Indigenous Peoples

The Blood Tribe/Kainai and the Siksika Nation were among the Indigenous groups represented in Ecojustice’s request for a federal impact assessment on the Alberta irrigation modernization and expansion project. Both Indigenous groups filed documents of support as part of this request. For instance, the Blood Tribe/Kainai outlined the following concerns to the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC):  

 

“The project will impact Blackfoot historical Resources by flooding an additional 650 hectares of land and due to this there is a higher likelihood that historical resources and artifacts belonging to the Blackfoot will be lost.” – via the Sunny South News 

 

Additionally, the correspondence underscored the historical and

ongoing mistreatment of Indigenous groups’ water rights in both

Canada and Alberta: “To date, Canada has failed to recognize and

accommodate Kainai’s water rights in relation to its Reserve lands.

Alberta has adhered to an aggressive denial of Kainai’s water rights.”

– via the Sunny South News 

 

Although the request for a federal impact assessment was ultimately denied, the St. Mary River Irrigation District (SMRID) was required to respond to public concerns in the project’s proposed terms of reference (PTOR). Section five of the PTOR Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Traditional Use states that 

 

 “If consultation with Indigenous groups reveals traditional use areas and spiritual sites within project affected areas, provide a map and description of traditional use areas and spiritual sites if the Indigenous community or group is willing to have these locations disclosed” (SMRID, 2022, PTOR available for download here). 

 

Despite this, questions remain about how SMRID plans to address broader concerns related to Indigenous water rights and access raised by the irrigation expansion project. As journalist Erika Mathieu put it in a January 2023 article in The Sunny South News, “[I]t is not clear how the proponent will specifically resolve any concerns of the

project’s cumulative impact on Indigenous

people and historical resources within the

boundaries of the Blackfoot Confederacy.”