First Nations chiefs demand answers over Alberta pipeline deal that doesn't mention water

Some First Nations chiefs are demanding answers from Ottawa after the federal government signed a pipeline agreement with Alberta that failed to make any mention of fresh water.

The memorandum of understanding — which opens a door to building a pipeline to transport bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast — does not touch on the high level of water consumption required to pull bitumen out of the oilsands.

It also doesn't mention the threat to fresh water sources posed by the tailings ponds oilsands operations leave behind.

The federal government launched the Crown-Indigenous Working Group in 2021 to develop options alongside affected First Nations and Métis communities to manage and remediate the heavily polluted tailings ponds.

The Privy Council Office did not respond directly when asked why water was not part of the agreement with Alberta, or whether the Major Projects Office will require water quality standards and the treatment of effluent, or liquid waste, in Alberta's proposal.

It instead said again the Major Projects Office will work with Indigenous communities and the federal government commits to upholding the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

One Indigenous water watchdog projected in a new report that tailings ponds in Alberta could cover an area larger than neighbouring First Nations by 2070.

"For the Nations that have long cared for these waters and whose treaty rights affirm their continued relationship to the land, this comparison makes clear the magnitude of the encroachment and the risks carried forward into the future," said the report released last month by Keepers of the Water.

The federal-provincial agreement was signed just weeks before Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty declined to commit, during an interview with The Canadian Press, to including source water protections in a long-promised First Nations clean drinking water bill.

Source water protection was included in a previous version of the legislation, introduced by former prime minister Justin Trudeau's government. That bill failed to pass before Parliament was prorogued last year.

Provincial governments in Alberta and Ontario objected to that legislation, saying it could affect their ability to pursue development. First Nations leaders, meanwhile, demanded that Gull-Masty not bow to the demands of the provinces.

The only mention of water in the agreement with Alberta has to do with a prospective pipeline's path to the Pacific coast. The agreement says exporting bitumen through a deepwater port in B.C. to Asian markets could require the termination of an oil tanker moratorium that has been law since 2019.

Coastal First Nations president Marilyn Slett said she called on Prime Minister Mark Carney in a meeting last week to maintain and protect the oil tanker moratorium, warning that "it would take just one spill to destroy our way of life."

Chiefs in Alberta are particularly concerned about tailing ponds, which have a history of leaking into their water sources. One tailings pond leak went unreported for nine months in 2022.