Williams Lake Indian Band has kicked off the new year by signing a community benefits agreement with Atlantic Power.
“We stand as guardians to our traditional territory and we want to work with anybody that comes here to do business,” said band councillor Rick Gilbert during a signing ceremony held Thursday morning at Sugar Cane Reserve. “The purpose of the agreement is to work co-operatively.”
Atlantic Power’s executive vice-president Joe Cofelice travelled from Boston, Mass. for the ceremony and described the agreement as a very important document for the company.
“It illustrates how we want to work in this community,” Cofelice said. “Since we first engaged with the community, the staff has been very proactive in representing the view of the WLIB and promoting their values and we’ve very much appreciated that.”
The agreement will provide an economic component, but at the heart it is about stewardship, said WLIB economic development officer Kirk Dressler.
“This is the kind of relationship we like to build with industry and this has been a good, positive working relationship.”
The economic benefit will support community programs, Dressler said, noting the amounts involved are confidential.
The agreement is the second one Atlantic Power has signed with a First Nations community in Canada, said the company’s asset management director Brian Chatlosh.
Gilbert said there are some people criticizing the band for working with the company because the company is exploring the possibility of burning rail ties in its Williams Lake plant.
“Is there something different about this project compared to the proposal in Kamloops that was stopped?” Gilbert asked the company.
Responding, the company’s environmental manager Terry Shannon said the Kamloops facility used gasification technology whereas the plant in Williams Lake uses combustion.
Dressler said behind the scenes, leading up to signing the agreement, the band engaged in its own independent review of the modelling done by Atlantic Power on the burning of rail ties.
“We continue to engage and if there are concerns we have about the validity of the model or the actual practices then we will work to try and resolve those,” Dressler added. “That’s the core concept of the agreement.”
Cofelice said the company’s new CEO James J. Moore Jr. who joined the company in January 2015 is committed to engagement and servant leadership.
“The company under this CEO is committed to this kind of action because we understand in the long run it’s the best course for us,” he added.