The speech Alberta Premier Rachel Notley gave to over 1,000 federal NDP delegates on Saturday in Edmonton’s Shaw Convention Centre was a stunning thing to behold.

In a mere half-hour, she received around a dozen standing ovations, cracked a pretty solid joke about Donald Trump and delivered a unabashed appeal for the approval and construction of pipelines “that are built by Canadians, using Canadian steel.”

But even more stunning was the fact that she completely failed to mention the rights or interests of First Nations, Métis and Inuit people.

Oil and Gas Industry Currently Critical to Alberta Economy

The Alberta government clearly has a reason for wanting to facilitate the export of more oil and gas via the proposed TransCanada Energy East and Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain pipelines.

In 2014, energy products accounted for one-quarter of the province’s GDP and three-quarters of its exports. The global oil price has since plummeted by two-thirds, resulting in a projected provincial deficit of over $10 billion.

Notley emphasized in her speech that “hundreds of thousands of Canadians work in resource industries — here and across Canada” and “we need to be able to get the best possible world price for the oil we produce here” via “pipelines to tidewater that allows us to diversify our markets and upgrade our products.”

Alberta NDP Pledged to Implement UNDRIP, “Ensure Respectful Consultation”

Those are very nice ideas, supported by many political pundits and Alberta NDP supporters.

But unfortunately for such boosters, the NDP committed in its election platform to implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and to “work with Alberta Indigenous Peoples to build a relationship of trust and ensure respectful consultation.”

Article 32 of the declaration states that “Indigenous peoples have the right to determine and develop priorities and strategies for the development or use of their lands or territories.”

And free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) underpins much of the document, requiring that Indigenous peoples are consulted with in a way that ensures a process free of manipulation, conducted well in advance and with plenty of information provided.

Eriel Deranger, communications manager of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) suggests the NDP’s push for the development of pipelines and oil and gas resources simply doesn’t respect the principle of free, prior and informed consent.

“Where’s the consent?” asks Deranger. “If communities want to say ‘no,’ then we’re talking about a government that’s willing to respect communities’ right to say ‘no’ and to uphold that right,” she says.

Many First Nations Oppose Energy East and Trans Mountain Expansion

Many First Nations and other Indigenous groups have voiced opposition to Energy East and the Trans Mountain expansion (the two projects considered most likely to be approved and constructed).

The Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations and Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs are explicitly opposed to Trans Mountain, while the entire Iroquois caucus, Wolastoq Grand Council and Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs have united in resistance to Energy East.

A letter sent by Mohawk Kanesatake Grand Chief Serge Simon to Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard in early March stated: “The Mohawk Council of Kanesatake as well as the rest of the Iroquois caucus has made its choice. Other First Nations are making the same choice.”

Mike Hudema, climate energy campaigner at Greenpeace Canada, says: “Not only have First Nations not given their consent but they have said very strongly that they don’t want these pipelines going through their traditional territory.”

Federal Government Positioning to Implement Pipeline Strategy

On Monday, the National Post’s John Ivison reported (while vaguely citing “people with knowledge of the matter”) that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has instructed cabinet ministers to prepare a pipeline strategy to “make Energy East and Trans Mountain expansion in British Columbia a reality.”

The federal government has also pledged to implement UNDRIP, as well as all 94 calls to action contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The TRC also emphasizes the concept of free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples “before proceeding with economic development projects” and the requirement of “recognition and integration of Indigenous laws and legal traditions in negotiation and implementation processes involving Treaties, land claims, and other constructive agreements.”

Many First Nations Desire Co-management of Resource Development

Deranger emphasizes that First Nations communities are not anti-development: “There’s this really, really antiquated notion that if you give First Nations the right to say ‘no’ we’re going to end up back in teepees and sending smoke signals or something really ridiculous,” she jokes.

Rather, she says First Nations are asking for co-management of resource development, something that has been done in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Northern Quebec and Manitoba (ACFN has been petitioning for a similar arrangement for 20 years).

“Co-management is not asking for everything,” she says. “It’s asking to be partners. Our ancestors signed our treaty agreements believing that we were signing nation-to-nation agreements, to be given equal say in the development of our lands and territories.”

There has been no public indication that such conversations are on the radar of the provincial or federal government.

Alberta’s Push for Pipelines “Flies in the Face of These Commitments”

After all, truly engaging with documents like UNDRIP and the TRC would require a complete overhaul of how development is conducted, could potentially pose a threat to corporate profits and prove difficult to explain to voters.

But the Alberta NDP perhaps shouldn’t have promised to implement such policies if it just wanted to continue rapid oilsands development in Treaty 8 territory and ram pipelines through other sovereign territories without ensuring free, prior and informed consent beforehand.

“I do think the Alberta government pushing so hard for pipelines really flies in the face of these commitments,” Hudema says. “A lot of First Nations communities are looking to see how the government deals with this situation to know how serious the government really is to its commitments to First Nations people.”

Image: Premier Rachel Notley holds a sign in support of the Energy East pipeline. Photo: Premier of Alberta/Flickr.

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Provincial auditor general Merwan Saher has agreed to conduct an audit of oil pipeline safety in Alberta, responding to requests from a coalition of 54 public interest groups dissatisfied with the provincial government's third-party report released in August.

"We will be auditing the government's monitoring systems to ensure compliance with Alberta's pipeline regulations. Our audit would include inspection and enforcement processes," Saher wrote in a letter to Alberta's Opposition parties Wildrose and the NDP, which were among the groups demanding the review.

The government-commissioned pipeline safety review, conducted by Group 10 Engineering, was announced by Energy Minister Ken Hughes in July 2012 after several major pipeline oil spills in the province, including a 475,000 litre leak from a Plains Midstream Canada pipeline in Central Alberta in June. The final report was made public a year later, in August 2013.

Following the release of the report last month, a coalition representing 54 environmental, First Nations, labour and landowner groups wrote to Premier Alison Redford requesting another review. The letter stated that "Albertans deserve to know the real scope of the province's pipeline problems and they deserve real solutions," leaving the group "no choice but to begin to petition the Alberta auditor general to take on such an examination."  

Eriel Deranger, Communications Coordinator for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation said “Oil spills pose a major threat to our community, which depends on clean air, water and soil to sustain our way of life. We are pleased that the Auditor General will be looking into pipeline safety, as we feel the provincial government hasn’t been doing enough to prevent spills from happening.”

“It’s been a long road pushing for this review but hopefully the Auditor General will finally give Albertan’s some answers to Alberta’s pipeline woes because the Redford government definitely hasn’t,” said Mike Hudema, Greenpeace Canada’s climate and energy campaigner. “Groups from across the political spectrum joined together to push for this review because of the growing threats pipeline spills are posing to Alberta’s communities and environment. I hope this review will give the government time to pause on its pipeline-pushing ways because all is not well in Alberta.”

Jennifer Grant, director of the oilsands program at the Pembina Institute, applauded Saher for "showing leadership on this important issue," saying that the "audit presents an opportunity to restore Albertans' confidence in the provincial regulator's ability to manage pipelines and the associated risks."

"With 400,000 square kilometres of pipelines crisscrossing the province, and an average of two crude oil spills a day for the past 37 years, ensuring the integrity and safety of Alberta's pipeline network is absolutely critical and could set an important precedent for other jurisdictions," Grant said in a news release.

Global News reports that the auditor general "has been considering a pipeline safety audit for much of the past year" according to spokeswoman Kim Nishikaze. Nishikaze added that they "will be looking at pipeline safety in the foreseeable future" but "can't say when."

Saher wrote in his letter that the pipeline safety audit would be undertaken "as soon as reasonably possible."

Image Credit: Jasonwoodhead23 / Flickr

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The words 'this is just wrong' echoed in my mind walking 14 kilometers through the barren, industrialized landscape in the heart of the Alberta tar sands last Saturday. Wrong on such an overwhelming scale and in so many dimensions, the only parallel that comes to mind is the destruction to the land wrought by a major war.

The blasted, battered lands along the Syncrude Loop look like a battle had been fought but with weaponry that left nothing alive – not a blade of grass or an insect. The once verdant boreal forest and wetlands are transformed into desert and toxic lakes. In their midst a huge industrial complex, chimneys belching smoke, workers housed in cramped barracks while heavy trucks roar by day and night.

More than 500 of us from all over Canada and the US on the Healing Walk stood on the roadside straining to hear the prayers offered by elders from the Fort McKay First Nation. I felt a deep sadness for all those who work in the tar sands. I imagine that it must be a tough place, this noxious environment, to breathe, to sleep, to toil. I suspect the pay is the only thing keeping them going, because it's hard to find anything to be proud of looking around this industrial landscape. 

An RCMP officer told one walker that drug abuse is rampant and that even grade school children have been caught with cocaine.

The Healing Walk is not a protest march. It is a spiritual gathering focused on healing the land and all living things including people harmed by the relentless expansion of the world's largest industrial project. The Walk is not anti-industry or anti-worker, it's pro-health and pro-solutions.

This included praying for the healing of governments corrupted by the oil industry and for the awakening of industry executives to the terrible legacy they're leaving for future generations.

All of us use oil in one form or another everyday. But as a one-time gift from Mother Nature, should not all of our efforts be directed to using as little as possible, knowing the consequences? Instead, $200 billion has been spent in the tar sands destroying hundreds of square kilometres of land and water to get more of this dwindling resource.

That is deeply short-sighted and more people are beginning to realize this.

Four years ago, just 75 people joined the first annual Healing Walk held outside of Fort McKay, 800 km north of Calgary. It's remote. But for the fourth Healing Walk hundreds of people camped in a field on the shores of Lake Gregoire, also known as Willow Lake. Four is a sacred number amongst many native peoples and in other cultures.

"It means this is the beginning of a new cycle, a slow down and eventual end to the tar sands," Clayton Thomas-Muller, a Cree from Manitoba and co-ordinator with the Idle No More movement, said prior to the event.

And to mark this new beginning, a baby boy was born at the camp at midnight Friday, in the midst of a thunderstorm. 

"We have to be the people to say no. People are counting on us to say 'no, this is wrong'," Winona LaDuke an Anishinaabekwe (Ojibwe), writer and teacher from Minnesota told participants during workshops that Friday.

Breaking "our oil addiction" can be done by "re-localizing and shifting to low-carbon ways of living," said La Duke.

On Saturday I walked, talked and prayed all day in just one tiny part of the tar sands project. That night there was a celebratory feast, drumming and dancing. Yes, celebration because the new cycle has begun.

In the early morning Sunday rain, I slipped out of the tent to stand amazed on the shore of Willow Lake. Others joined me, rubbing their eyes, and agreed they too saw a large floating island of grasses and shrubs that had emerged overnight. This sudden appearing seemed symbolic of new cycles, of change, and the power of nature to surprise and to create new life.

Later that morning, a school bus stuck deep in the slippery Alberta mud was freed using only the ingenuity, muscle and co-operative efforts of a handful of people. Washing the muck off my hands, I remember marvelling to someone: "It's amazing what we can achieve when we work together."

Photo Credits: Renee Leahy

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