Tsuut’ina Nation Chief Lee Crowchild leads the Calgary Stampede Parade in Calgary, Alberta July 7.Todd Korol/Reuters
The proposed Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir is designed to protect Calgary from a repeat of the devastating floods that ravaged the city in 2013. But it is opposed by a group of landowners who will have their land expropriated, as well as the Tsuut'ina Nation. The plan involves using a diversion channel to redirect water from the Elbow River, inundating up to 1,950 acres of land in the event of a flood.
Tsuut'ina Nation Chief Lee Crowchild explained his community's concerns about the proposed Springbank Off-Stream Reservoir to The Globe and Mail's Jeff Lewis.
You've called the Springbank dam a bureaucratic bungle. Why?
When the NDP first campaigned, they said they had another idea. Then when they came into power, well, all the ministers changed, but I don't think they changed the bureaucrats. They were still using the bureaucrats who already knew what was going on. They convinced the NDP government that that was still the better project, so I think that's where the blunder is.
They never thought to even consider the impact that it was going to have on the Tsuut'ina Nation. They thought, "Oh, it's off reserve, it's this and that," and they start to spin a good tale about how magnificent the Springbank dam is.
What are the impacts, as you see them?
It's not [entirely] about economics here. What I'm talking about is the marginalizing of Tsuut'ina that has happened. And why I say that is because the Alberta government, they've adopted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, they've also acknowledged the 94 calls to actions from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as has Calgary.
Well, in making those declarations, you've got to look at how things have been going and where the inclusion begins. Well, it hasn't begun yet. It's still about excluding Tsuut'ina from that part of the conversation, because the attitude is still, "Well, we don't really need to consult with them because it's not on their land." Our plan is to move forward, looking at strip-mall ideas, hotels … and those are in jeopardy now.
Earlier this month, federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna decided to forgo a public review of the project, despite calls to establish a special joint-review panel. She has pledged to include Indigenous input in technical working groups. Are you satisfied your concerns will get a fair hearing?
I [actually] think the joint-review panel isn't thorough enough. I want this to be thorough, and our expertise in our nation has to be brought into the whole conversation. After a year, if once we've looked at it and we've done our assessments and everything, we might come up with the same answer as well, and say, "Go ahead, at least it's been dealt with. They've engaged the nation."
But the way it stands now, if we went down this road, the nation won't be engaged in anything. We'd be kind of crying in our milk way too late after everything's been said and done. This is the time when you address it.
Are there alternatives?
I'm not opposed to action to mitigate flooding in Calgary, because I don't want to see Calgary flooded, either. But there are alternatives. Because in southern Alberta we have more years of drought than we have of floods. So what makes sense to me is to do off-stream storage, a multibarrier approach to flooding.
As a nation, we have locations where we can actually open up for off-stream storage. Then as the call for water comes, we can start sending water back into the river. … Water is going to find its own way, anyways. A single-barrier approach is not the solution. If you use that Springbank dam, [with] all the floodwater that comes in there, you're virtually making all that land useless, because of all the sediment that's in there.
Do you view this as a test of the federal government's rhetoric on rebuilding relations with First Nations?
I think it is. And I think if we approach this in the proper way, that's inclusive of all parties, that it could become something that could be taken to different parts of the country. Now is the time for us to really engage nation to nation, [to] come up with a resolution that's inclusive of Tsuut'ina's ways and values, and that timeline could still fall in line with what this present government's timelines are as well. But that solution is not about supporting the Springbank dam, the dry dam, because I don't think it works in anybody's interest to do that.
This interview has been edited and condensed