The Fort McKay First Nation in northern Alberta is surrounded by oil sands projects. Like other Indigenous communities in the area, it endures noise and emissions, and has concerns about water, air quality and boreal forest destruction.
Through all of this, the First Nation has never been an oil producer itself. But that could change with a new agreement that puts the community in the driver’s seat. It’s an example of how Indigenous participation in resource projects so that they are even remotely tenable is now essential. Not everyone believes oil sands expansion is realistic, or desirable. For instance, north of Fort McKay in Fort Chipewyan, the First Nation isfor not immediately informing the community that water tainted with dangerous levels of toxins was seeping from the Kearl oil sands project. There, Chief Allan Adam is telling the regulator – and by extension, the province – it has problems to fix. “If you can’t do that, it’s time to shut down the oil sands.
Jim Boucher, Fort McKay’s chief at the time, said in an interview this month that the land was chosen by the First Nation, when it received additional reserve lands through a treaty land entitlement process in 2004, specifically because of its abundant bitumen deposits.