BC Hydro pressured to fund new salmon infrastructure in Alouette watershed

The City of Maple Ridge, the Kwantlen and Katzie First Nations, along with the Alouette River Management Society, are teaming up to push B.C. Hydro to pay for new infrastructure to help bring salmon back to the Alouette watershed.

Representatives from the groups signed an agreement on Friday, with plans to work in unison under a new banner: The Alouette River Ecosystem Partnership.

"Today we are all on the same page; the priorities are the same, the decisions we make together will be the same and the outcome will be the same," said Grace Cunningham, the elected chief of the Katzie First Nation.

"Katzie First Nation has been occupying these lands for more than 12,000 years, so thinking about those stories and thinking about the seven species of salmon that we are trying to help return home is vital, not only to us as Indigenous people but to all people," said Cunningham.

One of BC Hydro's water licences in the Alouette area expires at the end of the year, and the group is hoping to prevent the utility from renewing it in perpetuity.

They want to use the renewal process to demand meaningful consultation with the Kwantlen and Katzie First Nations, and to encourage BC Hydro to pay for infrastructure that would let salmon swim up and around a hydroelectric dam on the Alouette river.

"The amount of money that goes into restoration pales in comparison to the amount of revenue that's been generated in this watershed for power," said Maple Ridge Mayor Nicole read.

"Power's critical. We appreciate the power, but at the end of the day, something very significant was taken from our First Nations on this river and that needs to be restored. And the onus is not on us to prove that it should be restored; it just needs to be restored," said Read at the new partnership's signing ceremony on Friday.

Kwantlen hereditary Chief Marilyn Gabriel was at the event to represent her First Nation.

"It's time, as we say, for our people to take our rightful place, to stand as government-to-government, as it should have been many years ago," said Gabriel.

"All land we have is sacred. Everything around you has spirit. If you know that, maybe you'll take it, put it in your heart and you'll take better care of it. And that's all we're asking," she said.

BC Hydro spokesperson Tanya Fish provided a statement in response to the group's comments on Friday.

"BC Hydro welcomes the formation of the Alouette River Ecosystem Partnership," said Fish.

"Since 1999, over $1.8 million has been invested through the Fish and Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP) for 50 habitat and species specific projects in the Alouette River Watershed," she said, adding that work is underway to look at the issue of fish passage at the dam.

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