Leaders in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., worry about how oil production is affecting the Mackenzie River
CBC
Some people in Fort Good Hope, N.W.T., say they're concerned about what oil extraction in Norman Wells is doing to the Mackenzie River, and they want more say in how the project is regulated.
That's what Fort Good Hope leaders told commissioners with The Canada Energy Regulator at an "oral Indigenous knowledge" hearing on the future of the Norman Wells field held in the community last week.
"We should be the ones making decisions on these questions, not Canada," Chief Collin Pierrot told commissioners.
The three-day hearing was called by The Canada Energy Regulator as part of its decision-making process on two development proposals from Imperial Oil late last year.
Imperial Oil is seeking permission to drill below the Mackenzie River to install a new bundle of lines to replace Line 4-90, which was damaged in 2022, and leaked 55,000 litres of water used in industrial processes into the Mackenzie River.
The one to 1.5 kilometre-long lines would run between Goose Island and Bear Island on the Mackenzie River.
Imperial Oil has also asked the federal regulator to extend its operating license, which is set to expire at the end of 2024, for another 10 years, until 2034.
Canada Energy Regulator spokesperson Christy Wickenheiser told CBC the hearing was an opportunity for commissioners with the federal regulator to listen to "anything and everything" people in the community want to tell them about the project.
For community members in Fort Good Hope, it was also their a chance to have their concerns heard about how oil extraction is affecting them.
K'asho Got'ı̨nę land guardian Buddy Gully presented on Wednesday.
"We're the first community that's below Norman Wells that gets all the junk that comes down the river. It's getting us sick," he told commissioners.
Fellow land guardian Twyla Edgi-Masuzumi said she was particularly concerned about changes she is seeing in fish on the river, describing white growths she has seen on the guts of many fish she has harvested over the last couple of years.
"It kind of makes me scared to work on fish and to feed my kids that, and it makes me sad that I have to restrict my kids," she said.
Many speakers also criticized officials at Imperial Oil for what they felt was inadequate communication when Line 4-90 leaked in 2022.
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