Power to the People

- Season 1

(2020)

Growing up in the Lubicon Lake Band in Little Buffalo, AB, Melina Laboucan Massimo has experienced the detrimental effects of Oil Sands extraction. Today it's made her one of Canada's leading climate change campaigners and the host of Power to the People.

Situated in the hottest place in Canada, the Kanaka Bar Indian Band know firsthand the rising threats of climate change. See how they're adapting through innovative approaches to water, food, energy and resource security that are now garnering national praise.

Hereditary Chief Ernest Alfred of the Namgis, Tlowit'sis and Mamalilikala Nation leads a group opposed to a commercial salmon farm on their traditional territory. At stake is the west coast wild salmon population and the threat that open net salmon farms pose to them. See why their movement is gaining local and international support.

Surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and off the British Columbia hydro grid, the Haida Nation relies on diesel generators to power their communities. Now, a home-grown group is looking to the wind, sun and sea to offset their reliance on fossil fuels.

Situated in Canada's 'Saudi Arabia' of wind, three Mi'gmaq communities faced an uphill struggle to stake their claim in the Gaspe Bay's booming wind energy sector. Now that effort is paying off and the Mesgi'g Ugju's'n wind farm is providing long term benefits.

The shíshálh (Sechelt) Nation is located on the south coast of British Columbia in a territory gifted with steep mountains, fast flowing rivers and streams. Harnessing the natural power of gravity and water is now empowering their community through run of the river hydroelectric energy.

With their lumber mill facing an uncertain future, members of the Teslin Tlingit Nation found a way to turn a negative into a positive. Milling their waste wood into biomass fuel, new high efficiency boilers are now cost effectively heating homes in their community.

Home to the largest First Nations population in Canada, Six Nations of the Grand River established a corporation to manage economic opportunities on behalf of their people. That effort now sees Six Nations invested in some of the largest wind and solar power plants in the nation.

In many parts of the country, building and maintaining sufficient housing on reserve is a constant challenge. The Nuxalk Nation looked inward for solutions to their housing problems and now they've become a homegrown model for construction capacity.

Geothermal energy is generated by heat stored below the earth's surface. The Tla-o-qui-aht Nation in Tofino, British Columbia is harnessing this renewable energy through a geoexchange system to cost effectively heat and cool their homes and buildings.

There are roughly 300 off grid Indigenous communities across Canada, who continue to rely on diesel generated power. The Taku River Tlingit Nation in northern BC is one of the few First Nations who've successfully replaced diesel power through their implementation of clean, renewable energy.

Long before the inception of one of Canada's most picturesque national parks, this remote part of the Yukon was the ancestral home of the Kluane First Nation. With climate change re-shaping their environment, the Nation is looking to wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy to empower their people into the future.

Long before the inception of one of Canada's most picturesque national parks, this remote part of the Yukon was the ancestral home of the Kluane First Nation. With climate change re-shaping their environment, the Nation is looking to wind, solar, biomass and geothermal energy to empower their people into the future.