Evidence of meeting #20 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was technologies.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Murray R. Gray  Professor, University of Alberta, As an Individual
Selma Guigard  Associate Professor, Environmental Engineering Program, University of Alberta, As an Individual
William F. Donahue  Independent Researcher, Limology and Biogeochemistry, As an Individual
David Schindler  Professor of Ecology, University of Alberta, As an Individual
Mary Griffiths  As an Individual
Jim Boucher  Chief, Fort McKay First Nation
Roxanne Marcel  Chief, Mikisew Cree First Nation
Georges Poitras  Consultation Coordinator, Government and Industry Relations, Mikisew Cree First Nation
Allan Adam  Chief, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation
Bill Erasmus  Regional Chief, Northwest Territories, Assembly of First Nations
Albert Mercredi  Chief, Fond du Lac First Nation, As an Individual
François Paulette  Fort Fitzgerald First Nation, As an Individual
Sam Gargan  Dehcho First Nation, As an Individual
Diane McDonald  Coordinator, Prince Albert Grand Council
J. Michael Miltenberger  Deputy Premier and Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Government of the Northwest Territories
Hassan Hamza  Director General, Department of Natural Resources, CANMET Energy Technology Centre (CETC) - Devon
Thomas Gradek  President, Gradek Energy Inc.
Kim Kasperski  Manager, Water Management, Department of Natural Resources

11 a.m.

Professor of Ecology, University of Alberta, As an Individual

Dr. David Schindler

I could maybe start.

I think one of the big factors that will hinder some of the reclamation will be that the base, after the mining is done, is very saline, and a lot of the wetland species that naturally occur in the area will not grow under those saline conditions.

There is some work being done in trying to synthesize wetlands from saline-tolerant plants, such as those that occur in Saskatchewan in some of the closed-basin lakes, and come up with something that will fulfill some of the same functions as perhaps a waterfowl habitat.

It won't look the same, clearly. As I mentioned briefly earlier, the aquifers will be disrupted. There will not be the same relationship between aquifers and surface waters, which really are one water body. I suspect the hydrology will get much more flashy. Rain and snowmelt will hit the river and flow downstream rapidly. It will be the sort of situation we see in the Red River basin in Manitoba every spring as a result of land-use change. But those are just predictions.

11 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Thank you very much.

I would be ready to deviate somewhat from the rules to allow you to ask a brief question at the end, but I need the committee's consent, particularly that of the Conservatives.

Would you allow one short question from Mr. Ouellet?

11 a.m.

Conservative

Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC

Well, Chair, we're five minutes over for these witnesses.

11 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Okay, I just had to ask the question.

11 a.m.

Conservative

Mark Warawa Conservative Langley, BC

We have first nations waiting to testify.

11 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Okay. Thank you.

11 a.m.

Bloc

Christian Ouellet Bloc Brome—Missisquoi, QC

I have a point of order, Mr. Chairman. When we're in a normal meeting, the Liberals have three questions, the Bloc has two and they have five. I'm not opposed to them asking five questions, but I want to be able to ask two questions.

11 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

The Liberal Party would have had one more question if a third member had been present.

11 a.m.

Bloc

Christian Ouellet Bloc Brome—Missisquoi, QC

It's not a question of attendance. When we are in a normal meeting, even if the person isn't present, there are two questions that come—

11 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

According to the Standing Orders, the second round is not by party but by member. So if a third person from our party had been present, that person would have been able to ask a question. If a second person from your party had been present, the same thing would have occurred.

Whatever the case may be, I requested the committee's consent, but unfortunately, we've completed that segment and we'll have to move on to the First Nations.

11:05 a.m.

Bloc

Christian Ouellet Bloc Brome—Missisquoi, QC

Do I have to beg you? I only have a small question I would like to ask. I'm begging you, please. It's a short question.

11:05 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

No, I think we have to have a very eminent panel of experts here, and I really don't want to get into some internal housekeeping.

Thank you so much for being here. It was extremely informative. I think you've opened the door to many more questions. I think you've breathed some oxygen into this study. Thank you again for making yourselves available. I really appreciate it.

We'll have a short break and then we'll move on to the first nations panel.

11:10 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Welcome to our witnesses.

We have with us Chief Jim Boucher, from Fort McKay First Nation; Chief Allan Adam, from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation; Chief Roxanne Marcel, from the Mikisew Cree First Nation; and Regional Chief Bill Erasmus, from the Assembly of First Nations.

We also have with us Mr. Georges Poitras. Thank you for your help through this whole process, Mr. Poitras.

We were thinking of having five-minute presentations from each panellist, and then we would be open for questions from the members, if that works for the panellists. Okay? Perfect.

Who would like to start?

Chief Boucher.

11:15 a.m.

Chief Jim Boucher Chief, Fort McKay First Nation

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good morning. Welcome to Edmonton.

I would like to make a brief presentation. Recognizing that we have only five minutes, I have provided a document to the committee with respect to our presentation, which will elaborate on the points I'm going to make today.

Fort McKay is a small first nation community. Our first nation is surrounded by oil sands development. We are in the geographic centre of a massive industrial development. We are surrounded by tailings ponds and we have experienced the oil sands development for the past forty years.

My members have lost approximately 60% of their traplines to oil sands development, and 57% of our lands within 20 kilometres of our communities have been mined or approved for mining. Oil sands leases cover almost our traditional territory and have effectively extinguished the exercise of our treaty rights to hunt, fish, trap, and gather.

Our Industry Relations Corporation has been extensively involved in consultation with industry, intervention with regulatory agencies, and negotiations with government. The IRC has prepared backup documentation for this presentation and would be pleased to provide to the committee any further technical reports on the subject matter of my presentation.

In a global economy with global environmental concerns, the interests and perceptions of the consumers of the oil sands products are important. There is a growing perception that oil sands development is proceeding without a coherent, sustainable development or regulatory plan and that it is irreparably damaging the environment and the first nations communities. The result is a product widely perceived as dirty oil.

Unfortunately, much of the perception is accurate. There is at present no cohesive federal or provincial economic, environmental, or regulatory framework or blueprint to address not only the sustainability of oil sands production, but also its cumulative and long-term environmental impacts on water, land, air, and aboriginal rights.

To date, oil sands development has proceeded on an ad hoc, project-by-project basis within a fiscal and environmental regulatory framework that is seriously out of date. Lacking a coherent and overall plan and strategy, there is only an ineffective, reactive, piecemeal approach to environmental issues, such as water management, cumulative effects, and reclamation planning. The lack of political will and federal-provincial cooperation, competing corporate interests, and the inherent economic instability of resource-based industries have each in their own way undermined the development of a coherent, sustainable blueprint for the second-largest hydrocarbon resource in the world, and the world is noticing.

All Canadians have an interest in changing the world's perceptions of the oil sands, but perceptions will not be changed until Canada, Alberta, and industry put in place sustainable economic and environmental blueprints, as well as effective regulatory regimes for the development and reclamation of the oil sands.

Industry requires withdrawals of enough water from the Athabasca River to sustain a city of two million people every year. Despite some recycling, the majority of this water never returns to the river and is pumped into some of the world's largest man-made dikes, containing toxic waste.

The current licensed level of 550 million cubic metres per year of water withdrawal and the growing demand is not sustainable, particularly in light of the diminished flows of the Athabasca River. DFO has failed to set a minimum flow level for the Athabasca River. Current oil sands operators continue to draw water, regardless of how low the river flow is. The risk of irreparably damaging the fishery or treaty rights threatens our oil sands development production.

We support the following conclusions of the report entitled Running out of Steam? Oil Sands Development and Water Use in the Athabasca River Watershed: Science and Market-Based Solutions, prepared by the University of Alberta and the Munk Centre in 2007.

At present, water is a public resource that is given freely to the energy industry. A lack of regulatory limits has enabled companies to rely on extraction and reclamation technologies dependent on the endless free supply of an increasingly scarce and valuable public resource. Consequently, it is used excessively and undervalued, and the real environmental economic opportunity costs are not fully accounted for.

As part of a water conservation strategy, we recommend that governments must initiate a long-term plan, with firm regulatory standards that over time both cap and diminish the licensed volumes of water available to each of the oil sands producers. Knowing that their supplies of water will be reduced will require industry to invest in available technology and research to create extraction technologies that are more efficient and less wasteful of fresh water.

I believe that a cap on water withdrawals to each project and to the industry as a whole needs to be established. Limited but transferable water rights, i.e., a “cap and trade” system, would provide an economic rationale for technological improvements and generate cost-effective solutions, clearly protecting the Athabasca in-stream flow needs.

Ninety percent of the water intake ends up in the tailing ponds. Tailing ponds, which are 70% water, are the world's largest waste water storage facilities, and by 2025 there will be one billion cubic metres of degraded processed water in tailing ponds.

In 1995, our first nation appeared before the Energy Resource Conservation Board to oppose granting a reclamation certificate for the Syncrude tailings pond. A number of recommendation for research and action came out of this hearing, but it appears that since that time there has been little if any progress made on developing reclamation plans wherein strategies are both achievable and acceptable either to industry, governments, or to the neighbouring communities. After 40 years of operations, there are no proven and viable reclamation plans for old tailing ponds.

Recently, in February 2009, the Energy Resource Conservation Board issued its first directive to industry on tailing ponds reclamation performance, which is supported by the community of Fort McKay. However, the main problem, among others, with this directive and its goals is the lack of proven technology to treat water adequately to remove chemicals in fine tails to enable recycling whereby they can return the water to the river.

Federal and provincial governments need to become actively involved in creating appropriate regulatory standards and fiscal incentives for transparent and proven reclamation technologies. They must also ensure that the outcomes of this publicly supported research and technology for water treatment and cost-effective production of dry tailings serves the public interest and is not limited in its availability or use by the proprietary rights of the developer.

The federal government has important areas of jurisdiction that, if asserted, could directly impact oil sands development. The Fisheries Act, the Indian Act, the Migratory Birds Act, and the Species at Risk Act are some areas of jurisdiction that the federal government has to date failed to meaningfully assert in the oil sands. In particular, DFO has stood by for decades and watched the deterioration of the water quality and quantity of the Athabasca River, its tributaries, and downstream lakes.

Our community had relied for generations on the exercise of our treaty rights to fish and to provide a good food staple. This treaty right has been effectively extinguished in our region without any consultation, accommodation, or compensation by Canada. Fort McKay will shortly be taking measures to ensure that the failure of the federal government to protect our treaty rights and the important natural resource of water quality and quantity, including the fisheries upon which our treaty rights depend, does not continue.

The federal government acquires billions of dollars annually from the oil sands through taxes and other means. By 2020--

11:25 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Chief Boucher, this is an excellent brief, which we are going to incorporate into our report. Respectfully, are there two or three points that you'd like to hit on before we move on to some of the other chiefs? We're trying to get as much information as we can in the hour that we have.

11:25 a.m.

Chief, Fort McKay First Nation

Chief Jim Boucher

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. There are just two more points and I'll be finished with my presentation.

I just wanted to make the point that the federal government acquires billions of dollars from the oil sands through taxes and royalties. By 2020 the federal revenue is expected to be $51 billion per year. The federal and provincial governments also provide royalty holidays and other fiscal incentives to industry, and Canada needs to use its fiscal levers with the oil sands industry to ensure that failure to meet publicly monitored, performance-based standards for environmental protection, including tailings pond reclamation, have meaningful fiscal consequences. For example, royalty holidays or favourable tax treatment would end when industries fail to meet performance-based environmental mitigation or reclamation standards.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

11:25 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Thank you very much, Chief Boucher.

Who would like to go next?

Chief Marcel, go ahead, please.

11:25 a.m.

Chief Roxanne Marcel Chief, Mikisew Cree First Nation

I'll get George to do mine, because I don't think I can do it within five minutes.

11:25 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Let me just say we really appreciated your presentation yesterday as well. So your points will not be missed, I can assure you.

Go ahead, Mr. Poitras.

11:25 a.m.

Georges Poitras Consultation Coordinator, Government and Industry Relations, Mikisew Cree First Nation

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Mikisew Cree have submitted on many occasions to the governments of Alberta and Canada concerns regarding the pace and extent of oil sands development. Unfettered exploitation of oil sands with little to no regard to the Mikisew Cree's concerns and claims have left the first nation to conclude that both levels of government have de facto extinguished the treaty rights of the Mikisew Cree.

The populations most affected by development are the aboriginal peoples, who have been raising concerns of regional impacts since the early 1960s. The Mikisew Cree have questioned and will continue to question the extent of these impacts on treaty and aboriginal rights. Whether referring to the lack of reconciliation of indigenous rights and past and current infringements on those rights, the unconstitutionality of the Government of Alberta's first nations consultation policy and guidelines, the instream flow needs and the water management framework—which we have constantly suggested is wholly inadequate and totally unprotective of the Athabasca River—the provincial regulatory process, the Alberta Energy and Resource Conservation Board and its federal counterpart, the CEAA, or the proposed land use framework, there is a need for greater recognition and incorporation of aboriginal feedback, knowledge, and concerns into the resource management slated for this region of Alberta.

Since 2003, the Mikisew Cree have participated in five oil sands hearings, including three in 2006 in which treaty and aboriginal rights were not considered. The Mikisew Cree have not been adequately consulted by any government with respect to oil sands development, with the exception of certain water licence approvals in 2004. The first nation considers that treaty and aboriginal rights are constitutionally protected and that these rights to hunt, fish, and trap reflect the core essence of the long-standing traditional lifestyle and heritage of the Mikisew Cree. Governments may not simply expropriate those rights to allow for oil sands development. The Mikisew Cree people believe it is their sacred obligation to act as a steward of the environment in cooperation with the government. At stake are precious living ecosystems, the survival of the Mikisew Cree culture, and the economic and physical well-being of the first nation people.

Oil sands leases cover more than half the Mikisew Cree's traditional lands. The scale of the ecological devastation proposed is on a scale that has never been seen or experienced in North America. The oil sands development, in combination with the effects of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam and other demands on the Arthabasca River, will significantly reduce the ability of the Mikisew Cree people to live as we have in the past, and that is off the land. We are simply not prepared to watch more and more of our territory be infringed, nor are we prepared to accept a just-trust-us approach of government and industry while our health is impaired and cancer rates continue to rise in Fort Chipewyan.

The federal government has both the legal tools and the legal obligation to protect our rights and our health. We have already set out our views about the potential for further development to adversely affect and infringe on our section 35 rights, as well as the ongoing concerns of our first nation in respect to negative health-related impacts flowing from oil sands development.

In light of these concerns, we respectfully request there be a moratorium on further development within our traditional territory until such time as there are proper studies completed, including health-related studies, to sufficiently and credibly assess such impacts and until there is proper land use and other planning in place. In particular, we ask the federal government to refrain from issuing any more permits, licences, or approvals in respect to federal areas of jurisdiction within our traditional territory until such steps are taken. We are not against all development. However, we are against the continued infringement of our rights and negative impacts to our health that flow from such oil sands development. We are of the view that calling for a moratorium until proper studies are done is a reasonable response to what has been virtually unchecked development.

As a final point, there is some precedent for the kind of moratorium we are seeking: a full public inquiry. In response to the concerns of the first nations north of 60 degrees, the Berger inquiry was established. The inquiry sought to study the potential impacts of development on those first nations, their social, health, economic, and cultural sectors in respect of the MacKenzie gas project.

Finally, if the potential adverse impacts of a single project were enough to stop oil development, pending proper study, surely a similar request in the face of years of negative impacts is not unreasonable.

Thank you.

11:30 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Thank you, Mr. Poitras.

We move on now to Chief Adam, please. It's good to see you again, Chief Adam.

11:30 a.m.

Chief Allan Adam Chief, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

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.

11:40 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Thank you, Chief Adam.

I'd like to say in passing how affected we were by our visit yesterday afternoon to Fort Chipewyan. Members were talking about it for a long time afterward.

With regard to the issues you raised today, including the issue of monitoring, if you were here for the first couple of hours, you would have seen that it was a big topic with Dr. Schindler and Dr. Donahue. So thank you for touching on that issue in particular, among others.

Chief Erasmus.

11:40 a.m.

Chief Bill Erasmus Regional Chief, Northwest Territories, Assembly of First Nations

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you for the opportunity to present to you.

I have copies here of a resolution that our chiefs passed earlier this year, which I'd like handed out to the committee members. Also, I'm here on short notice and I will make a copy of my presentation for the clerk. I think I can present this within the timeframe allotted.

For the record, my name is Bill Erasmus. I'm the regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations for the Northwest Territories, and I'm also the Dene national chief. We have 30 communities downstream from the development in northern Alberta, and it is of huge concern to us. I am also a member of Treaty 8, the same treaty as the other members from first nations here at the table. We're the farthest community north under Treaty 8, so we cover essentially the same territory.

As you know, the tar sands development is located in and around the Fort McMurray and Fort McKay area, as mentioned by the chief earlier, and it is upstream of the Athabasca River basin.

Current tar sands development has completely altered the landscape of the Athabasca delta and watershed. The tar sands development and exploitation has resulted in many negative impacts, including deforestation of the boreal forests, open-pit mining, de-watering of water systems and watersheds, toxic contamination, disruption of habitat and biodiversity, and disruption of Dene, Cree, and Métis hunting and trapping rights.

Many first nations people do not know the levels of contamination of the traditional wild foods that we consume. We would like regular government testing of our traditional foods to ensure that contaminants and toxins do not exceed recommended levels.

The multiple effects of tar sand operations on water are of great concern to first nations communities. For example, vast quantities of water are used for tar sands development, amounting to approximately 349 million cubic metres per year. As people have mentioned, that's twice the amount of water used by the city of Calgary, and 90% of the water used cannot be returned to the water system afterwards.

Greenhouse gas emissions from tar sands production are three times those of conventional oil and gas production. We've been advised that current tar sands production emits 27 megatonnes per annum, and it is expected to rise to 108 to 126 megatonnes by 2015. Thus the tar sands are poised to become Canada's largest single emitter of greenhouse gases, compounding this country's contribution to global warming.

First nations communities who live near tar sands projects in northern Alberta have been noticing decreasing water levels in lakes and rivers as oil production has increased.

There's also a noticeable peak in negative health impacts in first nation populations due to their close dependence on the land and river. Rare and strange cancers are increasing, and abnormalities in wildlife are becoming commonplace. Unfortunately, the public and the governments of Canada and Alberta still do not understand that first nations communities are the populations most negatively impacted and affected by tar sands development.

The traditional lands of first nations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories are being destroyed for tar sands exploration and extraction. And first nations are not being included or properly compensated for those lost and destroyed lands, water supplies, breaches of treaty rights, and loss of traditional foods. The Dene and the Cree first nations and the Métis live close to or in the midst of these tar sands deposits, mostly along the Athabasca River basin area.

From February 16 to 19, 2009, the Dene Nation convened a leadership meeting in Yellowknife for the purpose of addressing issues concerning the Dene. During this meeting, a number of resolutions were put forward regarding the impact of the Alberta tar sands—and especially concerning the impact on water. We are providing you with a copy of the resolution we adopted.

We are disappointed that the governments of Alberta and Canada failed to live up to the financial, fiduciary, and moral responsibilities to manage the Alberta tar sands in an environmentally responsible way. We are disappointed that the Government of Alberta has encouraged the rapid expansion of the Alberta tar sands without implementing adequate regulatory or environmental protections to reduce negative impacts of individual projects or the cumulative impacts of all projects considered together. We are also disappointed that the Government of Alberta has failed to take adequate steps to protect water, fish, and migratory species.

This mismanagement is no longer an issue just for Albertans. It is now an urgent threat to all downstream communities in the Mackenzie basin, most critically, at this point in time, in terms of risk to water quality posed by leaks from the huge tailings ponds into the Athabasca River. A large-scale breach of tailings ponds with a resulting massive uncontrolled inflow of highly toxic poisonous water into the Athabasca River and the rest of the Mackenzie basin would be an unmanageable catastrophe.

Therefore, it was resolved that all members of the NWT Association of Communities call on the Government of Alberta to immediately halt tar sands expansion until the following provisions are in place: one, public contingency plans for catastrophic breaches of tar sands tailings ponds; two, a plan to fix existing leaks in current tailings ponds; three, a ten-year plan to reclaim all existing tailings ponds that do not involve any release of toxic effluents into the river system; four, a commitment to use dry tailings technology for all future tar sands development; and five, a commitment to hold extensive environmental hearings--with standing for NWT communities--on the cumulative impacts of the tar sands projects, including any plans to allow water from the tailings ponds into the Athabasca River.

It is further resolved that until these conditions are in place, all governments in the Northwest Territories and across North America be called upon to implement a low-carbon fuel standard that would decrease reliance on or entirely eliminate the use of dirty tar sands oil.

Now to recommendations. Turning to our purpose for being here today, Mr. Chairman, we are pleased to offer this committee our perspectives on the negative impacts of tar sands exploitation on first nation communities and lands.

Apart from calls for consultation and accommodation, the free and prior informed consent of first nations interests must be carried out before any further activity in the oil sands.

A federal and provincial governance must incorporate first nations' unique knowledge into decision-making. This is because first nations' knowledge comes from their historic current and ongoing relationship with the land and water.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, it is essential that the federal government recognize first nation jurisdictions and authorities. Government cannot continue to work in isolation, as first nations have much to offer. We insist that the governments of Canada and Alberta meet their responsibility to ensure that the cumulative and environmental impacts of the exploitation of the tar sands oil do not irreparably damage the planet for future generations.

Again, Mr. Chairman, we ask this committee to include in their report our recommendations and resolutions with regard to the halting of further expansion of tar sands operations until the above-mentioned tailings ponds provisions are met.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

11:50 a.m.

Liberal

The Vice-Chair Liberal Francis Scarpaleggia

Thank you very much, Chief Erasmus.

We have time for a six-minute traditional first round, starting with Mr. Trudeau.