Clearwater roadblock draws attention to the issues

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Cheryl Petten, Sage Writer, Clearwater River Dene Nation

From Aug. 27 to Sept. 3 Clearwater River Dene Nation and people from the nearby village of La Loche set up a roadblock on the highway that runs through its reserve. The blockade of Highway 955 was in place for just over a week, but in that time the First Nation managed to accomplish what it hadn't been able to do before-it got the attention of the provincial government and mining company Cogema Resources Inc.

Clearwater has had concerns with the actions of both parties-Cogema with the way Clearwater and La Loche had been bypassed by the employment opportunities coming out of the decommissioning of the Cluff Lake uranium mine, and the province with its practices of leasing out and selling land within Clearwater traditional territory with no involvement or input from the First Nation. Clearwater had made its concerns in these areas known to both the province and the Cogema, but nothing was being done to address the problems, Clearwater Chief Roy Cheecham said, so the decision was made to try another approach. On Aug. 27, Clearwater members moved in heavy equipment and vehicles and blocked off a section of the highway that leads to the Cluff Lake mine.

Setting up roadblocks isn't standard operating procedure for Clearwater, Cheecham said.

"Clearwater River Dene Nation is not a community that's used to blockading roads. We're very proactive, very business-minded. We're one of the bands within the Meadow Lake Tribal Council and the tribal council is very well known for business ventures and being proactive and cutting edge in discussions, negotiations and so on. But ... we weren't satisfied that things were moving in the right direction at the right speed," he said. "Was I faced with the same set of circumstances, I would do it again, because I think that was the appropriate action."

Cheecham said the First Nation has about 1,500 members, the majority of which live either on- reserve or off-reserve in the nearby community of La Loche. In the past, companies and individuals from the First Nation have done work with Cogema and one contract, for catering, is still ongoing. But with the announcement that the Cluff Lake mine was shutting down, Cheecham saw the importance of his community getting a share of the work the decommissioning would create.

Cheecham and the mayor of La Loche met with Cogema representatives months ago and Cheecham said they were led to believe the communities would get some work out of the decommissioning project. At the end of July, the news came that three companies were awarded contracts to decommission the mine, but none of them had ties to Clearwater or La Loche.

The decommissioning work is the last substantial employment that will come out of the Cluff Mine and the work could last up to three years.

"We have a lot of people that are trained as heavy equipment operators. We have lots of labourers ... the majority of the work entails putting back material that's removed in the mining process. A lot of our people can do that in both communities."

As for exactly what type of agreement has been reached between Clearwater and Cogema, or between the First Nation and the provincial government, Cheecham said he wasn't in a position to talk about it.

"In terms of details, we're not really at liberty to get into that. For one thing, we're trying to do the implementation of what we agreed to do with the company and we're going to leave it there. The other thing is we're at talks now with the Saskatchewan government and it's still very preliminary in terms of what's done so far ... there's still a long ways to go."