For decades, local leaders have blamed oilsands pollution for causing cancers in Fort Chipewyan. Industry groups have denied this claim.
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The federal government is funding a $12 million, 10-year study on whether the oilsands is causing serious impacts on the health of people living in Fort Chipewyan. For decades, local leaders have blamed oilsands pollution for causing cancers in their community. Industry groups have denied this claim.
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“I’ve heard loud and clear community members need to know what impacts of living downstream from the oilsands means for them,” said Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
“I’ve heard stories of health troubles, very high cancer rates, a concern about contaminants in the water, and since the Kearl mine those concerns have been exacerbated.”
Guilbeault referenced recent seepages from tailings ponds at Imperial Oil’s Kearl facility between May 2022 and February 2023. Imperial Oil and the Alberta Energy Regulator told Fort Chipewyan’s leadership about the first spill nine months later when a second spill occurred.
More than 5.3 million litres of tailings and 670,000 litres of contaminated water seeped from the site. Imperial Oil says the company has installed measures to mitigate the seepages and that they are working.
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Peace Athabasca Delta ‘a dumping ground’: Adam
The community-led health study will partner with the Fort Chipewyan Metis Nation and the Athabasca Chipewyan and Mikisew Cree First Nations. ACFN’s Chief Allan Adam said at a news conference that the First Nation first asked for a study into community cancer rates in 1992.
“For decades the Peace Athabasca Delta has been treated as a dumping ground from the tarsands industry,” said Adam in a statement.
“Living downstream of one of Canada’s most heavily industrialized regions, we have been concerned about the safety of traditional foods and drinking water and the potential impacts of industrial development on our health and well-being.”
Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro of MCFN was grateful for Guilbeault’s announcement, but said the study should have been announced earlier.
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“We know that there is something going on in this community. We can’t pinpoint it or anything in regards to what’s actually going on,” he said at a news conference.
Kendrick Cardinal, who is a municipal councillor and president of the Fort Chipewyan Metis, said funding the study “speaks volumes” about reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and the federal government.
“The time that I’ve travelled these rivers and trapped and fished in this community, and provided for our elders and our youth and each and every community member in this community, things have changed drastically here and it’s about time something like this is happening,” said Cardinal at a news conference.
“For 50 years now there’s always been something wrong with this community, 50 years now. The truth will come out eventually after we’re done this study and industry will be held accountable.”
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Last March, Cardinal said the seepages worsened existing community fears about water quality and he had lost faith in the management of the oilsands. He called payments from the oil industry “the devil’s dollar.”
“No dollar will ever take back the lives of the people who died from cancer,” said Cardinal at the time. “Fort Chip is suffering and dying slowly. That’s the cold hard truth.”
Outspoken doctor celebrates announcement
On Wednesday, Dr. John O’Connor said he was “overjoyed” with the announcement. O‘Connor, a family physician serving the communities of Fort McKay and Fort Chipewyan at the time, made international headlines in 2003 when he announced he was treating unusually high cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan.
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Health Canada filed four complaints of misconduct against O’Connor with the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2007. The charges included blocking access to files and causing “undue alarm.” The charges were dismissed.
“The Alberta government walked away. This constant denial and disrespect continues to this day. The UCP government would love for Fort Chip to just disappear,” he said.
“But there’s also the fear that what if the industry is doing this and it kills the economy? That is understandable, because than the options become die by disease or poverty and poverty kills faster.”
Guilbeault said the Alberta government was invited to help fund the study, but heard no response. Ryan Fournier, a spokesperson for Alberta’s Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, said in an email the province signed in 2020 an agreement with ACFN to explore a study.
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“We remain committed to working with our Indigenous partners on the exploration of a health study,” said Fournier.
Studies confirm high rare cancer numbers in Fort Chipewyan
A 2009 Alberta Cancer Board study found rare cancers in the tiny hamlet were at the time 30 per cent higher than the rest of Alberta.
A 2014 report from Dr. James Talbot, Alberta’s chief medical officer at the time, found higher than expected instances of cervical, lung and bile duct cancers in Fort Chipewyan. He also found overall cancer rates were not higher than expected and lymphoma rates had dropped.
The report speculated about risk factors not related to industrial pollution. This included a lack of local medical staff and low vaccination rates, obesity and family history. Talbot did not dismiss a larger study investigating health impacts on communities downstream from the oilsands.
Former Alberta Health Minister Stephen Mandel said in January 2015 he was open to a detailed and comprehensive study after then-premier Jim Prentice visited Fort Chipewyan. This did not happen after Prentice’s government lost reelection in May 2015.
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vmcdermott@postmedia.com
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