After consistent requests from community members spanning more than twenty years, a federally funded investigation is set to commence to assess the health impacts of the oilsands on residents in Fort Chipewyan, an Indigenous community situated in northern Alberta.
Residents of Fort Chipewyan, located over 200 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, have long suspected a connection between cancers in their community and the industrial activities upstream along the Athabasca River.
Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine, the site of a significant 5.3-million-liter wastewater spill in 2023, is approximately 140 kilometers away from Fort Chipewyan. The nearest project is Suncor Energy’s Fort Hills mine, positioned more than 90 kilometers away.
The upcoming study will scrutinize both current and historical health data, investigate local disease patterns, and monitor both people and the environment. Additionally, researchers will analyze how environmental transformations influence the community’s culture and daily routines.
“We’re not assigning blame; we simply seek answers regarding the ongoing situation,” remarked Ruby Ladouceur, president of the Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation, during an interview with CBC News. “We can’t definitively attribute everything to industrial activities without concrete evidence.”
The research will be conducted by independent researchers under the guidance of the Métis Nation, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), and the Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN), with the federal government playing a supervisory role.
Announced by the federal government in August 2024, the $12-million, 10-year study, named Project Monument Hill after a local viewpoint overlooking Fort Chipewyan and Lake Athabasca, received its initial funding in March for the planning and governance phase.
Ladouceur emphasized that the study’s approach will blend western scientific methods with Indigenous knowledge of the land. “Our objective is to enhance our understanding of the link between environmental conditions, traditional land usage, and the health and welfare of our people,” Ladouceur stated. “The interconnection between environmental health and human health is undeniable.”
As per a spokesperson for Alberta Primary and Preventative Health Services, Alberta presently lacks community-specific cancer statistics for rural areas of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) and other regions in northern Alberta, maintaining only general or regional data instead.
Dr. John O’Connor, a vocal advocate concerning cancer issues in Fort Chipewyan since 2006, expressed contentment over the study’s initiation but voiced concerns about the extended 10-year duration.
Regarding previous reports, Callie Davies-Flett, a special projects adviser with the ACFN, highlighted that past examinations of cancer in Fort Chipewyan focused on medical records and health trends, omitting individuals who relocated, including residents seeking cancer treatments.
Notably, a 2009 study by the Alberta Cancer Board revealed that at the time, some cancers in Fort Chipewyan were 30% higher than the provincial average. Subsequently, in 2014, researchers from the University of Manitoba identified heavy metals and industrial contaminants in plants and animals commonly harvested by Fort Chipewyan residents, warning about potential risks to human health.
A report from Dr. James Talbot in 2014, Alberta’s former chief medical officer of health, disclosed higher-than-expected instances of bile duct, lung, and cervical cancers in Fort Chipewyan from 1992 to 2011, attributing the numbers to lifestyle elements like obesity and smoking rather than industrial exposure.
The report faced criticism from Fort Chipewyan leaders who argued that reviewing health statistics did not equate to an in-depth, prolonged community health investigation.
Davies-Flett stressed the limited availability of public data concerning the correlation between cancer rates in Fort Chipewyan and the environmental alterations resulting from oilsands developments, emphasizing the urgency of addressing these community concerns.
