Mikisew Cree suing Alberta, Canada over oilsands impacts

The Mikisew Cree First Nation is suing the federal and Alberta governments over the cumulative impacts of industrial development in northern Alberta.

“This is a case about our treaty rights, our lands and waters, and the future of our people,” Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro said during a press conference.

“For generations, we have relied on the Peace-Athabasca Delta for hunting, trapping, fishing and practising our culture and our way of life. Those rights were promised and protected under Treaty 8, but over many decades, the pace and the scale of industrial development has dramatically changed our territory.”

The lawsuit alleges that Alberta and Canada have infringed on the First Nation’s Treaty 8 rights by authorizing industrial development without adequately managing the cumulative environmental and health impacts on Mikisew Cree’s traditional territory.

“This lawsuit is not about one single project. It is the cumulative impacts of decades of industrial approvals and the failure of Alberta and Canada to properly assess and manage those impacts,” Tuccaro said.

“Our treaty rights must be meaningful in practice and not just words on paper.”

Tucarro said First Nation members have seen impacts to wildlife, land and water as well as human health.

“Our nation is downstream from one of the largest industrial developments in the world and our people are living with the consequences,” he said.

Canada says it’s committed to upholding Indigenous rights

The chief said his First Nation is seeking accountability and meaningful action to ensure its treaty rights are protected. He said members must still be able to hunt, fish, gather and pass on culture and knowledge to future generations.

The First Nation is seeking declarations from the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta that the provincial and federal governments have breached its treaty rights, as well as enforceable mechanisms and thresholds to manage future cumulative impacts.

The First Nation has separately requested that the Federal Court of Canada stay the implementation of a cooperation agreement Canada and Alberta signed in April with the aim of streamlining environmental and impact assessments for major projects in the province.

The federal and Alberta governments have yet to file a formal response to the First Nation’s claims.

In a statement to Cabin Radio, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada said it is currently reviewing the First Nation’s lawsuit on cumulative impacts but could not comment further as the matter is before the courts.

“Canada remains committed to upholding the rights of Indigenous Peoples and to advancing reconciliation in partnership with First Nations, Inuit and Métis,” the spokesperson stated.

First Nation opposes release of oil sands tailings

The Mikisew Cree First Nation is headquartered in Fort Chipewyan on the western tip of Lake Athabasca, near the mouth of the Athabasca River and approximately 250 km downstream from the oil sands industrial complex in northern Alberta.

It has alleged that decades of oil sands operations, uranium mining, pulp and paper mills and coal mines have introduced contaminants to the Peace-Athabasca Delta.

The First Nation has been a vocal opponent of plans to allow the treatment and release of oil sands tailings into the Athabasca River.

Last month the First Nation presented findings from a study on cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan. It said between 1993 and 2022, cancer rates in the community were approximately 25 percent higher than the rest of Alberta, which it attributed to contamination from upstream industrial development.

The Alberta government has maintained there is “no known causal link between oil sands development and cancer rates in the region.”

Indigenous leaders in the NWT have also voiced concerns about the downstream impacts of the oil sands on the territory.

Water in the Athabasca River flows north into the Slave River, then Great Slave Lake and the Mackenzie River before emptying into the Arctic Ocean.