Roger McDonnell is an anthropologist who has spent decades developing programs with First Nations communities across central Alberta and throughout the boreal forest on issues related to treaty rights, consultation, conservation, justice, health and self-government.
The Nexen pipeline rupture discovered this month near Fort McMurray will, predictably, cause untold contamination to the area's soil, water, flora and fauna.
It is also a reminder – despite smug reassurances from the federal government – that Canada does not have a "world-class" oil-spill response plan; it has a world-class oil-spill problem. Apathy trumps action when it comes to enacting measures that could diminish the magnitude of future accidents.
What many pipeline advocates and detractors do not realize is that we already have a made-in-Canada response plan that could be up and running very quickly: It is called First Nations.
What currently passes for pipeline monitoring is a variety of remote-sensing gadgets that companies have installed along some of the corridors. Something with the unlikely name of "the whistling pig" can, we are told, detect a breach that is leaking as little as a gallon an hour. Sounds fantastic. But networks malfunction, targeted cyberattacks happen and, most importantly, whistling pigs do not clean up spills – humans do.
Nexen executives said on Wednesday the spill near Fort McMurray may have gone undetected for two weeks. A spill could occur anywhere along a network of corridors totalling thousands of kilometres in length, much of it through remote wilderness. How could we guarantee that trained people are in the vicinity with the appropriate equipment to provide early spill containment?
One of the best – and most neglected – options is to set up a permanent network of oil-spill response teams. These teams would be stationed at strategic intervals along the pipeline corridors. And they would be composed of trained professionals who possess a strong interest in securing the integrity of the land and water. The teams would ensure eyes-on monitoring of every foot of the pipeline, at least twice a day – and as they did so, they would create a daily record on a broad spectrum of climatic, botanical and zoological concerns.
Everyone agrees that when cleaning up oil, time is of the essence. Not only does more time mean more volume, it also means the spill is harder to clean up. This is particularly true if oil comes into contact with water. In that event, bitumen separates from its diluent and quickly sinks, making it extremely difficult to recover. Given that the routes of current and proposed pipelines traverse thousands of marshes, streams and small rivers that feed two-thirds of the country's major drainage basins, relying purely on remote sensing technology means oil could be gushing over the land and into the water for days before anyone got there.
Spill-response teams, in contrast, would be within minutes or hours of a site. They would have the training and resources to ensure initial containment until, where required, long-term reclamation procedures could be initiated.
If spill-response teams became a reality, First Nations people are ideally suited for such a task. Environmental concerns are particularly pronounced among their communities. In song and ceremony, virtually all First Nation traditions celebrate a mutual and intimate connectivity with the land. Many aboriginal youth consider any contamination of the land a crucial threat to themselves and their cultural heritage. Understanding this relationship helps explain the adamant stand of First Nations anti-pipeline advocates – from Idle No More to Art Sterritt, executive director of B.C.'s Coastal First Nations, who categorically condemned the proposed pipeline plan in his region as a major threat to the land, the people and the wildlife.
Another reason to consider First Nations response teams is that native communities are already in remote areas throughout the country – occupying, however thinly, any pipeline corridor that might be imagined.
And what better source for spill-response teams than the most underemployed demographic in Canada? Training First Nations to do the kind of work many of them find worthwhile and fulfilling would help effect the kind of transformative change promised to native communities by governmental pipeline supporters – people like Joe Oliver, when he was the federal minister of natural resources.
Incidentally, many First Nations are already on board with this plan. After a recent canvas, several aboriginal communities across Alberta welcomed the idea of permanent pipeline monitoring teams and the employment opportunities these would entail.
First Nations spill-response teams make a whole lot of sense. They would address three issues central to Canadian society: economic growth, environmental protection, and First Nations' unemployment. It is time to give this option serious attention.