WBNP Officials and Native Leaders Address Water Quality in Peace-Athabasca Delta
By GABRIEL ZARATE, SRJ Reporter 23.JAN.08
Ongoing concerns about water quality and possible contamination brought officials from Wood Buffalo National Park (WBNP) and regional native government representatives to Fort Chipewyan Wednesday, Jan. 16. The Peace-Athabasca Delta was the focus of talks, as it lies downstream from the oil sands extraction operations of Fort McMurray.
The main purpose of the meeting was organizational – a chance for Parks Canada to meet with chiefs, councillors and Métis representatives to discuss a growing problem and possible action to take. Aboriginal government officials came from Hay River, Fort Smith and Fort Resolution to hear what was said.
“It’s a good start,” according to Fort Smith’s Salt River First Nation councillor Mike Beaver.
“But they say we need to take it back to our people. I’m here.”
Lorraine Hoffman-Mercredi, councillor of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, agreed: “It’s high time that Parks Canada brought us together.”
Leonard Beaulieu of Fort Resolution called it one of the most productive he had ever attended in his years of politics among the Deninu Kue. He joked it was the first time everyone was on the same page from the start.
Attendees discussed arranging a long-term program to monitor the quality of the delta’s water and organizing a steering committee to oversee it. Details will be hammered out at later meetings, the next to take place within three months.
After that, according to WBNP resource conservation manager Stuart Macmillan, WBNP will try to involve a wider range of governmental departments including Environment Canada, Environment Alberta, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development and the department of fisheries and oceans.
Macmillan said Parks Canada hopes to assemble a broad, long-term program of monitoring water quality in cooperation with other groups who have interests in the region. This would include monitoring vegetation and animal health to build a more complete picture of the health of the ecosystem. The program would use not just conventional Western science, but traditional native knowledge as well.
After the meeting, the mood was hopeful, but there was impatience to get underway on something concrete.
The delta is part of the lifeblood of much of northeastern Alberta and the neighbouring Northwest Territories. Beyond water, it also provides an essential habitat to animal life. The region is nesting ground to as many as a million migratory waterfowl per year and is home to several thousand wood and plains bison.
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