As part of their supporting evidence, Blueberry River mapped out resource projects in their territory in 1965 and 2015, documenting more than 19,974 oil and gas wells in their territory alone, alongside multiple pipelines, resource roads and other industrial disturbances. In her ruling, Burke found that 73 per cent of Blueberry River s traditional territory is within 250 metres of an industrial disturbance and 84 per cent is within 500 metres of an industrial disturbance.
The Blueberry River First Nations is alleging that most of its territory has been disrupted by development. These 2015 maps compare industrial activity today to 50 years ago. (Blueberry River First Nations)
Further, the ruling concluded that less than 14 per cent of forests in the region had been left intact, and there had been a clear decline in the number of moose, caribou and other wildlife in the region. All of this, Burke concluded, is the result of industrial activity and that it interfered with Blueber
Two weeks ago, Energy Minister Bruce Ralston said he would not discuss the report s findings before first sharing them with cabinet and the premier.
Furstenau says she hadn t heard about the commissioning of additional geotechnical stuides and wonders how long it will take for Milburn s report to be made public. I expect that, like so many other aspects of this project and the way the government has treated it, that it will be quite a while before I or the public sees it, she told Carolina de Ryk, host of CBC s
Daybreak North.
Green Party leader Sonia Furstenau says she was not aware of the commissioning of two additional geotechnical reports on Site C.(Ben Nelms/CBC)