Cardinal, developers clash over forestry impac

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History proves that industrialization in Canada has negative social impacts on Native communities, says Harold Cardinal, executive director of the Aboriginal Resource Development

Group.

That's why Native people have every right to be wary of promises made by big businesses bearing gifts of economic growth and employment opportunities, declared Cardinal during a

panel discussion Sept. 27 at the 1989 conference on Indian economic development held at the Edmonton Inn.

Proposed forestry development slated for northern Alberta could jeopardize the future of Native people the same way oil sand projects did in the late 1970s, he warned.

Cardinal, a former president of the Indian Association of Alberta, told the more than 300 people during a forum on forestry that Canadian industrialization has had a detrimental effect

on Native people.

He said that the corporate sector and general public have never been able recognize that Native concerns must be dealt with first before the land and its natural resources are used

for development.

"Whenever there has been major development, there has been a major impact on the lifestyle and the ability of Native people to make a living," he said.

"And unfortunately for us, the experience from one end of the country, has been consistently negative."

Cardinal was part of an eight-member panel that included Native leaders and representatives from two development companies proposing pulp mills in northern Alberta.

Representatives from Daishowa Canada Ltd. and Alberta Pacific Forest Industries Ltd., were on hand to tell conference delegates of the economic benefits of pulp mill development

for Native people in northern Alberta. Cardinal and other Native leaders on the panel weren't convinced.

During his presentation, he noted that past developers have ignored the rights of Native people and have failed to recognize that they are part of the land.

He credited current pulp-mill planners with making an attempt to hear Native concerns, but questioned their sincerity.

"Almost the first reaction they have when they come face to face with Native reality wherever they go (with their development ideas) in this country is to view those Native people from

those lands as squatters, outsiders or a nuisance that has to be somehow neutralized," he said.

Cardinal said similar developments, including the Fort McMurray oils sands project have always resulted in widespread social problems for Native people.

He said suicides, alcohol abuse and other social problems tend to escalate within the Native communities after a mega-project is in place.

"Whether it's hydro-power, forestry, mining or pipeline development, the result has been consistently disastrous," he said.

He said the situation looks grim for Native people who rely heavily on their treaty rights to hunt, trap and fish "because almost every section of land that was available for Indian

people to exercise their treaty rights will be committed to one (development) company or another."

The spokesman for Alberta Pacific said new forestry development will spark more economic growth in northern Alberta than the Native communities have ever experienced.

Milton Howe told delegates that Alberta Pacific hopes to boost the Alberta and Canadian economies by $460 million through salaries and taxation over the next 20 years with its

massive project.

He said over 2,400 jobs will be created in that time frame and all construction and logging will be contracted to private companies. He noted that Native businesses will be given first

consideration.

The $1.3 billion project, thought to be the largest in the world, will boast state-of-the-art technology in reducing water and air pollution.

Other panel members included Daishowa spokesman Stuart Dornbierer, Treaty 8 Chiefs environment spokesman Charles Beaver and Jerome Morin, chairman of the Treaty Indians

Environment Secretariat Jerome Morin.