Editors note: Though Hartley Bay is about 450 km north of us, in the Douglas Channel, there are aspects of the following article that should be of concern to all British Columbians. Firstly, what justification is there for a charge that only applies to First Nations communities and not neighbouring ‘non-Indigenous’ communities ‘in the same rate class.’ Secondly, even if there is a justification, why weren’t the First Nations consulted?

Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

BC Hydro has been ordered to repay a small coastal First Nation more than $700,000 after unfairly charging them an extra annual fee for electricity for nearly a decade. 

The $85,000 yearly fee, embedded in a 2014 electricity service agreement between the utility company and the tiny Gitga’at First Nation of Hartley Bay, wasn’t approved and was ruled as “unjust, unreasonable and unduly discriminatory” by the province’s energy regulator this fall.