Wei Wai Kum First Nation is charting a new course as the majority owner of one Vancouver Island’s largest new power sources following decades of exclusion from energy projects in their own territory.
The Yə̓yus Energy, formerly known as the Brewster Wind Project, is a $600-million, 197-megawatt wind farm with 30 turbines that will be located northwest of Campbell River. Wei Wai Kum owns 51 per cent of the wind project while Capstone, a Toronto-based renewable energy firm, owns the remainder.
Yə̓yus means “always windy” in the language of the Ligʷiłdaxʷ peoples, said Wei Wai Kum Chief Chris Roberts. The project’s logo, designed by local artist James Kwaksistala, symbolizes the nation’s decision-making and cultural authority in developing the future clean energy project.
The Yə̓yus wind project, which has secured a 30-year electricity purchase agreement with BC Hydro, was one of 10 Indigenous-led renewable projects selected during the utility’s 2024 call for power proposals. That open call mandated First Nations ownership between 49 to 51 per cent.
“To be meaningfully involved as an owner and at the table and making key decisions, that’s super important,” Roberts said. Prior to the 2024 opportunity from BC Hydro, the nation had no ownership and little say in large legacy hydro projects that profoundly impacted their way of life and territories.
The John Hart Dam was the first of three dams and generating stations constructed in the Campbell River watershed without consultation or consent from area First Nations, starting in the mid 1940s. Reservoirs flooded important hunting grounds and cultural sites and dams and river diversions altered and destroyed fish habitat that once supported a legendary Chinook population.
“They had massive impacts to our people, and we’ve never been compensated for that,” Roberts said. “BC Hydro is wanting to do better, and they’re looking at how to support First Nations being owners of these assets that are sustainable, long-term economic generators.”
The turnaround in the situation is “refreshing,” Roberts said.
“Here we were with a project that could produce more power … with, I would argue, much less impact.”
Once complete, the Yə̓yus wind project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 56,000 average BC homes. It will become the largest power generating project on the island, larger even than the John Hart Dam, which now has a maximum rated capacity of 141 megawatts (MW), according to BC Hydro.
Another wind project, the smaller 99 MW Cape Scott Wind Farm west of Port Hardy, is already in operation in the North Island. While three First Nations in the region have a benefit agreement in place, they don’t have equity or ownership in the project.
However, Roberts said those nations were asked for their insights about the renewable project in their territory before the Wei Wai Kai committed to their own wind energy project and were “largely happy” to see them in operation.
No energy project has “zero” impacts, said Roberts — but he is confident that existing research on wind farms and the suite of environmental and land surveys underway at the Yə̓yus site will be able to minimize any harm to wildlife including bats or birds.
Up to 275 people will be working at peak construction, which will include jobs that capitalize on traditional skills from the construction, engineering, road building and resource sector, but also offer opportunities for First Nations in the region to learn new skills and develop good jobs tied to the clean technology sector, Roberts said.
For example, the nation has a memorandum of understanding with a company involved in the buildout of a needed transmission line to hook into the BC Hydro grid that could include potential training for Wei Wai Kum community members and other First Nations in the region, he said.
In addition to high-paying, high-skilled construction or linesmen jobs during the build out, there will be operations and maintenance jobs once the wind project is complete.
“We were pretty impressed to see the scope of different skills required and the training that’s available,” Roberts said.
Environmental studies and on-the-ground surveys will continue this year and a regulatory application to the province will occur in early 2027, said Andrea Kausel, vice president of development for Capstone. Construction may start in 2028 with the project expected to come on line by 2031, she said.
Studies are ongoing to better understand the winds at the site, but they are consistent in the region and advances in wind technology mean the turbines are increasingly able to capture the resource, Kausel said.
The type of turbine that will be employed hasn’t been determined but now towers can reach upwards of 100 metres, the rotor diameter of the turbine can be 160 meters and a single turbine can generate between six to eight megawatts, she said.
Wind energy can be variable, but it pairs well with hydro power to balance fluctuations in the provincial grid, she said.
Wind tends to produce more power in fall and winter while hydro power can generate lots of energy during the spring when snow melt occurs.
The project will increase Vancouver Island’s energy supply, which is largely dependent on flows from BC Hydro’s grid on the mainland, Roberts said.
“From the nation’s perspective, for Vancouver Island to be energy self-sufficient is really important,” he said.
Economic growth and development opportunities in the North Island are being constrained by supply and bottlenecks BC Hydro’s transmission infrastructure, Roberts added.
For example, proponents approached the nation about setting up a land-based salmon farm in their territory, but BC Hydro was unable to commit to the long-term power needs of the project.
In addition to powering economic opportunities in the region, the Yə̓yus Energy wind project, and BC Hydro’s ongoing calls for renewable energy tied to First Nations ownership, advances the recognition of Indigenous rights, Roberts noted.
“And it allows us to take a more meaningful place and role in the economic benefit that’s derived from resources in our territory.”