Power plant expansion controversy grows (in Edmonton).

EDMONTON

An Alberta Energy and Utilities Board (AEUB) hearing began Oct. 17 to assess whether appellants Epcor and Atco should proceed with a proposed 170 megawatt gas turbine expansion known as Rossdale Unit 11 on its existing power plant site in Edmonton.

Epcor hopes the hearing will help resolve problems between itself and local Aboriginal people. This even though AEUB has ruled a nearby cemetery of concern to some Native people is "not an issue" in making its determination, according to Epcor archeologist Barney Reeves.

Originally scheduled to last two weeks, the hearing could take longer. No time limit has been set, according to AEUB's public affairs spokesman, Dave Morris.

At issue for Native people at the hearing is whether the plant's expansion would desecrate a burial ground, since some excavations done for Epcor by archeologists Lifeways of Canada confirm there are artifacts on Epcor property. The company said no graves or skeletons have been found. Some Native people doubt their findings.

Epcor purchased its land from the city, and gravesites have been unearthed on adjoining city property.

A list of intervenors supplied by Morris identifies the Metis Nation of Alberta; Association Canadienne-Francaise de l'Alberta; Lagimodiere family; Papasschase family; and Blackfoot First Nations Thunder Society as comprising the First Families and First Settlers group. Other intervenors are the Mother Earth Healing Society; Papasschase First Nation (Association) Society; Confederation of Treaty 6 First Nations; Rossdale Community League; Conserve; Central Area Council of Community Leagues; Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues; ESBI; Historical Society of Alberta; Western Canada Wilderness Committee; Alberta Environment; Alberta Health and Welfare; and Alberta Community Development. Eight individuals are also named.

Epcor is aware there is a cemetery on the former Hudson Bay Fort near their plant, but insists most of the cemetery that is known to exist is under the Rossdale Road, which is city property. The company said it is aware of seven skeletons located at its west boundary near Rossdale Road in 1967.

No agreement about the number of graves on either Epcor's or the city's land, or the proportion of Aboriginal graves exists, but on Oct. 23 Philip Coutu, representing the Metis Nation of Alberta at the AEUB hearing, said research shows 35 people have been interred at the Rossdale site since the early 19th century. Duane Goodstriker, the Blackfoot Nations First Thunder Society spokesman and a Blood Tribe member, puts the number at 40. Goodstriker is also a spokesman for the First Nations First Settlers Group at the AEUB hearings.

In the meantime, some concerned about Epcor's plans have been holding their own meetings. Last month, Goodstriker and supporters erected several wooden crosses on city property at the place where they placed crosses near Rossdale Road last summer. They also put up a banner derogatory to Epcor at the AEUB hearing on the first day; but removed it at the request of the city.

David Schneider, director of communications for the city of Edmonton, said "the city is being patient and sensitive to all parties involved." As evidence, he points out that the city has made no move to remove the spear and crosses erected on city property by Goodstriker.

Goodstriker has been contemptuous of what he terms "Epcor's cover-up" and the city's alleged complicity. Coutu, who seems to agree with Goodstriker, upbraided the Native press for not giving the issue the attention he said it deserves, but declined to discuss specific concerns with Windspeaker over the telephone.

Members of the Edmonton Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee, a volunteer group that reports to the city on issues affecting local Native people, are not all in agreement with Goodstriker and Coutu. Some suggested Goodstriker doesn't represent the Cree.

Committee member Josie Cardinal wouldn't say whether Goodstriker's views represented her or not. She said it was important to get all the facts before making conclusions and she did not believe all the facts were in.

"I think what Duane is doing basically is he has lit a fire, but now it's a matter of maintaining the fire, making sure it doesn't get out of control ... we want to make sure that things are done respectfully."

Later she said a key issue was the amount of public money Goodstriker wants to conduct research separate from Epcor's.

In a telephone interview with Windspeaker on Oct. 19, Goodstriker said, "We asked them for equal funding.... I asked Barney Reeves and Epcor `how much money has Epcor paid you guys?'"

He said the answer he got was "approximately $250,000 over the last two years."

Goodstriker continued, "But that's not the fund I was asking for. I told Mayor Bill Smith, Don Lowry and a room full of Indians in city hall ... we want equal funding for all of the archeological digs that you have conducted on this site from the beginning. So that's the 1960s, `70s, `80s, `90s, up to now. You get a figure for that. Because those people, those companies, those individuals have been making money, getting their research papers, getting their honors degrees ... on the bones of dead Indian, Metis and Europeans lying in that graveyard."

Goodstriker said he has "no idea" how much money those people got, but said, "I'll ballpark $1.52 million easy."

Who would be getting it?

"From day one, I said the Blackfeet, the Cree, the Metis, the Stoney and the European community. And how the Blackfeet deal with it in the city is through the Blackfoot Nations First Thunder Society, an amalgamation of the Blood, Peigan, Siksika and South Peigan tribes."

Goodstriker said how the other groups deal with funding is up to them.

"The Blackfeet are saying, we're going after this to tell the Blackfeet side of the story. We want equal funding to tell the historical perspective of who we are on this site, and let the (other groups) all tell their own story."

Goodstriker also wants funding for the First Peoples First Settlers group at the AEUB heating. He said other groups represented have "received funded intervenor status, which means AEUB is going to pay for their lawyers, going to pay for their researchers and pay for their time. We applied for the same thing and the AEUB turned around and said `no, we're not going to give it to you.'" Goodstriker said they asked for around $120,000, "approximately what everybody else asked for and received.

"So the AEUB is essentially practising a form of apartheid, saying `we cannot talk about past burial site issues and we cannot talk about historic land title, and we cannot fund you,' whereas everybody else gets funded and everybody else gets to talk about whatever they want."

Several Aboriginal urban affairs committee members deferred significant comment about an Oct. 1 meeting they hosted at the Canadiaq Native Friendship Centre to their chairperson Val Kaufman, who was away the rest of October. Goodstriker says his group was not invited to that meeting, but heard about it, called the friendship centre and insisted on the right to attend.

Epcor's principal archeologist Barney Reeves made a presentation, as did Goodstriker.

"They were basically two views that were quite in contrast to each other," Josie Cardinal said. "I don't think we have a total picture of what actually has happened."

She added the committee is asking the city for "a six-month delay before any developments occur in the area. They want some time ... (for other people to conduct research) to develop more of an opinion on the whole situation."

She said a suggestion that came out of the meeting was to get a group of Elders involved in six months' time to discuss how to proceed. Because the Oct. 1 meeting was not held in a circle format, the Elders' and some others' opinions were not heard, she said.

Another committee member, Lewis Cardinal, director of Native student services at the University of Alberta, said although he wasn't at the friendship centre meeting, he had the report. He said it was principally Epcor and Goodstriker presenting the two sides, which was "important," but more meetings should follow.

"First of all, the city wants to know how the Aboriginal community feels about the Epcor issue--about the graveyard that is there, about the expansion and that sort of thing. So what (the Aboriginal urban affairs committee has done) is to facilitate a community consultation process, so we can bring out the Elders and community members to actually hear the information and to share their opinions and thoughts with the city."

No date for follow-up has been set.

He said he realizes the city "needs to have some sort of response or some cohesive statement by the Aboriginal community," but "they are going to have to wait." Any additional information made public, such as at the AEUB hearing, will help move the process along, he said.

Lewis said the graves "are terribly disrespected if you put a road right over it.

"There are two issues here. One is the Epcor expansion and how does it encroach then or disturb any existing graves, and we don't actually know that 100 per cent. They're trying to formulate an argument saying there are no bodies beyond the fence and the road.

"The expansion is one thing," he said, "but the graveyard is another. And so either way you cut it the city of Edmonton still has to respond to these requests. There's bodies there, and in our tradition and in most traditions, those sites have to be, should be, respected."

Tim Boston, director for government affairs for Epcor, agrees that it is important to respect the graves and said a way must be found to do that which everyone agrees on. He previously met with the urban affairs committee to present findings in Epcor's archeological report from last year, "and started talking about how we could move to find a way to honor the cemetery. Whether it be a monument or whatever.. . hopefully get a consensus on how to move forward on that from the Aboriginal point of view. I'm also looking to match that with the Catholics, the Metis and other groups who have interest in that cemetery."

He said Epcor is doing everything it can to make sure other Aboriginal people are consulted. For example, Boston met with the First Nations Resource Council last spring and said he gave them a copy of the archeological report. Further to talks with the council, it was suggested Epcor present the report at the Chiefs' Summit at T'suu Tina Nation. Epcor provided 47 copies to the resource council for the chiefs and Boston attended the Chiefs Summit personally. Epcor has also bused in Papasschase Elders to show them the site adjoining Epcor property, "so they could really see it in comparison to the power plant and where we are talking about working."

He said some-Elders expressed the view the city should be dealing with the issue, but he said he does not know that all the Elders feel that way.

He has also consulted the Metis Nation of Alberta as well as the Blood and Peigan chiefs in the southern part of the province and the provincial Aboriginal Affairs department. Boston said Epcor also tried unsuccessfully to meet with Enoch First Nation's chief, Ron Morin, and left information for him at Enoch, which is the closest reserve to Edmonton.

Boston said that any artifacts or human remains they find "belong to the Crown. They belong to the province." He "assumes" the university took ownership of the remains that were discovered.

"I think (the university) were concerned about giving them to anybody--they can't identify whose remains they are. It's part of the challenge."

Boston said "I think it would be very difficult to establish that they would be Blackfoot, although Duane (Goodstriker) believes they are. Wholeheartedly, actually."

Goodstriker said "I'm only in this for the 10 per cent of the Blackfeet Indians that I believe are in that graveyard. Everybody else can speak for themselves., but where are they?"

"It's not about the Blackfeet against the Cree, the Cree against the Stoney, the Stoney against the Metis ... it should be about those human beings that are being disturbed in their final resting place. A sanctified Christian cemetery and a Native burial ground side by side." Goodstriker said he has the paperwork to show the graves are there.

The proposed Rossdale 11 project should be a non-issue so far as the gravesite is concerned, Boston said. "Where we're proposing to do the development isn't anywhere near the cemetery; in fact, it's a good 140 metres away." He said it is "incredible" that Goodstriker would assume Epcor would know "where stuff is."

Reeves concurs. He said Epcor has been accused "of digging in the wrong places. We're not looking for bodies; we're digging in the area we want to work."