Treaty relationships need repair: Boutilier – Fort McMurray Today

Current municipal councillor and former Alberta environment minister Guy Boutilier is challenging levels of government, industry and aboriginal groups to meet as early as September to discuss treaty relationships in the oilsands.

Speaking during the final day of a conference featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Boutilier said the balance between parties in the oilsands is fragmenting. He warned broken relationships are dangerous for the environment and the economy.

“I believe we need to start again. I believe that over the last few years, the balance has been lost,” said Boutilier, who also served as Alberta’s Aboriginal affairs minister.

“You can look around the room and probably see who is not here today. Before we can get anything done, we need to strengthen our relationships because like Desmond Tutu said: We are all family.”

The conference — titled As Long as the Rivers Flow: Coming Back to the Treaty Relationship in Our Time — featured moral, environmental and political leaders from various backgrounds addressing the social and environmental impacts of energy development.

The title comes from a phrase in Treaty 8, that First Nations in the area “have the right to continue with our way of life for as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the rivers flow.”