[R-G] The Richest First Nation in Canada: Ecological and political life in Fort MacKay

[Anthony Fenton]

November 12, 2007
http://www.dominionpaper.ca/articles/1457
The Richest First Nation in Canada
Ecological and political life in Fort MacKay

by Macdonald Stainsby
The Dominion - http://www.dominionpaper.ca

The primarily Indigenous, mostly Cree (also 'Chipewyan Dene')  
community of Fort MacKay--just north of the internationally famous  
tar sand "boom" city of Fort McMurray--is said to be the "richest  
First Nation in Canada." The alleged wealth is largely due to the  
fact that the community is surrounded by, and on top of, tar sand.

Home to about 500 residents, Fort Mackay is the only official  
community north of Fort McMurray on highway 63, and lies 40-odd  
kilometres down the Athabasca River. On a remote northern highway  
like this one, one would normally see car traffic every few minutes.  
On this particular road, cars go by every few seconds. When shifts at  
tar sands processing plants change over--the plants operate around  
the clock--the traffic is bumper-to-bumper and slows way beneath  
posted limits. Where two generations ago, there was nothing but  
muskeg forest, there is now sandy wasteland. Where there were rivers,  
there are now nine-storey-deep holes. Where there were lakes with  
fish, there are now "tailing ponds" filled with toxic waste left over  
from the extraction process--cannons are fired to prevent birds from  
landing in them and dying. Syncrude's largest such "pond" is  
surrounded by one of the largest earthen-built dams on the planet.

"Every which direction you look, they're [tar sands extraction  
plants] all around us, they're all around. And these two up above us  
here, those are the worst ones. These two are the worst  
polluters...that's Syncrude and Suncor, they're the worst ones  
because they're so close to us too, you know?" Celina Harpe told us.  
An elder in Fort MacKay, Harpe has lived here all her life. When the  
mining operations began in the 1960s, they brought many changes,  
including serious health problems, to the community.

"People only died of old age in our days...very seldom--maybe the odd  
now and then, but other than that, few deaths, very few. But now?  
[deaths] right and left, young people 37, 34, 43...in their forties,  
early fifties. People are dying here."

"It's got something to do with these plants, I'm sure of it myself  
because I've been here my whole life--in our day that's not the way  
it was."

After the plants began to operate, the water began to make people  
concerned for their health. Many locals who ran trap lines nearby  
lost their lines when the land was "scraped off," in mining terms.  
Those whose trap lines were not destroyed describe the disappearance  
of many of the animals they depended upon for their food and their  
livelihood.

Blueberries and Saskatoon berries were once so abundant that everyone  
had more than enough to flavour their favorite recipes. Now, locals  
report, they are not scarce--they are simply gone.

Today, there is suspicion about the collusion of the Fort MacKay  
administration with Syncrude, Suncor and other corporations:  
companies that have been the driving force of the drastic changes in  
living conditions that have occurred in Fort MacKay.

The facts of the drastic changes visited upon Fort MacKay by  
operations like Syncrude and Suncor are not disputed. Few speak out  
as defiantly as Harpe. Whether because of the perceived inevitability  
of tar sands mining or the millions of dollars in "partnerships"  
offered by oil companies, the local Indian Act government--the Fort  
Mackay First Nation--is going along with mining. (Under the Indian  
Act, the federal Minister of Indian Affairs has control over the  
funding of the Band.) While many others oppose the mining, they are  
less apt to go on the record in a small community like Fort MacKay.

Now, the Fort MacKay First Nation wants to begin a new joint venture  
with Shell in the tar sands themselves. This means that Fort MacKay  
will likely find itself opposed by the two First Nations of Fort  
Chipewyan, which is downstream from the tar sands. Fort Chipewyan has  
seen a drastic increase in rates of rare forms of cancer and other  
illnesses, but has not seen the millions in investment and "community  
partnerships."

Perhaps as a result, its representatives oppose the expansion of the  
tar sands, and may find themselves in conflict with Fort MacKay in  
the approval process. However, it is an "open secret" that the  
Alberta Energy and Utilities Board review process is not much of a  
process. The board has yet to refuse a single application for tar  
sand mining.

Today, the problems of Fort McMurray have extended to Fort MacKay.  
There are many victims of random violence in the small community,  
violence often tied to drug and alcohol abuse. Downstream of the  
massive plant for Suncor along the Athabasca River, there is a  
collective sense of defeat to these "side-effects." And when you  
cannot see the plumes rising out of the stacks, you can smell them in  
Fort MacKay's living rooms--the smell of burning tar all day, every day.

A trip out to the Suncor plant by river can give one a sense of the  
size of the intrusion. The plant is located approximately 12  
kilometres from MacKay as the crow flies. There, huge volumes of  
water are sucked out of the river. Some of the worst effects are the  
various forms of pollution that are expelled into the air and the  
water in the area right at the plant. Suncor has colonized an island  
in the middle of the Athabasca River--turning it into a giant  
tailings island of waste material. The size of the dykes has been  
growing for 40 years. Some day, they may give way.

The speed of growth of the tar sands, the quantities of money that  
will be infused to develop them, and the vast influx of migrant  
workers from other parts of Canada and beyond trigger social  
breakdown in varying degrees. Alienated, unhappy work forces will  
abuse drugs and alcohol, leading to violence, prostitution, elder and  
spousal abuse and children fathered by workers who are long gone.

Perhaps nowhere are the symptoms of this breakdown more acute than in  
Fort MacKay, where the niece of a top band council member was  
hospitalized after being beaten over the head days before our visit.

Today in Fort MacKay, there is a resignation of fate for many members  
of the community. Syncrude and Suncor make it known that they want to  
be seen as the companies who "take care" of the community and work in  
constant co-operation with the residents. Yet there are no open  
forums and holding a referendum or giving any actual decision-making  
power to the original owners of the territory is out of the question.

"Keeping you informed" is the slogan attached to a notice posted  
recently in the Band Council's office building in town. The notice  
reads: "Suncor Energy Oil Sands would like to notify local residents  
that throughout June and July there is a potential for increased  
flaring and emissions for a scheduled tie-in event. Increased flaring  
may occur during the shut down and start up of Upgrader 2...If you  
have concerns, call Suncor's Community Consultation Office at..."

Elsewhere in Alberta, flaring is blamed for premature deaths and  
stillbirths in livestock and human beings.

Throughout the area, Syncrude and Suncor make their names as public  
as possible -- on calendars, on booths at events, at parks and  
cultural happenings; their names even permeate annual Treaty Day  
celebrations.

The Indigenous peoples of the Athabasca region, in particular the  
community of Fort MacKay, have watched the water turn toxic, muskeg  
turn into desert. Some community members will no longer eat the fish  
or moose and many can't trust the water flowing from their own taps.  
"You can't drink oil to live. You can't eat money to live," said  
Harpe. "If you've got no water, you've got no life."

Most residents of Fort MacKay aren't as publicly outspoken. But when  
they get to talking, a transition sometimes takes place. Talk of the  
inevitability of the projects--of the "it's bad, but what can you  
do?" variety--is briefly sidelined, and an anger shines through.  
Words like "crime against humanity" and "getting away with murder"  
issue from people who now make their living from the tar sands and  
related employment. In many cases, it surprises the person speaking  
as much as it surprises us. It seems that having the names "Suncor"  
and Syncrude" attached to radio commercials, books, events and more  
has an isolating effect on believing what one sees with one's own eyes.

It makes one wonder what prevailing opinion would be if it were not  
widely assumed that the unlimited expansion of the tar sands is  
inevitable and unstoppable. Perhaps that confidence will come in a  
small community if challenging the tar sands rights to operate starts  
first in larger centres.