About Us

niskamoon_office2The Niskamoon Corporation was established pursuant to the Niskamoon Agreement.  It is a non-for-profit body incorporated under Part III of the Quebec Companies Act.  The Letters Patent of the Corporation were delivered on August 24, 2004.  The head office of the Corporation is located on Category 1A lands of Nemaska.  The members of the Corporation are the Cree Regional Authority and the Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee).  The Corporation is managed by a Board of Directors consisting of 8 individuals appointed by the members of the Corporation; however, in accordance with the provisions of Section 3.2.2 of the Niskamoon Agreement, three members of the Board of Directors are appointed by Hydro-Quebec.

Since the signing of the James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement on November 11, 1975, there have been a large number of entities created to implement the Agreements, programs and funds that were negotiated.

With the eventual signing of many Agreements between the Cree and Hydro-Quebec on February 7th, 2002, confusion developed at the community level as to which entity was managing which fund. (Eeyou Namess, Nadoshtin, Apatissiiwin, etc.)

In 2003 a Special General Assembly on Eeyou Governance was held. During this presentation, the Working Group on Eeyou Governance requested a mandate to seek a simplification of the administrative structures that were put in place to administer the Cree Hydro-Quebec Agreements.

Specifically the following points were made:

  • communities were unclear as to which entity to approach;
  • it was unclear who was responsible for the costs associated with the administration;
  • communities required an individual to work full time on proposal and project development;
  • the process for submitting proposals was unclear;
  • the benefits were not reaching the communities quickly enough.

A mandate to deal with these issues was proposed and was confirmed by Resolution.

As a result of this Resolution, Cree Government (GCC(EI)/CRA) representatives adopted the following recommendations:

  • to create a single administrative body with one small Board of Directors (5 Cree 3 HQ);
  • to hire Regional Coordinators to oversee specific programs;
  • to have a coordinator in each community working for the Local Council, paid by the Corporation, who is to be trained by the Corporation on the content of the Agreements, including how to hold community workshops, how to draft project proposals, how to file reports, etc;
  • to develop a simplified procedure for project submission.

Using these recommendations, the GCC(EI)/CRA representatives and Hydro-Quebec representatives negotiated an Agreement to harmonize and simplify the administration of as many Cree Hydro-Quebec Agreement as possible. The substance of the Cree Hydro-Quebec Agreements was not affected.

The Niskamoon Corporation was incorporated and held its first Board of Directors meeting on August 31st, 2004.

The current mandate of the of Niskamoon Corporation is :

  • to facilitate, simplify and speed up access to the benefits, measures, resources and programs under the Cree-Hydro-Québec Agreements [Apatissiwin Agreement, Eeyou Namess Agreement, Nadoshtin Agreement, Opimiscow Agreement, Cree Hydro-Quebec New Relationship Agreement] for the Crees, the Cree communities and for other Cree entities;
  • to provide a more efficient framework for cooperation between the Crees and Hydro-Québec in respect to the implementation of the Cree-Hydro-Québec Agreements;
  • to provide more effective mechanisms for the implementation of the Cree-Hydro-Québec Agreements;
  • to streamline and render more effective the administrative costs to the Crees associated with the implementation of the Cree-Hydro-Québec Agreements;
  • to bring better coherence to the implementation of the Cree-Hydro-Québec Agreements;
  • to regroup under the Niskamoon Corporation, large parts of the administration and management of the Cree-Hydro-Québec Agreements

Excerpt from the Agreement negotiated with Hydro-Quebec.