Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta has many global claims to fame. The park protects nesting grounds for the world’s only self-sustaining population of endangered whooping cranes. It’s home to the world’s largest and most genetically diverse wood bison herd — the genesis for the park’s creation. Inside the park, at the confluence of the Peace and Athabasca rivers, lies the planet’s largest boreal inland delta, a kaleidoscope of green and blue that draws millions of chirping, honking and quacking migratory birds.

But more than anything, the park is essential for the Mikisew Cree’s cultural survival. In Cree, Ayapaskaw is the name for a place where “all the creeks and waterways join and wind together with grasses and green things to form a living delta.” Ayapaskaw is central to the identity of the Mikisew people, informing how they think and see the world, according to a 2016 document the Mikisew Cree prepared for the UNESCO World Heritage Centre that details the deep connections Indigenous people have to the park’s land and waters. It’s their home, grocery store, church, classroom, highway and photo album — the place where their happiest memories live. “The delta is what the animals love — muskrat, beaver, moose, bison, fish, birds and other living things — and in the delta, water is everything,” the Mikisew Cree told the centre three decades after the park was named a World Heritage Site for its unique wildlife and exceptional biodiversity.

“It’s not only our home,” says Melody Lepine, director of government and industry relations for the Mikisew Cree First Nation. “It’s our way of life.”

The Mikisew Cree First Nation describes the Peace Athabasca Delta as their grocery store, as well as their church, classroom, highway and photo album – the place where their happiest memories live. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Lepine is in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and appears for a Zoom interview seemingly unruffled despite a 22-hour journey and a nine-hour time change. She’s travelled half-way around the world from her home in northern Alberta, accompanied by a lawyer for the Mikisew Cree and a representative from the Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation, to attend her sixth World Heritage Committee meeting in nine years. At each meeting, her message is the same: the Wood Buffalo World Heritage Site is gravely threatened by industrial activities outside its borders, including oilsands expansion and tailings ponds in Alberta and large hydro dams in British Columbia that alter water flows to the delta, eroding biodiversity and Indigenous ways of life. “I think the strength really comes from my community, my Elders, my land users who are so tired, they’re so frustrated,” she says. “And every time I come to these sessions, I feel like there’s still hope, that there’s still promise to make our home a better place.”

On Sept. 13, Lepine addressed the World Heritage Committee wearing a culturally significant ribbon skirt her mother sewed for her. She thanked the committee for sending a monitoring mission to the Wood Buffalo region in August 2022 to assess threats to the World Heritage Site. The mission stopped short of recommending Wood Buffalo immediately be included on the list of World Heritage in Danger, which recognizes sites in need of protection from threats such as armed conflict, development, natural disasters or abandonment. But in a strongly worded 102-page report, the mission detailed mounting threats to Wood Buffalo and made 17 recommendations for Canada to avoid a future “in danger” listing. This week, the committee accepted all the recommendations, giving Canada three years to follow through. 

“We are hopeful your decision will be met by Canada in the spirit intended — an opportunity to reflect on areas of progress — but most critically to renew, rededicate and expand its commitment to save this vital area in full partnership with the Mikisew Cree,” Lepine said to committee members.

“Without the delta, there wouldn’t be Mikisew,” Lepine tells The Narwhal. “So, us fighting to protect the delta is really us fighting to protect Mikisew and who we are, and why we exist in that part of the world.”

The Peace Athabasca Delta, part of Wood Buffalo National Park, is rich in wildlife, including moose. The Mikisew Cree First Nation says “water is everything” in the delta. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Mikisew Cree petitioned for a World Heritage in Danger listing 

It’s been a long journey for the Mikisew Cree. Nine years ago, citing “many serious and immediate threats,” the Mikisew petitioned the World Heritage Committee to include Wood Buffalo on the list of World Heritage in Danger. World Heritage Sites, recognized for their outstanding universal values, are considered to belong to all the peoples of the world. Other World Heritage Sites include Egypt’s great pyramids, Ecuador’s Galapagos Islands, India’s Taj Mahal and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. 

If outstanding universal values are deemed to be in jeopardy, the committee can place a site on the list of World Heritage in Danger. A listing alerts the international community to the situation and encourages corrective action. The majority of 54 properties currently on the list are in the Arab States and Africa and are threatened by armed conflict. Only two World Heritage Sites in North America are listed in danger — Everglades National Park in Florida and Mexico’s Sea of Cortez and its islands.

In the petition, the Mikisew Cree described how Alberta’s oilsands and B.C.’s hydro dams were contaminating the delta and drying it up. Wood Buffalo was facing an “unprecedented level of immediate threats that are converging from multiple directions,” the Mikisew Cree stated, saying ecological damage wrought by growing threats would harm the park’s wildlife and result in the loss of distinctive Indigenous cultures.

Wood Buffalo National Park is home to the world’s largest and most genetically diverse wood bison herd. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

In response, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre sent a monitoring mission to Wood Buffalo in 2016 that included representation from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s most comprehensive information source on global extinction risks. The mission issued a hard-hitting report the following year, confirming Canada’s largest park was under threat from unfettered oilsands development and hydro dams on the Peace River, where the B.C. government was planning to build the controversial Site C dam — now in the final stages of construction. 

The mission concluded the 4.5-million hectare park, which straddles the Northwest Territories, had been affected by decades of industrial development along the Peace and Athabasca rivers, along with poor management and a disconcerting lack of consideration for the cumulative effects of projects. It outlined steps Canada needed to take to protect the outstanding universal values of the site. 

The second mission, also including representation from the International Union for Conservation of Nature, found most threats to the park remain. Its report noted Canada has made important progress to implement an action plan based on the recommendations of the earlier mission. Those efforts include strengthening Indigenous partnerships, creating a buffer zone from development south of Wood Buffalo and conservation measures for wood bison. 

Yet the state of conservation of the Peace Athabasca Delta “remains of particular concern,” the mission concluded. It singled out oilsands projects along the Athabasca River, south of the park, as a significant threat to the World Heritage Site. Those include potential impacts “associated with seepage from the massive tailings ponds related to the oil sands projects and the lack of a clear strategy to reclaim these areas and treat the large volumes of toxic oilsands process-affected water accumulated over decades of oilsands development.” 

Alberta’s oilsands projects along the Athabasca River, south of Wood Buffalo National Park, are cited as a significant threat to the outstanding universal values that merited the park its designation as a World Heritage Site. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

The monitoring mission took place before news broke that Imperial Oil’s Kearl oilsands facility was leaking wastewater contaminated with arsenic, dissolved heavy metals and hydrocarbons into groundwater and surface waters near a main artery of the Athabasca River. Gillian Chow-Fraser, boreal program director for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, northern Alberta, notes the Kearl facility was spilling wastewater while the monitoring mission was in the region — and many months before impacted communities were informed. The mission cautioned about the catastrophic impact a spill or a leak could have on Wood Buffalo, Chow-Fraser points out. “Wouldn’t you know it, a few months later, this real bombshell drops about the Kearl leak.” She says the Kearl spill, which has yet to be stopped, is further evidence of the lack of effective risk management for oilsands tailings ponds.

The parks and wilderness society has high expectations for the next three years, “since we know anything less than an urgent and robust response from Canada puts its World Heritage Site status at risk,” Chow-Fraser said in a statement. “At the same time, we are concerned that three years could be just enough time to result in repeats of the devastating events that have unfolded in the past months: oilsands tailings leaks that were kept secret for many months, catastrophic overflows and spills into major surrounding rivers and consistent failures in regulatory oversight.” 

The mission recommended Canada “urgently” conduct an independent systematic risk assessment of oilsands region tailings ponds, with a focus on risks to the Peace Athabasca Delta. Canada’s current action plan includes a risk assessment, but “implementation has not started,” the mission noted, saying it is concerned “some representatives from Alberta continue to question the need for such an assessment.” (The Narwhal asked Alberta’s Energy Ministry for comment on the mission’s findings but did not receive a response.) 

Releasing treated oilsands wastewater into Athabasca River ‘not acceptable’

Plans to release treated oilsands wastewater into the Athabasca River are “extremely concerning,” the monitoring mission also said. According to the federal government, such a decision would require changes to federal legislation and would only be permitted if released water can be treated to a standard of drinking water quality. Yet Alberta’s water quality director has said releases could take place in 2025, the mission report pointed out, “indicating that he considered this to be the preferred and realistic way forward” to dispose of oilsands wastewater accumulated over decades of development.

Lepine says releasing treated oilsands wastewater into the Athabasca River is “completely not acceptable to us.” The Mikisew Cree are calling on Canada to examine other options for managing and eliminating tailings ponds, “including options that are going to have the least amount of impact not only on the delta but on people, on our health, on our way of life, our cultural rights.” They’re asking Canada to develop a policy or regulatory framework for managing tailings ponds “and not rely on Alberta to play that role.” 

The mission report also pointed to the lack of progress in addressing cumulative impacts from industrial developments around Wood Buffalo park. It welcomed Teck Resources’s decision to abandon its Frontier oilsands mine project south of the park, but noted the expansion of existing oilsands projects continues “without full consideration” of potential impacts on the outstanding universal values of the World Heritage Site. 

“The ongoing seepage of tailings from tailings ponds and the huge risks those ponds create for our people and our waters are completely unacceptable,” Mikisew Cree Chief Billy Joe Tuccaro said in a news release following the committee’s decision. “And to be weeks away from BC Hydro starting to fill the Site C reservoir without protections of our delta is simply wrong. This has to stop.” 

A UNESCO monitoring mission is concerned the Site C dam on B.C.’s Peace River, which is nearing completion, could affect the Peace Athabasca Delta. Existing large hydro dams on the Peace River have altered water flows, drying up the delta, while climate change compounds the situation. Photo: BC Hydro

BC Hydro has said it will begin to fill the Site C dam reservoir as early as this month. The latest mission report references a statement from the earlier mission, which said it is “scientifically indefensible” to claim the dam will not have any impacts on the delta, given existing hydro projects have drastically altered the timing of water delivery to the delta. “The mission stresses that even minor shifts in the timing and magnitude of flows caused by Site C could add to cumulative impacts of an already compromised system,” said the latest report. Compounding water flow issues, climate change has also affected the delta’s “biodiversity, productivity and navigability,” the report noted.

In response to questions from The Narwhal, BC Hydro media relations spokesperson Kyle Donaldson said studies concluded the Site C dam will have no notable effect on the delta, a finding he said was confirmed by the independent joint review panel that examined the project for the federal and provincial governments. 

Donaldson said BC Hydro recognizes the importance of the Peace Athabasca Delta “as an integral ecosystem for Indigenous groups” and continues to collaborate with Indigenous groups through the Wood Buffalo National Park Action Plan “as a constructive way to advance reconciliation.” He said BC Hydro is working with the federal government, the Alberta government and Indigenous Nations on a flow release protocol “which could enhance an ice jam flood event in Wood Buffalo National Park to increase flooding of the Peace Athabasca Delta.” Spring flooding in the delta is an age-old process that replenishes wildlife habitat and vegetation. It’s been impeded by hydro dams on the Peace River that restrict water flows.

Wood Buffalo’s famed wetlands are threatened by industrial development outside the park, including Alberta’s oilsands and B.C. hydro dams. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Wood Buffalo’s salt plains were noted when the region became a World Heritage Site in 1983. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

UNESCO, Mikisew Crew urge federal government to commit to protecting Wood Buffalo National Park

The UNESCO and International Union for Conservation of Nature monitoring mission recommended Canada develop a set of mitigation measures, “including ecological flow releases and the construction of required water control structures,” to correct impacts from the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, the largest dam on the Peace River, as well as other hydrological changes in the delta such as increased impacts from climate change. “My community really wants to see change, they want to see water restored,” Lepine says.

In an emailed statement, Parks Canada said more than two-thirds of the 138 actions outlined in the Wood Buffalo World Heritage Site action plan are completed or underway, noting Canada has invested more than $87 million to implement federal commitments in the plan. “The government of Canada remains committed to the continued protection and conservation of Wood Buffalo National Park and World Heritage Site and will continue to advance on-going collaboration with Indigenous, provincial, and territorial partners to implement the action plan.”

Parks Canada pointed to research, ecological monitoring and restoration projects in Wood Buffalo, saying it is working with Indigenous communities to monitor the health and conditions of the park through a ‘braided’ approach using science and Indigenous knowledge. The Mikisew Cree are calling on Canada to immediately invest in an enhanced action plan and act on all 17 monitoring mission report recommendations, including actions to address threats from outside the park. They’re also urging Ottawa to make clear commitments to meet timelines outlined in the Word Heritage Committee decision and to invest in long-term solutions.  

The Peace Athabasca Delta provides habitat for millions of migratory birds. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

A bear, seeminly unperturbed by a cloud of mosquitos, eats foliage in Wood Buffalo National Park. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Lepine says few people had heard of Wood Buffalo National Park and “nobody knew about the problems in northeastern Alberta” prior to the Mikisew’s petition. But now, when she attends a World Heritage Committee meeting, people stop her in the halls to ask about the park. “So people know about Wood Buffalo now. And so that makes me feel very proud. And it recharges me every time I come here to recognize that Wood Buffalo is on the world stage because it matters to not just Mikisew but to many others as well,” she says, noting the petition has placed international and political pressure on Canada to address threats to the park. 

“And that’s the type of pressure that these important places around the world need. Not just at a regional and national level —  but also at an international level.”

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Leaks from toxic tailings ponds in the oilsands and dams on the Peace River in B.C. and Alberta are moving Canada’s largest national park closer to being placed on an international list of world heritage sites in danger, according to a report released Monday.

The report, a draft decision by the World Heritage Committee, is highly critical of Canada’s efforts to protect Wood Buffalo National Park. The 44,807-square-kilometre UNESCO world heritage site straddles the border between Alberta and the Northwest Territories and includes the Peace-Athabasca Delta, the world’s largest inland delta.

Sites are only designated as world heritage sites in danger when circumstances “threaten the very characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the world heritage list,” according to UNESCO. Around the world, sites are listed as “in danger” as a result of armed conflicts, earthquakes and pollution.

The committee, which will make a final decision on the park’s status next month at a virtual meeting hosted by China, emphasized that progress on protecting the park has been insufficient. With conditions in the Peace Athabasca Delta declining, it warned that — unless changes are made — the park is headed for the endangered list. None of the 19 other sites in Canada are on the list and the only North American site to so far receive the ominous distinction is Everglades National Park in southern Florida, due to severe degradation of aquatic ecosystems following hurricane Andrew and urban development.

Monitors from the World Heritage Centre and International Union for Conservation of Nature visited the park in 2016 after Mikisew Cree First Nation filed a petition with the committee, asking it to consider adding Wood Buffalo to the list of world heritage sites in danger.

But despite repeated UNESCO requests, the report concludes Canada has not done enough to meet recommendations made following that 2016 visit.

Federal government unable to deal with oilsands, Site C threats: report

The federal government unveiled its Wood Buffalo National Park action plan in 2019 and, last year, announced almost $60 million over three years to implement the plan. The funding is in addition to an earlier commitment of $27 million.

Although the investment indicates “strong commitment” to fixing the park’s deterioration, it is not enough, according to the committee. The report lists concerns the federal government has little control over problems originating in Alberta and B.C. and has not come up with an overarching plan to deal with issues affecting the Peace and Athabasca rivers, which drain into the delta.

The state of the park, and particularly the Peace-Athabasca Delta, is declining, largely due to “unresolved interjurisdictional water governance challenges” and advancement of the Site C dam, now under construction on the Peace River, according to the draft decision of the committee.

“No progress [has been] made on the risk assessment or management of the large tailings ponds despite new information on major risks and likely current impacts on water quality; temporary suspension of ecological monitoring for oilsands and concerns about the future release of oilsands processed water,” according to the report.

A tailings risk assessment to assess the risk of catastrophic dam failures — one of the primary recommendations — has not yet been funded or initiated and there is no agreement on water flow regulation from the Site C dam, it notes.

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  Tailings ponds in the Alberta oilsands. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

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  Open-pit oilsands mining, north of Fort McMurray. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Parks Canada emphasizes commitment to working with Indigenous groups

The committee also underlined concerns about the future of the iconic wood bison, the park’s symbol, and the Ronald Lake wood bison herd in particular, whose habitat is overlaid with oilsands leases while the footprint of oilsands development continues to grow.

One of the few bright spots in the report is the addition of a wide swath of provincial parks south of Wood Buffalo, but a larger buffer is required, according to the committee.

“In the absence of a major and timely response and, noting that the previously expressed committee concerns continue to remain severe, and that the threats have increased, the World Heritage Committee and International Union for Conservation of Nature consider it likely that the property now meets the criteria for inscription on the list of World Heritage [sites] in danger,” it says.

The committee wants Canada to invite monitors from the World Heritage Centre and International Union for Conservation of Nature to the park “as soon as possible” and has asked the federal government to submit an updated conservation report by Feb. 1, 2022.

Parks Canada, when asked by The Narwhal to comment on the committee findings and recommendations, said no spokesperson was available. In an emailed statement the agency noted it is reviewing the draft decision and considering next steps.

“Since the [Wood Buffalo] action plan was finalized in 2019 notable progress has been made, with more than half of the identified actions completed or underway,” the statement read.

The committee report notes Canada has developed new policies and consultations with Indigenous people, something the Park’s Canada statement also emphasized. Parks Canada is committed to strengthening park management in collaboration with Indigenous partners and “establishing new mechanisms to support improved water management in the Peace-Athabasca Delta,” a spokesperson for the agency said by email.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee flagged concerns about the fate of bison in Wood Buffalo National Park, the park’s symbol. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Mikisew Cree want ‘long-term, sustainable resources’ to fix problems

The report contains few surprises for Melody Lepine, government and industry relations director with the Mikisew Cree First Nation, who has shepherded the community’s submissions through countless UNESCO meetings.

“Between 2016 and 2021, not a lot has been done,” Lepine told The Narwhal. “The language in this draft decision is highlighting that: ‘Canada, what have you really done?’ ” 

Lepine hopes the UNESCO report will be a catalyst for Canada to show in a tangible way that it is a champion for the environment and reconciliation, but she is concerned the commitment of $60 million takes the action plan only three years into the future.

“We need to see more, long-term sustainable resources and funding to fix these problems and the big problem — and one that doesn’t really take a lot of money — is the governance. How do we deal with this jurisdictional water issue? We have water flowing from B.C. with the Bennett dam and then you have water licenses on the oilsands side,” she said.

Getting control over water flowing into the delta is at the heart of many of the issues faced by Wood Buffalo, Lepine said, adding she wants to see Canada leading management of water resources with input from all jurisdictions including Indigenous nations.

“Canada has to develop a governance model to deal with fresh water,” she said. “Canada has to be a stronger leader on this, but we don’t see them starting any dialogue.

Where is the action to save Wood Buffalo National Park?

Wood Buffalo has deteriorated in recent years: advocate

Gillian Chow-Fraser, the boreal program manager with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said the report underscores how conditions in Wood Buffalo have deteriorated since the park first came under UNESCO scrutiny.

“The threats have grown despite major funding commitments from the federal government,” she told The Narwhal.

She added the report is a reminder that Canada has the capacity to address some of the big issues — such as the effect of climate change on Wood Buffalo, cross-jurisdictional problems and weaving Indigenous knowledge into the park management. The prospect of having a park included on the list of world heritage sites in danger should turn up the heat, Chow-Fraser said.

“If not now, if not with Wood Buffalo, when would they do it?” she asked of the federal government making a push to address concerns.

Continuing oilsands footprint expansion threaten local bison herd

Kendrick Cardinal, Fort Chipewyan Metis Association president, wants to see the report galvanize Canada into making improvements to its relationship with Indigenous people and implementing increased protection for woodland bison.

“Overall, we need to have more Indigenous involvement and more involvement from local communities,” Cardinal said.

A priority is to ensure no more roads are built leading into the range of the Ronald Lake bison herd, as every effort must be made to stop the spread of disease and the risk of poaching, he said.

“The Indigenous people need to have the buffalo there for our spiritual beliefs and our traditional way of life,” he said.

The committee report notes that the footprint of the Alberta oilsands continues to expand with projects such as the Horizon North Pit Mine and, although the Teck Frontier project proposal has been withdrawn, the committee sees it continuing as a “potential future risk,” as “the footprint of the Alberta oilsands continues to increase through large expansion projects,” including Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Horizon north pit mine.

“The determination of imminent threats to the recovery of the wood bison, partially on the grounds of industrial development, is a further indication that the pressure on this property and its flagship species continues to be very high,” the report noted.

For most who have been working to ensure that Wood Buffalo and the Peace-Athabasca Delta are protected and restored, the threat of an endangered listing is seen as a way to speed up the process.

Mikisew Chief Peter Powder said momentum is building, but more must be done to save such a special place.

“We would like nothing more than to be in a position to tell the World Heritage Committee next month that Canada, Alberta and British Columbia have responded to yesterday’s announcement by redoubling their efforts to save this incredible place and that they have made new commitments to take the actions needed to tackle the most serious threats to the park in partnership with us,” he said.

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A promise by the federal government to spend almost $60 million over three years implementing a plan to protect Wood Buffalo National Park is welcome news, but any success depends on where the money is spent and how decisions are made, say Indigenous and environmental groups.

Melody Lepine, Mikisew Cree First Nation director of government and industry relations, told The Narwhal that despite international scrutiny of the degradation of Wood Buffalo — Canada’s largest national park and a World Heritage site — there has been little action to alleviate threats from industrial development. 

It is not known whether the action plan laid out Monday will be sufficient to save Wood Buffalo from being put on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) list of endangered World Heritage sites.

In 2014, Mikisew Cree handed a petition to UNESCO, which led to a Wood Buffalo National Park monitoring mission and a 2017 UN report that was highly critical of Canada’s protection of one of the world’s largest freshwater deltas. The report demanded “major and timely” responses to several recommendations that Canada work more closely with First Nations, improve monitoring of the delta and undertake a strategic risk assessment of the oilsands’ leaking tailings ponds. 

The 44,000-square-kilometre park, home to one of the largest free-roaming wood bison herds in the world and the last remaining nesting ground of the endangered whooping crane, straddles the Northwest Territories-Alberta border and is suffering from dropping water levels in the Peace-Athabasca Delta and deterioration linked to climate change, hydro dams on the Peace River and pollution from the oilsands.

Advocates question where and how Wood Buffalo National Park funding will be spent

Lepine said the government’s new funding commitment is substantial, especially in addition to the 2018 funding package of $27.5 million to support the park over a five-year period. But she wants to know how that funding will be used to create change.

“This is a significant amount of funding, but the question we have is what does it mean? What is actually going to trickle down to make a difference on the ground,” Lepine said.

“They made that first announcement for $27.5 million, but what significant change did that bring? We hear these announcements, but we really don’t see any change on the ground,” she said.

Gillian Chow-Fraser, boreal program manager with Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Northern Alberta, is relieved that the funding appears to show that, provided the cash lands in the right place, Canada is taking threats to the park seriously.

“We have been calling for more support and resources for the [Wood Buffalo] action plan for a long time,” said Chow-Fraser.

“I think this shows a significant commitment to recovering the health of the park, but it would be good to see a breakdown. … I think they are responding to a lot of frustration from Indigenous communities and local organizations. Wood Buffalo has been in decline for such a long time and the alarm bells have been ringing for just as long,” she said.

While advocates welcome the announcement of funding, they are urging the federal government to provide more specifics on how that money will result in tangible change on the ground. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Sunrise on Pine Lake in Wood Buffalo National Park. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

The recurring question is where the money will go.

Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and minister responsible for Parks Canada, said in a news release that the new $59.9 million injection of funds will help “ensure that Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site remains a treasured place for present and future generations.”

But how the funds will help accomplish this goal in particular remains uncertain. The action plan outlines substantial partnership and monitoring activities, the creation of new training programs and conservation areas, a new Indigenous guardian program, a literature review on the impacts of industry on species and new mapping and spatial data analyses.

The activities proposed may quickly outstrip the amount of funding put forward. Alberta’s oilsands environmental monitoring program, for comparison, runs on a $50 million annual budget.

More than half of the previously promised 142 actions within the plan are ongoing or already complete and the new money will help continue the work with Indigenous communities and the governments of Alberta and the Northwest Territories, Wilkinson said in the release.

Calls for more transparency, Indigenous partnership for Wood Buffalo funding

Becky Kostka, Lands and Resources Manager for Smith’s Landing First Nation, said there has been no transparency on how the first lump of funding was spent.

“We have been asking them ever since they announced it for full transparency. We have been asking for budget reports on how that money was spent and we have received absolutely nothing,” she said.

The 11 Indigenous groups in the park were promised financial help in building capacity, but no information was given on how those decisions were being made, Kostka said.

“We don’t want these top-down sort of initiatives to continue to happen, especially when we are supposed to be working towards true co-management [of the park]. It’s hard when we are still having things dictated to us by Parks [Canada],” she said.

A river snakes through Wood Buffalo National Park. Advocates don’t want any more “top-down” initiatives from the government and are calling for true partnerships with Indigenous communities. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

The action plan says all Wood Buffalo National Park staff have received training in reconciliation and there is a commitment to collaboration with Indigenous partners, but Smith’s Landing Chief Gerry Cheezie said that is not what he is seeing.

“We need more involvement from the community level. The top-down approach that they have been employing with Indigenous communities is not the way to go. They keep talking to us about reconciliation, partnerships and all these terms, but in actual fact they are not putting it into practice,” said Cheezie.

Canada responding late to final Wood Buffalo National Park warning from UNESCO

Lepine, who has made submissions to the World Heritage Committee, said the committee made it plain during an annual meeting in Azerbaijan last year that it was giving a final warning to Canada to get its act together.

The initial report submitted last year was seen as inadequate, with UNESCO asking Canada to report back this month with more information on issues such as the effect of Peace River dams, including Site C, and pollution from the oilsands.

“Considerably more effort will be needed to reverse the negative trends at a time when climate change, combined with upstream industrial developments and resource extraction are intensifying,” said a draft committee report.

The 44,000-square-kilometre park is suffering from deterioration linked to climate change, hydro dams and pollution from the oilsands. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC.

Lepine said action is needed to avoid the endangered listing.

“And have they taken that seriously? Here we are in December with Canada submitting a late report and we have seen little action taken,” she said.

The new report on the state of Wood Buffalo National Park conservation was due on Dec. 1. Canada was forced to ask for an extension and, although the report is dated Dec. 1, it was not submitted until Dec. 21.

A UNESCO spokesperson said Wood Buffalo will be examined by the World Heritage Committee at a meeting in Fuzhou, China, next summer.

Impacts of Site C dam, oilsands on Wood Buffalo National Park still at issue

According to the federal government’s press release, remaining initiatives in the action plan that haven’t been deployed yet include “strengthening park management in collaboration with Indigenous partners, enhancing research, monitoring and management of the Peace-Athabasca Delta using science and Indigenous knowledge and establishing new mechanisms to support improved water management in the Peace-Athabasca Delta,” says the news release.

The use of weirs and other “water control structures” are being evaluated, but the plan remains vague on key issues such as the effect on the delta of the Site C dam.

A longer-term modelling effort is now underway, the plan says, but a letter to the World Heritage Committee from Indigenous communities and environmental organizations points to problems such as profound geotechnical troubles with Site C.

“With Site C’s future appearing problematic and risky and imminent river diversion scheduled, government attention must urgently refocus on working with BC Hydro to determine protocols for timed releases of water to re-create the necessary natural water regimes in the Peace-Athabasca Delta system,” the letter reads.

Alberta’s oilsands north of Fort McMurray. A recent report showed that tailings ponds near Wood Buffalo National Park are leaking. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

One of the most fraught issues is the effect of toxic tailings ponds on water within the park, a concern exacerbated by an international report showing that tailings ponds near the Athabasca River are leaking.

The Wood Buffalo action plan points to the oil sands monitoring program, jointly managed by Alberta and the federal government, which it says will “ensure that the influence of tailings water on aquatic systems will be detected.”

Alberta is also working with Indigenous community representatives to initiate a systemic tailings pond risk assessment, it says.

But communities such as Smith’s Landing say there is growing concern that the federal and Alberta governments are looking at actions such as treating tailings pond effluent and allowing companies to release it into the Athabasca River.

“That is not OK with us,” Kostka said.

“We are pushing the province of Alberta to look at large, cumulative downstream effects modelling. We don’t want to see anything in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, so we have to come back to this work with Wood Buffalo and Parks Canada and say ‘you guys really have to make this happen.’”

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There’s a huge oilsands project that’s getting a lot of attention these days — and it’s not the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

A massive new oilsands mine project — widely thought to be the largest Alberta will ever build — is awaiting final federal approval from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet.

The Teck Frontier mine would cover 24,000 hectares — an area twice the size of the City of Vancouver — and would produce 260,000 barrels of bitumen each day at its peak. The proposal includes plans to produce oil starting in 2026, and to continue on producing right through to the 2060s.

Having been under review for several years, the mine’s fate now rests in the hands of the federal government.

And as the February deadline for a final decision approaches, pressure is mounting on all sides of the issue.

Increasingly, the Frontier mine is being seen as a bet on the long-term economic viability of the oilsands themselves.

At the same time, critics say its approval would be in direct opposition to Canada’s climate commitments.

This comes just as a new report out from the Global Gas and Oil Network found that Canada is second only to the United States in planned expansion of the oil and gas industry.

“New oil and gas development in Canada between now and 2050 could unlock an additional 25 [gigatonnes of carbon dioxide], more than doubling cumulative emissions from the sector,” the report found.

Teck would make up nearly 20 per cent of those additional emissions.

We rounded up what the major players are saying about the mine — and it should come as no surprise that opinions are polarized on whether it should move forward.

1. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney thinks it’s essential for the Alberta oil and gas industry

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is for the mine. All for it.

He sees its approval as a vote from Ottawa for — or against — Alberta oil.

“If this project does not proceed, it would be a clear indication that there is no way forward for this country’s largest natural resource,” Kenney said this week in a speech in Ottawa.

It “must be done,” he said of the Frontier approval, citing Teck’s estimate that the project will create thousands of jobs.

He also cited the conditional support of Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adam — who he noted has taken James Cameron, Jane Fonda and Leonardo DiCaprio on tours of the oilsands — for the project. (Buuuut that comes with a caveat, more on that in #5.)

As The Globe and Mail put it this week, Kenney is “pitching Ottawa’s options on Frontier as the environment versus Canadian unity.”

2. Teck Resources isn’t sure it will ever make economic sense to build the mine

Teck Resources previously told The Narwhal it “is committed to advancing Frontier in a socially and environmentally responsible manner” and has projected huge economic returns for Canadian governments at all levels should the project go ahead — to the tune of $70 billion in royalties and taxes.

But the company’s 2018 annual report, released this February, is less confident.

“There is uncertainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources” to be mined at the proposed Frontier site, according to the report.

That raises questions about whether the mine will ever be built, even if it is approved.

3. A review panel recommended the federal government approve the mine, despite ‘significant adverse environmental effects’

The joint federal-provincial panel, comprised of three appointed members, recommended earlier this year that the federal government approve the mine proposal, noting “the Frontier project will provide significant economic benefits for the region, Alberta and Canada.”

The panel cited Teck Resources’ estimates of how much tax and royalty revenue will be generated by the project, and projections for job creation during construction and operation.

The panel also noted “significant adverse environmental effects,” including the removal of 3,000 hectares of old-growth forest, effects on biodiversity, significant impacts on local wildlife species like wood bison, Canada lynx and woodland caribou, and the disturbance of 14,000 hectares of wetlands — including the “irreversible” loss of 3,000 hectares of peatland, a highly sensitive and important carbon sink.

4. The federal Green Party wants the mine rejected because it hampers Canada’s ability to meet its climate commitments

Earlier this week, the federal Green party called on Trudeau and his cabinet to reject the Frontier Mine project.

“Going ahead with construction of the Frontier mine would contribute six megatons of CO2 per year from production alone,” Green Party interim leader Jo-Ann Roberts said in a press release.

“This would seriously compromise our ability to reach the emissions reduction targets set out in the Paris Agreement,” she said.

Canada reaffirmed its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, compared to 2005 levels, at the Paris climate conference in 2015.

That translates to 150 megatonnes of total emissions nationwide by 2050. The Teck Frontier mine is expected to produce between four and six megatonnes per year, depending on who you ask, which would mean this one oilsands project would eat up three to four per cent of all of the emissions allowed across the entire country in 2050.

Former Green Party leader, Elizabeth May, who is in Madrid for the COP25 summit, echoed Roberts’ call.

“There is absolutely no wiggle room in the global carbon budget for any kind of expansion of oil and gas production,” May said in the press release.

5. A prominent First Nations chief is having second thoughts

Teck has announced that it has secured approval of all 14 local Indigenous groups, but Athabasca Chipewyan Chief Allan Adam recently told CBC he’s not pleased with the steps the company, or the province, have taken to mitigate environment damages associated with the project.

“This would be the first time that the Alberta government is killing its own oilsand project,” he said this week.

“We are not just going to take hot air anymore.”

He’s not alone. Indigenous youth from Canada attending the COP 25 summit in Madrid have also recently expressed concerns over the Frontier mine, which would be just 25 kilometres south of Wood Buffalo National Park.

“This is taking us in the wrong direction,” Eriel Deranger, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and executive director of Indigenous Climate Action, told CBC in Madrid.

6. Economists worry about the long-term viability of the mine

The Frontier mine project is based on higher oil prices than the world is currently seeing — and is premised on the notion that oil prices will increase in the long term.

“Prices are forecast to be US$80 to US$90 per barrel by 2020, and increasing thereafter,” Teck said in a 2016 submission to the review panel. Currently, the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price is just below $60 USD per barrel.

In its low-price scenario, Teck assumed an average WTI price $76.51 per barrel and a high-price scenario of $115 per barrel.

Economists say that if the world does take mitigating the climate crisis seriously, that could have an impact on world oil demand — a sizeable impact.

It “would require not only do we not see business-as-usual growth in world oil demand — roughly over one per cent per year — but that we would see anywhere from a 20 to 50 per cent decline in world oil demand over the next 30 to 40 years,” economist Jeff Rubin told The Narwhal last year.

And a reduction in oil demand would reduce oil prices. That, Rubin said, “would shut-in production in places like the oilsands… because their cost of production would no longer be supported by oil prices.”

Gordon Laxer, a political economist and professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, points out that other oil-producing states can produce oil much cheaper than the Alberta oilsands.

“Saudi Arabia produces oil for just a tiny fraction of what Alberta does,” he told The Narwhal last fall. “That oil will have a much longer lifespan than sands oil.”

7. A recently retired Suncor CEO projected last year that new large-scale projects are unlikely to be built in Alberta’s oilsands

Late last year, the province’s latest oilsands development, the Fort Hills Mine, had its grand opening. (Teck has a 23 per cent share in Fort Hills, its first foray into the oilsands. The Frontier mine would be its second.)

At that celebration, Suncor now-retired chief executive Steve Williams predicted a slow future for the oilsands, telling an interviewer that “it’s unlikely there will be projects of this type of scale again.”

8. Canada’s new Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Jonathan Wilkinson, is still figuring it all out

Though he’s only a few weeks into his new post as Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Jonathan Wilkinson is already facing questions about his government’s upcoming decision on the Frontier mine.

“The issues around greenhouse gases associated with the project are absolutely relevant to the decision that the federal cabinet will need to take,” Wilkinson told The Globe and Mail this week.

“Any decision [cabinet] needs to take will certainly be in the context of the commitments we have made on the climate plan.”

Wilkinson acknowledged that he’s heard Kenney’s calls for the mine to be approved, loud and clear.

“Premier Kenney has made it very clear that the Teck project is important for him, but ultimately we’re going to have to try to find a way to navigate through a decision and project that has a number of challenges,” he told The Globe and Mail.

“I can’t prejudge the decision of the federal cabinet, but what I can tell you is that the issue around the greenhouse gases associated with that project will be very much relevant to the decision that cabinet will take.”

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On Thursday, a joint review panel — representing the federal and Alberta governments — released its recommendations on whether a massive new open-pit mine in the oilsands should proceed.

It recommended Teck’s Frontier Mine get the green light, despite finding it will have significant and permanent impacts on the environment. 

The decision now moves to Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine Mckenna, who has until February to issue a decision.

Environmental concerns flagged by the panel include the removal of old-growth forests, the destruction or permanent alteration of fish habitat, the release of a large amount of carbon pollution and the loss of wetlands and areas of “high species diversity potential.” 

But, overall, the panel found these impacts were outweighed by economic benefits, saying “the project is in the public interest.”

Here are 10 things you need to know about this proposed new mine.

1. It’s really, really big. 

The Frontier mine would be the furthest north in the oilsands, just 25 kilometres south of Wood Buffalo National Park. It would cover 24,000-hectares (roughly double the size of the City of Vancouver) and would produce 260,000 barrels of bitumen each day at its peak, making it one of the largest oilsands mines — if not the largest — to ever be built in Alberta. This would take up about half of the additional volume created by the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

Bison in Wood Buffalo National Park. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

The mine is expected to have a 41-year lifespan, taking us to 2081 by the time it’s completely shut down. By then, scientists have predicted that climate change will have already had far-reaching effects on Alberta — including dramatically shifting the average temperatures in Canadian cities.

2. The Frontier mine will make it super difficult for Canada to meet its climate commitments.

At the Paris climate conference in 2015, Canada reaffirmed its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 30 per cent (compared to 2005 levels) by 2030 and by 80 per cent by 2050.

What that means in reality is that the entire country can emit 150 megatonnes of emissions by 2050. The Teck Frontier mine is expected to produce four megatonnes per year, equal to three per cent of all of the emissions allowed in Canada in 2050. 

“The oilsands are Canada’s fastest-growing source of emissions,” Gordon Laxer, a political economist and professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, told The Narwhal last fall. “Their growth is going to make it virtually impossible to meet our 2030 Paris climate targets.” 

Last fall, The Narwhal asked Jeff Rubin, former chief economist with CIBC World Markets and a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, whether new oilsands mines make sense in the face of global climate change and changing world demand for oil. 

Rubin told The Narwhal that meeting climate commitments “would require not only do we not see business-as-usual growth in world oil demand … but that we would see anywhere from a 20 to 50 per cent decline in world oil demand over the next 30 to 40 years, which would shut-in productions in places like the oilsands … because their cost of production would no longer be supported by oil prices.”

“If the world does avert the worst consequences of climate change, whether that’s 1.5 or 2 degrees, we’re going to see a significant reduction in world oil demand,” Rubin said.

Teck’s Frontier mine is proposing operations through 2066.

3. Nearly 3,000 hectares of old-growth forest will be cut down to make room for the mine.

The area where the proposed mine will be built is wild — wetlands, peatlands and forests of jackpine, aspen, spruce and poplar. Some of these forests are over a century old. 

Approximately 2,598 hectares of these old-growth forests will be removed for the mine to be built. 

Old-growth takes a long time to re-establish itself, even with extensive reclamation efforts, because it’s, um, old. 

The panel’s report says “there may be a loss of habitat for many species reliant on such forests, including species at risk, for at least 100 years following closure in 2081.”

4. The predicted economic benefits of the project are based on oil prices not seen in years.

In projections for the economic benefits of the project, the company used “an average long-term real oil price of US$95 per barrel for West Texas Intermediate” — a price not seen since 2014 — to calculate its base case for the economic impact of the project.

“Prices are forecast to be US$80 to US$90 per barrel by 2020, and increasing thereafter,” Teck said in a 2016 submission. 

In its low-price scenario, Teck assumed an average WTI price of $76.51 per barrel and a high-price scenario of $115 per barrel. As of this writing, the price for WTI crude oil was under $60 per barrel — and has only reached $75 once since November 2014.

“The panel understands that there is considerable uncertainty regarding forecasts for future oil prices,” the report states. Nevertheless, the panel reiterated Teck’s prediction that the project will yield “$55 billion to Alberta in taxes and royalties.”

“The Frontier project will provide significant economic benefits for the region, Alberta, and Canada,” the panel concluded.

5. The company itself seems unsure if the mine makes sense.

It seems Teck has its own doubts about whether the project makes economic sense.

The company’s 2018 annual report, released this February, says “there is uncertainty that it will be commercially viable to produce any portion of the resources” to be mined at the proposed Frontier site.

Other oil executives have expressed similar sentiments. At the Fort Hills grand opening, now-retired Suncor chief executive Steve Williams told reporters that “it’s unlikely there will be projects of this type of scale again.”

6. The mine will mean “irreversible” loss of 14,000 hectares of wetlands.

According to the review panel’s findings, wetlands cover nearly 45 per cent of the area studied, amounting to 14,000 hectares.

The Frontier project will remove all wetlands from the project development area, something the panel acknowledged is likely not reversible. “A substantial amount of wetland and old-growth forest habitat will be lost entirely or lost for an extended period as a result of the Frontier project,” the panel’s report states.

Far left: Wood Buffalo National Park salt plains. Centre and right: Aerial view of Wood Buffalo National Park’s famed wetlands. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

The loss of this amount of these areas is an impact the panel describes as “a high-magnitude and irreversible project effect.”

7. Nobody’s quite sure how or when the site will be cleaned up.

The ability of companies to pay for cleanup once resources have been extracted has ignited a debate over mind-boggling environmental liabilities in recent years — and whether taxpayers might ultimately end up footing the bill.

“There are uncertainties associated with final reclamation outcomes.”

The panel’s report highlights some of the difficulties associated with Teck’s reclamation plans. 

“Some habitat types cannot be reclaimed (e.g., peatlands),” the report states. 

Over 3,000 hectares of peatland will be destroyed by the mine’s construction — “an irreversible loss” according to the panel’s report — accounting for 10 per cent of the project area.

The report also warns that cleanup may take a long time for sensitive areas, noting “reclamation will not occur or be complete for many years.”

In its report, the panel acknowledges the long-term cleanup is not guaranteed, though it also writes “this is expected at this stage of the process.” 

“There are uncertainties associated with final reclamation outcomes,” the panel wrote.

8. The Frontier mine is owned by a company mainly associated with coal mining.

The Frontier mine would be the second major foray into the oilsands for Vancouver-based Teck Resources.

The company has coal, zinc and copper operations across North and South America, but recently made its big debut in the Alberta oilsands with a 21 per cent interest in the Fort Hills Energy Limited Partnership, which owns the Fort Hills open-pit mine.

Fort Hills had its grand opening last fall.

Teck says on its website that “responsible environmental management is an integral part of who we are as a company,” but the company has faced criticism for its environment record in the past. Last winter, The Narwhal investigated long-term selenium pollution at one of the company’s B.C. operations.

9. Teck agreed to give up leases on Crown land so a new park could be created.

Teck was one of three companies that voluntarily gave up leases on crown land earlier this year so that a new wildland provincial park could be created in the area.

The 161,880-hectare Kitaskino Nuwenene Wildland Provincial Park was created in response to requests from Mikisew Cree First Nation to allow for a buffer zone around Wood Buffalo National Park. The new wildland provincial park will allow for traditional activities to continue without the threat of further oilsands encroachment.

Wildland provincial parks are less developed than provincial parks, and the government of Alberta says on its website that Kitaskino Nuwenene Wildland Provincial Park will enable Alberta to contribute to the largest contiguous boreal protected area in the world.

10. Teck says the mine will be best-in-class. Even the federal government disputed that.

Part of Teck’s submission rests on the idea that the Frontier mine will be “best-in-class.”

Teck told The Narwhal last fall that it “will have a lower carbon intensity than about half of the oil currently refined in the United States.” Documents filed by the company claim the “project represents best-in-class for greenhouse gas emissions from oilsands developments.”

But in Environment and Climate Change Canada’s submission to the review panel, the agency wrote that “while Teck indicates its intent to make the Frontier Mine project best-in-class with respect to [greenhouse gas] emissions intensity, it is in fact 24 per cent more carbon intensive on a per-barrel basis than the best project.”

Jan Gorski, an analyst with the Pembina Institute, told The Narwhal last fall that “projects that are anything but best in class shouldn’t be approved.” 

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The status of Wood Buffalo National Park is hanging in the balance with the UNESCO World Heritage Committee warning that Canada must do more to address threats facing the park and deterioration of the Peace Athabasca Delta or risk having Wood Buffalo added to the list of World Heritage in Danger.

Canada has been given until December 2020 to report back on what it has done to address dropping water levels in the delta, including looking at the effects of dams on the Peace River, including the Site C dam, and pollution from adjacent oilsands development, including the proposed Teck Frontier oilsands mine, which would be built 30 kilometres from the park’s boundary.

UNESCO wants a full report on the effects of the Site C dam (which is still under construction), a risk assessment of oilsands tailings ponds and stronger management sharing of the park with Indigenous people.

In answer to questions from The Narwhal, a Parks Canada statement skirted around the recommendation for a full assessment of the effects of the Site C dam and said the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has been conducting inspections of the project to verify that B.C. Hydro is complying with conditions such as mitigation measures.

The committee, meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, heard a submission from Mikisew Cree First Nation representatives, who, in 2014, handed a petition to UNESCO which led to a monitoring mission to Wood Buffalo and a report that was critical of Canada’s protection of one of the world’s largest freshwater deltas.

Proposed site of Teck’s Frontier Mine 30 km south of Wood Buffalo National Park. If built it would be the largest mine ever constructed in Alberta’s oilsands. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Melody Lepine, Mikisew government and industry relations executive director, told the committee that Canada does not yet have the situation under control, despite the federal government promising $27.5 million over five years for development and implementation of the Wood Buffalo action plan.

“Canada is continuing to allow activities to further harm our park and is weakening important protections. Canada has not made real changes to resolve drying of the Peace-Athabasca Delta,” Lepine said.

“The most important issue — the return of ecologically essential water to the park — remains unresolved and necessary monitoring and partnerships with Indigenous peoples are still lacking,” she said.

In her presentation to the committee, Lepine applauded UNESCO’s recognition that Canada must go further to halt the decline of the park.

“For 30 years, Canada has told you that our park was properly protected from threats, but now you know that was inaccurate,” she said.

“We strongly believe the property meets the conditions for inscription on the list of World Heritage in Danger if Canada fails to act to restore water and prevent pollution over the next 18 months. This must be Canada’s last chance.”

A bull bison on one of Wood Buffalo National Park’s main roads. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Mikisew Cree have been calling on the federal government to invest more money into solving Wood Buffalo’s problems and Lepine said that when she sees the amount of money made by exploiting the Peace and Athabasca Rivers, it’s clear that Canada has the capacity to do more for Wood Buffalo National Park, given the seriousness of the problems.

A group of environmental and Indigenous groups is supporting the World Heritage Committee’s report and is calling on the federal government to provide more resources to address problems in the 45,000 square kilometre park that is home to the world’s largest herd of free-ranging bisonand the only remaining known nesting ground of endangered whooping cranes.

Gillian Chow-Fraser, the boreal program manager for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, said in a news release that the government’s lukewarm reaction is disappointing.

“The threats faced by this park are enormous and they have not been properly managed, even with the international community watching,” Chow-Fraser said in a news release.

“Without meaningful action right now, the park is doomed and so are the people who depend on it.”

However, Parks Canada has a different view of the committee’s decision to extend the monitoring period and the headline on the news release reads “World Heritage Committee decision commends Canada’s Action Plan to protect Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site.”

The action plan is designed to safeguard the park for current and future generations and implementation is already underway, it says.

“The Government of Canada recognizes that climate change and external development pressures are having serious impacts on the Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site and that it is in the Peace Athabasca Delta that impacts are most evident,” says the release.

Actions are already being taken to strengthen relationships with Indigenous peoples and improve water management in the Peace Athabasca Delta, says the release, which notes that UNESCO is praising the creation of new Alberta provincial parks which protect 6.7 million hectares of boreal forest and provide a buffer zone between Wood Buffalo and oilsands development.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna, in a written statement, said important steps have been taken to protect the park, along with Indigenous, provincial and territorial partners, but there is a lot more work to do.

“Through ongoing collaboration and action, including with 11 Indigenous communities in the region, we will preserve Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site for the benefit of Canadians and the world,” she said.

Linda Duncan, NDP MP for Edmonton Strathcona, flagged that Canada is currently seeking World Heritage Site designation for Writing on Stone Park in southern Alberta.

“UNESCO will understandably be querying the credibility of this government to commit the resources needed to genuinely protect a world heritage site,” Duncan said in a statement.

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The federal government’s plan to halt the declining environmental health of Wood Buffalo National Park falls short, according to a UNESCO World Heritage Centre draft decision.

The draft “notes with serious concern” the downward trend of the park’s ecosystems, especially in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, and says continued deterioration could result in Canada’s largest national park being included in the list of World Heritage in Danger.

“Considerably more effort will be needed to reverse the negative trends at a time when climate change combined with upstream industrial developments and resource extractions are intensifying,” it says.

Among concerns set out in the draft decision are the failure to assess the effects of the Site C dam and the prospect of oilsands development moving closer to the park if the massive Teck Frontier oilsands mine is approved.

“It is noted that 47 further oilsands projects are being considered, besides the 37 already operating facilities, whose current and potential cumulative impacts are of serious concern,” it says, adding that Canada should “conduct a systematic risk assessment of the tailings ponds of the Alberta oilsands as a matter of priority.”

Map of threats to Wood Buffalo National Park from UNESCO report.

The message will not be sugar-coated when Melody Lepine and other members of Alberta’s Mikisew Cree First Nation address members of the World Heritage Committee early next month at a meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Despite a federal government pledge to spend $27.5 million over five years to implement an action plan designed to improve the health of Wood Buffalo, the state of Canada’s largest park is continuing to deteriorate, said Lepine, Mikisew government and industry relations executive director.

“Canada has not taken any action yet. They have the action plan and they announced the funding, but the outstanding universal values (of the park) and the Peace-Athabasca Delta are still deteriorating. They have approved Site C and we are waiting to see the decision on Teck Frontier, but there is just no firm action,” Lepine told the Narwhal.

“We will be telling the committee that $27 million is still not enough. It is a drop in the bucket when you are dealing with a park the size of Switzerland and the threats are just mounting. The action plan is underfunded and we need them to take action to improve the quality of water in the Delta and not just talk,” Lepine said.

Lone bull buffalo crossing a field in Wood Buffalo National Park. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

In 2014, Mikisew Cree, alarmed by the deteriorating state of the park, asked UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee to add Wood Buffalo to the list of World Heritage in Danger.

Following a visit to the park by committee members, UNESCO warned that  the park was in danger of losing its World Heritage status and made 17 recommendations including an environmental and social impact assessment of B.C.’s Site C dam.

Canada was asked to produce a plan addressing the recommendations and detailing how to restore ecosystems in the 4.5 million hectare park that stretches from the northeast corner of Alberta into the Northwest Territories.

The report card on Canada’s action plan contained some encouragement, including applauding Bill C-69, which aims to improve environmental assessments, and the creation of provincial parks, which act as a Wood Buffalo buffer zone.

A statement from Parks Canada said the federal government is committed to protecting Wood Buffalo and does not expect it to be included on the list of World Heritage in Danger.

“While acknowledging that there is more work to be done, the draft decision affirms the government of Canada’s commitment to the ongoing protection and management of Canada’s largest park and World Heritage Site. The government of Canada and its partners will continue to work together to advance the measures outlined in the action plan,” it says.

If the committee endorses the draft decision, Canada will be asked to submit an updated conservation report, including detailed assessments of the impacts on the Peace-Athabasca Delta of Site C and other dams on the Peace River, by Dec. 1, 2020, for consideration by the World Heritage Committee the following year.

Construction on the Site C dam in the summer of 2018. Photo: Garth Lenz / The Narwhal

Lepine said that means Canada has a lot of work to do over the next two years.

“Canada has more to do to show Canadians and the world that the park is on the path to recovery,” she said.

Mikisew Cree Chief Archie Waquan in Fort Chipewyan, Alta. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Mikisew Cree Chief Archie Waquan said in a news release that the draft decision makes it clear that inaction is no longer an option when it comes to Wood Buffalo.

“The draft decision reflects clear science and an international recognition that Canada’s efforts need to be swift and comprehensive to get the park back on track,” Waquan said.

“We hope Canada, Alberta and British Columbia will rise to the challenge and do so in partnership with us,” he said.

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Four years ago the Mikisew Cree First Nation proposed the creation of a buffer zone around Wood Buffalo National Park to preserve land for traditional activities as oilsands projects surrounding Fort McMurray crept further north.

That buffer zone is now the 161,880-hectare Kitaskino Nuwenene Provincial Park — Alberta’s newest wildland park, designed to remain open to traditional land use by Indigenous peoples.

Flanked by Wood Buffalo, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to the north and Teck Resources’ proposed Frontier mine to the south, Kitaskino is being applauded as an example of the benefits of Indigenous communities, government and the oil and gas industry working together.

Yet Mikisew Cree leaders are warning that almost double the amount of land needs to be protected from industrial development to form an effective buffer to the beleaguered national park, which is at imminent risk of being designated as a World Heritage Site in Danger.

On its website Alberta Parks said the park “will safeguard Indigenous peoples’ way of life while addressing concerns raised in a 2016 UNESCO report on Wood Buffalo National Park.”

Left: Government of Alberta map showing leased oilsands areas. The new Kitaskino Nuwenëné Wildland Provincial Park can be seen added in green. Right: Government of Alberta map detailing the Kitaskino Nuwenëné Wildland areas.

Wood Buffalo in trouble

Water levels in Wood Buffalo and the Peace-Athabasca delta have fallen since construction of the WAC Bennett Dam on the Peace River and there are growing fears that problems will be exacerbated by construction of the Site C dam.

The dropping water levels and lack of ice jams, combined with climate change and water withdrawals by the oil and gas industry, mean Indigenous communities can no longer trap in traditional areas and parts of the delta are silting up.

The deteriorating conditions sparked a request by Mikisew Cree for a monitoring mission by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and International Union for Conservation of Nature, a visit which led to UNESCO considering adding Wood Buffalo to the list of World Heritage in Danger.

One of 17 UNESCO recommendations for improving the condition of the park is for a buffer zone around Wood Buffalo. Kitaskino Nuwenene adds to two previously announced parks on the edge of Wood Buffalo, which may help Canada’s case when it presents it action plan to the World Heritage Committee at its July meeting in Azerbaijan.

However, the action plan does not act on the key UNESCO recommendation to conduct an assessment of the effects of the Site C dam as the federal government says it does not have the authority to start a new study of the already-approved project.

Alberta Environment and Parks spokesman Scott Lundy said the Kitaskino Nuwenene wildland will protect watersheds from future development, contribute to a Wood Buffalo conservation buffer and help protect woodland caribou and the Ronald Lake bison herd, one of only three free-ranging, disease-free bison herds in Alberta.

“The park represents a significant portion of the range of the herd,” he said.

‘Nowhere else to turn’: First Nations inundated by oilsands projects face impossible choices

Teck, Cenovus, Imperial voluntarily give up mining leases

The new park was created after three companies — Teck Resources, Cenovus Energy and Imperial Oil — voluntarily gave up oilsands and mining leases in the area following negotiations with the Alberta government and Indigenous groups.

The park will be closed to forestry and new energy projects, but existing wells will keep operating.

Alberta Parks will work with Indigenous groups to cooperatively manage the area.

Among the supporters of the new park project are the Athabasca Chipewyan Cree First Nation, Fort McKay First Nation, Fort Chipewyan Metis, Fort McKay Metis, Fort McMurray Metis and the Athabasca Tribal Council.

Teck, Cenovus and Imperial gave up their leases without financial compensation and Mikisew Cree obtained federal funding to buy out leases held by Value Creation Group of Companies.

Columba Yeung, Value Creation CEO, said in an emailed response to questions from The Narwhal that the company supports Mikisew’s biodiversity program, but does not have the financial flexibility of the big players.

“We are still a company with big aspirations, but (as yet) modest financial means,” he said.

Teck spokesman Chris Stannell said the company recognizes the significant cultural and ecological importance of the boreal forest and Wood Buffalo National Park and has been working for several years with Mikisew, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and other Indigenous groups to create the new conservation area.

“Teck is proud to be part of the establishment of this important conservation initiative and to be able to directly contribute our leases to the establishment of the wildland park,” he said.

‘We need to work on phase two’

However, more land must be added if the buffer is to be effective, said Melody Lepine, Mikisew Cree industry relations director.

“We are slowly making our way to having a full buffer. This new park is a portion of that, but we have a lot of work to do to add a larger buffer area. This is just a piece of that puzzle,” said Lepine, who believes the willingness of government and industry to make a deal indicates that everyone is starting to recognize the importance of Wood Buffalo.

About another 150,000 hectares, including leases held by Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. to the west of the Athabasca River, are needed for the buffer to be effective, she said.

“We are pleased to have phase one completed, but by no means does this mean we are done. We need to work on phase two to create that full buffer to ensure there’s going to be no development just south of Wood Buffalo National Park,” she said.

If the Peace-Athabasca delta is to be protected it’s essential that tributaries that run into rivers supplying water to the delta should not be mined, Lepine said.

Also, land that is not yet in the buffer zone is the heart of critical habitat for the Ronald Lake bison herd, she said.

“We need that for strong protection of that herd,” she said.

Talks on phase two have already started, according to Lepine, but an Alberta government spokesman said “there are currently no negotiations underway for expanding the protected area.”

CNRL did not provide comment to The Narwhal.

Protections needed for bison herd

Lepine, who will be attending the World Heritage Committee meeting in Azerbaijan, believes a commitment to a full buffer zone will help Canada’s case.

“We need more of this sort of action. We need to see deliverables, we need to see results,” Lepine said.

“This was an initiative that was spearheaded by Mikisew, but we need to see more from the provincial and federal governments. There is so much more that needs to be done,” she said.

Locations of free-ranging wood bison herds in Canada. Map: Species At Risk public registry

Creation of the park is a recognition of Indigenous commitment to protecting land rights, Mikisew Cree Chief Archie Waquan said in a statement.

“We appreciate the collaborative efforts by industry and the provincial and federal governments to make this park a reality,” he said.

But, Waquan is also pushing for increased protection.

“Now is the time to build on this momentum and protect the rest of the habitat of the Ronald Lake bison herd, more watersheds that flow into Wood Buffalo National Park and other areas that support the Peace Athabasca delta and our treaty rights,” he said.

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The federal government is promising to create artificial ice jams, strategically release water from BC Hydro dams and assess cumulative impacts on northern Alberta’s Peace-Athabasca delta in an attempt to retain the World Heritage status of Canada’s largest national park.

However, Ottawa’s long-awaited action plan for Wood Buffalo National Park rejects a World Heritage Committee recommendation calling on Canada to  conduct an environmental and social impact assessment of the controversial Site C dam. The action plan says the federal government’s hands are tied because an assessment of the project was completed by a federal-provincial review panel before the dam was approved in 2014.

“There is no legal mechanism in federal legislation to suspend or negate the authorization or undertake a new environmental assessment for a project that has been approved,” says the 96-page report compiled by Parks Canada, in consultation with 11 Indigenous communities and the B.C., Northwest Territories and Alberta governments.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency is “actively verifying that BC Hydro is complying with the conditions,” the report adds.

In 2014 the Mikisew Cree First Nation, alarmed by the deteriorating park environment, asked UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee to add Wood Buffalo to the list of World Heritage in Danger.

Following a visit to the park by committee members and representatives of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, UNESCO warned that, because of poor management, the park was in danger of losing its World Heritage status and made 17 recommendations, including an assessment of the effects of Site C on the park.

Canada was asked to produce a plan addressing the recommendations and detailing how to restore ailing ecosystems in the 4.5-million hectare park.

Map of threats to Wood Buffalo National Park from UNESCO report.

Decreasing water levels cause for concern

Water levels in the Peace-Athabasca delta dropped after the 1968 construction of the Bennett dam on the Peace River, followed by the 1980 Peace Canyon dam. Indigenous communities, many of whom rely on the delta for fishing and hunting, are among those who fear the Site C dam — the third dam on the Peace River — will mean further decreases in water levels in the delta.

BC Hydro community relations manager David Conway disagrees that the delta’s water woes stem from the Bennett Dam or that Site C will be a threat.

“Researchers from a number of universities across Canada who conducted research at Wood Buffalo National Park have found the changes observed with the Peace Athabasca Delta are consistent with that of a naturally evolving delta with climate change,” Conway wrote in an emailed response to questions from The Narwhal.

“During the environmental assessment of Site C, we commissioned studies from leading experts to evaluate the potential downstream effects of the project and, in all cases, it was concluded that the project would have no notable effect on the Peace-Athabasca Delta,” he wrote.

The view from the ground is different and Indigenous communities say there are areas of the delta where they can no longer take boats to reach traditional hunting grounds, while fewer ice jams are changing the landscape and causing lakes to dry up.

Wood Buffalo: Canada’s largest national park and its people in peril

Climate change is acknowledged as part of the cause — with the action plan estimating that the average annual temperature in the park has increased by two degrees and the winter temperature by four degrees — but residents believe many of the delta’s problems are caused by Peace River dams, water withdrawals by the oil and gas industry and contamination from the oilsands.

Cracked earth details in Wood Buffalo National Park’s Salt Plains Outlook trail. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

Site C dam unaddressed in action plan

Site C looms large in those concerns, said Becky Kostka, Smith’s Landing First Nation lands and resources coordinator.

“This is not good enough. Canada really needs to step up,” said Kostka, who was hoping pressure from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination would help push the federal government into taking another look at the ramifications of Site C.

Last month, the committee wrote to Canada’s ambassador to the UN expressing concerns that the dam would permanently affect the land rights of Indigenous peoples in B.C.

Galen Armstrong, a campaigner for Sierra Club B.C., said omission of a Site C assessment means the plan — although it includes some long-overdue measures for improving and monitoring the health of Wood Buffalo — fails  to address underlying issues.

The fact that BC Hydro is considering releases of water from the Bennett dam is an admission of the impact the dam has had downstream and building another dam is contrary to protecting the delta, Armstrong said.

“When the committee meets again, I don’t expect it to be satisfied with this response. Canada is leaving Wood Buffalo National Park open to earning a World Heritage Site in Danger status and, to me, it shows it wasn’t taken as seriously as it should have been,” he said.

Gillian Chow-Fraser, boreal program manager for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, pored over the draft action plan and the final document looking for differences and, although she applauds the weight given to Indigenous experiences in the final version, she is disappointed the two documents are so alike.

It is odd to say cumulative impacts will be considered and then ignore the Site C dam, which is one of the biggest potential impacts, Chow-Fraser said.

“They don’t address the impacts of Site C at all. They just throw their hands up in the air and say it has been approved.”

Site C dam construction on the Peace River, July 2018. Photo: Garth Lenz.

Strategic water releases and ice dams

The action plan recommends coming up with a protocol to look at how water releases from the Bennett dam could enhance ice jam flooding and what risks “strategic flow releases” would have on communities and infrastructure downstream from the dam

Proposals include “enhancing” spring flooding and creating ice-dams from spray ice, but Chow-Fraser hopes any artificial manipulation of hydrology in the delta will be approached cautiously.

“We don’t know the potential knock-off effects,” she said.

“It seems like a really big action and I don’t know if it’s the most effective way of restoring the ecosystem — especially when they are ignoring Site C,” she said.

Melody Lepine, director of government and industry relations for the Mikisew Cree, believes timed releases from the dam could be positive and she is encouraged that BC Hydro is willing to help restore some ecological functions of the delta.

“It’s a start. BC Hydro needs to be part of the solution. They control the faucet,” said Lepine, who is also encouraged that the final plan toughens up the requirement for buffer zones around the park and that industry withdrawals of water from the Athabasca River will come under scrutiny.

Peace Valley farmers Ken and Arlene Boon look out onto the Site C dam’s construction zone from a neighbour’s property downstream on the Peace River. Photo: Sarah Cox

Funding concerns

But a funding question mark hangs over the action plan with fears that the $27.5 million earmarked over five years by the federal government for development and implementation of the action plan isn’t enough.

Lepine, looking at potential costs, said Canada should have started budgeting for Wood Buffalo several years ago and determining a cost for the actions should have been part of the action plan development.

“Now it’s an afterthought,” she said, pointing out that Australia has spent half a billion dollars to restore the Great Barrier Reef. “When I look at other sites around the world and what other countries have spent, I give my head a shake.”

Lepine worries that the plan has big ambitions, but is too vague, leaving questions such as how, when and who is going to pay for it.

“There are so many issues and challenges, so it’s hard to measure what success will look like. That’s how Canada gets caught up in these broken promises,” she said.

Kostka echoes concerns that the plan lacks specific measurements — with Alberta’s role largely limited to dealing with problems through existing legislation — and that the funding is insufficient.

It is unclear how the existing funding will be used and whether Indigenous groups will be offered funding to help with implementation of the plan, she said.

“We need a long-term commitment…  I don’t know how many ways that $27.5 million can be split over five years,” Kostka said.

Lepine’s hopes are now pinned on the World Heritage Committee and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature  when the plan is presented in Azerbaijan in early July.

“I think the committee has a lot of influence and can push Canada to do something. Canada is not going to do anything unless they are forced to,” Lepine said.

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Canada will not provide the UNESCO World Heritage Committee with an assessment of the impacts of the Site C dam on Wood Buffalo National Park, despite a recommendation it do so to keep the 4.5 million hectare park off a list of world heritage in danger — a list usually reserved for sites in countries facing war, poverty or disaster.

The clock is ticking towards a deadline for Canada to demonstrate to the committee that it is serious about saving Canada’s largest national park from energy development, dropping water levels and pollution.

The World Heritage Committee warned Wood Buffalo would be placed on the ignominious list unless there is a “major and timely” response to 17 recommendations made by the international body in 2017.

Canada has quietly release a draft action plan in response to those recommendations made by a team of experts from the World Heritage Committee and International Union for Conservation of Nature who, in 2016, visited the World Heritage Site at the invitation of the Mikisew Cree First Nation.

Canada’s action plan provides a response to all of the UN body’s recommendations, save one: a review of the social and environmental impacts of the Site C dam.

Wood Buffalo: Canada’s largest national park and its people in peril

Wood Buffalo threatened by industrial development, hydro dams

Following a visit to the park in 2016, the committee released a stinging report saying Wood Buffalo is threatened by unfettered upstream energy development, including the Alberta oilsands, hydro dams on the Peace River, a lack of cumulative impact studies on the Peace-Athabasca delta and poor management.

Canada must finalize a plan to substantively address these threats to Wood Buffalo by February 1, 2019.

Key measures of Canada’s draft plan for the park in northern Alberta and southern Northwest Territories are strengthening Indigenous management of the site, preserving and monitoring ecosystems in the Peace-Athabasca delta and improving understanding of hydrology and water flow in the delta, Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said in a statement.

However, as the draft plan is being circulated among 11 Indigenous communities and other interested groups, many are baffled that the recommendation to assess the Site C dam is being ignored.

Recommendation 4 in the UNESCO report says that there should be “an environmental and social impact assessment” of the Site C dam and the effect of the controversial dam on the Outstanding Universal Value of Wood Buffalo National Park.

Failure to respond to that recommendation affects the validity of the plan according to some Indigenous communities, who witnessed dropping water levels in the Peace-Athabasca Delta after construction of the Bennett dam on the Peace River in 1968 and the Peace Canyon dam in 1980.

As the reservoir filled behind the Bennett dam, parts of the delta dried up and, according to residents of communities such as Fort Chipewyan, levels never again reached their former heights. Simultaneously, spring floods changed because the dams stopped the formation of ice jams that previously forced the water to back up into the delta.

Climate change and silting in the Peace-Athabasca delta are exacerbating man-made problems, meaning Indigenous families are often unable to reach traditional hunting grounds and winter supplies for communities such as Fort Chipewyan are restricted because of a shorter season for the ice road.

Now, those who live around the Peace-Athabasca delta and Wood Buffalo are looking with trepidation at construction of the Site C dam and asking why Parks Canada is not recommending a full assessment.

‘Nowhere else to turn’: First Nations inundated by oilsands projects face impossible choices

‘We need to have some action from Canada’

Becky Kostka, Smith’s Landing First Nation lands and resources coordinator, said Parks Canada is saying that the Site C joint federal-provincial environmental assessment is enough to protect the Peace-Athabasca delta.

“They have basically said ‘the assessment has been done on that. They have got their approvals and it’s going ahead,’ ” Kostka said.

“We are really not okay with that…We need to have some action from Canada on this.”

Kostka said her nation requested Parks Canada reconsider.

“They have refused,” she said.

Amy Lusk, Slave River Coalition coordinator, said the lack of an independent Site C assessment and cumulative impact study are major problems.

“They said the previous assessment from the joint review panel was sufficient,” she said.

The joint review panel released a report on Site C in 2014 in which it did not make a recommendation for or against the project, arguing the province had not demonstrated a need for the highly environmentally destructive project while also failing to explore alternatives.

During the federal-provincial review of the project, Parks Canada presented testimony to the panel indicating Site C would have a negative impact on the Peace-Athabasca delta.

Lusk said Parks Canada’s current decision to omit a new Site C impact assessment distorts the country’s entire response to UNESCO.

“The Site C recommendation and the calls for a cumulative impact study feed into everything else that’s touched upon,” she said.

“It’s not complete without that.”

Map of threats to Wood Buffalo National Park from UNESCO report.

Parks Canada considering future mitigation measures

Parks Canada told The Narwhal the draft action plan sets out new initiatives related to environmental flows and hydrology which will increase understanding of the impacts of dams on the Peace River, including Site C.

In July the federal government announced it would spend $27.5 million over five years “to support the development of an action plan to secure the future of Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site.” The figure amounts to approximately $125 per square kilometre of the park, an amount local communities criticized as insufficient.

The draft action plan also looks at options for future mitigation measures, a spokeswoman said via e-mail.

Site C was approved after a cooperative assessment by Canada and B.C. and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency has been conducting inspections of the project to ensure BC Hydro is in compliance, the spokeswoman added.

Many are not convinced that is sufficient.

In a letter and petition addressed to Parks Canada and carbon copied to environment minister McKenna and provincial politicians, Lusk argues the failure to respond to Recommendation 4 is a significant shortfall.

“By failing to meet this recommendation, Parks Canada undermines efforts to successfully address the threats to Wood Buffalo National Park. Water quality and quantity are the key underlying challenges to the other 16 recommendations identified,” says the letter, which was also distributed to the World Heritage Committee.

“If Canada fails to address the above concerns in the Action Plan, we will recommend Wood Buffalo National Park be added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in Danger,” the letter reads.

The Northwest Territories chapter of the Council of Canadians echoes many of the same concerns in an additional letter, where the organization says an environmental and social impact assessment of Site C is needed to try and mitigate negative impacts to the Peace-Athabasca delta and Wood Buffalo’s unique ecosystem.

“If impacts cannot be mitigated, the Site C project must be abandoned,” it says.

“Already, two-thirds of the drying of the Peace-Athabasca Delta, which supports Wood Buffalo’s unique ecosystem is the direct result of the existing dams on the Peace River. Site C will escalate drying in the delta,” the letter states.

“In addition, after flooding, decomposition processes will create poisonous methyl mercury which will bio-accumulate in the aquatic food chain, poisoning fish and those whose diet relies on fish for two or three generations. These effects will be experienced in the Peace-Athabasca Delta.”

‘The delta’s best chance’

Ron Yaworsky, technical adviser to the Northwest Territory Metis Nation, said he believes attention must be put on the cumulative impacts of dams on the Peace River, the Bennett dam as well as Site C.

And, like others, Yaworsky is pleased with some aspects of the draft plan, such as work on hydrology, including the possibility of building weirs and other infrastructure to retain water in the delta.

The lower bare rocks of an island in Lake Athabasca indicate where the lake’s water mark used to be decades ago. Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, June 2018. Photo: Louis Bockner / Sierra Club BC

“But the proof will always be whether they are actually going to follow through and whether  Canada is actually going to fund this,” Yaworsky said.

“I think, if the action plan is implemented to the fullest, it’s the delta’s best chance in a while,” he said, adding that it is sad that it took an international spotlight on the park to get action.

“At least now we have something, so let’s hold everyone’s feet to the fire,” he said.

Parks Canada closed the period for public feedback on December 10, 2018 after receiving criticism for not sufficiently publicizing the release of the draft plan, which is still not made public on Parks Canada’s website.

Lusk said it is disappointing that the review period is not being more widely promoted, even though Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said that she encourages “everyone to share their views on the future of Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site.”

“I would see this as a failure,” Lusk said.

Action Plan Draft WBNP WHS Nov. 16 2018 by The Narwhal on Scribd

Update December 13, 2018 2:36 p.m. PST: This article has been updated to reflect the fact that Parks Canada closed the public comment period for the draft action plan on December 10 and did not, as previously reported, extend that period until December 14.

Update December 31, 2019, 1:25 p.m. PST: Ron Yaworsky’s name was spelled incorrectly in the first version of this article. We regret the error.

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Federal funding for Wood Buffalo National Park may boost the number of Parks Canada staff, but First Nations believe it is unlikely to address major concerns such as the need to improve water flows to the Peace-Athabasca Delta, conduct an environmental assessment of tailings ponds in the Alberta oilsands and the call to change to a park management partnership with Indigenous communities.

The federal government is faced with a looming December 1 deadline to submit a Wood Buffalo action plan to the World Heritage Committee and, last week, the government announced that it would spend $27.5 million over five years “to support the development of an action plan to secure the future of Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site.”

The Narwhal published a three-part series on the challenges faced by Wood Buffalo National Park last week.

Wood Buffalo: Canada’s largest national park and its people in peril

The action plan was demanded last year after a monitoring mission to the park by representatives from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the International Union for Conservation of Nature — a visit sparked by a request from Mikisew Cree First Nation.

After the visit, UNESCO issued a report, which warned that if there is not a “major and timely” response to its 17 recommendations, it will recommend that Wood Buffalo National Park be included in the list of World Heritage in Danger.

Where is the action to save Wood Buffalo National Park?

Melody Lepine, government and industry relations director with Mikisew Cree First Nation, said discussions with the federal government have indicated the funding will be used to double the park’s annual budget and help staffing and operational problems.

One of the committee’s recommendations was to improve Parks Canada staffing and Lepine said any boost in staffing is welcome, but she questions how the other recommendations will be funded.

“What about all the other pieces of the action plan? For example, water restoration in the Delta — what could that cost? We just don’t see a budget that will address the development of the action plan,” said Lepine, who returned this week from a World Heritage Committee meeting in Bahrain where she briefed individual committee members on Wood Buffalo progress.

There are doubts about whether an action plan can be ready by December, but timing should not be used as an excuse, because Canada  dragged its feet in getting started, Lepine said.

“It is especially frustrating for us because we were ready to get going on the action plan as soon as the monitoring mission was done and the report came out in March 2017. We were saying ‘ok, let’s get started,’ but they didn’t really get started until months and months later,” she said.

“We are not very optimistic that’s for sure, so we are considering putting together our own action plan with the expectations of what we would like to see delivered in terms of the 17 recommendations.”

For example, Mikisew Cree wants to meet with Alberta government representatives to discuss what stage they have reached with the tailings ponds assessment, Lepine said.

“We don’t just want to see a plan, we want to see dedicated resources and funding towards immediate mitigation because the issues are immediate and the threats are growing. Timing is of the essence,” she said.

Leslie Wiltzen, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation land use coordinator, who previously worked as a park warden for Parks Canada, said in an emailed response to questions from The Narwhal that, over the years, she has watched the park deteriorate and federal funding of $27.5 million is unlikely to be able to fix the problems.

“We must remember that this has been committed over five years, so, roughly, $5.5 million a year or $125 for every square kilometre of park.  . . . What can you really achieve with $125 a square kilometre?” she asked.

“In pretty much every area within Wood Buffalo National Park, things have been allowed to wither away like a starved animal to a point where no meat remains, only bones. This deprived ecosystem has been on life support for years and has been allowed to teeter-totter on the verge of collapse as the federal government slowly cut positions, infrastructure dollars and the financial resources needed to combat the root industry causes of our declining water levels,” she said.

‘Nowhere else to turn’: First Nations inundated by oilsands projects face impossible choices

Due to dropping water levels, boat travel is sometimes restricted to the main river channels, while a migratory bird sanctuary has very few birds, Wiltzen said.

“All those are major issues and concerns that have been echoed by aboriginal groups for decades,” she said.

Studies have identified dams on the Peace River, water withdrawals from the Athabasca River by the oil and gas industry, climate change, natural sedimentation and post-glacial rebound — the slow lifting of the lake bottom after the end of the ice age — as major causes of dropping water levels in the Peace-Athabasca Delta.

In addition there are health concerns about eating fish or animals from the Delta because of industry pollution.

Wiltzen believes the only way forward is for Parks Canada to start sincerely working with Indigenous groups.

“This $27.5 million over five years will only make a difference if the aboriginal people’s voice is listened to and past wrongs are made right,” she said.

Catherine McKenna, Environment Minister and minister responsible for Parks Canada, said in a news release that work on Canada’s response to the World Heritage Committee is already well underway.

The UNESCO findings and recommendations represent an important call to action, McKenna said.

“Our commitment is real and we will continue to work with all of our provincial, territorial and Indigenous partners to secure the future of the Wood Buffalo National Park Heritage Site for generations to come,” she said.

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