The Columbia River Treaty (CRT) is set for renegotiation after Canada and the United States reached an agreement-in-principle (AIP) on July 11. Since then the government of British Columbia has been taking critiques, concerns and questions from residents around B.C. in an effort to bring the most to the table during renegotiation talks.
During a Sept. 20 live-streamed information session with over 100 participants, Brooke McMurchy, policy advisor for the CRT, Stephen Gluck, Canada’s lead negotiator and Kathy Eichenberger, B.C.’s lead on the Canadian negotiation delegation updated viewers of the current AIP and what could be seen going forward.
Talks to renegotiate the treaty began in May 2018 with federal, provincial and First Nations representation making up the Canadian negotiation team.
The Columbia River Treaty
Created partially in response to the 1948 Columbia River flood that destroyed the city of Vanport, Ore., the CRT provided a measure of flood mitigation and power creation for both sides of the border.
Signed in 1961 and ratified in 1964, it initiated the building of four major dams along the Columbia River; Canada’s Duncan, Hugh L. Keenleyside and Mica dams and the United States’ Libby Dam. More dams have since been built to harness the hydroelectric capabilities of the Columbia River.
Over 110,000 hectares of Canadian ecosystems, communities, burial sites and cultural spots along the Columbia River have been flooded by the reservoirs formed by the CRT. Continued mitigation of that loss has been a focus for various interim agreements since the treaty was signed, and Gluck said the collaboration with First Nations has made the negotiation team “stronger and better informed.”
“We are working towards our commitment to seek free, prior-informed consent with Indigenous nations on the modernized CRT,” Gluck said.
The CRT and Indigenous collaboration
Ktunaxa, Secwepemc and Sylix Okanagan representatives have been included at all main table conversations for the future renegotiation of the CRT. During three 2023 interim agreements, the nations secured five per cent of the revenue from sales of Canada’s share of downstream power generation.
However, Indigenous voices from the Sinixt Confederacy have been lost, Herb Alex, senior policy analyst with Sinixt Confederacy told Revelstoke Mountaineer.
The nation, which operates as part of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington and out of Nelson, B.C., has frequently found themselves cut out of decisions and agreements made about their homelands.
In multiple land acknowledgements during the Sept. 20 information session, Sinixt Confederacy and peoples were not included.
Sinixt homeland reaches from north of Mica Creek, around Kinbasket Lake to south of Kettle Falls in Washington, USA. It stretches as far east as the Kettle River drainage and west to the edge of Kootenay Lake. The Columbia River anchors the region and is a key relation to the area for Sinixt members.
This region includes CRT dams Mica Creek and Keenleyside. It also impacts large sections of Sinixt homelands and cultural practices. One in particular, the annual Sx̌ʷnítkʷ Canoe Journey, sees Sinixt members and allies traveling from north of Revelstoke down to Kettle Falls for a Salmon Ceremony that goes back generations.
Sinixt peoples were declared extinct in Canada in 1956 after many Sinixt members were forced to the Washington State Colville reservation. A 2021 Supreme Court of Canada ruling finally admitted to Canada’s wrong-doing and acknowledged the Sinixt peoples continued existence and connection to lands throughout B.C., and along the Columbia River. Efforts to reestablish community in Canada have been a bureaucratic challenge even though there has been a continued Sinixt presence in the region.
Revelstoke Mountaineer reached out to Brooke McMurchy, Geoff Gosson and the CRT team for comment regarding the omission of Sinixt peoples within the land acknowledgements and Sinixt Confederacy in treaty talks. No comments were provided by publication. Revelstoke Mountaineer submitted a question for the Sept. 20 information session regarding Sinixt Confederacy’s exclusion from previous and current treaty talks, but the question was not brought up during the information session.
“I hope that the three nations that were involved [in previous negotiations] stuck to their values,” Alex said when asked what impacts Sinixt Confederacy’s omission from the CRT has had. “All I can do is pray that they got it right, because we were excluded.”
Operational flexibility, ecosystem protection and cultural values under the CRT
Throughout these negotiations, Canada has focused on increased operational flexibility for the Canadian dams. Other priorities include ensuring monetary benefits received from the treaty stay within B.C., updating pre-planned flood risk management regimes from the United States and further power coordinations related to energy created by dams along the Columbia River.
Future operational flexibility could improve situations for ecosystems along the river and culture practices throughout the region.
“This is something we heard right from the beginning of the treaty review process in Canada,” Gluck explained. “Knowing the negative impacts faced in the basin over the term of the treaty, we committed to getting this flexibility.”
Treaty negotiations will also include a “transboundary body” focused on supporting ecosystem benefits, Indigenous cultural values, adaptive management and efforts to continually reintroduce salmon and other anadromous fish into the waterway.
“Over the past decade… we heard over and over again that people felt the treaty put too much emphasis on power generation and flood risk management, and not enough on environmental and social interests,” Eichenberger told viewers at the information session. “Today we have an AIP that shifts that balance.”
“We still have lots of work to do with Canada and B.C. to start addressing the past and ongoing impacts to our lands, waters and people,” Chief Keith Crow, CRT lead for the Syilx Okanagan Nation Chiefs Executive Council said in a press release. “But I now have real hope that one day, as a result of our efforts, I will see my grandchildren and other future generations exercising their rights harvesting n̓ty̓tyix (salmon) in the nxw̌ ntkwitkw (Upper Columbia region).”
Conservation organizations are also calling for stronger ecological protections along the Columbia River, saying treaty renegotiations are the time to acknowledge how previous treaty measures have impacted ecosystems along the Columbia River.
“The negotiated AIP provides a solid opportunity for improving ecosystem function within the Upper Columbia Basin,” Greg Utzig, technical advisor to the Upper Columbia Basin Environmental Collaborative said in a press release issued by Wildsight. “We still need to see Columbia Basin ecosystems placed on an equal footing with power production and flood control.”
Flood-risk management and power generation
The AIP currently proposes an additional $37.6 million USD annual compensation, indexed to inflation for the next 20 years for Canada’s efforts in flood-risk management with the Arrow Lakes Reservoir. The U.S. will be able to request additional storage in response to increased flood risks forming south of the border, but additional fees will be required.
Future plans to create Canadian flexibility in the management of the CRT dams could also help with the management of B.C.’s provincial dams, including the Revelstoke dam, Eichenberger noted. It’s been a focus since renegotiations began in 2018.
“With the AIP we’ve achieved that,” Eichenberger said, explaining the current treaty requires both countries to coordinate 15.5 million acre-feet of reservoir storage between the three treaty dams annually in an effort to enhance hydropower generation in the U.S.
Plans for the modernized treaty will allow Canada to unilaterally decide how to reduce the coordinated power storage to mitigate impacts in Canada and throughout B.C. B.C. will have more control over water management throughout parts of the Columbia Basin located in the province with a focus on provincial interests.
With federal approval needed for Canada and senate approval needed in the U.S. writing of the treaties, a new agreement will take time. While work is being done, all parties will work to create interim measures that would protect power coordinations and flood-risk management.
“It’s important to be clear that there is no set date for when a modernized CRT will come into effect,” Gluck said.
One of the steps Gluck noted all parties will continue to follow regarding treaty negotiations is engagement with Columbia Basin First Nations, not including the Sinixt Confederacy.
“We are working to ensure our collective interests are heard within the negotiations and within future operations of the system,” Nathan Matthew, Secwépemc Nation lead for the Canadian negotiation delegation told viewers.
This includes shared governance over waterways throughout the Columbia Basin for the three nations and B.C., with input from local governments and populations residing along the waterways.
“It’s been a long road to get to this point,” Matthew said. A key focus will be continued rejuvenation of wetlands, riparian and floodplain areas in efforts to revitalize and support fish populations. Revitalization will also be key in flood-risk prevention throughout the basin, a move Matthew said will improve socio-economic values for all residents and visitors in the Columbia Basin.
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