Muskrat Falls and the Maritime Link: What do they have to do with women?

I've provided some excerpts of my talk in the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs' Everyday Ethics series.

“It isn’t easy being green: Hydroelectric energy and the impact of resource development on Labrador and Nova Scotia communities”

Deborah Stienstra   November 26, 2013 

 

Muskrat Falls and the Maritime Link are hot topics across Nova Scotia.  The news in Nova Scotia is filled with debates about whether the deal for hydro-electricity through the Maritime Link is good for Nova Scotia. I would like to reframe that question to ask: Do Muskrat Falls and the Maritime Link provide fair and ethical trade in hydro to all of those affected?

The Muskrat Falls or Lower Churchill hydroelectric development by Nalcor and the Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) government in Happy Valley-Goose Bay (HV-GB) is currently underway and should have hydroelectricity ready to roll by 2016. To send the hydro from Labrador to the island of Newfoundland and then under the sea to Nova Scotia, Nalcor has worked in partnership with Emera to develop the Maritime Link. In NL the pitch for this is jobs for NL and control over their own energy. In NS the pitch has been access to a greener energy source. Emera is asking for approval of an agreement that would ensure that Nova Scotia can buy hydro at particular rates.  The NS government hasn’t yet approved this deal, and hearings have recently been underway to see if the deal is seen to be good for Nova Scotians. Regardless of whether or not Nova Scotia partners on this project, the Muskrat Falls development has and is going forward.

As I listen and read, I don’t hear much about the impacts of the development upstream or up-Link.  I don’t hear much about the relationships between Nova Scotia users and those who will be living with the direct impacts of the development. I don’t hear about the impact on those communities in Cape Breton and specifically in Point Aconi where the Link will come on land. I don’t hear about those in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador where Muskrat Falls is located. Nova Scotia is in relationship with these people because we are considering drawing upon the benefits of the Muskrat Falls hydro development. These relationships invite us to consider more carefully the implications of this development and ask difficult questions about who benefits, who doesn’t and where there are silences.  These are questions of ethics, of choices to be made...

FemNorthNet and a gendered intersectional analysis

Over the past four years, a group of academics and community people across the country have been working with women in Labrador to understand the effects of resource development on communities and to ensure that women are part of the decision making processes about decisions that affect their lives. This group called FemNorthNet, based at CRIAW,  calls for gendered and intersectional impact analysis of large-scale resource development projects. We have made this argument with some success to the Environmental Assessment Review Panel for Muskrat Falls in 2011.  We have presented to the Town Council of HV-GB in January 2013 when they were considering the effects of the Muskrat Falls development on the town. Most recently in May 2013 we shared our arguments at the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (NSUARB). 

FemNorthNet has consistently argued that with a gendered intersectional analysis we understand more about the effects and benefits of Muskrat Falls and economic development more generally. It provides a more complex picture of women’s and men’s experiences. It illustrates gaps in our knowledge about this development and economic development – gaps which can be filled by involving women. Addressing the gaps requires capacity and leadership development with women in the community, enabling them to work to address how to mitigate the negative effects of economic development and engage in the decisions about economic development in their area. It also creates networks of support within and outside the community.

Community engagement of women along with gendered intersectional analysis enables us to ask who is included and excluded in the community as well as in the changes brought by economic development. It can ask what are the barriers to inclusion and how to address them. But it also recognizes that those most affected by economic development should be part of decision-making because they may bring a different set of issues and values forward than those who don’t have to live with the effects.

Gendered Intersectional Analysis of Muskrat Falls and the Maritime Link

  

What does this mean? Why should we do this?  We argue that without this type of analysis initially and on-going, those who are most affected will be missed.  What would a gendered intersectional analysis mean for the Maritime Link?  It means asking questions like:

To what extent are diverse women and men affected as users of hydro by changes in energy rates?  For example if rates are increased to address the increased costs of the Maritime Link, what impact will that have for women who may be single parents or live with a low income?  What about for seniors or people with disabilities who live on a fixed income?

In CRIAW’s presentation to the NSUARB we noted that women, and particularly Aboriginal. African Nova Scotian, disabled, and senior women have lower incomes than other women and men, and as a result will be less likely to easily absorb rate increases. What measures have been put into place to identify who benefits and who doesn’t in rate increases? And what steps have been developed to address these disparate needs?

To what extent do diverse women and men receive the jobs and other benefits associated with the developments? The NL government has implemented an analysis of the employment for Muskrat Falls development. Nova Scotia proposes a Gender and Equity Diversity Plan. These help us partially understand who benefits in terms of work. The most recent Muskrat Falls benefits report suggests that 206 women were employed – mainly in human resources and food services. The report also says 207 Aboriginal people were employed – mainly as carpenters, other trades people and food services.  It is not clear from this tracking how many of the Aboriginal workers are women, so the analysis is not intersectional.  This is important to track and address gaps that become evident.   The NS Gender and Equity Diversity Plan has not worked with disabled people, Aboriginal women, African Nova Scotians to identify best practices to engage their particular populations.

To what extent are the needs and well-being of communities most affected by the development and implementation of the Maritime Link addressed? This includes short, medium and long-term impacts.  The Muskrat Falls Environmental Assessment Review Board report recognized that health and socio-economic impact assessments are not adequate to address this issue and recommended a new collaborative process that specifically incorporated the perspectives of women in order to establish a health, social and economic baseline and to initiate a process for monitoring and mitigating health and social impacts in HV-GB. This recommendation has not yet been addressed by the NL government.

But FemNorthNet has developed, through a participatory process in HV-GB, a Community Vitality Index (CVI), with five areas of well-being and many indicators to let community track its own physical, emotional, mental and intellectual, spiritual and cultural well-being.  We are finalizing the survey questions and hope to launch it in the spring in HV-GB with the support of many of the key organizations and the town of HV-GB.  .

The CVI is building upon a leadership development process among diverse women in HV-GB, called Claiming our Place: Women’s Relationships with Rivers.  The women who participated talked about the Mista-Shipu/Grand/Churchill River and how it unites them despite their different histories, experiences and cultures.

The local women and their families do not just live in their homes or within the boundaries of HV-GB or Sheshatshiu, but live on the land. They gather on the land, relax on it and experience it as a place of health, healing and solace.   The River is also a burial ground and the news out of Muskrat Falls with over 40,000 artifacts found during recent excavation, confirms its long history as important land to the people there. It is also used for hunting, fishing and trapping, berry picking and herb gathering.

The local women from all the diverse communities around HV-GB are very concerned with this development because they believe it will mean a loss of access to and connection with their culture, history and family, poisoned land, water, fish and children, inflated costs for food, housing and services, loss of a sense of safety for the community, increased violence, disease and family breakups.  Much of this brings back memories of the 1980s when their community was used as a base for NATO troops.

They believe economic development should occur but not at the expense of the environment and the quality of the lives of the local people. They do not believe that the Muskrat Falls development achieves this.

And they are already seeing many changes in their communities as a result of the development.

A news story in early November 2013 notes that many nurses are leaving the local health providers to go and work, at a higher wage, for Muskrat Falls. This leaves HV-GB with 15 vacancies for nurses and that will and does have an effect on health care provided.

We hear stories of housing prices skyrocketing and vacancy rates at zero and women couch-surfing in order to have a place to live, or providing sex for a place to sleep.

We hear of increased violence against women as more money flows into the community.  We hear of young girls being propositioned on the streets by workers.

We hear of the Inuit government measuring the mercury levels in the water.

The NunatuKavut have been prevented from being on the land, including one elder who is before the courts because of his protests.

There are many more stories in the making about the effects of Muskrat Falls on those who live around it.

FemNorthNet is undertaking a new project called Building Links among Women to address some of these issues and I’ve got a short piece to share with you about this project.

I’d like to end my comments today with some questions.

What responsibility do Nova Scotians as consumers have to be aware of and address the impacts of this development on the home communities providing the resource or along the way of the Link?

Is this trade in hydroelectric energy ‘fair trade’ for all, is it ethical trade?  

What are the markers of fair and ethical trade in hydro?

Have the deals addressed all the costs of these developments? 

Have they been assessed and some mitigation strategy put into place that addresses the concerns of communities who bear the costs?

Who is responsible for identifying and addressing these questions? 

What role do consumers have in ensuring their hydro meets fair trade standards?