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RADILIH KOE'/FORT GOOD HOPE - Some First Nations leaders are calling for a moratorium on tar sands expansion, and they made a promise to continue educating people living in the Mackenzie basin about threats to their water system.

Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation speaks about living downstream from the Alberta Oil Sands at the recent Fort Good Hope Water Conference. - photo courtesy of Chris Paci/Deep Consulting Inc.

They gathered in Fort Good Hope during the first week in September for a territorial water conference.

K'asho Got'ine Chief Frank T'Seleie said his community was asked last April to host the conference and he received the blessing of elders and residents in the region.

T'Seleie said the Sept. 2 to 4 conference was meant to inform the people about the importance of safe water and stresses created on the Mackenzie water system from pollution and other uses upstream.

"We're on the same basin and everything that goes into the water upstream from us is a hazard to our health here," said T'Seleie.

He said much of the discussion was on how to manage a resource that flows in from another jurisdiction. He said choices made by the neighbouring Alberta government about letting companies access the water has an impact on people in the North.

Leaders at the water conference were looking for ways to combat overuse and water pollution.

"It really boils down to a question of sustainability as a resource," said T'Seleie. "When government approves licenses to explore, the right to use water goes with it. No matter what part of the basin those licences are authorized for, that puts a demand on the resources itself."

Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger attended the conference to present the NWT's Northern Voices for Northern Waters plan. The department is preparing a new territorial water policy that Miltenberger says will be unlike any other in the country. The strategy is scheduled to be ready in March 2009.

"We laid out the need for a Northern water strategy to deal with our own issues within the NWT as well as transboundary issues facing us in the Mackenzie River basin," he said.

Miltenberger said he is consistently hearing concern about water and this new policy under development should help address some of them.

The Fort Good Hope conference came just three weeks after a similar water conference in Fort Chipewyan, Alta.

Protecting water quality has been a hot topic for most living downstream of the Alberta oilsands.

In Fort Chipewyan, one of the first communities downstream from the massive oilsands development site, community leaders have reported a cancer spike since development began.

Studies are ongoing but many suspect the cancer is caused by pollution to the Athabasca river.

Vast quantities of water are needed to extract oil from the oilsand. It takes about four litres of water to extract one litre of oil. Elders are reporting lower water levels in the Athabasca and Mackenzie.

Chief Allan Adam of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation attended the Fort Good Hope conference with a message for people living along the Mackenzie: whatever is happening with Fort Chipewyan's water will eventually also affect Fort Good Hope.

"It may take a little longer but it will get here," said Adam.

Adam told the Fort Good Hope conference how he was approached and questioned by the RCMP after hosting the Fort Chipewyan water conference.

"They had questions about a unity coalition, and they wanted to know if we are going to set up roadblocks and demonstrate, all those kinds of questions," he said.

Adam said there was no talk of violent protests at either conference.

"We don't believe in violence as a means to get to the table to get answers."

He said instead he plans to keep "pounding away" at the government to come to the table and talk about water rights.

T'Seleie said the conference was a wake-up call for many of the people in Fort Good Hope.

"I come from a generation that was born in the bush. We're used to clean water. Our bodies are now under stress," he said.

T'Seleie said this conference was only the starting point for water issues in the Sahtu.

He said people can expect to hear more about this.

"Whenever our health and safety is concerned we can't stay quiet."