The Treaty 8 First Nations and BC Hydro's Site C Dam

Authors

  • Jan Kucic-Riker

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/2292-4736/39796

Keywords:

Treaty 8 First Nations, indigenous rights, Site C Dam, environmental racism

Abstract

The Site C Clean Energy Project is a proposed dam and hydroelectric generating station on the Peace River in northeast British Columbia, seven kilometers southwest of the city of Fort St. John. The proposed site―within the Peace River Valley―is home to BC’s Treaty 8 First Nations with an approximate Aboriginal population of 2500-3000 people (T8TA, "Treaty 8 Communities"). The project's proponent, BC Hydro, received environmental approval for Site C from the federal and provincial governments on October 14, 2014 (BCEAO Conditional Environmental Assessment Certificate Granted: Site C Clean Energy Project; CEAA "Government of Canada's Decision on the Environmental Assessment of the Site C Clean Energy Project"); however, the project still requires an investment decision from the Province and regulatory permits and authorization before it can proceed to construction (BC Hydro, "Multi-Stage Evaluation"). The Treaty 8 First Nations are opposing Site C, having filed a lawsuit on grounds that the project would have a devastating impact on their traditional land and thus violate their treaty rights (Keller)...


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Author Biography

Jan Kucic-Riker

My name is Jan Kucic-Riker and I am a second year MES student with a focus on development theory and ecological economics.

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Published

2017-06-20

How to Cite

Kucic-Riker, J. (2017). The Treaty 8 First Nations and BC Hydro’s Site C Dam. UnderCurrents: Journal of Critical Environmental Studies, 20, 38–45. https://doi.org/10.25071/2292-4736/39796

Issue

Vol. 20 (2017): Environmental Justice

Section

Academic

License

Authors retain copyright over their work and license their work for publication in UnderCurrents under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). This means that the work is available for commercial and non-commercial use, reproduction, and adaptation provided that the original authors are credited and the original publication in this journal is cited, following standard academic practice.