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On this page, read our recap of Wednesday’s public hearing that helped to define how the NWT’s Snare hydro system will be operated in the years ahead.
The NWT Power Corporation is renewing its water licence for hydro plants along the Snare River north of Behchokǫ̀ and northwest of Yellowknife. The plants provide the majority of power to the two communities.
A public hearing is a standard part of a water licence renewal. In the one-day hearing, NTPC presented the changes it’s looking for, while affected groups – known as intervenors – had an opportunity to ask questions and make presentations of their own.
The focus of Wednesday’s public hearing was NTPC’s request that the water licence’s stated minimum water levels in some reservoirs be slightly lowered. The power corporation says the “very minor” changes it’s requesting would stop it having to come back to regulators for emergency exemptions from the rules during low-water years, and would help it generate more power from hydro without defaulting to diesel when levels drop.
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At the same time, the power corporation has a responsibility to ensure fish in the system are protected from any changes. Intervenors commenting on that included the Tłı̨chǫ Government (which has said it broadly supports NTPC’s proposal), Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the GNWT.
Live video and text updates on this page appeared through a paid partnership between Cabin Radio and the Wek’èezhii Land and Water Board to promote public interest in regulatory proceedings in the Northwest Territories.
That concludes the public hearing. There will be more to come as the parties make final submissions, which you'll find in time on the Wek’èezhii Land and Water Board's website. And we, of course, will keep you posted through Cabin Radio's reporting. Thanks for reading.
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Violet Camsell-Blondin's closing remarks for the Tłı̨chǫ Government focus on the extent to which the Tłı̨chǫ people were sidelined in years past. Speaking in Tłı̨chǫ, she sets out a rough sense of the timeline for remaining parts of this process.
The DFO and GNWT closing remarks are fairly straightforward thank-yous. NTPC's David Dewar briefly raises eyebrows by declaring "it's a miracle I'm still awake," before immediately recovering by adding "after that excellent lunch."
Dewar, I would note, also goes back to specifically recognize Alphonse Apples' contribution about his great-grandfather (see 3:20pm), which otherwise was in danger of passing without mention.
Dewar tells other parties "we have heard you and we have responded" on various issues. He closes by saying NTPC hopes the plans set out will provide "clean, safe, durable and reliable electricity to the Northwest Territories for many years to come."
We're now into closing remarks, which are not the same as closing arguments. Everyone get to make a short closing statement today, but all the parties then get to make final submissions (aka closing arguments) before the water licence is drafted.
The Tłı̨chǫ Government had previously said it would support NTPC having a 39-year water licence if the right conditions were in place. Asked, in essence, if it feels like the right conditions have been raised so far or if anything is missing, a representative says: "We would rather make further comment on that issue in the remaining steps, particularly the closing argument, and provide input on on your question in a broader way."
We're back after a short break and into a fresh round of questions. This is the free-for-all round, where board staff can ask anyone anything to tidy up any loose ends.
Asked if it has any concerns about a 39-year water licence, DFO says it likes to use 10 years for its own authorizations, "which gives us enough time to monitor, and through monitoring we can see if the impacts are what we predicted – and if the authorization needs to be changed at all." (But when pressed, DFO does not have any specific concerns and basically says that's none of its business.)
That concludes the DFO section.
DFO says timing windows (for dropping the water level) "have been talked about a lot to day."
"If there are no impacts to fish and fish habitant, and it's not causing the death of fish, then that is not something that NTPC would be responsible for," says DFO's Jeff Moyer, who again refers to an external DFO process that doesn't seem likely to be concluded by the time this water licence is issued.
There seems to be a general lack of clarity on this front. People are asking DFO whether it thinks fish will be affected, DFO is saying it'll go find out later, but others are saying they want DFO's opinion to feed into this water licence process.
Alphonse Apples, speaking during a period in which members of the public can ask questions, recounts how his great-grandfather's grave came to be underwater. He asks (if my understanding through an interpreter is correct) the extent to which NTPC has done exploratory work for things like burials in areas around hydro systems. There doesn't seem to be an opportunity for that question to be addressed – or it may have been taken as a comment – and the land and water board's staff are now asking more questions of DFO.
The Tłı̨chǫ Government floats the possibility that NTPC might try to use these minimum water levels for multiple years in a row, and questions what effect that would have on fish. (NTPC has previously said it will only use these minimums when it has to.)
DFO says that's a good question. The theme from DFO is that it does not currently possess the answers the Tłı̨chǫ Government is looking for. The Tłı̨chǫ Government formally asks DFO to come back with answers.
The Tłı̨chǫ Government isn't letting go of this and presses DFO to provide some sort of opinion on whether it thinks what NTPC is proposing is OK.
"It's something we have assessed in the past and said it was OK back in 2016. It may be OK going forward. Maybe we need to review it again," says DFO's Jeff Moyer.
