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Margaret Kenequanash has been dreaming of bringing reliable power to First Nations across northwestern Ontario since 2007. After nearly two decades of effort, that dream finally flickered into reality.
“Sometimes, it doesn’t feel real,” the CEO of Watay Power told reporter Fatima Syed at a celebration in Sachigo Lake First Nation, north of Thunder Bay, near the Manitoba border. A transformer and transmission lines stretching off in the distance have fired up in the small community, and 23 others in the remote region.
In 2009, the nations across northwestern Ontario realized they were being left out of the provincial government’s plans to expand the hydroelectric grid.
Diesel generators had long hummed in these communities, the fuel trucked in on ice roads, and they were looking for a better way to keep the lights on.
Fatima has been “obsessed” with Watay Power since she first heard about the project two years ago. A month ago, she hopped on a plane (and then another plane and a bus) to visit Sachigo Lake, to see the transformer and transmission lines that now keep the lights on — and to learn about the hard work it took to get there.
There were blessings and speeches and a lot of chances to see just how big the impact of this electrification system will be, not least in the path the initiative charts for future energy projects.
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