SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The Yellowknives Dene First Nation is taking a stand in federal court against further development of traditional lands on the North Shore of Great Slave Lake.
Last week, lawyers representing the Yellowknives asked federal court Justice Russel Zinn to overturn a Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board decision that allowed Alex Debogorski's proposed drilling project to proceed at Drybones Bay, about 50 km southeast of Yellowknife.
The board ruled in January 2012 that the project was "not likely to have any significant adverse impact on the environment or be a cause of significant public concern."
Debogorski applied to drill 10 holes near a now-defunct diamond exploration camp previously managed by Snowfield Development Corporation.
The Drybones Bay area refers to a swath of shorefront on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, from Wool Bay to Gros Cap.
Debogorski's is the seventh project to undergo an environmental assessment in the Drybones Bay area, and the Yellowknives are concerned about the cumulative effects all this development is having on the moose population and their people's ability to hunt, trap and pass on their traditions.
"Generally, this case is about protecting the Drybones Bay area," said Shannon Gault, director of the lands department for the Yellowknives. "For centuries it was a prime hunting and trapping area."
A preliminary archaeological inventory between Taltheilei Narrows and the North Arm conducted in 2004 found a total of 118 cultural heritage sites, ranging more than "several millennia" in age. Six of the found archaeological sites are within Debogorski's staked claim.
"The asserted territory of the YKDFN is very highly exploited at this point, and YKDFN are kind of putting their foot down and saying, 'Drybones Bay should be a no-go area because it is our backyard.'"
This does not mean the Yellowknives are anti-development, stressed Gault. They just want an overall plan on how to sustainably develop their territory while also reserving important sites like Drybones Bay.
The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board has agreed with the Yellowknives on this claim in past environmental assessments, said Alan Ehrlich, manager of environmental impact assessment for the board.
"The board recognized the public concerns about cumulative effects exists, but it didn't feel that this concern was relevant to this particular development, and it noted that regional land management concerns had been addressed in other environmental assessments, and are before the federal minister."
In two previous assessments, the board has built measures to develop a land-use plan in its recommendations to the minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Both of these environmental assessments remain in limbo, awaiting the federal minister's signature to make them legally binding.
While the board may have sided with the Yellowknives on the importance of creating a land-use plan for the Drybones Bay area, it broke that precedent during the assessment of Debogorski's proposed project.
"The board concluded that this particular project, because of its particular aspects, would not contribute to these cultural cumulative impacts," said Ehrlich.
The Yellowknives disagree, and took the only means available to them to contest the board's findings, said Gault.
"The YKDFN, number one, is seeking consistency in these board rulings," she said. "What this court case is about is it questions the Crown's duty to consult, their federal obligation to consult with any aboriginal groups through the (environmental assessment) process, and the YKDFN believes this was not done to an appropriate level."
Debogorski told Yellowknifer he would prefer to wait until the Yellowknives and federal government had their jurisdictional disputes sorted out before developing his claim. But federal regulations dictate that a prospector must spend a certain amount of money each year, or forfeit the claim.
He has been applying for a section 81 deferral on the claim each year for the past several years, which allowed him to hold off from doing any work, but said the federal government has been pressuring him to put more money into developing his claim.
"I think they're just pushing me around," said Debogorski. "Maybe I'm just the experimental canary and they're waiting to see if I live or not."
Zinn reserved his final decision on the case last Thursday and is expected to release a written ruling in the coming months.
