Fort Mac MP's Thoughts on Fort Chipewyan's Health Concerns

Brian Jean, MP for Fort McMurray-Athabasca (which includes Fort Chipewyan) shares his thoughts regarding Fort Chipewyan's health concerns in a recent issue of Slave River Journal (h/t George Poitras via facebook):

Chip Health Concerns Inconclusive: Jean
By SHAWN BELL, SRJ Reporter

The MP responsible for Fort Chipewyan says while concerns about cancer in the community are valid, information is inconclusive and further studies need to be done.Brian Jean, MP for Fort McMurray-Athabasca, says he has been keeping close watch on the health concerns in Fort Chipewyan for the past three years but hasn’t heard anything conclusive enough to warrant immediate action.

“Right now the studies have not proved anything, including health effects,” Jean said. “I’ve looked closely at the statistical data, and overall the numbers are very close to the Alberta average.”While he acknowledges the federal government’s responsibility for First Nations in Fort Chipewyan, Jean pointed out the responsibility for industry rests on the province, making it difficult to determine who is responsible overall. Besides, the MP said there needs to be further examination of the potential causes.“We don’t know what the causation is,” Jean said. “Is it Uranium City, or what has been happening across the lake, or the Bennett dam, or the oilsands that have been leaking for 10,000 years before we got here? The evidence is inconclusive.”

Jean said he was promised a new report that would conclusively describe health problems in Fort Chipewyan during his meeting with community stakeholders two weeks ago, but hasn’t received it. Yet he emphasized the federal government is taking the issues of water and air pollution very seriously. “This is of great concern to us,” he said. “We’ve acted very aggressively on water and air quality.”And he assured that no matter the discussion of government responsibility in Fort Chipewyan, if environmental issues are shown to be directly related to health, action will be taken immediately.

In the meantime Jean believes better records of health concerns must be kept.“I think good records have not been kept in Fort Chipewyan,” he said.

Jean is right in the sense that no study exists that conclusively proves causation between environmental toxicity and the community's health. Currently, a government study indicates an abnormal cancer and rare cancer rate among residents, and industry and independent assessment of toxicity levels in and around Fort Chipewyan indicate toxins far exceeding safe and acceptable levels. These studies, as Jean readily admits, validates the community's concerns, but does not compel the government towards any immediate action to address the situation.

However, the residents of Fort Chipewyan are well aware of this. That is why they have been calling for a comprehensive, independent and peer reviewed study that assesses the link between the environment and the community's health for years. But, the provincial and federal government has not yet responded to their requests.

Let's work through this again slowly.

Jean claims that immediate action is unwarranted because there is no evidence indicating causation. In order to obtain evidence of causation, a study needs to be conducted. However, both the provincial and federal government (of which Jean is a member) refuses to initiate in any such study. So, lacking the expertise and resources, the community is left to demonstrate causation itself, as both level of governments refuse to carry out this task themselves.

Humour me for a moment.

Can you imagine that if government, independent and industry studies indicated that residents of a Calgary neighborhood nearby a toxic dump, were reporting abnormal cancer and rare cancer rates, as well as toxicity levels far exceeding safe and acceptable levels, the community would have to demonstrate a causal link on its own? There would be no way. The government would step in to conduct a study and do all that it could to address the concerns of the residents. Just the way it should be. There is enough evidence, as Jean himself suggests, to warrant a a comprehensive, independent and peer reviewed study, but the government has been less than forthcoming to initiate one.

So, what makes Fort Chipewyan different? This is the most important question. How come politicians can claim that the community's concerns are valid, yet not legitimate enough to warrant a comprehensive environmental-health study, even though government reports call for one? Is it Fort Chipewyan's lack of political significance? The fear over what might be discovered? Or is it something more legitimate?

Answers that can only come from our elected officials and must be provided before they refuse to address Fort Chipewyan's concerns. Or question the community's health records.