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Dene chiefs call for hearing on air safety
Public meeting with Transportation Safety Board wantedPaul Bickford Northern News Services Published Tuesday, November 8, 2011
The chiefs, gathered in Fort Smith for their fall meeting Oct. 25 to 27, unanimously passed a resolution requesting the public meeting. Bill Erasmus, national chief of the Dene Nation, said there was a very good discussion in Fort Smith about the problems residents of smaller communities are seeing with regular flights and scheduled service. "It's not pointing fingers at any of the airlines," he said. "It's saying that this is a real issue in the North and people want to have their opinions brought forward." Among the concerns expressed by the chiefs, Erasmus noted many flights don't have co-pilots and not all planes carrying passengers have twin engines. Another concern of the chiefs is that freight and passengers are often on the same planes flying into communities. "They think the two should be separated because freight is very heavy and people don't feel comfortable in a scheduled plane that has a lot of freight on it," he said. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is responsible for the safety of airline operations and for the investigation of airline accidents. That body is investigating a crash near Lutsel K'e that killed two people on Oct. 4, an incident with a Twin Otter in Old Town on Sept. 22 that resulted in two deaths and a flight that left Yellowknife for Resolute on Aug. 20 that went down, killing 12 of 15 people on board. Erasmus said airline safety is an important issue for many smaller communities, particularly the ones that are only accessible by air. He noted the recent accidents have caused concern. "People are not as eager to get on a plane as they were," he said. For example, he noted more people than usual drove to the meeting in Fort Smith instead of flying. However, he could not say for sure that could be attributed to the recent accidents. Erasmus himself flies often. "I have a particular belief when I'm flying," he said. "I have to trust the pilot and airlines, and, if I didn't, I wouldn't fly as much. But saying that, the planes have to be in good condition." The chiefs also passed a number of other resolutions at their meeting in Fort Smith. They called for a moratorium in Denendeh on hydraulic fracturing – commonly referred to as fracking – until further research is conducted on impacts to land, water and human health, and until there are proper regulatory requirements and safeguards in place for that type of development to proceed. Fracking basically involves using water and chemicals to extract natural gas from rocks underground. Erasmus said, as far as he knows, fracking is not currently happening in the NWT. "But I think there's movement to have it occur in the North and that's a concern," he said. "We want a full discussion on this." Erasmus noted he brought the issue to the attention of new Premier Bob McLeod at a meeting on Oct. 31 and the territorial government leader is open to the idea of doing proper research. "We'll now begin working with the MLAs to bring these questions forward and get the kind of knowledge on this so that we know what it all encompasses," Erasmus said. At their Fort Smith meeting, the chiefs also passed a resolution in support of a protocol for future relations with the GNWT. "We seem to be at loggerheads the last couple of years, and we want to get away from that," Erasmus said. "We want to be constructive and have some positive outcomes with this new administration." Part of a new protocol would involve a better understanding of what consultation means, the national chief said. "It's a definition of consultation that we can all agree on and move forward with it." The Dene chiefs' fall meeting in Fort Smith brought together representatives of 25 communities from all regions of the NWT.
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