Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for giving the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation the opportunity to address this committee on this important topic, which concerns our people today. I am honoured to come here and tell you about some of the pressing issues that may severely affect energy security in Canada.
As you may know, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation's traditional territories cover much of the minable and non-minable oil sands in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta.
On his famous voyages, guided by the Dene people, Alexander Mackenzie used one of those same tar sands, exposed along the shores of the Athabasca River, to waterproof his canoes, as did the Dene people.
Now, some 230 years later, estimates put the oil reserves in the tar sands at hundreds of billions of barrels, making it the second-largest deposit of oil in the world next to Saudi Arabia. Although estimates may vary, there is certainly enough oil to meet Canada's foreseeable security needs and allow significant exports of oil as well. These reserves are so attractive that companies and governments from all corners of the world are rushing to Alberta, especially to ACFN's traditional territory, to participate in this bounty of petroleum wealth. This rush of activity has been called the largest and most destructive industrial project in the world. The lands torn apart are clearly visible from space with the naked eye.
You might think this is all good and economically safe. Unfortunately, it is obvious that this greed for oil has created huge impacts in the region and, more importantly, impacts on our aboriginal and treaty rights to continue the use of our traditional territory.
Now there are proposals to double or triple again the number of oil sand projects in our area, which will significantly increase the impacts and erase our ability to practise our treaty rights granted to us 100-plus years ago.
Unlike previous debates, we have enough oil to meet our oil security demands. Instead, the problem is the safe, proper, and fair development and production of existing oil reserves. The question is, what environmental and human cost must Canadians pay for this oil, and will this price be excessively loaded on the backs of the ACFN and other first nation peoples of the area?
Our governments cannot tell you the answers to these questions because they simply do not know the answers. The Alberta government is taking a minimalist approach with respect to our treaty rights to securely use our traditional territory. As a result, the ACFN's rights are being eroded and the Government of Canada has been standing back and allowing this breach to occur.
Face-to-face consultation with governments on oil sands impacts is non-existent, leaving ACFN little choice but to mount challenges such as court actions and media campaigns.
As we speak, recent technical reports have shown large holes in the existing monitoring processes for chemical exposure, and no resolution of the cumulative impacts is being sought.
The honour of the crown is at stake here. Instead of making absurd legal arguments, the provincial and federal crown representatives have a duty to properly engage the ACFN with proper face-to-face, government-to-government consultation, which must include mitigation and accommodation of environmental and economic impacts.
If proper consultation is not undertaken, oil sands projects may be threatened and the resulting oil production put in question. If proper consultation is not undertaken, the negative environmental impacts may be irreversible and ultimately devastating to the aboriginal communities in northern Alberta and up into the Northwest Territories.
If you ask what the energy security issues are in the Canadian oil sands, the answer is dealing with the huge impacts on aboriginal rights and on the environment.
Currently, the consultation support process is in a dividing line. The provincial government is attempting, with success, to delegate its responsibilities to consult with industry, even on regional issues, even on issues that involve regional non-specific effects.
Despite continuous appeals to both levels of government, there has been no direct crown consultation. As a result of this lack of consultation, ACFN rights are being eroded and our ability to use the lands is completely impaired; Athabasca River water testing has come under a lot of scrutiny because of questionable monitoring practices; human health impacts, particularly with respect to high cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan, have become a crucial issue; and endangered species, wildlife habitat, and their food sources are now threatened without mitigation processes.
Lack of consultation will result in more court battles, such as the West Moberly First Nations case in our Treaty 8 area, where a coal mining project has been stopped due to lack of consultation with respect to endangered caribou. Woodland caribou are now threatened, and they're on the verge of extinction in northern Alberta. It is very important to the ACFN in the oil sands area, as that is traditionally part of our main subsistence diet.
In summary, the ACFN submits that oil energy security is not a matter of having enough oil, but a matter of the proper development of huge existing reserves.
Canada's energy security is challenged by the failure of the crown to properly consult on the massive impacts of the largest industrial project in the world. This development is in our backyards. It's in the ACFN's front yard and backyards. This is the type of intensive development that the Supreme Court of Canada referred to when it required the crown to consult intensively with aboriginal peoples.
We are asking that the governments of Canada and Alberta live up to those constitutional responsibilities. If they did, they would also protect the security of Canadian energy.
I'd like to thank you for this time to allow me to speak.