The sky glows red as the sun sets in Marten Falls First Nation, across from the Albany River, on Dec. 13, 2023.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
The mighty Kistachowan sipi – the Albany River – is losing water at an alarming rate.
The levels are so low in some areas near Fort Albany First Nation on the south shores of the river that you can almost walk across the rocky bottom. In some patches it is so dry, some drive their side-by-side vehicles on it.
This giant force of nature, nearly 982 kilometres long, begins at Lake St. Joseph, high in Ontario’s north country, where a hungry Canada is looking to mine a treasure trove of resources in order to strengthen its economy. The mouth is found at James Bay, where the Ininiw or Cree communities of Fort Albany and Kashechewan First Nation, or Kash, call home. Kash is located on the north side of the river.
Kistachowan means fast-moving water. Now, the water can seem barely there. Its disappearance during these months when fall turns to winter have left those who live here, on the edge of the Ring of Fire, fearing that their way of life will soon be lost. The geese don’t fly here like they used to, they say; the caribou don’t come this way as much any more. Hunting seasons are shifting owing to the change in climate. It snowed this fall before the ground was frozen. The winter ice-road season gets shorter every year.
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What is happening to Kistachowan sipi? Fort Albany members gathered on Monday night at the community centre to share stories and try to figure out how to save the river that they depend on, and which defines them. The hall was packed, and the meeting went for nearly five hours. Elizabeth Spence, a Fort Albany member who has watched the river struggle, silenced the room when she said, “Our river is half gone.” She is not sure if it will ever come back.
She spent the past several months travelling with her family up the river, visiting all the places where they hunted and harvested plants for medicine. She said the algae is growing rapidly because of low water levels, that the permafrost has started to melt. Once the mushy muskeg overheats, the river’s ecosystems change forever, and the ways of life known for tens of thousands of years risk vanishing.
For Indigenous people, water and land gives life, food, language – our ways of being. Destroy that, and you destroy the people.
Drastic changes to the river were blamed on a confluence of things that have occurred over several decades, including the warming Earth, as well as an overpopulation of beavers clogging up some of the tributaries. But there was particular focus on the historical government-sanctioned water diversions – from Longlac to Lake Superior in 1939, and from the Ogoki Reservoir to Lake Nipigon in 1943 – that were aimed at building power stations and dams for Ontario’s hydro grid during the last major-projects campaign, in support of the war effort.
Fort Albany’s Mike Metatawabin, the deputy grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, told the community how those diversions have changed the Albany River’s natural flow. Water is being moved all the way to Niagara Falls, he said.
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“They said they did it for the national interest. Well, we had to build our own transmission line here for power. They only service their own needs,” he told me. He fears this playbook will be used again as Ottawa uses Bill C-5 and Ontario deploys Bill 5 – their pieces of major-projects legislation – to take what they want and leave the North with nothing but empty promises.
The changing river is not just affecting Fort Albany. All the communities along the Albany River system are affected: Marten Falls, Kash, Eabametoong First Nation. Conversely, Kashechewan floods every year because the community is closer to James Bay and it sits on lower land, explained Fort Albany Chief Robert Nakogee.
Water is like our body, said Mr. Metatawabin: “When an artery is severed, the flow of life will end. We need to address this. It is changing our future and our young people – the stories, the teachings.”
Fort Albany member Jocelyne Sutherland added: “Will my grandchildren be able to go down to the Albany River? Or will they just hear about it from me?”
Before they bulldoze into the future, Mark Carney and Doug Ford need to understand what has been done in the past so they can avoid the same mistakes. They should travel to Fort Albany, meet with the people, and see what unfair major development has already done to the country they say they’re trying to save.