After continuous requests from residents spanning over a period of more than twenty years, a federally funded investigation is set to commence to explore the health consequences of the oilsands on inhabitants in Fort Chipewyan, an Indigenous settlement in northern Alberta. Many locals in the area, situated over 200 kilometers north of Fort McMurray, have long suspected a connection between cancer cases in Fort Chipewyan and the industrial advancements upstream along the Athabasca River.
The Kearl mine of Imperial Oil, where a significant 5.3-million-liter wastewater spill occurred in 2023, is approximately 140 kilometers away from Fort Chipewyan. The nearest project, Suncor Energy’s Fort Hills mine, is over 90 kilometers distant. Researchers will scrutinize present and historical health records, study local disease trends, and monitor both the populace and the environment. Additionally, they will assess how alterations in the environment affect the community’s customs and daily routines.
Ruby Ladouceur, the president of the Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation, emphasized the need for clarity regarding the situation, stating, “We’re not accusing anyone; we are simply seeking explanations for the ongoing issues. We cannot definitively attribute everything to industrial activities without concrete evidence.” The study will be conducted by independent researchers under the supervision of the Métis Nation, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), and the Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN), with the federal government serving in an overseeing capacity.
The federally funded ten-year, $12 million initiative, known as Project Monument Hill, was unveiled in August 2024. The initial funding tranche was allocated in March for the preparatory and governance phase of the research. Ladouceur highlighted that the study’s methodology will blend conventional scientific practices with Indigenous wisdom of the land, aiming to enhance comprehension of the correlation between environmental conditions, traditional land usage, and the health and welfare of the local population.
According to a spokesperson from Alberta Primary and Preventative Health Services, Alberta presently lacks specific cancer data for rural regions of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) and other parts of northern Alberta. Instead, the province only maintains general or regional statistical information. Dr. John O’Connor, an advocate who has raised concerns regarding cancer in Fort Chipewyan since 2006, expressed satisfaction over the study’s initiation but voiced apprehension about the prolonged ten-year timeline, citing the urgency of the situation.
Past reports on cancer occurrences in Fort Chipewyan have predominantly focused on medical archives and health tendencies of residents, neglecting individuals who have relocated, including those seeking cancer treatments. A 2009 study by the Alberta Cancer Board revealed that at that time, certain cancers in Fort Chipewyan were 30% more prevalent than in the rest of Alberta. Studies by researchers from the University of Manitoba in 2014 exposed the presence of heavy metals and industrial pollutants in flora and fauna frequently harvested by Fort Chipewyan residents, some of which were deemed hazardous to human health.
A report by Dr. James Talbot in the same year, who then served as Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, scrutinized health records from 1992 to 2011, identifying elevated occurrences of bile duct, lung, and cervical cancers. While no direct evidence of cancers linked to industrial exposure was discovered, Talbot attributed the elevated numbers to various factors such as limited medical resources and lifestyle choices like obesity or smoking, concluding that the overall cancer incidences in Fort Chipewyan did not significantly exceed expectations.
Notably, the new study aims to investigate how environmental shifts have influenced the health of Indigenous individuals and their community, focusing on environmental alterations rather than lifestyle facets. Callie Davies-Flett, a special projects adviser with the ACFN, emphasized the scarcity of publicly available data concerning the relationship between cancer cases in Fort Chipewyan and the environmental impacts of oilsands developments, echoing the sentiments of community members and elders who have raised concerns over the years.