A quick note, first: the opinions expressed below are my own and only my own.
As a Southern Ontarian and adopted Northern Albertan, it seems fitting to blog about the oil and gas industry while I am here. On one of my first days, I asked if many Dene Tha’ community members worked in Fort McMurray. I was laughed at. With my face a shade of red, I was told that there is enough oil and gas surrounding the community – why would they go all the way to Fort Mac? Since that day, I have been interested in the oil and gas industry and its relationship with this community. The purpose of this post is not to harp on Canada’s oil and gas path, but portray a super small part of the history and relationship between government, oil and gas corporations, and First Nations people in Canada.
The approval of the Northern Gateway pipeline is just the most recent in a slew of the National Energy Board’s decisions. In March 2014, they approved the reversal of Line 9 – a pipeline that is much closer to home for me, and one that I wrote extensively about in my graduate studies this past year. If it seems like more and more pipelines are getting approved each year, you are correct. Bill C-38 – now referred to as the Jobs, Growth, and Long-term Prosperity Act – passed in June 2012. To many people, it was simply an omnibus budget bill. To me, it not only was a flashpoint of the Idle No More movement (Bill C-45 was the follow-up to C-38), but also repealed over 70 existing pieces of legislation. Bill C-38 squandered the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, undercut the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, weakened the Fisheries Act, repealed the Kyoto Protocol Implementation Act, exempted pipelines from the Navigational Waters Act, cut water quality programs, and limited the National Energy Board’s reviews to two years (May, 2012). Two years later, we now are seeing the impact of the National Energy Board’s accelerated decision-making model.
It has been widely documented in the media that there are 209 conditions that must be met for the Northern Gateway official approval; “Aboriginal” appears 125 times within these conditions, including seeking adequate consultation, maintaining a 15% hiring quota, and the inclusion of Traditional Knowledge throughout the process. While I can appreciate the extensiveness of the 209 conditions (and would much rather see something pass with 209 conditions than none), I am very skeptical. If true consultation has occurred anywhere up to this point, I am doubtful that the Northern Gateway would have gotten this far.
Something not often considered in the debate about pipelines and the environment is that treaties never end. The Numbered Treaties were formal agreements made between First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples and the Crown to share the land. These occurred across Canada over a period of 50 years from 1871 to 1921. The treaties have been criticized extensively on- and off-reserve, including arguments made that they should not be valid, given that they have been continuously breached and were signed under false pretenses. Breached and invalid or not, treaties will not end this year, next year, or in fifty years. Coupled with the fact that the desire for oil and gas will only continue to increase, ultimately pressures from oil and gas developers will rise accordingly. It is the reality that we can consider today the least demanding of oil and gas resources: tomorrow the pressure will increase, and in a year from now we will think back to today and even before Fort McMurray and wonder what happened.
Chateh is not on the proposed pipeline route. However, the oil and gas industry is much bigger than the Northern Gateway or Line 9. The traditional Dene Tha’ territory has been compromised several times before; most recently, there was a produced water spill in Zama. Produced water – as per the Zama press release – is water that may or may not contain oil residue. It is one of a number of spills that this pipeline has experienced, and only one of hundreds that have occurred since Canada’s oil and gas boom (see here for some investigative journalism done by the CBC). I think from here on out, I can only provide a photo to describe and detail what Zama looks like and the oil and gas presence around us. I can also add one comment that there was a two week delay between the spill and it being reported to the Dene Tha’ First Nation. Unfortunately, there have been no official “progress updates” since October/November 2013. What I do know is that I’ve heard narratives from community members about its impact: from wildlife covered in oily residue to dogs and other animals no longer eating the ducks, there are a variety of impacts that can be felt through the community. In an industry that relies so much on undermining and controlling First Nations land, this is only a small reason why I am skeptical of the number two hundred and nine.
The locations of wells around us.
Zama
On a note of finality, one of the companies that operates around here – Apache, headquartered in Texas – shares its name with a word to refer to Native American groups (mostly in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico) that speak a Southern Athabaskan language. Here in Treaty 8 territory, the Dene Tha’ speak an Athabaskan dialect, too! In the brief history lesson I received a few days ago, I was told that the Navajos and other Apaches used to live with the Dene people in this territory before migrating down south, and if they ever had a conversation with each other today they would still understand each other. However, Apache – the company – is actually just a combination of the owners’ initials and –che.
Until next time!
Chachel [Rachel] in Chateh 