Thank you to the chair and the standing committee for allowing Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation's voice to be heard today.
Unfortunately, our director, portfolio holder and avid land user Kurtis Girard is unable to attend today. He gives his regards. I will do my best to relay the statement that he wanted to make today.
My name is Carmen Wells. I am the lands and regulatory director for Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation. I am not a member, but I am a proud Métis lady.
First, I want to start with the fact that Fort Chipewyan is the oldest settlement in Alberta. Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation are aboriginal people in accordance with section 35 of the Canadian Constitution.
For centuries, the Métis Nation of Fort Chipewyan has relied on the Athabasca and Peace River systems for transportation, hunting, fishing and trapping, which are basic survival needs for the community. They rely on traditional lands and waters for medicinal, spiritual, recreational, cultural and economic purposes. As well, their indigenous knowledge and language are passed on generationally on the land.
In an economic sense, Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation have also used rivers and lakes within the traditional territory for trading, hauling wood, commercial barging and commercial fishing. These navigable waters within Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation territory include the Firebag and Muskeg Rivers. They continue to be a key transportation route that enables people to continue their commercial and traditional way of life.
Tailings water seepage and the overspill that has occurred since last May, as well as the risk of tailings ponds breaking and destroying home waters, are things that our community has expressed concern on for decades. This prediction coming true will forever change the trust and confidence on the land and Alberta's ability to regulate the oil sands.
The community has been on high alert since February, when the overspill occurred. Community members are reporting a potential loss of drinking water sources, the loss of a place to retire in, their children never being able to swim off the dock in Fort Chipewyan again, and fish forever contaminated, fish being a weekly, if not potentially biweekly, part of their diet. We have people reporting to my office—and these are all reports to my office, these concerns—that people aren't sleeping at night for fear of what news will arrive the next day.
Mr. Girard was born and raised in this river system, and for the first time in his 50 years he has a fear of getting a bucket of water from the river to cook his supper, brush his teeth or wash his face. He has worked in the oil sands for 20 years, and this fear has never arisen before. He also wanted to comment that you can never haul enough water to your traplines to sustain you for longer periods of time. If a land user spends any amount of time on the land, there is no possible way that he will not ingest water from the river and the lake.
Since the committee met last Monday, reports of overflows at Suncor have been on the news, and this is going to become a continuous threat. The generational trauma that has gone on with the cumulative loss of ancestral territory has been unmentioned, but now a glimpse of Fort Chipewyan Métis concerns with tailings-related issues has come to light. The health of the land, water and community needs support.
As other neighbouring nations brought up last week, Fort Chipewyan Métis also request an overall health assessment for the community. It is clear that the community is suffering from decades of environmental racism and generational trauma. The existing regulatory system is not designed for the protection of the community and land. As Mr. Girard wanted to convey, our connection with the land can be described as being like the Métis symbol, with one side being the land and one side being the people, with a never-ending motion.
Since 2007, the management and oversight of Imperial's Kearl mine has not addressed the concerns from the judicial review panel statement of a high risk of seepage. The solution to reducing the risk from tailings and giving the land back upon reclamation is not dilution of these polluted waters into the Athabasca River. Alberta and Canada are both pushing forward to develop regulations to allow partially treated oil sands mine process waters into our rivers, the same rivers that flow into Lake Athabasca and onward north to the Arctic Ocean, the rivers that have been and continue to be the grocery store for Fort Chipewyan Métis, their pharmacy and their way of life.
This is only one example of the poor regulatory system that is the Alberta Energy Regulator. These decades of poor regulation require a change and an overhaul so that Director Girard's nation is not at the mercy of the decisions of Alberta policy-makers who are willing to sacrifice northeastern Alberta.
Canada needs to be a larger presence in the mismanaged oil sands. More oversight—possibly co-management—is required for the oil sands. A regional effects assessment of the oil sands as well as an overall health assessment should be done to determine the cumulative effects to the community.
Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation also calls upon Canada to undertake a full audit of the many tailings ponds in our backyard. How can Canada even consider releasing oil sands mine waters into the Athabasca River without these studies being done and without knowing how they currently stand and their status?
Lastly, the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UNDRIP, has not resulted in its implementation in all provinces. Alberta does not recognize UNDRIP, and it is questionable if section 35 is recognized in Alberta as well.
Thank you again to the chair and the committee for having our voices heard.