Mikisew Cree First Nation sues Alberta, feds over industrial development impacts

The Mikisew Cree First Nation is taking Alberta and Ottawa to court.

In a statement of claim filed Tuesday, the Alberta First Nation alleges both governments have failed to protect its members from health issues it says were brought on by decades of oilsands development and other industrial activity.

The Mikisew Cree First Nation is one of the five Athabasca Tribal Council Nations and its people live on a handful of reservations along the Athabasca River and near Wood Buffalo National Park in far northeastern Alberta.

Mikisew says Alberta and Canada have “failed to uphold their constitutional, fiduciary and Treaty obligations by authorizing extensive industrial development throughout and around Mikisew Cree’s traditional territory without adequately managing cumulative environmental and health impacts.”

“We are seeking accountability and meaningful action to ensure our rights, our lands and our future are protected,” Mikisew Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro said.

“We just want a good, healthy lifestyle like every Albertan deserves.”

The lawsuit comes weeks after Tuccaro took a report from the First Nation to Ottawa.

The First Nation is based in Fort Chipewyan, where the report found cancer rates for residents of the remote community were 25 per cent higher than other Albertans over a nearly 30-year period.

Tuccaro said last month the preliminary findings showed 149 confirmed cancer cases between 1993 and 2022 in the community of roughly 900 people. But the numbers, he said, are likely much higher — closer to 250 or even 300 by his estimation.

That would mean cancer has touched around six out of every 10 households in Fort Chipewyan, directly down the Athabasca River from major oilsands developments near Fort McMurray.

At that time, Alberta primary and preventative health services minister Adriana LaGrange said provincial data did not have the same findings, but she would examine the numbers.

“There is no known causal link between oilsands development and cancer rates in the region. Since 2009, AHS has been monitoring cancer rates in the Fort Chipewyan area, including Mikisew Cree First Nation,” a ministry statement from Tuesday said.

“The most recent AHS review reported no pediatric cases of cancer in the community and found that adult cancer rates were largely in line with the rest of the province. We will continue to review any new data as it becomes available, including the study they commissioned, which we have not yet received.”

Alberta Indigenous Relations would not go into detail over the matter.

“Alberta’s government is committed to meaningful consultation on projects where Treaty rights may be affected and we take these responsibilities seriously,” Alberta Indigenous relations minister Rajan Sawhney told Global News in a statement.

“As this matter is currently before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment on the specifics.”

Mikisew says any future talks need to be followed by what it considers meaningful action.

“Those conversations are not going to be the ones we’ve been having for the last 127 years, where we bring our recommendations forward and then it’s shelved,” Tuccaro said.

“We need some good, tangible results before anything moves forward.”

The federal government says it’s aware of the statement of claim and is “currently reviewing it.”

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