Hydro-Quebec’s first joint-venture hydro project with a First Nation is mired in controversy.

Uashat mak Mani-Utenam, a community of 3,500, says its traditional lands will be affected by the $600-milllon project. But Hydro-Quebec left it out of negotiations on a hydro deal with neighbouring Betsiamites.

On August 18, Betsiamites residents voted 80 percent in favour of the Toulnustouc hydro joint venture. There was 50 to 55 percent turnout. An agreement with Hydro was signed two weeks later.

The project would divert three rivers into the existing Bersimis I and II reservoirs, built in the 1950s. Also planned is a new power plant on the Toulnustouc River, where an existing reservoir will be increased in size. The Innu will be minority shareholders in the project, and will take a cut of the profits.

Rosario Pinette, chief of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam, said his community members still carry out traditional pursuits in areas overlapping with Betsiamites lands. “It affects our community in a big way,” he said.

But Hydro has refused the community’s requests for details about the project. It had to file an access-to-information request, and even then got “morsels of information,” said Pinette.

Pinette said trappers are worried and calling up the band to insist their rights be protected. Betsiamites isn’t going to court just yet, and Pinette hopes things can be worked out with Betsiamites. The deal with Hydro forces Betsiamites to defend the project. Betsiamites Chief René Simon didn’t return our call.

But Simon was quoted saying in the Innu newspaper Innuvelle, based in Mani-Utenam: “The Innu of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam are not affected by this agreement.”

Robert Mainville, a lawyer for the Betsiamites band, said Elders from the two communities are trying to settle the dispute amicably. He said two other Innu communities also claim to have overlapping lands. But Mainville added: “Betsiamites says there is no land dispute at all.”

The dispute is being cited as an example of what can happen when First Nations don’t stand united.

Of all the Innu communities of Quebec, Betsiamites was the most affected by hydro development. Starting in the 1950s with the massive Manic-Outardes reservoir, its three main rivers were dammed up to electrify Quebec and power the Quiet Revolution.

The Innu never received compensation, nor were they asked for consent. That went even for the latest projects built in the 1980s.

Betsiamites tried to negotiate for compensation for many years, working through the Conseil Atikamekw-Montagnais, an association of 15 First Nations. But in 1994, Mani-Utenam broke ranks and signed its own deal with H-Q, causing CAM to break up.

According to Mainville, the attitude became: “If that’s the way the ball bounces, it’s each community for itself.” Betsiamites, in particular, felt “crisscrossed by the other bands when it suited them. Almost every Innu band has been doing their deals with Hydro for years now,” he said.

Betsiamites finally filed a $500-million lawsuit in Feb. 1998.