February 2007 Edition

Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan want to see Athabasca River protected

Streamline northern regulatory process, Prentice tells gas symposium

NWT demands voice in Alberta’s oilsands planning over water concerns

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) Elders from the community of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, the Mikisew Cree First Nation, and the Pembina Institute are declaring the Government of Alberta’s Water Management Framework for the Athabasca River a failure. The Framework, officially released March 1st, allows the oil sands industry to withdraw water from the Athabasca River, even when it is at risk of significant ecological impacts due to low water flows.

During the winter months the Athabasca River’s flows are naturally lower, but oil sands water withdrawals push down flows to levels that severely impact the River’s fish population. First Nations groups continue to use the Athabasca River’s fishery for both subsistence and commercial fishing, and are demanding that the fishery be protected.

“We’re talking about the survival of the Athabasca River, but more than that, this is about the survival of our people,” said Pat Marcel, Chair of the ACFN Denesuline Traditional Environmental Knowledge Elders Committee. “The Governments of Alberta and Canada are failing us, and Minister Renner and Minister Hearn need to be held accountable.”

The Framework uses a graduated approach to managing water withdrawals based upon flows in the river. Of most importance is the “red zone,” in which river flows are at their lowest and industry withdrawals threaten the ecological sustainability of the river. The Frame-work still allows industry to collectively withdraw a large volume of fresh water, between 8 and 15 cubic metres of water per second, or enough to fill between 25 and 50 bathtubs each second.

“The Government’s Framework misleads Albertans and Canadians because it does not require industry to turn off its pumps when the river hits the red zone,” noted Dan Woynillowicz of the Pembina Institute.

“The Mikisew Cree First Nation rejects the new Framework because it follows the exact same management approach that we rejected in July 2006,” noted Melody Lepine, Director of the Mikisew Cree First Nation Industry Relations Corporation. “We expressed our concerns on the Framework in three major Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB) hearings last year, and still the Government has failed to meet our expectations for protecting the Athabasca River.”

“It is clear from the Framework that the oil sands industry and Government are placing oil ahead of Albertans’ fresh water,” says Woynillowicz, “This Framework needs to be strengthened by including a clear limit that forces industry to stop withdrawals when the river is at risk.”

All three groups are calling for the Government to immediately establish a limit that forces the industry to stop withdrawing water when the river is threatened, and are exploring legal and other actions.

The regulatory process for northern industrial developments needs to be streamlined, said federal minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Jim Prentice.

“We need to focus on streamlining the regulatory process,” Prentice said during a stop at the Arctic Gas Symposium in Calgary on March 2nd.

“I have heard industry's concerns loud and clear with the times and costs of the regulatory process for this and other northern projects.”

Prentice spoke during the same week as the Joint Review Panel, evaluating the environmental and social impacts of the proposed $7-billion Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline, made its southernmost stop in Edmonton.

The price tag for reviewing that pipeline could reach $600 million, Prentice said.

“There's a lot of heavy lifting that has to be done on something as complicated as this through the regulatory process, and through the negotiation of access and benefits agreements with First Nations communities.”

But the project could hold the key to increasing living standards for First Nations people in Canada's far North, Prentice said.

“Without projects like this, no amount of transfer payments will give the North the future it deserves.” he said. “There can be no doubt we’d all like to see the North’s full potential realized.”
Prentice added Ottawa is working on bundling the many permits required for the project, which would see a 1,220-km pipeline built through the Mackenzie Valley in the Northwest Territories and into existing gas infrastructure in Alberta.

The pipeline is considered critical to unlocking the North’s large gas reserves, estimated at more than one-third of the national supply.

Northerners downstream from Alberta's expanding oilsands industry are so concerned about its effects on the rivers and lakes they depend on that the Northwest Territories is demanding a role in assessing future projects in the region.

“We (want) to be more involved in the oilsands consultations and we (want) to have a voice in that process,” said Bob Bailey, deputy environment minister for the Northwest Territories.

The N.W.T. is now the second jurisdiction to complain about cross-border environmental effects of Alberta's oilsands. Saskatchewan is negotiating with its upwind neighbour over acid-rain-causing airborne emissions.

Most of the population of the N.W.T. lives on the Mackenzie River system, which is largely fed by inflows from northern Alberta. Aboriginal groups in the territory have already complained to Alberta's energy regulator that levels are dropping in the Slave River, which provides about three-quarters of the water in Great Slave Lake.

Government figures show the Slave River was consistently about half a metre lower last year than its 2002 level. At one point in September, the river was down three metres.

“The people in Fort Smith (N.W.T.) were seeing rocks in the river they've never seen before,” said Bailey.

The N.W.T. suspects that water use by oilsands companies is at least partly to blame. Some estimates suggest the industry returns only 10 per cent of the 500 million cubic metres it takes annually from the downstream Athabasca River.

“The development of the oilsands is causing major concern in the N.W.T.,” he wrote, citing both water levels and possible contamination. Alberta says low water levels in the Slave are more likely the result of drought, possibly related to climate change.

“We don't believe it is related to the actual withdrawals to the river,” said Bev Yee, assistant deputy minister from Alberta Environment. Still, Alberta is opening negotiations with the N.W.T. on managing water use on the Athabasca and Slave. As well, environment ministers from Alberta and the N.W.T. will meet to discuss a possible role for the territory in the province's approval or management process.

“We've proposed let's sit down and talk about what their needs might be, and help them understand what our decision-making process is and look at what the opportunities are for their engagement,” said Yee.

“If there's activity in our jurisdiction that's potentially impacting another jurisdiction, we need to be in good communication. They need to be involved.”

Those talks are expected at a meeting planned for March. Meanwhile, said Yee, talks with Saskatchewan are ongoing.

Figures released last fall showed that acid rain has begun damaging soils and lakes as far east as Manitoba.

Oilsands emissions of acid-rain-causing nitrogen oxides were expected to have reached 398 tonnes per day by this year. About 70 per cent of those gases eventually blow into Saskatchewan.

The Mackenzie River system is too important to risk, said Bailey. Northerners from Fort Smith to Yellowknife to Inuvik depend on it for drinking water, transportation and fish.

“We're concerned about the fact that there are all these developments going on and that water flows essentially from northern Alberta into the Northwest Territories,” he said. “Our concerns are that the quantity and quality of water that comes across the boundary remains as it has been in the past, so that we don't have something going on in Alberta that has a negative effect on a community in the Mackenzie Basin.”