Trappers continue to decry exploration
SASKATOON — A handful of First Nations trappers continue to camp along a highway in northeast Saskatchewan to protest oil and mineral exploration in the north.
“The land is very important to us. It’s our store and our drugstore, it’s the water that we drink and we’re trying to protect that,” said Nancy Scanie, an elder from Cold Lake who travelled seven hours to join her colleagues at the camp site over the weekend.
The group, who’ve dubbed themselves the Northern Trappers Alliance, set up a blockade on Highway 955 north of La Loche in late November.
Bobby Montgrand, a spokesman for the group, said the RCMP asked them to dismantle the roadblock last month, but that trappers remain in the area. Instead of blocking the road, they’re now camping alongside it and waving signs at the trucks that pass by on their way to work sites.
“Save the wildlife,” reads one. “Save our water,” says another.
The camp has been manned continuously by about a dozen people for the last two months and Montgrand said no one has any plans to leave.
“We’re not really worried about the cold because we’ve got enough work, we’ve got a fire, we’ve been living off the land,” he said.
Clearwater First Nation Chief Ted Clark, who owns a contracting company that’s doing exploration work in northern Saskatchewan that was blocked from using Highway 955 in November before the blockade was lifted, said the trappers “are going to be there for a long time.”
He said their worries about land being decimated are unfounded.
“If things start to go bad — if water’s being polluted or the land’s being unnecessarily destroyed — we will step in and tell industry ‘No, stop right there,’ Clark said.
He said provincial regulations governing safe and environmentally conscious exploration are being followed and that exploration in the north brings a lot of “positives” for First Nations groups, including significantly increased opportunities for employment.
“The protesters up there — I respect the fact that they are there wanting to protect the land and the waters for future generations — but, at the same time, we need to be involved,” Clark said. “If development’s going to happen, it’s best that we are involved in development, that we know exactly what’s going on.”