In 2015, seven young people died in Beaver Lake Cree Nation — a tiny community in northeast Alberta with an on-reserve population of only 345 people.

“We started to lose young people,” recalled Crystal Lameman, treaty coordinator and member of the First Nation, in an interview with DeSmog Canada. “People my age, in my generation.”

A rise of drug use, alcohol consumption and violence in 2015 coincided with a downturn in the price of oil and job losses, creating a “time of crisis in the community,” she said.

Lameman is completing her Master’s degree on the relationship between mental health and traditional land use at the University of Alberta. She saw a direct correlation between what was happening in her community and the industrialization and “overdevelopment of extreme energy” in her territory.

“So it was like ‘ok, so what can I do?’ ”

An answer quickly became clear: solar power. Within less than a year, the community had installed 94 panels on the roof of its school.

Alberta’s New Indigenous Solar Program Quadrupled Installation Size

Beaver Lake had been discussing the concept of solar power for years. A feasibility study was started back in the late 1970s to evaluate the potential, but didn’t go anywhere.

The idea of small-scale solar was revived through conversations with Keepers of the Athabasca, a non-profit group dedicated to protecting the Athabasca River watershed. From there, Lameman gained enthusiastic support from the First Nation’s leadership and elders council, after which Beaver Lake drafted a request for proposal (RFP) for a 6 kW installation.

But as they were preparing to release the RFP in 2017, the Alberta government announced its Indigenous Solar Program. That allowed the First Nation to quadruple its initial plan, leveraging it into a 24.65 kilowatt installation via a 60-40 cost split with the province.

“Beaver Lake was very proactive,” Adam Yereniuk, director of operations at Kuby Renewable Energy — which won the bid and installed the panels — told DeSmog Canada.

“This was the first installation under the Alberta Indigenous Solar Program. They’re taking advantage of the grant money out there. I think it should encourage a lot of other First Nations to do the same because it really makes perfect sense.”

Indigenous communities across the country are getting on board with their own clean energy projects. A 2017 study by University of Calgary scholar Gregory Lowan-Trudeau identified 300 projects in 194 Indigenous communities in Canada; more than half are located in British Columbia, which created the First Nations Clean Energy Business Fund in 2013.

The Beaver Lake solar array was completed in July 2017, with the switch officially “flipped” in September.

The project is also a clear declaration of Indigenous sovereignty in the heartland of oil and gas production. https://t.co/vhZkKMxPgN

— DeSmog Canada (@DeSmogCanada) January 9, 2018

Switch to Solar About More than Clean Energy

The installation was about many things for Beaver Lake Cree Nation.

Lameman said the community’s drive to generate solar power was about more than clean energy: it was about harnessing the power to address intergenerational traumas in the community, manifesting in everything from high rates of drug and alcohol use, to incarceration, to violence, to child apprehension.

For that reason Beaver Lake kids participated in the solar project from its earliest stages: one of the first steps in the actual process involved a poster drawing contest, where school children drew what they thought of when they imagine the protection of Mother Earth.

The solar project was eventually installed on the roof of the Amisk Community School.

Now, as you walk into the foyer of the school, there’s a 20-inch flat screen monitor that displays how much electricity is being produced by the panels at any given time (Yereniuk pegged the number at about a fifth of the school’s total energy usage, although that number varies with conditions and demand).

The project was also a clear declaration of Indigenous sovereignty in the heartland of oil and gas production.

Lameman said that while Beaver Lake Cree Nation — which has launched precedent-setting court challenges against oilsands producers —  isn’t opposed to fossil fuel development, it has to be done in a way that respects treaty rights and environmental sustainability.

“Industry is not entirely responsible,” she said. “However, the way in which economics in this country has been defined has been at the expense of the lands and resources of Indigenous peoples.”

The community-led clean energy project was launched alongside a food sovereignty project, which used the school’s soccer field in the summer to establish a fruit orchard and community garden. Thanks to careful calculations and collaboration with the pre-existing food preservation program, there’s now enough fruit to feed the entire community for a year.

In time, the irrigation system that waters those grounds will be powered with the solar energy from the school.

Community Members Trained in Solar Installation

Then there was the emphasis on training and employment.

Lameman said that one of the major issues that Indigenous communities face is incessantly having to hire people from outside the community, costing extra money and not helping to build capacities amongst members. That’s why the project proposal specifically requested that the company host a training session, so that community members could monitor and troubleshoot any issues they have with the array.

Kuby Renewable Energy offered to conduct the training for no extra cost, including a two-day in-class portion and two-day on-site training. Nineteen community members were trained in the process.

“This is the first time we have had this number of young men in our community come forward for training that they weren’t paid to be at and didn’t receive any incentive: no honorarium or anything,” Lameman said.

“This was all on volunteer basis. They took two days of their personal time to come sit in a classroom.”

Three More Projects Already in the Works

The solar project on the school was well received by the community, Lameman said, “and that is what helped us to move forward on planning for more solar projects.”

Beaver Lake Cree Nation is already working on three more projects with Kuby. Another 80kW worth of solar arrays will be installed on the roofs of the health centre, the Wah-Pow drug and alcohol treatment centre and community store.

Kuby Renewable Energy also helped install a 20.8 kilowatt solar array in Lubicon Cree First Nation in Little Buffalo, Alberta.

There’s also a clear need for additional funding mechanisms: a 2011 study by the federal government identified 292 remote communities in Canada, 170 of which were Indigenous. At least 60 per cent of the total number are diesel-fuelled — a reliance that creates enormous greenhouse gas emissions, noise, costs and chance of blackouts for communities.

In the federal government’s 2017 budget, $53.5 million was pledged over a decade to encourage the deployment of renewable projects in remote communities that rely on diesel.

“My community is really on this path of redefining or rather defining what role the economy plays in our wellness, what role land-based teachings and practices play in our wellness, and what role energy plays in our wellness,” Lameman said.  

“When talking about energy we know that extreme energy hasn’t helped us in our path to being well. So we as a community have to define what Indigenous economic sovereignty means to us.”

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In a move that epitomizes the principle of thinking globally and acting locally, national youth climate conference PowerShift has gone local. Rather than one large national event, the conference has been split into smaller, regional events. The first will be in Victoria, BC on October 4.

“We’ve held two national ones before, and while they were amazing, what we realized is we were missing the mark on really being able to connect with movements locally that were leading the edge in fighting the fossil fuel industry,” said Cam Fenton, director of convening organization Canadian Youth Climate Coalition. Last year’s PowerShift was held in Ottawa shortly after the Defend Our Coast rally at the Victoria legislature that drew thousands, and Fenton said the conference in Ontario failed to tap into the energy that was building on the west coast.

PowerShift is a series of youth-driven speakers, panels and workshops designed to give young people the skills and tools they need to organize for climate justice. Big-name speakers include David Suzuki and Council of Canadians national chairperson Maude Barlow, in addition to numerous young people from frontline communities all over Canada.

The decision to host the first regional event in BC was twofold. First, as a province that was once a leader in sustainable energy development and is now embracing LNG and tar sands development, BC has become a battleground. The fight to stop Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline has galvanized activists and ordinary British Columbians alike.

The second reason has more to do with logistics. Fenton said the largest number of youth who were unable to attend last year due to the cost of getting to Ottawa were in BC, so it seemed like a great place to start.

He said there has also been a shift in the direction of the fight against fossil fuels. Rather than focusing on governmental policy change like their forbears, young climate activists are creating grassroots movements though community-based organizing and action.

“We wanted to transform PowerShift into something that would reflect that, and rapidly build our power as young people and as a climate movement in general.”

The concept of movement building is key for Fenton, and bringing together the voices of people working across the country will be crucial going forward.

“In the past, it hasn’t felt like we’ve really had a movement to stand behind our champions, and I think we’re starting to see it and see these movements grow to be the force that we need and the people power we need.”

He used opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline as an example of a group of people large enough to guide and support politicians to stand up for the climate justice.

“There is a movement that will actually stand behind them when they do the right things, and also hold them accountable if they do the wrong thing.”

Fenton said one of CYCC’s biggest concerns right now is divestment from the oil and gas sector, drawing on support from university groups and other major institutions. He’s hoping to spark a major player to take a stand.

“In order to have this conversation more publicly, some folks and some institutions with a more significant profile need to step up.”

Eriel Deranger, environmental activist and member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, will be bringing the story of her nation’s fight against extreme energy development on their traditional territory, with the hope of raising awareness about the scope and pace of tar sands development. She said part of the process of bringing national concerns to a regional level is highlighting the increasingly strong role First Nations are playing in defending the land and the water.

“I think just getting more people to have their eye on the expansion and approval of expansion on the Alberta tar sands is one of my main goals. The more eyes that are watching, the more the government will be careful.”

In the past, she said, approval for new projects was simply rubber-stamped and pushed through. But change is starting to happen, and Deranger said her ultimate goal is to maintain that kind of pressure not only on the government but also on the industry itself.

“We saw it with the Jack Pine Mine hearings. They actually put conditions on the approval and there was a strong public lens on it, which I think changes the way these projects are approved.”

Crystal Lameman, one of the keynote speakers, is member of the Beaver Lake Cree First Nation and does most of her work in her traditional territory, fighting tar sands development on the ground and through legal frameworks. She hopes to leave youth with the message that, no matter which road they’ve come in on, they have something important to give.

“Before our feet touch the floor in the morning, we’re all human beings first and foremost,” she said. “This issue that we’re faced with now on the environmental front, this issue is no longer an Indian problem. If you drink water, if you breathe air, this is about you and you need to be involved.”

She has no doubt grassroots organizing is the most powerful force for change right now. But she also acknowledges the foundation of policy work and legal struggles that underlie it.

“They created tools for change that the grassroots people are now taking up and using,” she said. “They were just as important in this movement.” In addition to sharing the stage with David Suzuki next Friday, Lameman will be speaking on a panel about legal issues.  She said she’s also looking forward to bringing her two children to meet the PowerShift organizers and attendees.

“These youth have every intention of creating a sustainable and safe future for my children.”

Image Credit: Image courtesy of PowerShitCAN via Flickr

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A draft version of a new investigative report released this week by Global Forest Watch and Treeline Ecological Research argues the series of underground leaks currently releasing a mixture of tar sands bitumen and water into a surrounding wetland and forest on the Cold Lake Air Weapons Range is related to a similar set of spills caused by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNRL) in-situ operations in 2009.

The cause of the 2009 seepage was never determined and details of an investigation by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), then called the Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB), weren’t made public until last year, four years after the initial incident.

The new report, called “CNRL’s Persistent 2013 Bitumen Releases Near Cold Lake, Alberta: Facts, Unanswered Questions, and Implications,” takes aim at the AER for allowing certain in-situ, or underground, tar sands extraction technologies to continue without adequately addressing “major unknowns.” The independent investigation reveals the AER continually fails to protect the public interest in relation to these spills and that both industry and government demonstrate 'dysfunction' in their lack of transparency with the public.

CNRL, the company responsible for both the 2009 and current leaks, uses a process called High Pressure Cyclic Steam Stimulation (HPCSS) to fracture underlying bedrock in order to extract bitumen under pressure. HPCSS uses extremely high pressures and temperatures to create underground fractures allowing for the migration of bitumen. According to the ERCB’s investigation of the 2009 incident, these underground fractures were offered as a potential explanation for the uncontrolled release of bitumen above ground.

Despite multiple investigations, regulators and industry were unable to definitively identify the cause of the 2009 incident. The new report’s two authors, Peter Lee and Dr. Kevin Timoney, suggest this lack of certainty makes the company’s continued operation in the area, and use of HPCSS technology, inexplicable.

“In light of the unquantified risks to the bitumen reservoir, groundwater, and the adjacent ecosystems, the decision by the ERCB to allow HPCSS to continue during and after the [2009] incident was unjustified by the available evidence,” the report states.

There are “spatial and temporal” reasons for believing the two incidents are related, claim the authors. An analysis of the time and locations of the seepage shows a consistent pattern of leaks, each migrating outwards from a central location where the 2009 incident occurred.

Although the causes of the incidents remain “unclear,” they write the seepage is “known to involve migration of bitumen emulsion through a network of vertical and horizontal fissures.”

A map of the affected areas in 2013 from the Global Forest Watch report.

“Due diligence dictates that all HPCSS operations should be suspended until major unknowns are addressed. If not, continued use of HPCSS may result in large and unpredictable costs, and those costs will not be borne by the energy companies but by future generations,” the report states.

Crystal Lameman, member of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation whose traditional territory the seepage is within, says the ongoing situation calls into question the role and ultimate purpose of the AER. “What is their job, really?” Lameman asks. “What is their job and what is their agenda?”

The AER’s role depends upon their ability to regulate industry, she says. “They are supposed to be monitoring them and ensuring they are following through with the proper protocols, policies and procedures,” she said.

Crystal Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation. Credit Emma Pullman.

Lameman says the AER’s inability to prevent multiple releases of bitumen into the environment is difficult to understand.

“Are they becoming deliberately ignorant to what industry is doing? Are they turning a blind eye? I guess I’m asking these questions because I can’t think of any other reason these thing like the CNRL spill can happen, or not be stopped, or reported at a quicker rate. It causes concern for me as someone who lives in a tar sands impacted community.”

For Lameman, the ongoing incident in Cold Lake is a part of a longer-running pattern.

“Since they’ve changed their name from the ERCB to the AER, I’ve seen nothing but a bad track record in the way they report, in the way they provide comment, the lack of expediting information to local First Nations people. What I’ve found is that we’re often the last ones to find out about these spills.”

The Global Forest Watch report also criticizes both the AER and CNRL for failing to communicate adequately with the media and the general public. The lack of information, says Lameman, leaves impacted communities guessing.

“What next? Are we going to find out that the spill from ’09 has been ongoing since ’09? And the AER, at that time the ERCB, didn’t tell us? Are we going to find out next that CNRL was pumping at higher pressures than they were supposed to?” she asked. The question of dangerously high injection pressures is a concern also raised by Timoney and Lee in the investigative report.

For Lameman, the events on CNRL’s site bring to light the inherent dangers of extracting bitumen deposits with in-situ technologies. “We’re putting our guards down when we believe the AER when it says that in-situ and SAGD are safer methods. How? How are these safe?” she asked. “The more spills that happen, [the AER] is proven otherwise.”

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