Federal government granted delay to provide Caribou affidavits

Protecting the woodland caribou in the northeastern part of the province is going to take longer than anticipated by both First Nations and environmental groups who have launched court action.

The federal government has already been granted a 15-day extension through the mutual consent of all parties involved.

“The case is in federal case management,” said Susan Smitten, director of communications with Woodward and Company, the law firm which represents the First Nations involved. “It will move forward as the judge dictates.”

 More complicated or larger cases are assigned to a court management judge, who determines timelines, amends them according to the issues that arise and determines how the case will progress.

A case management conference is scheduled for early December.

Affidavits were filed by Beaver Lake Cree Nation, Enoch Cree Nation, and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and the two environmental groups Oct. 22. The federal government was required to respond 30 days later. However, the federal government asked the First Nations and environmental groups for a 15-day extension which was granted.

“Once the affidavits go in, we may look at doing some cross-examining,” said Smitten.

Because action sought by the First Nation and the environmental groups are the same, the matter has been consolidated and the case will be heard as one.
“Obviously the First Nations have their treaty rights, but the environmental aspect is the same. (Both parties) are asking for the same action from the government,” said Melissa Gorrie, lawyer for EcoJustice, representing the Alberta Wilderness Association and Pembina Institution.

In September, when the First Nations made their intent known, Jack Woodward, legal counsel for the First Nations, said the action his clients are calling for is supported by precedent set by the Supreme Court in 2005 in favour of treaty rights for the Mikisew Cree First Nation in northern Alberta.

“The Supreme Court was clear about that. These treaty rights are constitutionally protected. They were the highest kind of law in Canada, supersede federal legislation, supersede provincial legislation. They’re protected under the Constitution and they’re not just rights to go out hunt game in a place where the land hasn’t been cleared. They included protection of enough habitat so there’s a meaningful supply of animals,” said Woodward.

Aggressive protection for the woodland caribou as a threatened species is being sought. A letter sent by the First Nations to Environment Minister Jim Prentice this summer instructed Prentice “to comply with your mandatory statutory duties under s. 80(2) of the Species at Risk Act, by recommending to the federal Cabinet that it make an emergency order to protect woodland caribou and their habitat from any further industrial development in the full ranges of the remaining herds in northeastern Alberta (or in a wider area).”

Gorrie would like to see the matter in court in the next six months.

“It depends on how things go and how the other side behaves, if they decide to make things difficult, bring a lot of applications to stall, if we need more information from them,” said Gorrie. “Obviously we have the intent of moving this as fast as we can.”