Conference proves eventful for local educator

It was, perhaps, perfect irony.
Less than four days after the massive blackout that left 50 million people in Canada and the U.S. without electricity, the Solar Energy Society of Canada held its annual conference at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont. in the middle of rolling blackouts.
Local educator William Perrault of the Seven Generations Education Institute was at the conference presenting his paper on an innovative new program on renewable energy being offered at the institute.
“They actually shut down the university on Monday,” said Perrault, who is a post-secondary education program co-ordinator from Couchiching First Nation.
“In some buildings you couldn’t use the elevators, because they were afraid people would get stuck. They didn’t know when the power would go out again.”
Perrault also said many gas stations were only allowing people to buy $20 worth of gas at a time.
“The oil refineries were shut down, and they were expecting a shortage,” he explained.
The conference went ahead despite the rolling blackouts, and Perrault said the trip proved very beneficial.
“The presentation went very well. It was very well-received,” he said.
He has since been invited to speak at a conference on the Peigan reserve in southern Alberta, in connection with the Aboriginal and Northern Climate Change program.
Prior to attending the conference at Queen’s, Perrault had been invited to speak at the Canadian Aboriginal Science and Technology Society (CASTS) conference at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, and he expects more invitations, based on conversations he had at the conference.
Perrault said one of the main advantages of attending a conference like this one is the networking. “It gave me an opportunity to meet a lot of people I’ve been talking to on the phone,” he said.
It also helped him get the word out about the Renewable Energy Certificate Program at Seven Generations Education Institute that just finished its first run.
The institute had been developing courses on solar and wind energy for a number of years, and recently combined them with a course on energy-efficient building design and another on the Ojibway language to create the current program.
The first class of students in the program began the courses in March, and finished in August.
Perrault and curriculum writer Tammy Thibault audited the course to work out any problems in the new program as they go.
In the end, both were pleased with how things went, and are looking forward to the next class.
“After the next course, our students will be even more prepared,” Perrault said.
Graduates of the program have the skills to design renewable energy systems for domestic use and to train homeowners to service the systems themselves.
But the most important aspect of the program is the incorporation of traditional knowledge, Perrault said.
“That’s the key to the whole development of this program: trying to bridge the cultural/language gap,” he said, referring to the title of his paper, “Bridging the Cultural/Language Gap Between Renewable Energy Technology and First Nation Communities.”
“When you go into a local school system and open a textbook, you’re looking at the reflection of the culture that textbook comes from,” he explained. “When kids open textbooks, they see a reflection of Western society. When our students open up a textbook, they’re seeing a reflection of themselves.”
The program was carefully designed to include examples of renewable energy use from First Nations history, such as radiant floor heating, used by First Nations people centuries ago.
Local elder Jim Banks also took part in classes to help with the Ojibway language class, and to generally ensure traditional knowledge was kept in the forefront.
At the conference, Perrault said his paper explaining the program and how it was designed was well received.
“Our organization was probably leading the way when it comes to the curriculum that was developed,” he said. Now, he’s working towards eventually expanding the program to go nation-wide.
There was also much talk of the recent blackout, and what needs to be done to prevent it from happening again.
“We are so dependent on each other, when one [hydro plant] goes down, it has a cascading effect,” Perrault said, adding that there was much talk at the conference of decentralizing the power grid.
“We have to look at alternative ways of generating electricity,” he said. “Renewables are going to be the way to go.”
Some of the solar panels being used in the Renewable Energy Certificate Program are more than 30 years old, and could easily last another 30 years, Perrault said.
“We should be interested in something you can use 50 to 60 years down the road,” he said. “What we’re using today, your grandchildren could be using.”