Manitoba Metis, Hydro sign $20M deal

The Manitoba Metis Federation and Manitoba Hydro have inked a $20 million deal, which is the first time Metis people have been included in a Hydro development negotiation.

The Federation will receive $1 million each year for the next twenty years to pay for research on the impacts of BiPole III and other hydro projects.

The president of the Manitoba Metis Federation, David Chartrand says the research will help determine possible compensation.

Of course my Metis government will decide what's best for us but it does give us the tools to have full-time staff working on actual files. Hydro is here to stay and they have many, many projects still to come and still to be finished," said David Chartrand, president of the Manitoba Metis Federation.

Chartrand calls it a historic agreement which recognizes Metis rights.

"This is what's going to be affected, we compensate those people in those areas that are going to be dealt with, if they're going to impact those particular territories of their traditional use," he said.