There was confusion about the role of Indigenous organizations in N.B. Power’s controversial new gas-fired power plant project, Mi’kmaw leaders said this week, as they gathered in Moncton for the 4th annual Atlantic Indigenous-led Energy Symposium.
Rights consultation still comes first, say leaders
Erica Butler · CBC News
· Posted: Oct 31, 2025 3:43 PM EDT | Last Updated: 3 hours ago
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More than 450 delegates attended the 4th annual Atlantic Indigenous-Led Energy Conference, organized by the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council. (Erica Butler/CBC)
At an Indigenous-led energy conference in Moncton this week, Mi’kmaw leaders delivered a clear message: New Brunswick’s energy future runs through their communities.
They described a dual role for First Nations: as investors and owners of future energy projects, and as defenders of treaty rights when it comes to those projects.
ProEnergy, the U.S.-based company hired to build a controversial new gas plant in Tantramar, has been heavily criticized for promoting an Indigenous equity stake in the project before a deal was approved, and before a Mi’gmaw rights impact assessment was underway.
Dean Vicaire, executive director of Mi’gmawe’l Tplu’taqnn Inc., or MTI, the consultative body for eight of the nine Mi’kmaw nations in the province, says an impact assessment by his organization is now in “infant stages,:
He said the assessment will “take a good hard look” at the repercussions and possible consequences of the new power plant proposed for rural Tantramar.
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