A group gathered in front of City Hall in Prince Albert on Wednesday afternoon. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski
A handful of Prince Albert Idle No More members are demanding more respect for water from the oil industry and the province.
The Husky Energy oil spill in the North Saskatchewan River led them to assemble in front of Prince Albert City Hall on Wednesday with signs, one stating “water is life.” The peaceful gathering came in light of Premier Brad Wall’s visit to the city for meetings on the recovery.
Seeing the foam and oil slick on the river, after more than 250,000 litres of oil spilled into the river was a painful experience for Beverly Boe, who had to pause as she cried while speaking.
“I stood at the water and cried. That’s our life. What’s going to be left for our children? What’s going to be left for our grandchildren?”
The situation has also stirred emotions for Shirley Essaunce.
“My children, when they were little, they could drink water out of a river. I bet you my grandchildren won’t be able to. Going forward our water situation is getting worse and worse and we need to stand up now before it becomes a situation where we cannot return,” she said.
Boe has a wider message about the risks of pipelines.
“We have pipelines running through water supplies right across Canada. Every single citizen of this country should be concerned about the risk that we’re having to our water,” Boe said.
Both Boe and Essaunce are underwhelmed with Wall’s response to the spill, with Essaunce saying the premier’s tweets focused on sports on Friday, July 21 whereas she and other Prince Albert residents were “panicking and stockpiling water because we were told our water was going to be shut off.”
Essaunce has concerns with how Husky representatives have said the oil will be able to break down naturally, which she views as minimizing the effect of the spill.
Water Security Agency quality tests are underway, and a Husky report says so far only four of 900 water samples have been below the Canadian drinking water standard.
Estelle Hjertaas said she is not comforted by those results.
“The oil has broken up, they haven’t got all of it. So the issue for us with our drinking water is, what if one of those lobs of oil that’s somewhere in the river, stuck in the bottom of the water or whatever, releases and comes into our water intake and contaminates the reservoir,” she said.
Hjertaas, too, is critical of the response to how leadership has responded to the spill. However, she said Wall thanked protesters for being there as he got into his car to leave.