Fort Smith seeks an alternate route south
Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Fort Smith (Feb 12/01) - A proposed route south from Fort Smith has hit a roadblock
Last week, Chief George Poitras of the Mikisew Cree First Nation in Fort Chipewyan said the band did not want the road going through their reserve.
Wood Buffalo National Park superintendent Josie Weninger said the park is in contact with both the band and the road builder and will conduct a new environmental assessment on a new route.
"We were advised by the Mikisew Cree First Nation that they wouldn't allow the proponent, Thebacha Road Society, to cross reserve land at Peace Point," she said. "We are waiting for a proposal from the proponent, with a suggested alternate route and at that stage, we'll have to an environmental assessment of the change."
Road project co-ordinator, Richard Powers, said the news came as a complete surprise to the builders because the society had full support from the previous chief and council and had received a non-committal letter from the new council.
"We had gone to Fort Chip and they were part of the consultation process," he said. "We have a letter on file from the Mikisew saying that they didn't support the road, but they didn't oppose it either."
The 118-kilometre road was originally planned to go south through Wood Buffalo National Park to Peace Point using a right-of-way that was first established in 1958. The route travels west along the Peace River to Garden River.
This comes as one of a long list of setbacks on the road, which has been proposed many times over the past 40 years. Powers said they had a crew trained and ready to work.
"The day we were supposed to receive our permission to go in and begin work, was the day the Mikisew came up with this surprise that they didn't want us to go in," he said. "The funding is in place, the crew has been trained here in Fort Smith."
Power said the original plan has now been changed to appease the Mikesew Cree.
"We're looking right now at alternate routes to cross outside of the reserve," Powers said. "We've already done the preliminary work and it will be made available to the public and to environmental assessment within the next two weeks."
Poitras did not returned calls as of press time.
