By Darcy Henton
April 13, 2005
Winnipeg Sun
EDMONTON (CP) - A northern Alberta aboriginal community has joined two high-profile environmental groups to press Ottawa to review a heavy oil development on claimed traditional lands.
Lubicon Lake Chief Bernard Ominayak wrote a five-page letter to Environment Minister Stephane Dion this week asking him for a full federal environmental assessment of the project.
"We believe that it is irresponsible to allow this development to proceed without first dealing with the unresolved jurisdictional issues regarding these lands, and without an independent assessment of the environmental, social and economical impacts of this project," Ominayak said in the letter, which was released Wednesday.
"These are lands in which our people have hunted and trapped, gathered medicines and foods, been born, lived, died and been buried. These are Lubicon lands."
The soft-spoken, media-shy chief has enlisted the help of the Sierra Club of Canada and Greenpeace in his fight with Deep Well Oil & Gas Inc., which heads a four-company partnership.
It has acquired rights to nearly 13,000 hectares in a bid to extract an estimated 820 million barrels of heavy oil.
Lubicon members blocked the companies from doing initial site preparation on their leases last month.
The band claims the companies plan to drill more than 500 wells, but have not responded to repeated requests for a meeting. (FOL note: Lubicon Nation press release said the companies plan "up to 512 wells".)
Elizabeth May, Sierra Club executive director, said her group supports the Lubicon demand for a panel review.
"These developments have serious health and environmental impacts and erode Canada's Kyoto targets," she said.
Bruce Cox of Greenpeace Canada said the federal government will be "kowtowing to big oil" if it lets the project proceed without an assessment.
Lubicon negotiator Kevin Thomas said the band raised concerns last August when it became apparent some wells would infringe on a buffer zone around future reserve lands.
He said most oil companies have policies of consulting with area landowners and residents before drilling projects, but that hasn't been the case here.
The small, impoverished band has been pressing for 66 years to resolve a land claim that would provide the community with a reserve, compensation and self-government.
"We are concerned about the effects unbridled resource exploitation will have on negotiations for a full and just settlement of our rights to these very lands and resources," he said.
"Even while we attempt to negotiate the issue of land rights in good faith, the Alberta provincial government has sold leases to these companies to exploit the very lands and resources which are subject of negotiations."
The Lubicon made international headlines in 1988 when they blockaded roads near their community of Little Buffalo to keep out oil developers.
The provincial Liberals have called for a moratorium on oil and natural gas development in the area until the land claim is settled. Alberta Environment Minister Guy Boutilier has indicated the province is not opposed to an environmental assessment.
Energy Minister Greg Melchin points out the companies still have to go before the Alberta Energy and Utilities Board, which regulates the oilpatch, for a licence to drill.
Ominayak told Dion he doesn't have a lot of faith in the board because it won't assess the impact of the entire project or the question of aboriginal title.
Deep Well said last week any activity to date is more than three kilometres from any land or buffer zones that have been set aside for the Lubicon. It also said it is aware of the band's fight for a land settlement.