Realizing truly sustainable development: A proposal to expand Aboriginal ‘price adders’ beyond Ontario electricity generation projects

Abstract

Recognizing the sustainable development potential of incentivizing domestic renewable energy generation, the Province of Ontario (Canada) presciently implemented the Green Energy Act in 2009. The feed-in tariff provisions of this Act provided guaranteed, premium price contracts for new renewable energy generators utilizing a variety of different technologies. Of particular relevance to this article, the Act also included a $0.015 per kW h price adder for those projects that included Aboriginal economic participation. As a result, this policy framework permitted the inclusion of Canada's historically marginalized indigenous peoples in decentralized, small-scale power generation. Although some Aboriginal groups have been able to take advantage of this novel energy supply policy framework, others have been hamstrung by looming caps on new supply procurement and, especially, a lack of transmission capacity. This article picks up on this latter point, contending that the Province should expand the applicability of their policy innovation and consider the adoption of a comparable ‘price adder’ for new transmission projects, given that an estimated $20 billion in new high voltage direct current transmission lines will need to be built over the next 20 years in Ontario. Much, if not all, of this transmission capacity will need to be built on the traditional territories of Aboriginal groups – many of which have unsettled land claims with the Canadian government – and it is crucial that this minority group is included in future energy-related development initiatives. The article concludes by offering suggestions for Aboriginal adders in other energy developments across Canada (and potentially in other international contexts that involve indigenous peoples), including planned transmission projects across the country, ongoing shale gas developments in British Columbia, and controversial oil sands extraction in northern Alberta. Further research into optimal methods for facilitating indigenous participation in energy developments is urged.