Members of the Innu Nation have rejected a settlement agreement with Hydro Quebec.

A ratification vote took place in Sheshatshiu and Natuashish but failed to garner 50 per cent voter participation.

The settlement, if accepted, would have resulted in $87 million paid by Hydro Quebec to the two communities over the next 15 years in compensation for the ecological and cultural damage caused by hydro development.

Senior negotiator Peter Penashue says failing to participate is equal to a “no” vote and the settlement is essentially dead. He says it was the same process put in place for the 2011 New Dawn Agreement, from which the proposed settlement stems.

Penashue says naysayers appeared to be fixated on the $87 million figure, but he says the settlement goes well beyond that.

He says “they

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