First Nations, activists go their own way

More than a decade after turning its back on the Athabasca River, the provincial government is back with an invitation to the full spectrum of diverse and competing interests to write a new future for the historic and heavily used waterway.   

More than 100 representatives from communities, industries, agriculture, and government agencies met in Sherwood Park in April to lay the groundwork for a Watershed Planning and Advisory Council for the Athabasca as part of Alberta’s heavily promoted Water for Life strategy.

First Nations and environmental organizations monitored the inaugural meeting, but until the government defines a mandate for the watershed councils and assures funding, they are going their own way with Keepers of the Athabasca. 

It will be two years before the Athabasca watershed council is operating and the gravity of the river’s problems demand immediate action, said Connie Bresnahan, who is touring Athabasca communities this summer to introduce them to the Keepers. 

The original group, Keepers of the Arctic Waters, was born two years ago in Fort Simpson, at a meeting of Dene First Nations and environmentalists who were concerned after a summer of abnormally low water levels in rivers of the Mackenzie Basin.

“We’re hopeful that something will come out of the watershed council, but we also feel the need to work independently,” said Bresnahan. “This is the grassroots coming together; we can’t wait for the Alberta government.”

Oil sands projects, a handful of pulp mills and several communities draw water from the Athabasca and the river picks up municipal, industrial and agricultural waste on its 1,230 km run to Lake Athabasca where residents of Fort Chipewyan suspect contaminants in the water are the cause of a high incidence of rare cancers. 

Oil sand projects are licensed to draw 349 million cubic meters a year from the Athabasca and the provincial government has committed to doubling that volume in the coming years, despite cautions from scientists and protests from downstream communities.

In advance of the inaugural meeting of the Athabasca council, Alberta Environment said that by “building on the efforts already underway, the WPAC would help ensure a high level of protection of the aquatic ecosystem, facilitate more efficient water use, and provide a forum for developing cooperative management options that are both realistic and effective.”

The Keepers of the Athabasca road show of dancers, singers, and native elders, with lessons on how to test for water quality and reports on the state of the watershed, begins this weekend in Jasper. Over the next six weeks, it will roll through Hinton, Whitecourt, Ft. Assiniboine, Driftpile, Calling Lake, Lac La Biche, Janvier, Ft. McMurray, and Ft. McKay on the way to a conference in Ft. Chipewyan in mid-August.

Mountain Equipment Co-op, Alberta Eco Trust, the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Canadian Boreal Initiative, the United Church, the Alberta Stewardship Network, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, World Wildlife Fund, and the Sierra Club,  have provided  money and resources for the tour and the Keepers, she said.

Earlier this year, the Alberta government announced that $63 million will be allocated over the next three years to support its Water for Life strategy, but little of that money will trickle down to the watershed councils. 

The nine operating councils must apply annually to draw from a $3 million government pot, according to David Trew, executive director of the North Saskatchewan River Alliance, one of the earliest and best established of the watershed councils.

Trew said the alliance needs as much as $3 million a year to perform the necessary research work in the North Saskatchewan watershed. The alliance has a staff of six and has secured money from a variety of sources to finance its work for the next 18 months.

“We need substantive capacity,” said Trew. “This is water planning; it has to be done by someone. It’s in our collective interests; we can’t operate with volunteers, in our spare time.”

The provincial government abandoned regional land planning and watershed planning in 1995, but with the Land Use Planning Framework announced earlier this year and the watershed council program, it’s back in both areas, said Trew. 

“The Land Use Planning Framework alludes to air, land and water planning, but its not clear how we all plug in,” he said. 

Danielle Droitsch, president of Water Matters Society of Alberta, a private advisory group dedicated water issues, wonders what weight the government will give to findings and recommendations generated by the watershed councils.

“Some think WPAC’s should have legislated authority, but that is both inappropriate, since they are not elected, and impractical,” she said. “What we’re left with is a potentially influential group that government might listen to on water issues. There needs to specific commitments on how these advisory groups will influence decisions.”