ATHABASCA — It was a tense town hall meeting to discuss two proposed Indigenous Protected and Conserved Areas (IPCA) surrounding three lakes in Athabasca County.
Over 200 people attended the town hall held in Grassland Dec. 6, despite the freezing weather, to hear from local and provincial officials to try and understand what the proposal entails and how it may impact landowners in the identified areas.
“We understand that rumours have been spreading causing division amongst our community members,” Athabasca County Coun. Ashtin Anderson said. “Athabasca County council wanted to share some of the information that we have obtained and take the opportunity to gain feedback from our residents.”
She acknowledged not all concerns could be addressed but the county will continue to seek answers from the Métis Settlements General Council (MSGC) who received federal funding to conduct the study.
“(Athabasca County) Reeve (Brian) Hall took the initiative to reach out to our guests for the evening and tried to get as much information as possible related to the IPCA and advocate for the best path forward to protect the interests of our community,” she said.
In 2016, the Government of Canada released the 2020 Biodiversity Goals and Targets which included 19 targets that need to be met to achieve four goals — A. That Canada's lands and waters are planned and managed using an ecosystem approach to support biodiversity conservation outcomes at local, regional and Settlements; B. direct and indirect pressures as well as cumulative effects on biodiversity are reduced, and production and consumption of Canada's biological resources are more sustainable; C. Canadians have adequate and relevant information about biodiversity and ecosystem services to support conservation planning and decision-making; and D. Canadians are informed about the value of nature and more actively engaged in its stewardship.
“Proposals for grant funding, were to focus on the acquisition and protection of ecologically sensitive areas,” said Anderson. “The MSGC was awarded funding for their proposed Métis settlements IPCAs establishment initiative as part of the challenge to conserve land around Wolf Lake, Tufted Lake, and North Buck Lake. Their work will protect habitats for species at risk, including the woodland caribou and grizzly bear.”
In the Indigenous Circle of Experts (ICE) ‘We Rise Together’ report there are three elements of an IPCA; they are Indigenous led, they represent a long-term commitment; and they elevate Indigenous rights and responsibilities.
“According to the Métis Settlements General Council IPCAs are established because the community has concerns with the current land use, mainly industrial development and serve to conserve wildlife, fish, habitat, and water quality,” she said. “Many Indigenous communities view an IPCA as an opportunity to continue to practice their traditions of connecting with the land or gathering for social or ceremonial purposes.”
Study Area A is 290,000 acres of land around Wolf Lake and the Lakeland Provincial Park and Recreation area, and Study Area B is 30,000 acres surrounding Amisk Lake, North Buck Lake and Big Johnson Lake.
Reeve of the MD of Bonnyville, Barry Kalinski, had already attended a town hall in La Corey Oct. 20 with over 500 Lakeland residents and tried to explain then what Toma Consulting had said during a council meeting Sept. 28.
“We had a presentation from a consulting firm named Toma … and they went on about how they're going to take over the Wolf Lake area in our area and I guess it's Buck Lake around here," he said. “And just one funny note with Toma (Consulting), when they first started off the presentation, they started telling us where Wolf Lake area was. The guy didn't even have a clue. So, all of a sudden, we figured out that this Toma group, they don’t even know what they’re talking about.”
He then went on to stress racial considerations did not play a part in deciding to oppose the study.
“I worked with a lot of Indigenous people in my life. I've worked with a gentleman named Mr. LaRoche here just down the road and I worked with a guy named Anderson. All of them are great men, I have nothing against Indigenous people or Métis people, I worked with them lots in my life, but this presentation came to us and we are totally against it.”
He added he believes the federal government is using the study and the Métis people as a way of shutting down oil and gas development or logging in the area.
“Our residents are very concerned if that gets shut down. There's many guys that have leases out there. There's guys that do their living out there with logging. They're just very concerned in the area. They don't want to see this happen and frankly, that's the only piece of land that anybody has left in our area to go up and do any kind of hunting or any kind of recreation north of us. So, that's their biggest concern.”
Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken said he wasn’t aware of the study in the early days.
“The idea of the IPCA first came across my desk Oct. 20,” van Dijken said. “A constituent had e-mailed my office so my staff sent me the e-mail and it said, ‘OK, so where do we stand on this? What do we know about getting to the truth?’ It was the very first I'd heard of it.”
He then introduced Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA David Hanson who chaired the Cold Lake Sub-Regional Caribou Task Force.
“I'd like to start by saying I definitely do not blame the Métis Settlements General Council or any of our Métis settlements for what's going on here,” Hanson said. “This is strictly the federal government providing funding to do a study. They're taking advantage of it. It's federal government overreach.”
Hanson added through the task force there were already 43 recommendations to protect lands in those areas.
“If the Métis Settlements General Council gets control of the entire Lakeland Provincial Park system, will they be able to restrict who comes and goes there?” he asked. “So, there's a lot of concern there. And again, the biggest problem with the whole thing here is the lack of detail and the lack of consultation.”
Hall had a few answers.
“We've heard some conflicting statements about the interest again in public versus Crown lands and the MSGC documents, again, are not proposing to restrict access to Crown land for non-Indigenous users, hunters, fishermen, trappers, farmers, or hikers, et cetera,” Hall said.
At the end of the day none of the speakers had the answers and claimed they could not get answers from Toma Consulting or the MSGC.
More consultation ahead
“We are not proposing anything that would disenfranchise people from their homes or property et cetera,” said Erin McGregor, central consultation and harvesting coordinator for the MSGC in a Dec. 9 email.
She added the feasibility study is underway and key stakeholders were identified as groups or communities could inform the feasibility of the project on a high level.
“Essentially, (it's) a ‘testing the waters’ exercise,” McGregor said. “These included municipal districts, grazing lease associations, trappers’ locals, members of the Métis Settlements, regional First Nation and Métis Settlements of Alberta, and generally anyone who approached us and wanted to provide input on the concept.”
The study was created by Solstice Environmental and none of the surveys come back to the MSGC directly but are compiled and aggregated into the feasibility report, she said.
“At this stage, we do not yet have specific, defined areas that will be explored further as potential IPCAs,” she said. “Rather, we have two very large ‘study areas’ that we are looking into broadly to see if/what might be possible to pursue with the province.”
Once they have the feasibility report, the MSGC assembly will review it and decide what specific parcels or areas of Crown land they would like to explore further via a request to the Government of Alberta.
“If the Government of Alberta is receptive to exploring the concept further, that would be the phase where further and deeper public and stakeholder engagements will occur, including with landowners who might be impacted,” McGregor said.
She stressed it’s important to note the IPCA concept is not looking at private lands, only at Crown lands, but the MSGC recognizes landowners will still have feedback and input.
“Right now, as we don’t have refined areas or parcels of interest, it would be misleading and also not possible within the scope of the feasibility study to engage every single landowner in the very large study areas for something that is still in a preliminary/concept phase,” she said.
Municipalities were contacted and asked for input.
“From speaking to the reeve of Athabasca County, I was told that the initial e-mails our consultant sent in August and September to Athabasca County did not reach the council, but we are hoping to answer any questions they have and hopefully have a good conversation with them (Dec. 13),” she said.
Ideally, the report will be completed in the next few months, she said, and then the MSGC will decide the next steps.
“The ‘study areas’ contain many features and places of importance to the Métis Settlements, and likely to other Indigenous communities as well as non-Indigenous communities,” McGregor said. “We do have recorded grave sites within the areas, as well as other historical and contemporary cultural and traditional land use sites/areas.”
Métis chairman not impressed
Buffalo Lake Métis Settlements chairman Stan Delorme said Buffalo Lake has been targeted because of its proximity to the study areas.
“Unfortunately, Buffalo Lake has been targeted here, which is unfair because this is a Métis Settlements General Council undertaking,” he said in a Dec. 7 interview.
He added he feels it’s discriminatory when people blame Buffalo Lake or get upset about the study without understanding it.
“That's a form of discrimination and racism," Delorme said. “We've been neighbours for a long, long time and we're not going anywhere. We're remaining exactly where we're at and we don't apologize to any of the white folks that want to discriminate or be racist against our group.”
Delorme said this is about reconciliation as much as about protecting the land and said land acknowledgements are lip service if there’s no action to back it up.
“I don't think anybody takes that seriously especially when it comes to the white community,” he said. "Every elected person in the country is talking reconciliation.”
He said people have sent him videos of the two town halls and he was not impressed by what Hanson had to say.
“When I hear those kinds of comments the first thing that comes to mind is that we're going back to the cowboy and Indian days again with this government if that's how he's talking,” said Delorme. "The government's talking big talk with reconciliation, and he's speaking that kind of rhetoric. That tells me this guy is not only racist, and you can quote me on that, he's not only racist, but the comments that he's making are harming progress in the process more than anything else.”
When asked for further comment Hanson said he’s not a racist and it is the federal government causing the problem.
“Mr. Trudeau just announced this morning (Dec. 7) that he's putting $800 million into these IPCAs and it's just another attack on our oil and gas industry,” he said. “But like I said, it causes division, he's using the Métis settlements. If anybody's racist, it’s him.”
