The ill-fated Canol pipeline is yet another story of resource exploitation and colonialism in the Canadian North. Just as there are many bits and pieces of the pipeline operation remaining to be picked up along the Shutagot’ine Trail, so too must the social pain be reconciled. This story however has an ongoing, and positive future, with the formation of a Territorial park as well as an ongoing Trail Remediation project.

Dr. Sinead Earley brought attention to a “Toxic Legacy” in Northern BC. This story had similar themes to many other resource based “explorations” of the mid 1900s: displacement, destruction, waste, and neglect, all for a 15-month production window where ~3,000 barrels/day were pumped to the refinery in Whitehorse. 30,000 American Soldiers built the Norman Wells pipeline over 2 years of difficult work in harsh conditions. The project was subsequently abandoned due to permafrost related issues, construction faults, the end of the war and the absence of financial controls. This budgeted 30 million-dollar project ended up costing roughly 10 times that.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however, as great efforts have been made towards the remediation of the trail as well as the designation of the trail as a heritage site and Territorial park. Dr. Earley spoke of her time on the trail (with the blessings of the Sahtú Nation) and used effective imagery in order to convey the importance of caution and discretion when considering resource extraction. A particularly harsh image was that of a beautiful set of Moose antlers entangled in telegraph wire. To me, this was a metaphor for the debilitating and complicated burden that resource extraction can put on an ecosystem and population of people when not properly considered. I thought that Dr. Earley did a great service to the issue, and tread carefully, choosing her words with much deliberation.

This talk was not relevant to my thesis topic, but it did hit close to home in regards to my own internal debate regarding resource extraction, and a contributing factor in why I never entered the Mineral Exploration industry (despite setting myself up for it with a Geology BSc). It is very difficult to quantify the legacy effects of resource extraction from an environmental standpoint, and even more difficult to properly address the social harm. Ongoing work is needed in this area, and I think there has been a positive shift regarding the consideration of social harm in the debate of resource extraction, as opposed to solely considering money and environmental costs. Dr. Earley responded well to questions and the audience addressed any questions that I had about the presentation.