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Mikisew Cree disagree with province’s draft plan
News Articles | For McMurray Today | April 07, 2011
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CAROL CHRISTIAN
The Mikisew Cree First Nation is vehemently rejecting the province’s latest attempt to balance oilsands production with environmental stewardship.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that the First Nation has been consulting with and providing information to the province about land-use concerns long before the land-use secretariat was created, said Melody Lepine, director of government and industry relations for the Mikisew Cree, this morning.
The province released its draft Lower Athabasca Regional Plan Wednesday, the first regional plan developed under Albertas land-use Framework. With oilsands production expected to double within the decade, the draft regional plan, said the province, will conserve more than two-million hectares of habitat for native species. It will also increase recreation and tourism opportunities, plan for infrastructure and put strict environmental limits in place for air, land disturbance and water.
The Fort Chipewyan-based First Nation has been involved in the process from the very early stages, recalled Lepine, even before the land-use framework, when the province released the preceding plan, the Mineable Oil Sands Strategy. A draft of that plan was released in 2005.
We were engaged at a very, very early stage. Tons of meetings, lots of information shared with them, and it’s not like we didn’t express what our expectations were with the plan, what it was we were seeking so yes, based on all of that background and then seeing the draft plan, it was like, did they not get anything we were telling them?
It was very disappointing. Absolutely.
Noting the Mikisew Cree provided a substantial amount of information with very little of that input has been incorporated into the plan, Lepine referred back to the 2005 Supreme Court of Canada decision in Mikisew Cree First Nation v. Canada: The Duty to Consult and Accommodate Aboriginal Treaty Rights in regards to development issues with the Wood Buffalo National Park.
The court held that the Crown had breached its duty to consult and its obligation to respect the existing treaty rights of the Mikisew.
It was clear in that decision that government when they consult with First Nations, has to make more than a reasonable effort to seriously consider and integrate our input in their plans.
That’s not the case here.
In addition to not accepting the Mikisew Crees recommendation of 40% protected areas, additional disregarded recommendations include a five-kilometre buffer zone on both sides of the Athabasca River to minimize any further potential aquatic impacts; a one-kilometre wide buffer on each side of streams throughout the Mikisew Cree traditional use territory; a one-kilometre buffer wide around all lakes, the limiting or elimination of industrial impacts on all remaining intact landscapes in the LARP region, and protection for remaining large tracts of habitat suitable for moose, bison and woodland caribou.
The Mikisew Cree are seeing unprecedented disturbance of our traditional lands. We are also seeing pollution rising, and scientific findings have supported this observation, so we expected that the government of Alberta would for once take into account our serious concerns, added Mikisew Cree Chief Roxanne Marcel in a statement.
It is abundantly clear now, that the Government of Alberta, is once again bowing to the oilsands industry and allowing unfettered development rather than giving any serious consideration to protection of First Nations treaty and aboriginal rights, environmental protection or land conservation.
An online workbook on LARP is available for the next two months at www.landuse.alberta.ca, and public input sessions begin April 18 in Bonnyville and continue in 14 more locations, including Fort McMurray, through May 19. The final plan is expected about July.
We are planning on attending their session in Fort Chip on May 5, said Lepine.
In addition to the public consultations, we are setting up direct consultation meetings with the land-use secretariats office … we’re meeting them especially on our specific comments on the draft plan.
Identifying strategic directions of the Lower Athabasca plan to improve the province’s ability to balance economic, environmental and social outcomes in the region, it listed inclusion of aboriginal peoples in land-use planning.
However, Lepine finds that remark to echo the usual government lip-service paid to aboriginal peoples.
When I read through some of the sections in the draft plan, it’s almost the same type of language they’re using with everything, with their 25-year plan, with the land-use framework, she said.
Lepine believes they insert that same rhetoric to make it look like government is actually doing something.
Tagged with: mikisew cree, alberta government, lower athabasca regional plan
