They call the Big Dock the hub of the community, but it’s also contaminated , and the people of Fort Chipewyan believe the federal government hid the issue for years. Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation is leading the call for immediate action. “I think they have a hard time understanding people aren’t illiterate anymore.
People understand what’s going on,” Adam told CTV News Friday. Adam says the seriousness of the situation became clear this summer, after community leaders contacted the federal government to dredge the dock. Low water levels on the nearby Athabasca River, a vital artery to Fort McMurray 250 kilometres to the south, are increasingly becoming a problem.
But Adams says Transport Canada refused to dredge the dock. Locals began the process of dredging it themselves, which included hiring a contractor. Adams says it was that contractor who alerted the community to contamination in the area, including cancer-causing substances above legal limits, confirmed seven years ago.
That 2017 report was prepared by Winnipeg-based EGE Engineering for Public Works and Government Services Canada. The findings, Adam says, were never revealed to the people of Fort Chipewyan, and now that local leaders have gone public, he believes the lack of action from the federal government amounts to environmental racism. “We raised these issues and nobody seems to sound the alarm on the other side saying there’s something serious going on in the community.
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