Fort McKay, AB, Aug. 6, 2013 — Today, the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), formerly the Energy Resources Conservation Board, released its decision approving the Brion Energy (formerly Dover Opco) project application permitting the oil and gas conglomerate to extract bitumen using Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) technology in an area revered by Fort McKay community members. The project lease is adjacent to the Fort McKay First Nation’s reserve lands near Namur and Gardiner Lakes, known to Fort McKay as “Moose Lake(s).”
The community of Fort McKay opposed the portion of the project nearest the southern border of the Moose Lake reserve at a hearing held in April earlier this year in Fort McMurray. Fort McKay requested a 20 km “no development buffer zone” around the Moose Lake reserve lands to protect the area’s cultural and environmental integrity. While the community is disappointed in the AER decision, Chief Jim Boucher of the Fort McKay First Nation says “the fight to protect Moose Lake is not over. Fort McKay is gearing up to mount a rigorous opposition to the Brion Energy project until a satisfactory solution is found.”
“What we are asking for is no different than what the Alberta government recently granted Fort McMurray, which is a buffer zone to separate industrial sites from areas of community activity and residential development,” says Chief Jim Boucher, “The Brion Energy project is within 1200 metres of Fort McKay’s Moose Lake reserve, which is unacceptable.”
Fort McKay is optimistic that a satisfactory protection plan can still be achieved as the AER ruling is just one step in the approval process of the project. Brion Energy must also receive approval from the Government of Alberta Cabinet, the timing of which is uncertain. Should Cabinet approve the project, in whole or in part, Brion Energy still requires environmental and public land approvals from Environmental and Sustainable Resource Development to proceed.
The community of Fort McKay maintains its support of responsible resource development. Fort McKay is only opposed to the portion of the Brion Energy project that is within 20 km of the Namur lake reserve, an area containing critical habitat and important traditional use sites. Brion Energy has predicted that the combined effects of existing and planned projects will result in the extirpation (local extinction) of caribou and near extirpation of moose within 30 years in the Moose Lake region.
“We have always called this area “Moose Lake’ because of its abundance of wildlife”, Councillor Raymond Powder explains. “Many of our families have traplines here and our ancestors were married and buried here. We still consider this area home, and it has, until now, provided a safe and clean refuge for us to hunt and fish and escape the noise and pollution of the mines that surround our community at Fort McKay.”
This decision by the Alberta Energy Regulator is consistent with previous decisions. In spite of the abundant evidence presented by Fort McKay, the guidelines for these hearings prioritize resource development over property rights, concerns for the environment, and community health and safety. This type of development would be unwelcome on the border of any community in Alberta, and Fort McKay is no different.
The intensity of the impact of the Brion Energy project will grow over several phases. By the time Brion Energy concludes its entire project at Moose Lake, three generations of residents will have lived with noise, pollution, and the disruption and destruction of natural habitat, all of which endanger the traditional way of life of Fort McKay residents.
In addition to the requested buffer zone, Fort McKay has proposed several solutions to the Alberta Government that would dramatically decrease the effects of oil sands development on the Moose Lake area while still allowing the same volume of bitumen to be extracted over the long term. Some of the proposed mitigations include lower density drilling and land disturbance, reclamation of existing disturbance from oil exploration activities, and coordinated road and infrastructure planning. So far, Alberta is unwilling or unable to act upon them.
The community of Fort McKay is located alongside the banks of the Athabasca River in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, north of Fort McMurray. The border of its reserve at Namur Lake was set aside for the Fort McKay First Nation in 1915 in recognition of the First Nation’s ancestral connection to the area and its importance as wildlife and fish habitat. It is used exclusively by Fort McKay members for cultural land use activities. There are approximately 700 Dene, Cree and Métis community members living in Fort McKay. The Fort McKay First Nation shares a border with the Fort McKay Métis Community, and together call Fort McKay home.
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For media enquiries contact:
Dayle Hyde, Communications Director
Fort McKay First Nation
780-881-5715
dhyde@fortmckay.com