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Stelmach’s promise to visit Fort Chip unfulfilled
News Articles | Edmonton Journal | January 18, 2011
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By Karen Kleiss
Premier Ed Stelmach has made no plans to fulfil his public promise to visit a remote northern Alberta community where some residents believe they are being poisoned by oilsands contaminants.
Nearly three months after he promised to visit Fort Chipewyan, the premier hasn’t booked a government aircraft nor set aside time for travel.
Stelmach made the promise in late October when a group of university students presented him with a round-trip ticket to the community north of Fort McMurray.
Spokesman Jerry Bellikka said Monday the premier has not yet arranged to fly to Fort Chipewyan because he is waiting for a local leader to sign a letter of intent, and because he has not been invited.
“He fully intends to go, but we would like to have an agreement with the band first that will set some criteria on what issues we are going to work with them on (and) what the health study is going to include,” Bellikka said.
Stelmach wants Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam to sign a letter of intent that outlines a “framework for dialogue and collaborative action.”
The framework was signed in April 2010 by Health Minister Gene Zwozdesky, Minister of Aboriginal Relations Len Webber, Mikisew Cree Chief Roxanne Marcell and Metis Local 125 president Fred Fraser.
Adam has refused to sign.
“I looked at it, I got my legal team to look at it and they said: “ ‘Do not sign that,’ “ he told The Journal on Monday. “They (the government) are going to use it for a public campaign to show they’re working good with the locals, but there will be no concrete paperwork behind it saying what they’re going to do. ... It’s just going to be a public-relations campaign for them.”
When he learned Stelmach hasn’t planned a visit because he hasn’t been invited, Adam laughed.
“If you are the premier of Alberta and you want to go hear what the people are saying, do you have to be invited? Or is it your obligation as a premier to go to the community and listen to their concerns?”
Richie Assaly is the executive director of Stand with Fort Chipewyan, the University of Alberta student group that pressed Stelmach to visit the northern community by presenting him with a round-trip ticket.
“It is frustrating,” he said. “I was cautiously optimistic when he made that promise because, to be honest, it didn’t seem that genuine.”
Last year, Stelmach returned the ticket to the group. He has opted instead to charter a private plane from the government’s taxpayer-funded fleet.
kkleiss@edmontonjournal.com
Tagged with: first nations, canada, ed stelmach, fort chipewyan
