The Nishnawbe Aski Nation is taking steps to become a player in the energy market.

The First Nations organization in northern Ontario is setting some long-term goals to help bring the communities it serves onto the province's energy grid.

NAN's executive council, community leaders, government officials, and experts from the energy industry took part in a three-day conference in Thunder Bay devoted exclusively to energy issues.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation deputy Grand Chief Les Louttit

NAN Deputy Grand Chief Les Louttit said the reliance on diesel fuel by many remote First Nations' communities is no longer viable.

“We do have to have this immediate strategy to get off the diesel generation,” he said.

NAN has bigger plans, however.

The deputy Grand Chief said it wants to hook every community into the provincial energy grid by 2018 — something that will provide First Nations communities with more reliable power, and enable them to sell power as well.

“There are communities — groups of communities — in the Northwest that are developing their own energy strategies, whether it be local hydro or solar, or wind power,” Louttit said.

Need government help

But government needs to first let First Nations into the market, said Roger Wesley, chief of Constance Lake First Nation.

“They've set the rules in how and where we can participate,” he said. “They gotta be more flexible, they gotta open up the doors.”

The community of Constance Lake is already on a power grid, so it doesn't have to deal with the frustrations of trucking diesel into the community during winter. But when it comes to “becoming participants in the economy and industry,” Wesley said he finds the prospect frustrating.

“Right now … [the] Indian Act and all these other legislative tools prevent us from becoming full-fledged participants,” he said.

Louttit said NAN's next step is to set up a task force with chiefs and Ontario and federal government representatives.