1.0 Introduction

SECTION 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.0 Introduction Teck Resources Limited (Teck) has proposed a new 290,000 barrels per day (46,106 m3/d) surface oil sands mine within the area historically used by several Aboriginal communities, including the Métis people of Fort McKay. The border of the development area is approximately 50 km north of Fort McKay. The proponent requires approvals from the Alberta Energy Regulator, Alberta Environment (AENV), Fisheries and Oceans, and Transport Canada in order to receive permits for construction and operation of the Project. An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was conducted in 2011 to meet the requirements of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (CEAA) and the Alberta Protection and Enhancement Act (EPEA). With respect to Aboriginal peoples, the CEAA requires that EIAs include an assessment of how changes in the environment resulting from a proposed project may impact health and socio-economic conditions, physical and cultural heritage, the current use of lands and resources for traditional purposes, or any structure, site or thing that is of historical, archaeological, paleontological or architectural significance (section 5.1(c) of CEAA 2012). In August of 2011, a Traditional Land Use assessment (TLU) was completed for the Frontier Mine Project by the Fort McKay Sustainability Department (FMSD) on behalf of Métis and First Nation community members living in Fort McKay. This assessment fulfilled some CEAA and community requirements. To help fulfill requirements related to potential social, cultural, economic and some stress-related health effects, Teck agreed to support the Fort McKay Métis Community Association (FMMCA) in conducting a community- specific Integrated Cultural Assessment (ICA) for the proposed Frontier Mine Project. The following report presents the results of the ICA that was completed for the proposed Frontier Mine Project. It is based on the views and perspectives of Fort McKay Métis members who have grown up watching oil sands development, and who continue to live in Fort McKay. It reflects their unique Métis culture and their efforts to maintain that culture in the face of multiple oil sand projects being developed around their community. The Métis people of Fort McKay are recognized as a distinct historic and contemporary Métis community by the Alberta government (Government of Alberta 2007). “Métis” refers to people of mixed First Nation and European ancestry who, in addition to their mixed ancestry, developed their own customs, and recognizable group identity separate from their Indian or Inuit and European forebears (R. v. Powley, 2003 SCC 43). The Métis are one of the “aboriginal peoples of Canada” within the meaning of section 35(2) of the Constitution Act, 1982. The Métis people living in Fort McKay were born out of the Canadian fur trade, where livelihoods combined subsistence harvesting with seasonal HEG FRONTIER MINE PROJECT ICA PAGE 12 OF 419 SECTION 1.0 INTRODUCTION employment and commercial enterprise. Hunting, trapping, fishing and harvesting plants, berries and medicines are an integral part of the Métis lifestyle, but Métis people have always been entrepreneurial and involved in commerce work. Fort McKay Métis families have historically been involved in the fur trade, river boat freighting, road building, forestry, selling berries, handicrafts and providing other services to various sectors. Fort McKay Métis families continue to work, own and operate businesses servicing oil and gas, forestry sector and the community while maintaining ties to a subsistence lifestyle. The Fort McKay Métis have always lived, worked and harvested food along the shores of the Athabasca River and its major tributaries. As such, the Fort McKay Métis have also always been part of the oil sands story in the Athabasca Region. Fort McKay Métis families seasonally camped and worked at Bitumont during the 1930s and 1940s, where the earliest commercial oil sand development site in the Athabasca Region was established (Highwood Environmental Management 2001). Since the 1960s, surface oil sand mining has concentrated on lands historically used by Métis families from Fort McKay. The Frontier Mine Project will be one of 51 oil sand developments proposed within the lands used by the people of Fort McKay (28 existing and approved + 23 proposed developments). Appendix A provides a map and list of Existing, Approved and Planned Developments within lands traditionally used by Fort McKay (First Nation and Métis) families in 2015. The Fort McKay Métis have been intimately and uniquely affected by cumulative oil sands development. It is acknowledged that external forces, beyond the oil sands, have also affected the way traditional activities are carried out, however Fort McKay Métis members believe that a major factor affecting their culture, is the proximity and rate at which environmental, social and economic impacts from oil sand development have occurred. Oil sands development continues to exert significant pressures that threaten efforts to maintain a healthy, vibrant Métis community and culture. Fort McKay Métis members were active participants in all phases of this study. All information contained in this report remains property of the FMMCA. The HEG would like to acknowledge the contributions of the twenty-two Fort McKay Métis members who participated in the six days of focus group meetings held for this study. This group accounts for a little less than half of the Fort McKay Métis members who live full-time in Fort McKay. There were twelve males and ten females: six Elders (ages 50 – 80), eleven adults (ages 25 – 50) and five youth/young adults (less than 25 years old) in the focus groups. This report is their story. HEG FRONTIER MINE PROJECT ICA PAGE 13 OF 419 SECTION 1.0 INTRODUCTION 1.1 History of Fort McKay Métis The following timeline presents a brief historical overview of Fort McKay and its Métis people. It has been adapted from Campbell et al. 2005. The work of Matsui and Ray (2014) presents an analysis of Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) district reports and post journals in the 18th and 19th centuries, and suggests there were several intersecting regional Métis communities in Northeastern Alberta and Northwestern Saskatchewan at that time. These included a Cree-Métis community that extended from the Lesser Slave Lake, southeast to Calling Lake, Lac La Biche and Moose Lake and to the northeast along the Peace and Athabasca Rivers to the Little Red River (now the MacKay River), and a Chipewyan-Métis community in the vicinity of Fort Chipewyan (Clark et al. 2014). Oral histories confirm that these regional Métis communities are all part of the larger extended Métis “family” in Northeast Alberta and Northwest Saskatchewan. Fort McKay Métis members identified a number of communities in the region where they had previously lived, camped, or visited family members. Map 1 shows some of the communities and places that are important to Fort McKay Métis families. The Athabasca region was widely regarded as one of the best places in Canada for furs (Campbell 2005), and Métis settled throughout the Athabasca district along rivers and portages that served the fur trade (Clark et al. 2014). In 1778-1788, Venant St. Germain established a small trading post between Fort Chipewyan and Fort McMurray on behalf of the Northwest Company to supply provisions and to serve Aboriginal fur traders. This post became known as the Pierre au Calumet post in the 1790s. The Pierre au Calumet post was located on the east side of the Athabasca River across from the mouth of Calumet Creek (Campbell et al. 2005, p.69). Opposite of Pierre au Calumet, on the west side of the Athabasca River, Thomas Thomas established a HBC trading post in 1815 (Campbell et al. 2005, p. 69). This HBC post was established specifically to compete with the Northwest Company’s control over the Cree fur trade. In 1821, the HBC and the Northwest Company merged and the Pierre au Calumet post was closed. Missionaries began visiting the Little Red River area for short periods of time in the mid-1840s (Skolorood 1978, p.21 in Campbell et al. 2005) and began to extend their reach working with the company throughout the second half of the 19th century. Around 1870, Old Red River House was built by HBC. In 1897, HBC decided to close its trading post in Fort McMurray but maintain its post at Little Red River (Fort McKay). At that time, Fort McKay was receiving almost twice as much income from the fur trade as Fort McMurray (Campbell et al. 2005). HEG FRONTIER MINE PROJECT ICA PAGE 14 OF 419 SECTION 1.0 INTRODUCTION Map 1 – Métis Communities in the Athabasca District Fontaine Ya Lake R te Colin ive s Beaverlodge e r eas Lake Lake r er G Riv o S ffal l u er a B iv Wood Buffalo National Park v R e Lake R Richards i Athabasca on v Riou ont e Lake P r er Wentzel Lake Riv Margaret Lake Lake O th ers l id e r Davy e River z e t v n i Lake e R ce River Fort Chipewyan Pea W Mamawi Lake Lake O Claire ld R F iv o e rt Big Point r Douglas Birch River Channel R iver Embarras m Hunter lia r il e Creek iv Point Brule W R e e R n n r Mayson r ich a e o ard l v t e Poplar Point s r i s v o i a Lake e Riv n R e p F R r i c P a Firebag River M Mikkwa Lobstick Point Mirro er McClelland Forrest r Riv Riv Lake er Ta r Lake River F Cree ire ba Lake Namur Bitumount g R iv Lloyd Lake er Ells Lake River Fort McKay Little Red River r n Wa e b Careen v o r Ri as i o e ver c R L a Lake Black iv k r ati R ve Birch dj Ri r) u MacKay ive Lake M d R iver Wasekamio (Little Re Fort

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