Concerned About Water, Communities From Across the Northwest Territories Call for a Moratorium on Oil Sands Development
Posted: May 26, 2009Section:
May 26, 2009, Inuvik, NWT, – The Northwest Territories Association of Communities, which represents all 33 communities across the Northwest Territories passed a resolution calling for a moratorium on oil sands development this past weekend in Inuvik, NWT. The resolution was proposed and passed due to concern for the quality of water in the Mackenzie River basin, due to its location downstream from Alberta’s oil sands development.
“We are worried that irresponsible development in the oil sands is going to affect the North as the water flows downstream,” says Robert Sayine, Councillor and former Chief of Fort Resolution. “I have seen first hand the impacts of this huge development and the pace and scale of development is out of control.”
The resolution outlined the widespread concern in the Northwest Territories that the Governments of Alberta and Canada have not managed the oil sands in a responsible way that protects the environment and downstream communities, and therefore the oil sands development issue now poses a risk to all downstream communities in the Mackenzie Basin Watershed.
“This is a life or death situation for people of the North,” says Yellowknife Councillor Kevin Kennedy, a member of the municipal council that brought the resolution to this year’s annual meeting. “The Government of Canada needs to take stronger steps to protect water, fish, migratory species and people living in downstream communities.”
The resolution calls upon the Government of the Northwest Territories to ask the Government of Alberta to halt new oil sands approvals until it negotiates an enforceable trans-boundary water agreement with the NWT that ensures water flowing North from Alberta is clean, uncontaminated and unimpeded.
Download the Resolution: http://pubs.pembina.org/reports/nwtac-oilsands-resolution.pdf
More information and high resolution photographs of oil sands impacts are available at: http://www.oilsandswatch.org
