Pride of ownership: Local views on community-owned wind energy development in M'Chigeeng First Nation, Canada

Abstract

This paper draws attention to Indigenous communities who have been understudied in the social acceptance and renewable energy transition literatures. As Canada's federal government endeavors to act towards reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous citizens, Indigenous communities are taking pioneering roles as owners in the renewable energy sector. In the province of Ontario, M'Chigeeng First Nation is one such pioneer in Ontario's wind energy space, operating as sole owner of two wind turbines since 2012. Our survey of 161 M'Chigeeng members, requested by the community, tests a range of hypotheses that emerged from earlier face-to-face interviews and dovetail with the social acceptance literature. A majority (60 %) of respondents have a positive attitude towards their turbines and while positivity is significantly correlated with most of the hypothesized predictors (e.g., community affinity, fair process, fair benefits, information sharing, pride, relationships (conflict), and reconciliation), the regressions show that positivity towards the turbines is most consistently predicted by positive emotions, pride, and the project representing a form of Indigenous-Settler reconciliation. That said, only 37 % of the sample agree that the project represents reconciliation. The implications of this exploratory case study are discussed in relation to community goals and the wider renewable energy transition.