Manitoba Métis, Hydro reaffirm partnership with new 50-year, $120M deal

A new multimillion-dollar agreement spanning half a century has been reached between the Manitoba Métis Federation and Manitoba Hydro.

"It's a really solid agreement," MMF president David Chartrand told CBC on Thursday. 

"It's years in the making, and it puts us in a pathway to knowing where each of us would be standing as we move forward together."

On Tuesday, Hydro and the federation signed a "revitalization agreement" — an arrangement meant to address the effects hydroelectric developments have had on Métis and Indigenous people throughout the province, said Bruce Owen, a spokesperson for Manitoba Hydro.

The agreement also lays out how the Crown corporation and Métis Federation can work together on future Hydro projects in the interest of both parties, Owen said in a Thursday interview.

The deal covers a period of about 50 years, he said, and includes an initial payment of $40 million to establish a "revitalization fund." Annual payments over the 50-year period start at $3 million and decline to $1.1 million.

Chartrand said the deal totals $120 million over the 50 years.

"Hydroelectric development … has affected not only Métis but Indigenous hunting rights, cultural harvesting of medicinal herbs or plants, for instance, and also culturally important areas to both Métis and Indigenous peoples," Owen said.

"This agreement is just part of a way of recognizing that."

The new deal comes years after the province cancelled two previous arrangements between the government, Manitoba Hydro and the MMF.

In 2018, the Progressive Conservative government under then premier Brian Pallister quashed the "Turning the Page" agreement (Kwaysh-kin-na-mihk Ia paazh in Michif, the Mé​tis language).

That agreement was signed in 2014 and included $20 million in payments to the Mé​tis Federation over 20 years in exchange for support of Manitoba Hydro projects, like the Bipole III transmission line and the Keeyask hydroelectric generating station.

Pallister also cancelled a $67.5-million arrangement earlier that same year, saying it was "persuasion money" and that the province shouldn't pay the MMF in exchange for its silence. He also said the arrangement wasn't legally binding.

That prompted the federation to launch a lawsuit against the province, arguing the decision to cancel the payment was unconstitutional, and violated the contract and Indigenous rights.

But the MMF eventually lost that battle after a Court of Queen's Bench Justice ruled the province was within its rights to cancel the payment.

For Chartrand, this new deal is a "win-win" for Manitoba.

"There's no more court cases, there's no more opposition," including from the premier, he said Thursday.

When she replaced Pallister as premier in 2021, Heather Stefanson said one of her top priorities was repairing the province's relationship with Indigenous peoples. 

"I don't even want to mention the guy's name anymore," Chartrand said Thursday. "We know what he did to us, and we know he did it for the wrong reasons."

Owen said after that arrangement was cancelled, Hydro and the Manitoba Métis Federation continued their relationship.

"In a way, we never stopped talking," he said. "I think the ability for both sides to work together to come up with this new agreement … reflects that."