First Nation accuses GNWT of violating UN Declaration over highway

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The Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation says it will review “all possible options” if the NWT government does not formally consult with it over the proposed Mackenzie Valley Highway.

The Mackenzie Valley Highway is a $1 billion-plus project the GNWT has pursued for decades. It is going through an environmental assessment but the territory does not yet have the funding to pay for its construction.

If completed, the highway would give the Sahtu region its first year-round road access.

Sahtu community leaders say the highway would make a huge difference to resupply and the cost of living. Some have called on Canada to build the highway as an Arctic security issue as Ottawa seeks to increase its defence spending.

Fort Simpson, where the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation is based, already has an all-season highway – Highway 1 – but traffic would have to pass along that road to reach the Mackenzie Valley Highway, which would connect to Highway 1’s current terminus in Wrigley.

“We recognize the importance of the MVH to the communities along its route that lack year-round road access, and we support efforts to create this essential connectivity,” Chief Kele Antoine of the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation wrote in a letter to the GNWT on December 20.

“Nevertheless, the proposed highway will have significant adverse impacts on LKFN, and those impacts will not be sufficiently accommodated by the measures proposed in the environmental assessment.”

At a November meeting, Chief Antoine said, the GNWT said it “would not engage in formal negotiations with LKFN for accommodations related to the project.”

According to Antoine, the territorial government contacted the Dehcho First Nations but not the Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation during the early stages of development work on the highway proposal. Antoine said the GNWT has since argued the “ship has sailed” on consultation.

The First Nation has suggested the accommodations it has in mind could include construction jobs and training, funding for a rest stop along the highway at the community, and increased policing to cope with more traffic into and out of the area.

However, one of the most important asks on the First Nation’s list is the building of two bridges: one across the Liard River outside Fort Simpson and one across the Mackenzie River heading toward Wrigley. At the moment, both of those river crossings on Highway 1 are served by ferries and ice roads, meaning weeks-long shutdowns in shoulder seasons when the ice keeps ferries off the water but isn’t strong enough to support vehicles.

“Our Nation views these pieces of infrastructure as critical to achieve the stated goals of the project, and to meet our Nation’s goals related to climate change, emergency preparedness and service availability,” Antoine wrote.

Local leaders have long advocated for a Liard River bridge as a means of helping to ensure supplies reach Fort Simpson year-round. To use 2023 as an example, a weeks-long delay to the ice road meant extra costs for businesses and travel complications for residents.

The 2023 wildfire season also led some leaders to suggest a bridge would help in the event of an evacuation. At the moment, a summer evacuation of Fort Simpson would be slowed by the capacity of the MV Lafferty ferry, which can transport about a dozen vehicles at a time.

Antoine said a “potential humanitarian crisis could occur” without a bridge.

“The GNWT recently communicated to LKFN that the bridges are out of scope in the context of MVH discussions. LKFN does not see that as a tenable position for the government to maintain,” he wrote.

Approached for comment by Cabin Radio on December 23, the territorial government had not responded as of Wednesday evening. The territory closes most of its offices during the holiday period.

Antoine said his First Nation’s request for consultation was “not unusual or unprecedented” and wrote that the GNWT’s “continued rejection of our reasonable requests towards this end defies the norms, and the laws, around accommodating impacts for road projects across Canada.”

He characterized the GNWT’s actions as a violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

“If GNWT continues to refuse to honourably consult with us towards this end, LKFN is prepared to consider and pursue all possible options at its disposal,” Antoine concluded.

“We cannot, and will not, sit idly by while laws are being broken and while our rights are being dishonoured.”

https://cabinradio.ca/217021/news/polit ... r-highway/