‘It’s a blow in the mid-section;’ James Smith left with oil spill clean-up bills
While Husky’s report on the July 21 oil spill was released last week, one First Nations leader is unhappy with their findings.
“It’s not 100 per cent cleaned up. They still left a lot of debris that’s on the river. They must think it’s going to be flowing down to Nipawin,” Chief Wally Burns said. “You know what? Once that river breaks, all that debris is going to pile up on the shores of James Smith, and that’s creating an environmental impact.”
Burns, of the James Smith Cree Nation (JSCN), received a letter on Nov. 9 stating the energy company would no longer be “providing compensation for meetings with chief, Councils, or representatives” as of September 1, 2016.
“That leaves us, that we as a community, we have to fit the bill which we don’t have the resources to do that,” Burns said. “We still have outstanding payables to pay the [Shoreline Clean-up Assessment and Treatment] team and also the security that’s still out there.”