Good morning, Mr. Chairman.
One of the things we want to talk about, from our point of view, is the health issues in relation to the amount of development in the area, in respect of no regulatory systems being in place at this point.
The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation has numerous reserves located along the Athabasca River and on the shores of Lake Athabasca. With the amount of activity in the region and with the amount of activity that's yet to come, in regard to the issues of the water, we know for a fact that the health issues in the community of Fort Chipewyan have drastically increased over the years. Since the early 1970s and into the 1980s, 1990s, and into the 2000s, numerous cancer rates, lupus, asthma, and skin diseases have escalated in the community of Fort Chipewyan. Not only are the elderly getting sick, but the young ones are as well.
We do not know what is causing the effects of what is going on in the region, but when the community questions the amount of development in the region, they all have one concern: the water issue.
The community of Fort Chipewyan still heavily exercises our treaty right, our inherent right to the land and to the water resources we are surrounded by. As spoken to you yesterday in Fort Chipewyan, I said that 78% of the community still utilizes the traditional ways of life by harvesting off the land. We harvest the food off the land and from the waters. Those very animals, on a daily basis, drink from the Athabasca River and other water bodies around the area. Our people still consume the food, the wildlife that is out there, on a daily basis, to provide for their families.
We live in a remote community. We don't have all the luxuries of the people from down south, where they can just go to a store and buy a jug of milk for three dollars and something. We have to spend upwards of thirteen dollars for a four-litre jug of milk. On fixed incomes, our elders, our single parents, many of whom don't have any jobs to go to, have no choice but to reside on and live off the land.
With all the defects, with the health concerns that are coming up in the region, we asked for a community-based monitoring program to be developed. They keep on asking us to give a solution to fix this problem, but when we ask for funding for a community-based monitoring program they shut us down because they say “We don't want you to duplicate what we're already doing”.
We cannot provide solutions if you do not provide the funding we need for us to go out there to conduct our findings. Only then would we be able to provide a solution, because if we do not know the cause of the problem, we cannot offer a solution.
I've echoed these words many times and sometimes get labelled as the bad guy for speaking out. When you talk about radical behaviour, I am being a profoundly radical person in speaking up to protect the land, the environment, the air, the water resources, and human health. When you have this amount of destruction going on, with industry ripping up the land, polluting the water and air, and displacing animals, that's radical behaviour, in our view.
We do not oppose development. As I stated yesterday, Canada will probably be one of the leading countries in the world that's industry-driven. But Canada will not have the leading industries in the world if it does not deal with all the issues of first nations people, because the areas that are up for development lie within the traditional territories of first nations people.
When Dr. O'Connor raised undue alarm for indicating the health issues in Fort Chipewyan were a cause for concern, he was slapped with four charges. As of today, three have been dropped, but one remains. The people of Fort Chipewyan back up Dr. O'Connor 100% for raising the alarm. He was sent by Health Canada to represent the community of Fort Chipewyan and to take care of our health. He was doing his job. We are asking Canada and Health Canada to drop the remaining charges against Dr. O'Connor and to look into the findings of what is going on in the region.
In closing, I don't have much to say because of the limited time available, but I assure you, and I'll put Canada on notice for this, that under section 35 of the Constitution Act, we have protected rights that Canada is not meeting its obligations for right now. We left this land in trust, not in devastation. We feel that if nothing is being done to address the issues coming out of the community of Fort Chipewyan—and I can only speak for Fort Chipewyan at this point in time, and more so for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, because I am the chief—we will have no other choice but to look to other means, and to find ways through the court system, to address these issues.
I said this yesterday and I say it again today: we will not bear arms against Canada or its people in protecting our traditional territories. There is a legal system that's been put in place for all Canadians. We as first nations people are part of the Canadian society. The only thing that makes us different is the treaty that we signed in 1899, and that treaty has to be honoured by Canada to protect our rights.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.