Lynda Powless, Editor
The corporation, owned by Six Nations, under the helm of CEO Matt Jamieson brought a multi million dream to reality this past week with the massive investment of the federal government and Ontario in the Oneida Energy storage project giving life to an electricity battery storage facility and at the same time keeping in mind Haudenosaunee environmental values.
The project, believed the largest in Canada, is expected to open in two years near Jarvis Ontario on Six Nations treaty lands.
Jamieson managed to convince Ontario to jump on board in what is clearly a win-win situation for any politician.
Premier Doug Ford announced the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator would be signing a 20 year deal with the Oneida Energy storage project.
The feds jumped on board with $50 million in what can only be seen a political win in a big way sending the deputy prime minister down to make the announcement.
The OES project will in a nutshell take excess hydro out of the system and store it at the OES who will then sell it back to the system in time of need, and That move will help double Ontario energy resources with enough energy to power a large city.
And it is coming at a time when everyone is pushing a move to electric cars.
Jamieson admits it has taken a while to get the partners all to the table but it has paid off.
Six Nations will see a return on its investment and he says “go a long way” to help plug things like the growing potholes on Six Nations roads.
Six Nations band council has said they are facing a $1.6 billion infrastructure gap created by a lack of needed funding from Ottawa to pay for the programs the elected council over sees and has been using Six Nations own source revenues and gaming funds to plug the holes but even that hasn’t come close to closing the gap.
Six Nations needs more funding and can’t wait for a multi-billion dollar court case demanding an answer to what happened to Six Nations lands and money to be resolved to get the funds to plug those holes among other items.
Instead own source revenues and a lot of Six Nations imagination and ingenuity is filling the gap and Jamieson and his “team” deserve our congrats for securing the deal, but not for locking out the community or failing to consult with the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council and asking them to participate in a community consultation process is demeaning.
At the same time the HCCC didn’t exactly open up about its closed door meetings with Crown and Indigenous Affairs Minister Marc Miller’s recent visit or publically release its audits on the millions of dollars in community funds it has received from among other things green energy projects on Six Nations treaty lands.
So congrats to Matt Jamieson on a longterm project that will bring revenues to the community in the future. Now, HCCC…let’s chat about those audits!
