An Alberta First Nation is suing the provincial government for allowing an oilsands development on land near its reserve. Calgary-based MEG Energy plans to expand an existing processing plant and build two more to produce 210,000 barrels of oil per day in the Christina Lake area, approximately 160 kilometres south of Fort McMurray.

The Chipewyan Prairie Dene First Nation (CPDFN) says the government didn’t consult with it before allowing the project to go ahead. “We tried to talk to them, we wrote them letters and everything, but no one was paying attention,” says Vern Janvier, chief of the CPDFN. “They’re saying ‘just a bunch of Indians, get out of the way.’”

The 600-strong Nation filed the suit in Court of Queen’s Bench last week. It asks that the province stop the development until it can consult with the band. The band isn’t asking for money.

Janvier fears that, if the development is allowed to proceed, it will ruin the land around the lake and make it hard for the band to hunt and fish. He says he’s already noticed changes in the environment that might be linked to the oilsands or natural gas extraction in the area.

“As a kid, we never seen cancer as such. Now there’s probably four or five people in the community with cancer,” he says. “Most of the moose we’re shooting now are getting thin.” Janvier killed a moose with abscesses on its skin last weekend, and he thinks the emissions from an oilsands plant would similarly creep into the ecosystem and make the game the band hunts inedible.

MEG Energy, which isn’t named in the lawsuit, maintains that it has a good relationship with the CPDFN and that its method for extracting bitumen (pumping steam into a well to make the oilsand flow to the surface) is more environmentally-friendly than most operations in the Fort McMurray area, which practice strip-mining. “We have been in discussions with (the CPDFN) since we first arrived in the area,” says Richard Sendall, the company’s vice president of regulatory and public affairs. “Our footprint is limited compared to other projects.”

The lawsuit hinges on the government’s constitutional duty to consult First Nations bands before approving developments that might interfere with their treaty rights to use the land for hunting, fishing and trapping. It’s just one of a number of recent lawsuits aimed at making the government consult with bands before approving developments, says legal expert Sakej Henderson.

“If you’re going to take up any land that’s going to impinge on their constitutional rights, you have to reach some sort of agreement,” says Henderson, research director of the Native Law Centre at the University of Saskatchewan. He says the courts have become more and more strict with the government in demanding that they consult with First Nations.

For example, when the government tried to build an ice road through the traditional lands of the Mikisew Cree on the shores of Lake Athabasca (270 kilometres northeast of Fort McMurray), the band took it to court and won. The road hasn’t been built.

The province couldn’t be reached for comment. Generally, the provincial government declines to discuss issues that are before the courts.