PROENERGY Canada President John MacIsaac answering questions on October 14 at Tantramar Town Council

Documents released this week by NB Power do not support claims that the Mi’kmaq had agreed to invest in the 500 MW gas/diesel plant that NB Power wants built on the Chignecto Isthmus near Centre Village. The documents do show, however, that Indigenous investment was possible and legal steps were taken to make it happen. They also suggest that NB Power was contemplating a project that could eventually be expanded to 800 MW.

Warktimes asked NB Power for the documents after PROENERGY Canada President John MacIsaac told Tantramar Town Council last month that they would substantiate his claim that the Mi’kmaq had agreed to be a minority equity partner in the project.

“I would invite you to fact-check me,” MacIsaac told Councillors Allison Butcher, Bruce Phinney and Michael Tower when they accused him of making false claims about Indigenous participation.

“I stand by what I said,” he added as he urged councillors to file a freedom of information request for documents that PROENERGY submitted to NB Power in response to its request for proposals (RFP) to build the gas plant.

“What I said was from the outset, when we started proactively very early with Indigenous conversation back in 2024, and I would invite you to fact-check me…by going back and submitting an access to information (request) for the supporting documents that accompanied our response to the RFP,” MacIsaac repeated.

PROENERGY slide on display during two public information sessions in August claim NSMTC is a minority equity partner in the gas plant project

What the documents show

One of the documents NB Power sent to Warktimes was a seven-page Letter of Intent (LOI) signed on August 6, 2024 by Jim Ward, general manager of the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council (NSMTC), Scott Dieball, senior vice president at PROENERGY and Mike Alvarado, president of WattBridge, a subsidiary of PROENERGY.

Sackville resident Logan Atkinson, who is a retired lawyer and academic, analyzed the Letter of Intent and says it raises many serious questions.

The letter does suggest that if the American company and its subsidiary won the bid to build the gas plant, NSMTC and its seven-member First Nations would form a limited partnership.

“While it isn’t clear in the document, the assumption is that this limited partnership would be the Tribal Council’s investment vehicle,” Dr. Atkinson writes in his analysis.

“I would like to know if that partnership has been formed yet.”

He also points to a paragraph that states: “NSMTC will take the lead role in the ‘duty to consult’ with Indigenous rights-holders and will diligently work to secure ‘free and informed consent’ from its own Member communities and any other First Nation communities who may be impacted by the Project.”

“This means that, at the moment this Letter of Intent was signed, the seven-member First Nations had not given free and informed consent,” Atkinson writes.

“In that circumstance, absent some subsequent development, it is impossible to claim that the NSMTC was an equity partner. This is important,” he adds.

‘Irrelevant’

Atkinson also points to a provision that says the parties agree to form a new corporation to own the project if the bid is successful and that they will sign a shareholders’ agreement.

“Is this Letter of Intent still in effect?” Atkinson asks pointing to a paragraph that says that once signed, the LOI would remain in effect until the “earliest” of several things.

“The earliest date at which the LOI would terminate has already passed, i.e. December 15, 2024. Was it extended? Or has the new corporation already been created? If so, who are the shareholders? Is NSMTC a shareholder?” he asks.

The Letter of Intent also states that it is non-binding.

“So, unless something else has happened since, the thing is irrelevant,” he concludes.

During a public Q&A in August at the Civic Centre in Sackville, Tristan Jackson, who works with the NSMTC, revealed that the seven chiefs who govern the Tribal Council had not yet agreed to invest in the project in spite of PROENERGY’s claims.

Four days later, the chiefs of the nine Mi’gmaq First Nations in New Brunswick issued a news release saying they hadn’t made any decision on whether to invest in the project and that the gas plant could not go ahead until it undergoes a rigorous, Mi’gmaq-led, rights impact assessment.

An even bigger gas plant?

Brotman Generating Station in Rosharon, Texas, has similar components and layout as the proposed project that PROENERGY is proposing to build in Tantramar. Image from Environmental Impact Assessment document

The gas/diesel plant that NB Power wants built would generate 400 MW of power, but would actually have a 500 MW capacity.

The Letter of Intent states that the NB Power request for expressions of interest (REOI) refers to an eventual total of 800 MW for the gas plant project and that both PROENERGY/WattBridge and the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council grant each other a “Right of First Refusal to negotiate together such potential future agreements similar to this LOI and Project Agreement…for additional capacity beyond the first 400MW up to 800MW.”

When Warktimes asked NB Power spokeswoman Elizabeth Fraser for an explanation of the 800 MW figure, she replied: “I would suggest reaching out to PROENERGY on this one.”

So far, neither John MacIsaac, nor PROENERGY spokesperson Chris Evans have responded to my requests for comment on this story.

NSMTC letter of support

The second document that NB Power sent to Warktimes is from the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council signed on August 7, 2024  by General Manager Jim Ward.

It states that the Tribal Council has entered into an “exclusive partnership” with PROENERGY and its subsidiary WattBridge and that the Council “commits to providing full support in Indigenous Relations, access to low-cost financing, and technical support.

“In recent years, and in vetting proponents for this specific opportunity, NSMTC has assessed numerous technologies, builders, and owner-operators of facilities similar to the 400-800 MW simple cycle turbine and synchronous condenser packages specified in this REOI (request for expressions of interest).”

The document says one key consideration that led NSMTC to select PROENERGY/WattBridge as an exclusive partner was scheduling and cost control factors “achieved through vertical integration from manufacturing operation.”

The document goes on to say that the U.S. company “can both deliver the assets with cost certainty on a predicable schedule and can do the same as needed in the future for plant expansion up to 800 MW or more.

“These attributes align with NSMTC’s goals of environmental stewardship and supporting a range of scenarios with respect to renewable penetration in the energy mix.”

NSMTC’s document promises to deliver community support:

Excerpt from NSMTC document

To read the Letter of Intent document, click here.

To read the North Shore Mi’kmaq Tribal Council document, click here

To read NB Power’s Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI), click here.

For earlier coverage, click here.