First Nations lawsuit blames government inaction for Husky oil spill
A First Nations lawsuit alleges that government inaction is 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.