a. August 27, 2024

Subject:	[External/Externe]: Transport Canada Dock in Fort Chipewyan AB
Attachments:	Aug 27 2024 3 Nations Letter to Minister Rodriguez RE- Fort Chipewyan Big Dock.pdf (285.46 KB)

XAP-2024-535442 

Dear Hon. Minister of Transport,   

Please find attached a letter on behalf of the three leaders of Fort Chipewyan Alberta; Chief Allan Adam, Chief Billy Joe Tuccaro and President Kenrick Cardinal on the state of the Transport Canada owned Big Dock.   

To schedule a meeting please contact jay.telegdi@acfn.com or 780-881-7062. 

Jay Telegdi (he/him) 

Senior Manager Intergovernmental Affairs 

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation 

780-881-7062 

jay.telegdi@acfn.com 

Attachments

7a) Incoming letter to Minister Rodriguez from Chief Allan Adam, Chief Billy Joe Tuccarro, and President Kenrick Cardinal (August 27, 2024)

Aug 23, 2024

Hon. Pablo Rodriguez Minister of Transport 330 Sparks Street

Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N5 Canada

via email: pablo.rodriguez@tc.gc.ca

Dear Ministers,

Re: Fort Chipewyan Transport Canada Dock Public Safety s Environmental Issues

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN), and Fort Chipewyan Metis Nation (FCMN) are writing to draw your attention to an urgent issue pertaining to a Transport Canada dock located in Fort Chipewyan, Alberta.

Fort Chipewyan and its surrounding environs have been experiencing a multi-year drought

exacerbated by climate change, water withdrawals from the oilsands, and the filling of BC Hyrdo’s Site C reservoir. The community is under extreme risk of wildfires, evidenced by the evacuation of the entire community last summer, and the frequent fires adjacent to the community in the last few months.

We are also a remote community of approximately 1000 residents - serviced by an ice road and an airport in the winter months. In the summer months, the airport is the only regular means of travel in and out of the community.

The Transport Canada dock in downtown Fort Chipewyan is the only alternative to the airport if the community is placed under an urgent evacuation alert. Our Nations emergency planners have cited the significant risk to the health and safety of community members if:

• Smoke renders the airport incapable of accepting aircraft; or

• Appropriate aircraft are not able to be procured within a reasonable timeline.

The dock, which we depend on, was used in the evacuation of Fort Chipewyan residents as well as surrounding communities evacuating to Fort Chipewyan during the wildfire seasons of 2023 and 2016.

The Transport Canada dock is the only dock available to the community for daily transportation and to gather wild foods for the harvest season. However, due to a lack of maintenance, your refusal to dredge the surrounding area, and low water levels in the Peace Athabasca Delta, the Transport Canada dock is not up to standard for the needs of the community. Thus, the dock has become a significant and urgent public safety issue and an impediment to the meaningful practice of Treaty and Aboriginal Rights.

We have brought this to the attention of your staff repeatedly since 2017. To date, Transport Canada’s only response has been to try to transfer the dock and its associated liabilities to our Nations.

In the Spring of 2024, ACFN reached out to Transport Canada again, asking for help in dredging the dock area ahead of the wildfire season in order to ensure that a secure route would be available to Lake Athabasca. During this process we learned that Transport Canada had retained Millennium EMS Solutions Ltd. in 2016 or 2017 to conduct a Human Health Preliminary Quantitative Risk Assessment as well as an Ecological Risk Assessment respecting contaminants of potential concern including : polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), petroleum hydrocarbons, heavy metals, arsenic and nickel in soil, sediment and groundwater in the dock area.

Based on the soil and groundwater test results, the Millennium study recommended:

1. identification of the nearest water wells and confirmation that there are no wells within 60m of the dock area;

2. if wells are located close to the site then further investigation and/or mitigation may be needed;

3. more detailed quantitative aquatic risk assessment, including toxicity testing and/or benthic community testing to evaluate whether PAHs and metals impacts in sediment or groundwater discharging into surface water are having adverse effects on the aquatic ecosystem.

We do not know whether Transport Canada followed up on these recommendations. Not knowing whether these recommendations were followed up on is of serious concern to our Nations.

However, according to your Department’s assessment the dock area is classified as a Medium Risk Contamination site, and hence cannot be dredged.

We only learned of these very serious matters (including the existence of other assessments dating back to 1997), when Transport Canada advised us, on July 21, 2024, that dredging could not be undertaken due to the existence of toxic contamination in the sediment. This notification occurred 7 years after Transport Canada became privy to this information.

This is a profoundly disturbing and a shocking failure on the part of Transport Canada. The Department has known for more than two decades that the dock and surrounding area has been used for recreational purposes including swimming and fishing. And yet notwithstanding the findings of the reports including the Millennium study, Transport Canada officials have taken no action to warn our community of the risks to human and environmental health. It also bears noting that the dock is located next to a children’s playground and yet the Millennium study does not take account of this additional risk posed by the existence of contaminants.

We further note that Transport Canada has also failed to disclose the information revealed in the Millennium study in the Federal Contaminated Sites Inventory. The information for the dock (Site 00015462) has not been updated as per the 2017 study, claiming instead that the contaminated site is “unassessed” and that the Site Status is “closed”¹.

Transport Canada appears to have contravened reporting requirements outlined in subsection 4.2.44 of the Treasury Board Directive on the Management of Real Property, which requires that “information is reported in accordance with Appendix C: Mandatory Procedures for Reporting.”² These requirements have been in place since May 13, 2021.

This is consistent with a report published earlier this year by the Office of the Auditor General on Contaminated Sites in the North.³ In the key findings, the Auditor General said:

The lack of reporting and meaningful information on contaminated sites, including large abandoned mines, means that the Government of Canada, decision makers, and Canadians do not have a clear picture of the environmental and financial effects of these contaminated sites.

This failure to notify and inform our Nations is particularly concerning as Fort Chipewyan is well known for having high cancer rates, so much so that Environment and Climate Change Canada has just issued a study looking into the elevated cancer rates in the community. In light of our health- related concerns, and as a precautionary measure, our respective Leaderships have decided to notify the community of this situation and recommended that no swimming or fishing take place near the Big Dock area.

Overall, we consider that Transport Canada has failed in its basic duties to:

1. Maintain federal infrastructure that is critical to human safety as well as for the practice of Aboriginal and Treaty Rights;

2. Inform our community of potential risks to human health in the face of knowledge regarding the existence of toxic contaminants; and

3. Follow internal Government of Canada rules around the reporting and tracking of Federally contaminated sites.

4. Uphold the Canada Public Health Act.

As we continue to assess the gravity of this situation, we require that you direct your department to:

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1. Share all information that we may not have at our disposal regarding this site; including any follow-up assessments or monitoring results that may have been commissioned on your behalf following the 2017 Millennium study.

2. Prepare to come to our community to address the situation in relative short order; we request that officials from your respective departments come during the first week of September and be ready to answer all relevant questions from our members and

   Leaderships.

3. Prepare and present a critical path to the three Nations of Fort Chipewyan committing to the timely remediation of the environmental contamination and the repair of the Transport Canada dock by no later than October of 2024.

4. As the extent of the contamination emanating from the Big Dock is not yet known, testing all along the waterfront, including the children’s playground and beach, is required.

5. Immediately test all the drinking water wells in the impact area highlighted in the 2017 report that are said to be in jeopardy of contamination.

6. Install signage on TC property notifying residents of said risks.

7. Undertake and complete the remediation and repair activities in the 2025 calendar year.

8. Immediately present a plan and funding to allow for the water evacuation of Fort Chipewyan in the event of a natural disaster while the remediation and repair work is being undertaken, including the installation of a temporary dock capable of accepting barge and small motor craft. Doing so will alleviate the issue of low water in the fall for harvesting purposes.

9. Reimburse the three Nations of Fort Chipewyan for any and all costs incurred while working on this project, including work done to review this file by an independent toxicologist and environmental engineering firm.

10. Prepare and undertake a plan to dredge a path from the Transport Canada harbour to the channel in Lake Athabasca that will not result in adverse effects to the aquatic ecosystem, nor accentuate risks to human health.

11. Undertake an internal investigation as to why residents were not informed of a contaminated site in the centre of their community as soon as officials learned of this problem; and

12. Report the findings of the investigation to the residents of Fort Chipewyan, with commitments demonstrating how such inaction will never be allowed to happen again.

To start discussing these issues, and to help prepare for your community visit, we propose to meet during the week of August 26th virtually. Please provide us with options of when this could be possible on your end. We appreciate your cooperation on this matter, and wish to proceed in a constructive matter, but we will not stand by silently in the face of further government inaction to protect our community.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest opportunity.

Sincerely,

CC:

Hon. Mark Holland Minister of Health

Hon. Ya’ara Saks Minister of Mental Health and Addictions

Hon. Steven Guilbeault Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada

Hon. Anita Anand President of the Treasury Board

Hon. Harjit Sajjan Minister of Emergency Preparedness

Mayor Sandy Bowman Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo