Haudenosaunee vs Hydro One

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The Haudenosaunee are calling out Hydro One. They say they’re ignoring aboriginal and treaty rights by planning to chop down trees in sections of the Red Hill Valley.

Hydro One says they need to clear the trees out of the corridor where the transmission lines run to make sure they can’t come into contact with the power lines and so their crews can get in easily when they need to. The problem is the Haudenosaunee say these trees are of cultural significance.

The Haudenosaunee say these trees are sacred to them.

“The trees represent the reconciliation between the city of Hamilton and the Haudenosaunee.”

Not only do they not want Hydro One to chop them down, they say they legally can’t. That the land is covered by a number of treaties.

“These are sacred agreements that they are proposing to impair.”

The Haudenosaunee say they have pleaded with Hydro One to trim the trees as opposed to chopping them down, but that Hydro One won’t have it.

“They said that wasn’t feasible given safety concerns. We replied with a process and a plan that addressed all of their concerns and however they once again refused to consider it.”

The city of Hamilton owns the land but Hydro One has an easement on it. They say they’re obligated to take the trees down.

Back in 2003 in Ohio, a tree branch hit a power line causing a massive blackout affecting millions of people, including people here. Hydro One says that since then the rules have changed.

“The North American Electricity Reliability Council sets out the standards for how we operate those lines and it’s critical we keep them clear.”

These are high voltage lines and you need to keep things further away and not directly under them. .

They also say that trimming the trees would simply cost too much.

“It would be great if across our 23 kilometers of transmission lines if we could just groom things back. The cost of that to our rate payers would be enormous.”

Hydro One says that their work needs to be completed this year and that they’re confident they will reach an agreement with the Haudenosaunee. The Haudenosaunee have reached out to the ministry of energy about the issue but haven’t heard back from them yet.