Feds fund health study for Indigenous communities downstream of oilsands – BNN Bloomberg
September 19, 2024
OTTAWA — More than three decades after Indigenous leaders in northern Alberta began asking for funding to better understand if pollution from the oilsands was making their people sick, the federal government is funding a study to do just that.
“This should have been done 32 years ago, maybe 40 years ago,” said Mikisew Cree First Nation Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro. “We know that there is something going on in this community. We can’t pinpoint it or anything in regards to what’s actually going on.”
Studies have previously shown higher rates of cancers in the communities along the shores of Lake Athabasca. The lake is fed by the Athabasca River, which runs through the region where most of Canada’s oilsands mines are located. In 2009 an Alberta Health study identified a potential problem but said more investigation was needed and could not pinpoint a cause.
