Full Description
Beginning with the Grand Rapids Dam in the 1960s, hydroelectric development has dramatically altered the social, political, and physical landscape of northern Manitoba. The Nelson River has been cut up into segments and fractured by a string of dams, for which the Churchill River had to be diverted and new inflow points from Lake Winnipeg created to manage their capacity. Historic mighty rapids have shrivelled into dry river beds. Manitoba Hydro's Keeyask dam and generating station will expand the existing network of 15 dams and 13,800 km of transmission lines.In Our Backyard tells the story of the Keeyask dam and accompanying development on the Nelson River from the perspective of Indigenous peoples, academics, scientists, and regulators. It builds on the rich environmental and economic evaluations documented in the Clean Environment Commission's public hearings on Keeyask in 2012. It amplifies Indigenous voices that environmental assessment and regulatory processes have often failed to incorporate and provides a basis for ongoing decision-making and scholarship relating to Keeyask and resource development more generally. It considers cumulative, regional, and strategic impact assessments; Indigenous worldviews and laws within the regulatory and decision-making process; the economics of development; models for monitoring and management; consideration of affected species; and cultural and social impacts.
With a provincial and federal regulatory regime that is struggling with important questions around the balance between development and sustainability, and in light of the inherent rights of Indigenous people to land, livelihoods, and self-determination, In Our Backyard offers critical reflections that highlight the need for purposeful dialogue, principled decision making, and a better legacy of northern development in the future.
Contents
Intro Built on the Back of the Turtle: Reflections on How Hydroelectric Dams Have Changed Landscapes
Chapter 1 When Dreams and Markets Collide: Regulatory Gaps and the Keeyask Generating Station
Chapter 2 Concrete Impulse: A Critique of the Pro-Keeyask NarrativeTestimony Excerpts - "Born Into Debt: Wuskwatim"
Chapter 3 The Augmented Flow Program: Impacts on South Indian LakeTestimony Excerpts - "The Hurt I Carry With Me"
Chapter 4 The Keeyask Project: "No Significant Cumulative Effects?"
Chapter 5 Divergent Worldviews and Environmental AssessmentTestimony Excerpts - "What Happened in Fox Lake"
Chapter 6 "The Flooders" and "the Cree": Challenging the Hydro Metanarrative Using Achimowinak StoriesTestimony Excerpts - "What About the Sturgeon?"
Chapter 7 Beavers, Sturgeon and Terns: How River Regulation Can Affect Aquatic and Riparian Ecosystems in Northern Manitoba
Chapter 8 The Conservation of Caribou: Matters of Space, Time, and Scale
Chapter 9 Connections and Disconnections: A Review of the Regional Cumulative EffectsTestimony Excerpts - "We Are the Family"
Chapter 10 The Honour of the Crown and Hydroelectric Development in ManitobaTestimony Excerpts - "Act of God"
Chapter 11 Partnerships or Paternalism? Social License, Consent, and the Keeyask Project
Chapter 12 The Keeyask Model from a Community Economic Development Perspective
Chapter 13 The Two-Track Approa
Chapter Foundations for Indigenous and Western Frameworks in Environmental EvaluationTestimony Excerpts - "The Relation to Our Land"
Chapter 14 Good Development Should Not End With Environmental Assessment: Adaptive Management in Northern Development
Chapter 15 Will There Be Lasting Gains? Sustainability Assessment, Keeyask, and the Manitoba Power System PlanConclusion - Pathways to a Better Legacy of Development in Northern Manitoba
