In the 1920s, to generate more electricity for its Georgian Bay Power System, Hydro engineers identified potential sights on west Muskoka’s watershed where the Moon and Musquash rivers drain Lake Muskoka. Four were Ragged Rapids, Big Eddy Rapids, Sandy Grey Falls, and Go Home Chute. In 1936 construction of dams and a generating station began at Ragged Rapids, and in 1940 continued at Big Eddy.
Band members believed they’d get the benefits of electricity once Big Eddy generation began in 1941, but first service was not provided locally until 1953 when, under the Ontario’s “rural electrification” program following the Second World War, power to the Mohawk community came with a distribution line from Big Eddy station south to Sahanatien village.
Issues were numerous. Rather than negotiate with the band council, Hydro with support of Indian Affairs simply used its expropriation power for all the land it needed. That included extensive acreage above the new dams that would be flooded, and land for roads, besides the space required for the many side dams and generating facilities. Neither the chief nor band council were consulted. There was no local control.
An Indian Affairs surveyor evaluated the affected lands. Ontario Hydro managed to reduce the amount to $20 per acre, and then paid $16,076.20 for everything.
Hydro was empowered by a 1932 cabinet order to divert the Moon River into the Musquash, and flood a 680-foot contour behind the series of Big Eddy dams. Hydro, by using expropriation powers, did not need Mohawk consent. The Band did not know, until flooding occurred, what areas would be submerged. The river had been “the main attraction for us” as it was so scenic, one elder said, and “had been a source of drinking water.”
Hydro first said timber on the expropriated land belonged to the Mohawks, but by 1940 insisted it owned everything on land that would be flooded. Compensation that was paid did not cover timber rights. Most land had not been cleared, so behind the dams submerged forests died; still today, deadheads are a severe hazard to boats. Fluctuating water levels impact fish stocks. Besides transformative reduction of the Moon River’s flow, lakes in the watershed changed.
Mohawk elders gave days of testimony for a 47-page Oral History Report. Both Hydro and the Wahta Band studied archived maps, photographs, legal records, and correspondence. Composite maps of the impacted area at 1925, 1945, and 1970 intervals were created. Historic timelines were charted to position the relationship between Mohawk rights and Hydro’s actions. Comparisons were made of land valuations and compensation for native and non-native properties.
Meanwhile, Hydro’s plans to develop Go Home Chute power, downstream from Wahta lands and adamantly opposed by non-Indigenous cottage owners, died.
In the 1960s Hydro was creating bigger facilities and linking together a province-wide power grid. The Northern Ontario Power System was connected with the South by high-voltage transmission lines built through Wahta Territory, raising health concerns over Agent Orange spraying and the electro-magnetic field.
There’s more, much more, but you get the idea. Wahta Mohawks and Ontario Hydro reached a settlement. Band members look upstream at the Bala Falls controversy, and just shake their heads.
