Water management conference gets task force idea

Page 4

Indians seek more clout for water problems

A Native task force on the environment would give northern Alberta Native people a louder voice in protecting their interests on water issue, a water management conference was told Nov. 6.

General discussion on the problems Natives face in getting adequate water supplies resulted in the task force idea. It's aimed at giving them more clout when negotiating with industry and government.

"The idea would be to represent all of the Natives in the north, to discuss water-related issues and to act as a clearing house for the Aboriginal people on environmental issues," said Ron Wallace, a consultant for the Fort McKay band, 60 km north of Fort McMurray.

The Grande Prairie conference learned water related problems facing northern Natives include pollution, low water tables and a lack of acknowledgement by groups planning to develop near Native settlements.

Simon Waquan of Fort Chipewyan said Natives need an avenue where their voices can be heard just as loudly as any other interest or environmentalist group in the north.

"We'd like to see a task force to deal basically with the Native communities ? to see how we can work together to resolve these issues."

Waquan said his community is a good example of how people, Native or not, can be forgoten in water development projects.

In Fort Chipewyan, 250 km north of Fort McMurray, the lifestyle of the people is based on trapping, hunting and living off the land, he said.

When the Bennett Dam was built on the Peace River near Hudson's Hope, B.C., it dropped the level of the water in the Fort Chipewyan area, over 1,200 km away.

Lower water levels in turn had a severe effect on muskrat populations in the area, and Natives who trapped the animals were left with a lot of problems.

"You think you live in sort of a pollution free environment and yet your whole lifestyle could be affected by something that has happened miles away," Waquan said.

"It's so important that we really consider the effects we have on the land we are developing ? if we kill the land base we've got nothing left."

People in Fort Chipweyan have lived on the land and in harmony with the land for a long time, Waquan said, but industry has shaken that balance.

His community has since built a wooden dam system to build up water levels in certain areas so muskrat populations can grow, he said, but all that wouldn't have been necessary if someone had studied the effects the dam would have.

"Had the situation been properly studied, and properly monitored we probably wouldn't have been put in a situation of creating (our own) dams."

When it comes to industry, Waquan said, "it's nice to have a job, but it's also nice to have the land to live on too."

According to Wallace, and Alberta Metis Association representative Lorraine Sinclair of Hinton, it's situations like Fort Chipewyan where a task force could be of some help.

Natives have the same problems and concerns about water as everybody else in the north, he said, but Native communities don't seem to have the mechanism to work within the political system.

"There has to be some way different groups ? like industry or government and Natives ? can get together."

Said Sinclair: "The general public really doesn't want to hear about Native problems, but we are quite capable of dealing with them ourselves if we are given the proper mechanisms."

The fact is Natives want to be involved, and they want to see action, not just discussion on environmental issues that will affect their way of life, she said.

"Again, the bottom line is as Aboriginal people who have traditionally based their livelihood on the land, we just want to have a say in what is happening to that land.

"A task force is one way we can do that."

The three-day conference was sponsored by the Northern Alberta Development Council

(Courtesy of Herald-Tribune, Grande Prairie daily)