Hydro-Québec is proposing to sell a share of a segment on a new power transmission line to New York to the Mohawk community of Kahnawake.
The First Nations community south of Montreal could become a shareholder of a 58-kilometre segment of the transmission line in Quebec under the proposed deal.
Hydro-Québec estimates this segment of the line, which is in large part underground with a smaller section underwater when it reaches the Richelieu River, cost around $800 million to build.
However, the utility said in filings to the province’s energy regulator that the asset the council of Kahnawake would invest in is worth $310 million.
The council of the First Nation plans to buy an ownership stake worth about half of this value, said Eric Doucet, a lawyer for the council.
The utility has asked the province’s energy regulator to approve a transaction that would transfer ownership of the segment to Horizon Kahnawà:ke Hydro-Québec, a new company jointly owned by Hydro-Québec and the council.
If the deal goes through, the Mohawk community would pay Hydro-Québec for the ownership stake. Hydro-Québec would then pay fees to the jointly owned company to use the transmission line, generating revenue for the community.
This is the first such partnership between Hydro-Québec and an Indigenous community, said spokesperson Lynn St-Laurent.
Keisha Goodleaf, director of revenue and business development for the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, believes this partnership is a recognition of First Nations territory and of the need for economic reconciliation.
“There’s been some history with First Nations and Hydro-Québec — not so pretty history. I think that this is a really significant step toward bettering those partnerships and relationships with First Nations,” she said.
Goodleaf said she hopes the partnership will allow Kahnawake to build wealth for future generations and to create a model for future partnerships between Indigenous communities and Hydro-Québec.
Doucet said this project shows that Hydro-Québec understands it needs social acceptability and partnerships with Indigenous communities in future developments.
“The way of doing things of the past in terms of just kind of saying, ‘OK, we’re gonna build a dam here or we’re going to put a transmission line there’ — it doesn’t work anymore,” he said.
“It is a huge mindset shift for Hydro-Québec,” he added.
Hydro-Québec has faced legal battles over claims it destroyed First Nation and Inuit land through its hydroelectric infrastructure development.
In its 2025 Action Plan, Hydro-Quebec acknowledged the “major impact” these projects had on Indigenous communities and said it wants to create more opportunities for First Nations and Inuit to be shareholders in and profit from its projects.
“(The agreement with Kahnawake) is an example of the type of economic partnership we aim to build with First Nations and Inuit communities — sustainable partnerships in which all parties invest and benefit from the value created,” St-Laurent said.
The planned partnership allowed the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake to weigh in during the development of the project, including with environmental concerns or on Indigenous rights, said Doucet.
As part of the agreement, Hydro-Québec also donated $10 million to help build a new cultural arts centre in Kahnawake that now hosts language lessons and other events.
“That was a really great way to show that relationship building and contributing to language and culture, things that are really core community values,” said Goodleaf.
This is part of a growing number of energy partnerships with Indigenous communities including renewable energy projects, energy storage and natural gas infrastructure.
In October, TC Energy announced that five First Nations had invested in the company’s Coastal GasLink project in British Columbia. The project had previously drawn criticism, namely from the Wet’suwet’en community.
In Alberta in 2022, a group of First Nations signed a deal with the energy company Enbridge to buy shares in oil pipeline projects.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2026.
By Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.