First Nation sues governments over Husky Oil spill into river

A First Nations lawsuit alleges that government inaction was at least partly to blame for a Husky Energy oil spill that fouled water supplies for tens of thousands of people along the North Saskatchewan River last summer.

A statement of claim filed Thursday by the James Smith band in Melfort, Sask., against the provincial and federal governments says Saskatchewan ignored pipeline-safety recommendations from its own auditor general made four years before the accident.

“The report concluded that such failure to effectively regulate pipelines could result in foreseeable harm to people or to the environment, and made recommendations as to how the provincial Crown could take action to ensure compliance with its statutory requirements,” the document says.

The lawsuit also claims the federal government failed to protect the band’s treaty rights.

About 40 per cent of a 225,000litre spill from the Husky pipeline reached the river on July 20, 2016. The plume began near the Saskatchewan-Alberta boundary and spread hundreds of kilometres downstream.

It forced the cities of Prince Albert, North Battleford and Melfort to shut off their water intakes for almost two months. Wildlife was also harmed.

The First Nation alleges that remnants of the spill remain along the shores of the river. The suit says the spill has damaged habitat for wildlife, including endangered species and animals hunted by band members.