Solar Powers Up First Nations

Huge Solar Array Boosts T'Sou-ke

Three years ago, says Chief Gordon Planes, his people were worried for their future.

The people of the T’Sou-ke Nation have lived on Vancouver Island for centuries, Planes told an Edmonton-area audience this week, fishing from the sea and carving boats from trees. But environmental pressures have put those traditions at risk. "Are salmon still going to be coming up our rivers? Are there still going to be clams on our beaches?"

The community got together and made a plan that has made them the most solar-intensive community in Canada.

Now, Planes says he hopes other communities can learn from their example. "We have to prepare for the future," he says. "I want to see our children have a good place to live."

Solar rising
Planes spoke on the T’Sou-ke (“Sook”) Nation’s solar project before about 100 people at Grant MacEwan University Wednesday night. The talk was part of a series of lectures organized by the Solar Energy Society of Alberta.

T’Sou-ke is a community of about 300 people spread across two villages, says Planes, chief of the T’Sou-ke Nation. "The people said we should be taking care of the environment and looking at alternate forms of energy," he says, so they brought in project manager Andrew Moore to hold a consultation.

That led to a yearlong public process, says Moore, one that involved everyone from little kids to elders. Residents set a goal of creating a "sustainable, resilient community" that would last seven generations and created a comprehensive plan that covered food production, development, culture and energy.