The Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations are ready to go to court over a B.C. Hydro project. On Tuesday, The B.C. government gave the green light to the $8.8 billion Site C Dam project. The dam would be built on B.C.’s Peace River, but local First Nations say this might be history repeating itself with the Bennett Dam, which is on the same river.
“We had hoped that the government would look at that, and look at the cumulative impacts and the down stream impacts that this would have. However, we feel that the government has not done their due diligence,” says ACFN Spokesperson Eriel Deranger.
They’re concerned it will drop water levels in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, and harm wildlife, vegetation and members’ access to the area. The Site C project received environmental approvals from the federal and provincial governments in October. The bands filed a legal challenge to those approvals on Nov. 12.
“The ACFN felt it had no other choice but to bring a lawsuit into federal court, given what’s at stake here. And what’s really at stake is one of the world’s largest fresh water deltas,” says Deranger.
The MCFN is hoping UNESCO will also hope protect the delta if Wood Buffalo National Park is listed as a World Heritage Site in Danger. MCFN says traditional lands within the Peace-Athabasca Delta are being threatened by the Site C dam and oil and gas development along the Athabasca River.
Construction on the project is set to start in the summer of 2015.
