The Canol Trail cleanup is over — was it good enough?

The federal government wrapped up its remediation of the Canol Trail — an abandoned, World War II-era road through the Mackenzie Mountains — in 2019, but a co-founder of a yearly hike along the route isn't pleased with the amount of debris that remains there.

Norman Yak'eula is with the Canol Trail Youth Leadership Hike. He says the land is still spotted with old vehicles, empty barrels and other debris from the trail's days as a military road and oil pipeline connecting the oilfield in Norman Wells, N.W.T., to the Alaska Highway in the Yukon. 

Yak'eula acknowledged federal remediation efforts, but said he wants the Canadian government, and even the U.S. government, to continue the cleanup.

"They're saying, that's good enough. We're saying, no, no, that's not good enough. You've got to clean it up to our satisfaction," he said.

The Canol Trail was part of the Canadian Oil (CANOL) project, a joint U.S.-Canadian effort during the Second World War to ensure American forces stationed in the Pacific Ocean had access to a continuous supply of oil, according to a 2017 Canol Trail project engagement log from the federal government.

The project included the construction of a crude oil pipeline, maintenance camps, pump stations, telephone lines and a road — 372 kilometres of which ran between Norman Wells and the N.W.T.-Yukon border. 

The project was abandoned in 1945, shortly after its completion. Eventually, Canada assumed responsibility for the Canol Trail's cleanup. 

Work related to the Canol Trail cleanup had been underway for more than a decade before the remediation began in earnest in 2018. That work involved environmental assessments, elder interviews and the formation of a working group. 

The working group was described as a forum for Indigenous leaders and government officials to discuss details of the remediation project. Yak'eula was a member, representing the Fort Norman Métis Land Corporation.

CBC News reached out to all the local organizations on the working group, but none provided an interview before deadline.

In the summers of 2018 and 2019, remediation workers hit the trail. They gathered up and stockpiled debris and empty drums; removed asbestos, petroleum products and old batteries; and boarded up old buildings. 

There was also a three-year federal program that cleaned up animal-ensnaring telephone wire from 314 kilometres of the trail.

Ron Breadmore, an acting senior manager at Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, said in an emailed statement that there were a number of reasons why the trail wasn't cleared of all traces of the CANOL project. 

He said some stuff — like material from collapsed buildings, empty drums and old bridges — poses a low risk to human health and the environment.