Canadian First Nations leaders are calling for immediate action on the contaminated waters of Fort Chipewyan's Big Dock, which they say the national government concealed and ignored for years.
Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation told CTV News on Friday the government underestimated the local people.
"I think they have a hard time understanding people aren't illiterate anymore. People understand what's going on," he said.
Chief Adam said the gravity of the situation was revealed after community leaders contacted the federal government to dredge the dock because low water levels on the nearby Athabasca River, an artery to Fort McMurray 250 kilometres to the south, were a growing problem.
Chief Adam said when Transport Canada refused to dredge the dock, locals began the process of dredging it themselves, which included hiring a contractor who then alerted residents to contamination in the area, including cancer-causing substances above legal limits; confirmed in a 2017 report prepared by Winnipeg-based EGE Engineering for Public Works and Government Services Canada, but never made public.
Chief Adam believes the lack of action from the federal government amounts to environmental racism.
"We raised these issues and nobody seems to sound the alarm on the other side saying there's something serious going on in the community," he told CTV.
The local leader said Transport Canada has been trying to sell the dock to the community since 2013, and they were never alerted to any potential issues.
A spokesperson from Transport Canada told CTV News: "As the conversations with Fort Chipewyan regarding procurement of the dock never progressed, the detailed information was not shared."
While the dock and the Athabasca River provide a critical evacuation route during wildfires, especially if air travel isn't an option, climate change, combined with heavy industry in the area, have contributed to falling water levels, and the water-based transportation hub is being threatened.
The contamination is also a health risk to locals, who were largely raised swimming and fishing in the waters off the Big Dock.
Chief Adam said the high rates of rare cancers in the area are well known, twice the Alberta average, and have been backed up in multiple reports.
"It's not acceptable in a community of 1200 people where people are dying of rare cancer diseases and nobody's telling us what's going on."
The Office of Alberta's Minister of Health told CTV News there have not been any new cases of cholangiocarcinoma in Fort Chipewyan registered since 2017, and that detailed statistical assessments of the incidence of cancer in the community are completed every three years.
Chief Adam rejected their assessment of the tiny community.
"We've got 39 rare cancers in a community of 51 known," he said.
He called for immediate action to remove contaminants and dredge the waterway before members of three local First Nations are forced to become environmental refugees.
"People would have to pack up and leave a beautiful community because the water's damaged and there's nothing to repair it. You got nowhere else to go," he said.
"You won't be able to swim in it, you won't be able to eat the fish in it, won't be able to eat the livestock that go to it. We won't be able to live here anymore."
