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April 4, 2007 - Calgary

The Dehcho First Nations together with WWF-Canada, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) and the Canadian Boreal Initiative called on the Government of Canada to implement the Dehcho Land Use Plan.

The Dehcho First Nations have linked the future of the proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline project to the Land Use Plan.

“Our position is that without the Land Use Plan, there won’t be a pipeline”, said Dehcho First Nations Grand Chief Herb Norwegian. “Implementing the Land Use Plan is the key to unlocking the development potential of our territory and securing a sustainable future for our children.”

Under an Interim Measures Agreement signed between Canada, the Northwest Territories and the Dehcho First Nations in 2001, approximately half of the Dehcho region—covering 20 million hectares of the Mackenzie watershed--was protected from development to enable land use planning and negotiations to proceed...

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...Canada’s chief negotiator recently advised the Dehcho First Nations that their land rights negotiations would be postponed until further instructions are received from the Minister of Indian Affairs.

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I really hope this gets a lot of attention from the media and Canadians.

Norwegian and the camouflage-uniformed officer met alone in his office for about 30 minutes in mid-afternoon. They did not issue a joint statement. Afterwards Norwegian Government of Denendeh said that however cordial the meeting was, “we still feel the pressure of Canada, the
psychological pressure of their presence on our territory.

PRAIRIE CREEK MINE: CYANIDE DISASTER WAITING TO ENGULF DEHCHO

FORT LIARD, NWT -- There are 40 tonnes of lethal cyanide that have been stored for over 20
years beside Prairie Creek, a tributary of the South Nahanni River in Dehcho First Nations
territory, and the federal government must remove it.
...

The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board said the
cyanide should be removed, and included measures in CZN’s permits to make the company
properly store the cyanide in an enclosed container until it could be removed or neutralized. But it is so highly toxic, that even government field inspectors said they would refuse to go near the location, and the measure has never been enforced.

In 2006, Nahanni Butte wrote to INAC Minister Jim Prentice requesting the cyanide be
neutralized on site and removed. The minister – in the days before the Conservative Party
became green – refused, saying the mine site was safe and the cyanide safely stored. The Dehcho
disagree, as the cyanide is stored out in the open environment, in aging barrels that sit on wooden
skids, and are only covered by tarps. “If there is an environmental disaster then it will be on his
head,” Grand Chief Herb Norwegian said.
In January of this year Nahanni Butte raised the cyanide issue again since Canadian Zinc has
proposed to build a 170 km. road to re-supply fuel and other contaminants to the mine site.
Alarmingly, Canadian Zinc also proposes to haul the highly toxic cyanide out through the heart
of the South Nahanni Watershed, over the mountains, through the karst lands, and overwater
bodies to the Liard highway. There is great anxiety among residents that the “cyanide removal”
proposal is being used as a political lever to try and gain support for the “Zinc Road.”
Back in Fort Liard at the leadership meeting, Marie Lafferty, president of the Fort Simpson
Metis Local and Chief Eric Betsaka of Nahanni Butte First Nations argued that INAC has
ignored the pleas of DFN’s Annual Assemblies, and urgently asked DFN’s leadership to keep
pressing the federal government to take immediate action on the cyanide, calling it “a pending
environmental disaster.”
Ends
For futher information contact: Grand Chief Herb Norwegian
867 695-2355