The agreement addresses matters of right, impacts and benefits on Lower Churchill, and also redress for the Innua Nation with respect to the earlier development on the upper Churchill river in the 1960s.
The compensation for the earlier development, at Churchill Falls, covers the full project cycle at Can$2M (US$1.9M) annually until 2041. Afterward, the Labrador Innu will be entitled to a share of revenues from the project.
Just over two years ago, the province decided it would lead the development of the hydro schemes on the lower Churchill river following the review of proposals that were short-listed from the Expressions of Interest and Proposals process. Both the provincial Government and Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro (NLH) will develop the scheme.
The Lower Churchill scheme will be focused on two plants – at Gull Island (2,000MW) and Muskrat Falls (800MW). It was hoped that the project sanctioning would be about 2009 and operations would commence about 2015.
Last month, three applicants were awarded a total of Can$125,000 (US$117,000) by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) towards its share of the development work of Lower Churchill, particularly the environmental assessment process.
The agreement is called the Tshash Petapen, or “New Dawn”, Agreement .
