations and the turnout for those job fairs was low, said Lickers.

There were small archaeological finds on the property, said Lickers, mainly arrowheads and Indo-European pieces such as glass, ceramics, quartz and plastic.

This is the eighth development project currently in the works for band council.

Land rights activist Ruby Montour asked if band council is trying to get land back after the green energy projects are decommissioned.

"Our land is diminished to the point where there is not enough for us," said Montour. "I feel very deeply about our land. I'd like to know...how is that land going to be returned to us?" Matt Jamieson, director of Six Nations Economic Development, said it's hard to get the land returned to Six Nations but in the meantime, he hailed the economic benefits the projects are bringing to Six Nations. The Port Dover/Nanticoke project brings the total amount of revenue coming into Six Nations over the next 20 years to $100 million.

"We all know the pressures around land but I think we are working...towards some kind of recovery," said Jamieson. "If it's not the land title, it's economic and if we can't benefit by having the land back today we certainly want to have part of the benefits that's being derived from the land in somebody else's possession."

He said the money generated over the next 20 years will go into an economic development trust fund to help pay for infrastructure, health, education, water and housing.

"This money is money our community needs. The inequities between ourselves and our neighbours five miles up the road are significant. What we're trying to accomplish with these projects is, to generate some benefits, finally, from these developments that are going to continue to happen and we know they are. We need to do what's necessary to capitalize on the opportunity that's before us."

Jamieson said Six Nations economic development is creating a board composed of community members to give guidance and direction on how the money is going to be spent. He did not specify who was sitting on the board his department is creating.

Community member Laurel Curley expressed concerns about the simultaneous negotiations between Capital Power, band council and Confederacy Council after Lickers said the province considers both governing bodies two separate "communities" that require consultations with developers.

"The two should be working together," said Curley.

Capital Power negotiations is part of an HDI presentation to Confederacy Council Saturday.