Fort Chipewyan begins 10-year health study examining oilsands impacts on Indigenous community

Fort Chipewyan, an Indigenous community in northern Alberta more than 200 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, is beginning a decade-long investigation into whether oilsands development is harming the health of its residents.

Project Monument Hill, announced in August 2024 and now in its planning phase after receiving initial federal funding in March, is overseen by the Métis Nation, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, and Mikisew Cree First Nation, with the federal government serving as an observer. The federal government is funding the $12 million initiative, and third-party researchers will conduct the work.

The study will examine current and historical health data, local disease patterns, and how environmental changes affect the community's culture and daily way of life. It will combine western science with Indigenous knowledge.

Ruby Ladouceur, president of Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation, said the community has been pleading for such a study for more than two decades. "We're not pointing fingers, we just want answers to what's going on," she said. "Our goal is to better understand the relationship between the environmental conditions, traditional land use and the health and well-being of our people. It's indisputable that environmental health and human health are correlated."

The impetus is clear: residents believe industrial developments upstream along the Athabaska River are causing elevated cancer rates. Two major oilsands projects operate nearby — Imperial Oil's Kearl mine, approximately 140 kilometres away, which was the site of a 5.3-million-litre wastewater spill in 2023, and Suncor Energy's Fort Hills mine, the closest oilsands project at more than 90 kilometres distant.

Alberta does not currently maintain community-specific cancer statistics for rural areas like Fort Chipewyan. An Alberta Primary and Preventative Health Services spokesperson explained: "In smaller communities, cancer case counts can be very low and potentially identifying, so cancer data is generally analyzed over multiple years to protect privacy and ensure reliable interpretation of trends, which are then shared with the communities directly."

Ladouceur noted the limits of what the study can prove at this stage. "We cannot pinpoint and say this is all from industrial, right? We can't do that because we don't have the evidence to prove anything yet."