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Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the second-largest country by total area, with the longest coastline of any country....
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00:08I'm traveling through the Arctic the land of the midnight Sun most amazing view for thousands of
00:16years only the hardiest hunters and herders lived in this inhospitable land but now the Arctic is
00:25warming faster than anywhere else on earth as it thaws new riches are being revealed this is what
00:34it's all about the oil all eyes are turning north for one bright summer I will live with the people
00:41of the Arctic I want to understand how their lives are changing and discover what the future holds for
00:53this great wilderness it's my first sighting of the famous porcupine caribou beautiful beautiful so
01:02exciting I'm in the far north of Canada in Yukon territory across the Arctic great herds of
01:09caribou are on the move and so are the hunters I live with a Gwich'in tribe the caribou people
01:18it's the life we live living on the edge they've lived here for thousands of years and depend on
01:26the caribou for their survival I like seeing the caribou coming through the country it makes things
01:32alive there's deep respect here for everything but this ancient relationship is under threat the Arctic
01:41is the new frontier for oil exploration but what happens to the native people when the oil companies
01:49move in I'm in old crow in the Yukon territory northern Canada it's 80 miles north of the Arctic circle
02:09there's no road to get here it's accessed only by plane or boat it's home to the Gwich'in people
02:18they
02:19believe that at the beginning of time their ancestors made a pact with the caribou that they would retain
02:25part of each other's heart so their fates would always be bound together despite some modern trappings
02:32the way of life here has remained essentially unchanged for thousands of years and the Gwich'in still rely on
02:39the caribou for their survival I've come here to join elder Stephen Frost and his family on their
02:50traditional spring hunt with his daughter Margaret and their neighbor Robert we'll spend a week hunting
02:57out on the land somewhere out there is a herd of 130,000 caribou heading north on its annual migration
03:08and for the
03:10people here in old crow it's one of the most important times of year Stephen and his family need to
03:22get enough
03:22meat to last the whole summer this far north there are a few jobs and imported food is very expensive
03:29the caribou hunt is their main source of meat the herd is named after the porcupine river a tributary of
03:39the mighty Yukon the river has been frozen solid all winter and has just broken up huge chunks of ice
03:46litter
03:47into the banks it's been a strange winter eight degrees warmer than usual this is not a normal
03:54breakup sure because we had a lot of warm weather yes broke break up come early does the ice when
04:02it
04:02breaks does that always coincide with the caribou coming past same time of year yeah why don't they
04:09cross when it cross when it's frozen well they're not stupid like us nature kind of look after that
04:15that's not time for them to cross they wait till they're ready to cab okay up north yes when they
04:24start moving then as we round a bend there's caribou up ahead it's my first sighting of the famous
04:36porcupine caribou herd named after this very river that i'm on now there's about 20 of them they were
04:43tentatively here on the edge waiting to cross then we came around the corner and disturbed them i love
04:49the way they run they've got such a lolloping old gate they look quite dopey beautiful these are females
04:59heading north to carve so we don't shoot the herd is decreasing each year so the gwich'in now only
05:05hunt
05:05males each spring the caribou migrate 500 kilometers from the yukon territory across the porcupine river
05:15to their carving grounds in alaska's arctic national wildlife refuge in the autumn they head south again
05:23the herd is constantly on the move traveling up to 50 kilometers a day in small groups to reach their
05:31carving grounds they must run a gauntlet of predators bears wolves and the gwich'in
05:41Stephen's ancestors established their territory here thousands of years ago it's right in the path of the
05:48caribou and it's rich in wildfowl and other prey wow that will be your supper tonight looks like fresh
05:59beaver on the menu just take it easy when you jump out okay my friend finally we arrive at
06:09stephen's hunting camp this will be our home for the next week or so it's been the traditional hunting
06:20ground for the frost clan for generations each family has its own territory and it's miles from
06:26anywhere old crow is 300 miles from the next nearest settlement and this camp is two hours from old crow
06:37these massive vistas and skies that go on forever it's just no one around really get a sense of solitude
06:47here but they do get the occasional visitor and that's to keep the bears out sure mr bear please don't
06:56break
06:57and i'll one day leave you food oh that's nice yeah this is the house wow check this it's cold
07:11it's beautiful it's so homely get the fire going shall i
07:20you look very smart this evening you've changed steven has a foot in two worlds his father was a white
07:27mountie his mother a gwich'in and he grew up here in this wild place learning the ways of his
07:34mother's
07:34people this is my country i mean i'm brought up here and i consider myself native to the land everything
07:43and
07:47i get very emotional or whatever you call it when
07:56when i hear the uh drilling might take place in the 1002 land
08:03the 1002 lands over the border in alaska are where the caribou go to give birth every summer
08:10these carving grounds are known by the gwich'in people as the sacred place where life begins
08:16the gwich'in are terrified that oil companies will be granted permission to drill here it's going to be
08:23pretty sad day if that oil drilling should take place what would we do without that caribou
08:31so people are scared they're scared
08:39the gwich'in are subsistence hunters food is expensive up here and there are few jobs
08:46without the caribou life here would be near impossible
08:59the next morning we're joined by stephen's son peter and we head out hunting
09:14we've stopped here because it's another area that the caribou potentially cross
09:18but the advantage here is we have this bank we can climb and use as a vantage point to see
09:24where
09:25they might where they might be coming i hope our luck comes in
09:33this hill has served as a lookout for the gwich'in people for generations
09:37watching out for the caribou herd on their way north
09:42the caribou are highly sensitive to changes in their environment and the gradual warming of the
09:48arctic is affecting the ancient rhythm of their migration
09:51i can't see anything
09:58yeah like that it's like at this time of day they're usually laying around on the ice where
10:04it's nice and cool oh really yeah but everything is like everything is changing now like even rivers
10:11different that go out earlier and the snow melt earlier we hardly had snow this year
10:17so it was easier for the caribou to get over the mountains over there i see and how important is
10:24it
10:25for the people in your community to get the meat from the caribou
10:28oh you know it's like sort of traditional way of living and
10:34you know a lot of people depend on caribou
10:40robert has two young children and while he does some odd jobs for a little cash hunting is what puts
10:46food on the table he accepts that the modern world needs oil but it seems that the consequences are
10:52felt more strongly here i don't know he's just you can't do nothing about it you know people need
11:01fuel to run their boats people need fuel they're on their skidoo they need fuel they're on their vehicles
11:07you know you can't tell them not to stop just the way the way of life
11:19we settle in to watch and wait but there's no caribou to be seen just a grizzly bear in the
11:26distance
11:37the unusually warm winter triggered the migration early this year
11:42so we head north three hours hoping to spot the last of the herd crossing the river
11:58finally we have some caribou amazing we just spotted them as though going into the water
12:05and a little crossing they've already come out the other side and so initially i thought we'd lost
12:10them and that was our only chance gone but it seems that they're only crossed onto an island
12:16so they've got one more stretch of water to cross
12:20and that's where we're going to have to go and have a look see if we can finally get our
12:24shot
12:32so
12:39so
12:55We've got one really clean kill there, and then the second one which is just behind him.
13:19They took one shot and killed one outright, but maimed the one behind, so then they dispatched
13:24that straight after, and then this third one now. They killed when they're just finishing off.
13:43Peter and Robert get to work gutting the caribou. All the edible meat and organs are cleanly cut
13:49and put aside, and the rest is left for the scavengers.
13:53They don't burn onions, eh?
13:56Peter tells me he only takes a few caribou each season.
14:00I only take what I need. A lot of times I see them, and if I don't need them, I
14:06won't take any.
14:09I like seeing the caribou coming through the country here.
14:12They're beautiful, aren't they?
14:13It makes things alive. You see the other game, too.
14:16There you go. It's really beautiful seeing them.
14:21I find myself a little shaken by the experience.
14:30That's quite visually impactive that we were so close, and they were just here on the bank, struggling in the
14:40water to get close, thinking they were going to get away, finally getting here, and then bang, down they went.
14:47Really loud, really shocking in a way. I've seen this sort of stuff many times, but it always shocks me,
14:57a little big animal. Beautiful.
15:01But I understand it, and I'm really pleased for these guys.
15:06Oh, you're going to enjoy some good meat tonight, and then get back to bluefish.
15:10Yeah, yeah.
15:11We're going straight back down.
15:12Stephen will be happy, yeah.
15:13Oh, yeah.
15:15As we're heading back home, laden down with meat, we hit a problem.
15:21A mass of ice floating downriver.
15:25Upstream, the Crow River is breaking up and flowing down into the porcupine.
15:30We have to get to the bank quickly to avoid damaging the boat.
15:35There are thousands of tonnes of ice flowing past.
15:38Some pieces are as big as a car and could easily overturn our boat.
15:49Looks pretty thick down there, though.
15:52It's a danger for the boat, huh?
15:54It's pretty thick.
15:57We could be here for some time.
15:59It's pretty jagged, and it's got a lot of sharp stuff.
16:03It could punch a hole through the boat pretty easy.
16:08We can't go through this.
16:10We can't go through it.
16:11So we're stuck.
16:14Stuck with three caribou.
16:16Yeah.
16:16On our way home.
16:17I'm hungry, you know.
16:18We won't go hungry, but poor Stephen will, Margaret.
16:23They're going to be missing out.
16:26Well, so, don't know what's going to happen tonight.
16:29Either we're going to stay here, in which case we've got three caribou to eat.
16:33Lots of firewood.
16:35Or we're going to run the gauntlet with all this ice,
16:38and try and make it the two hours down to the hunting camp where Stephen and Margaret are.
16:45I hope we run the gauntlet, but it's not my boat.
16:50We decide to go for it, and see if we can get ahead of the ice.
17:07It's going to be a long night.
17:09Yeah.
17:10Slow ride home.
17:13Beautiful and dangerous.
17:19What else do you like that's beautiful and dangerous?
17:22Everything.
17:24It's the life we live.
17:27Living on the edge.
17:32Finally, we get clear and head full speed for home.
17:43Hey, Margaret.
17:45Hello.
17:46How are you?
17:47Three, though.
17:50Three caribou.
17:51Are you serious?
17:54Right on.
17:56Woo-hoo.
17:59That meat will be okay in the boat.
18:01Yeah.
18:02You don't want to attract animals to the camp.
18:06The blood and the guts and the skin and all that waste stuff is the one that smells.
18:12So what they're going to do, leave it in the boat overnight.
18:15The hunters is tired now.
18:18Long day.
18:19We get some sleep, and right away in the morning,
18:22and everything's going to be fine.
18:28The next morning, we get to work.
18:32The meat is butchered and carried to the camp for smoking.
18:36Margaret's in charge of the smokehouse.
18:46Cut it in half, and you smoke it like that, and after it smokes a little bit, like with the
18:51air going through it, it dries it a little.
18:54Okay, so the thinner it is, the easier it is to dry, and then it'll go all the way through
18:57to preserve.
18:58Yeah, if you just bake it up and put it in the freezer, it could last all winter.
19:02Really?
19:03Yeah, but it don't usually last that long around Old Crow.
19:09Oh, look, you've been busy.
19:12I didn't see you done all this.
19:14Hot here in the Arctic.
19:17Just here?
19:20It's a comforting sight to see the smokehouse so full of meat, and there's a good feeling in the camp.
19:26I'm cooking a half a caribou for myself.
19:29If anybody is real good, they might have a little bit.
19:32Oh, does that mean I've been good?
19:33Oh, there he is!
19:35Does that mean I've been good?
19:36You haven't been naughty today.
19:38Say it louder.
19:39You have not been naughty today, so...
19:46You're getting hungry.
19:48You're getting hungry, Robert.
19:49Yeah.
19:51It's always good to have fresh meat, eh?
19:54You fancy a little bit of bone marrow?
19:56Yes, sir.
19:57Can you do?
19:58Some people, they can't drink milk because they don't agree with their stomach.
20:02Sure.
20:02So us, we eat the bone marrow out of the legs, and then we get all our calcium out of
20:09it.
20:09Ah, you show me half?
20:10Sure.
20:11Let's go.
20:17Wow!
20:20That's quite a lot, isn't it?
20:29It's one of those foods that you just, it just feels right.
20:33It feels healthy.
20:33It feels really like something good is going inside you.
20:37I can't really explain it.
20:37It just feels like it's full of nutrition.
20:45The Gwich'in use nearly every part of the animal.
20:48The hide is used for making gloves and moccasins,
20:51and the hooves are boiled down to a jelly and eaten,
20:55or used to make rattles to disguise the hunter's movements.
20:59Everything else is eaten, and best of all is the head.
21:03I like my medium hair.
21:12Everything is edible on a caribou.
21:15Lips, nose, anything.
21:18Eyeball.
21:20The tongue is the best part.
21:22Tongue, tongue here.
21:24Like me, I get a pleasure out of eating it.
21:31Shall I try it?
21:33Yeah, don't try it.
21:34Eat it.
21:39Mmm.
21:42Good.
21:43Tough.
21:44So it's chewy.
21:45Yeah, proper chewy.
21:47This looks a bit better.
21:54Mmm.
21:57Nice.
21:58It might be just a little, a little bit on the raw side.
22:02I like it.
22:03I quite like it well.
22:06Tastes like a really, really rare sirloin.
22:12Very, very fine meat.
22:15Beautifully tender.
22:16Like it's been pulverized.
22:19Not melt in your mouth.
22:21Still slightly chewy, but really delicate.
22:31Got a bigger one over there, a bigger shovel.
22:34Do you see it shining?
22:41While the meat's smoking, there's work to do around the camp.
22:45Firewood to cut, Peter's building a new cabin, and there's a garden to tend.
22:51It's a garden to eat.
22:54That's just a garden to eat.
22:54But it's in the garden to eat.
22:56Then I'll find it.
23:00I'm a good little bit, and I just need to eat.
23:01If you have to eat.
23:03Not a big one.
23:04That's just a garden to eat.
23:06To eat.
23:19It's a garden to eat.
23:20season in the Yukon, and wildfowl are returning to the lakes.
23:24Peter and Robert take me out one more time.
23:45Just over there in the water.
23:49Beautiful muskrat.
23:52Just there.
24:00It's really coming closer.
24:02He's calling it in, and it's coming closer.
24:06With a few geese to add to the caribou, we've plenty of meat.
24:10So we leave this muskrat be.
24:20I can now see how important the caribou herd is to the gwich'in.
24:24It's much more than just food.
24:27The meat is given to friends and family in other communities, which bonds the gwich'in across their territory.
24:37Even when I got big family, I just hunt for the people that doesn't have a boat or a husband
24:44to hunt for them, you know?
24:46I mean, people may think I shoot a lot of caribou, but I give it away, you know?
24:51I don't just take it to my freezer and fill it right the hell up, you know?
24:56I've got a big family, so I have to look out for some of them.
25:00Like some of that meat down there, I'm going to give to my auntie Rini, you know?
25:05She's alone.
25:07I've always tried to hunt for her in the spring, so I think if I give her some of that
25:12meat,
25:12I know she's going to be happy for it.
25:15It's my life, and I'm going to live it.
25:20Proud to be good to put it that way, and I wouldn't change it for the world.
25:34It's nearly time to leave the hunting camp.
25:37But before I go, Stephen wants to show me something,
25:41a very special and private place for his family.
25:46It's the tiny old cabin where Stephen's parents brought him up,
25:51and it feels a great privilege to be allowed to come here.
25:54A whole bunch of kids grew up in that.
25:57How many?
25:58Twelve of us.
25:59Twelve.
26:00Well, mother and father, ten kids.
26:03Wow.
26:05Just the size.
26:05But that's just the way it was.
26:08And then, you know, you're talking about a goddamn old house you're looking at, you know?
26:18Stephen's father was a white policeman, and he fell in love with a local Indian woman.
26:23Was it possible for him to stay a Mountie while he married your mother?
26:29No.
26:30Why was that?
26:34I don't know.
26:36Some kind of law they had them days don't exist now.
26:41But that's how down the Indian was.
26:47For a white man I guess it's okay, but for a Mountie, he can't marry an Indian.
26:54Really?
26:55Too low or something, so he got out of the place.
27:00And then he had to take on the ways of living here the same as everyone else.
27:06Stephen's mother showed her husband how to survive in the wilderness, and they home-taught all their children.
27:12It may sound romantic, but Stephen hints that there were times of deep hardship.
27:19Yeah, I remember, uh, run out of food.
27:25Why not?
27:26And I don't think our mother would like that if we said we had to almost starve or something.
27:35It was their way of life.
27:38How do you feel now about seeing it again?
27:40Oh, I don't know.
27:41It's just...
27:44Sometime not good, but that's the way it is, you know.
27:49A few years left, there'd be nothing left of this too, and all gone, but it's okay I guess.
27:57That's the way it is.
28:13It's hard to express how much I'm enjoying these few days I'm having here in this camp with Stephen and
28:21his family.
28:23Learning about this wilderness, what it means to the people, and learning especially about the caribou,
28:31and its relationship with the people, the Gwich'in people of Old Crow, that goes back many generations.
28:38The one word, I suppose, that just really comes to mind more than any other, that I've picked up from
28:46Stephen, is respect.
28:49There's deep respect here for everything.
28:53There's deep respect for the wildlife, for the natural world in every way.
28:58And just the sensation of being here.
29:04I can just sit and watch the river go by, and you're just part of it, and it feels right
29:11somehow.
29:27It's time to leave camp and head back to Old Crow.
29:30We've got enough meat to last the family until the caribou return in the autumn.
29:35It's time to celebrate.
29:42It's a big day in the Old Crow calendar, the Caribou Days Festival.
29:47It's a celebration of the Gwich'in way of life, like a village fate back home, but with muskrat skinning.
29:58Everyone's back from their hunting camps.
30:00They've come together to give thanks for the return of the caribou herd, and the success of the hunt.
30:06Young Stanley is going to skin this caribou.
30:11Try to pay attention, because time has changed, and we can't lose our own way of skin things.
30:20I guess he's doing it the way you should skin a caribou.
30:26Each clan takes about five caribou in the spring, and donates part of it to the festival.
30:34All the events celebrate and reinforce Gwich'in culture, and the skills needed to live in this harsh place.
30:48Third place for Ming's log sign goes to Bruce.
30:54Third prize in the log-sawing contest wins me $10, and I'm chuffed to bits.
31:00But I don't fancy my chances in the goose calling.
31:19The caribou harvest helps sustain the whole village all year round.
31:24All other food has to be flown up here at great cost, so having a supply of free meat is
31:30a lifeline to the community.
31:34It's the best village fate I've ever been to, without doubt.
31:37Just the warmth of the crowd and the bizarreness of the activities.
31:41I'm absolutely loving it.
31:55Do you think the future's bright for the caribou herd here?
31:59I hope so. I can't answer that, but it'll be a sad day if the caribou ever take off and
32:07don't come back.
32:10We always worry about that, but when it's here we make the most of it.
32:20Are you going to enter the jig competition tonight?
32:22I'm not too sure about that.
32:25I'm not too much of a jigger.
32:26No, nor am I, man.
32:31Rather surprisingly, the Gwich'in people are very keen on jigging.
32:36Apparently they learnt the custom from Scottish fur trappers in the 19th century and took to it with gusto.
32:43The Scots have long gone, but the jigging lives on and continues late into the night.
33:04CHOIR SINGS
33:11Sadly, it's time to leave Old Crow and head south on the next stage of my journey.
33:18It's been a joy spending time with the Gwich'in, but their existence seems so fragile, threatened by events beyond
33:26their control, way over the horizon.
33:31I wish them luck, but I think they're right to be scared.
33:36Tomorrow I'm leaving to meet a group of Indians who also used to hunt and trap in the wilderness for
33:42thousands of years,
33:43until the oil industry arrived on their doorstep.
33:49I'm travelling 1,200 miles south-east of Old Crow, below the Arctic Circle, to the tar sands of northern
33:57Alberta, a massive open-cast oil mine.
34:02Driving through, it's an assault on the senses.
34:07The one thing that's really overpowering me at the moment that you have to be here to experience is the
34:15smell. It stinks. It really is a pretty pungent, quite acrid smell in the air.
34:23It's like when you drive past a road that's just had the tar laid. The bitumen smell. It's really, really...
34:31It's very thick and it's not pleasant. And it's everywhere.
34:36The sight is so enormous that the only way to really see it is from the air.
34:42The tar sands stretch across an area the size of England and contain the second largest oil reserves in the
34:49world after Saudi Arabia.
34:53Vast areas of wilderness have been ripped up for the extraction of oil from soft sandy soils. This area now
35:01produces 1.3 million barrels a day.
35:05This is the very beginning of something huge that is going to be happening in the next 50 or so
35:10years. And it's a... I don't really need to describe it. It speaks for itself. It's utter desolation.
35:18And the only feeling I have sitting here right now is just... It's just sadness. I feel really, really sad
35:27in the pit of my stomach. That's it.
35:32The extraction process is so energy intensive that this site has become the single largest industrial emitter of CO2 gases
35:42on the planet.
35:43In a world wracked by fears of oil security, the Canadian tar sands offer a safe alternative and production is
35:51set to double in the next 10 years.
35:54I wonder what it's like living downstream of this.
35:59Fort Chipwayan is a remote Indian village on the shores of Lake Athabasca, 250 kilometres north of the tar sands.
36:07Until recently, the people of Fort Chip lived a traditional life, hunting in the forest and fishing in the lake.
36:14Like Old Crow, it's only accessible by plane for most of the year.
36:18But when the tar sands arrived 30 years ago, the way of life here changed dramatically.
36:26I'm going fishing with Mike Mercredy and Robert Grandjam on Lake Athabasca.
36:31The lake is teeming with fish, which once fed the people of Fort Chip, but no more.
36:38Now the fish are only used to feed their dogs.
36:41Pull him right over the boat.
36:43Pull him right in.
36:43Oh my God.
36:44Right on top of his deck.
36:45Right on top of his deck.
36:46Right there, right there.
36:47Okay.
36:47Up onto here.
36:48That's good.
36:48No, that's good.
36:49That's actually a small one, you know.
36:51Mike and Rob have been helping scientists to monitor the health of the fish in the lake,
36:56after noticing strange marks on some of the fish they were catching.
37:00So Mike, tell me, you're involved in checking out these fish.
37:05What are we looking for and why?
37:07I'm looking for abrasions, cysts, any marks that won't be considered normal.
37:15And what sort of things have you been finding?
37:17Large cysts and abrasions and bruises like that.
37:19And that sort of thing, I mean like that just comes from being in a net for a while.
37:24Some of that does, yeah, but when you find one with a cyst, they're actually like, it's like a growth
37:29on them.
37:29Okay, really?
37:30It's actually, you can see the difference, almost like a big pimple, some of them.
37:33This is something growing there.
37:35There have been studies of the water quality that have found pollution levels to be normal.
37:39But the local people say that these have been funded by the oil companies, and they simply do not trust
37:45them.
37:46Any testing that's ever been done around here, well it's done by industry.
37:50And if you're paying for it, I certainly, if I'm paying for something, I want the results I want.
37:53It's my money that you're spending.
37:55So, you know, one could say that, but one could say, you know, they are being honest and being fair.
38:00So, I don't know.
38:01We just don't know.
38:02I think that's the thing.
38:03I think if you're going to get involved in this environmental concern, you have to be very, very careful.
38:10And I think each of us has to be careful.
38:12See, look, right there.
38:13There's something odd.
38:15Maybe it's a fish trying to bite it.
38:17I don't know.
38:18We hear so many different stories from different people.
38:20And different people have different reasons for that.
38:22Dependent on who they belong to or who they work for or what political organization they're from, we hear different
38:29stories.
38:29So, it's really hard.
38:31There's so much uncertainty.
38:32See this here?
38:33That's another fish biting it.
38:34So, you have to watch for things like that.
38:36I could say, oh, God, look at pollution.
38:38Well, you have to be careful.
38:39That's another fish trying to eat it or maybe a seagull.
38:42That would be something you'd want to try to get tested or see what further investigation as to what that
38:48actually is?
38:49You know, there's some real clear distinctions we have to do first.
38:52Find out exactly what's polluting us, if there is pollution.
38:56Find out where it's coming from and charge or else, you know, do something with the people that are responsible
39:03for it.
39:05What should happen is that when you make an application to start some kind of a development, you should sign
39:10a waiver form.
39:11If you destroy the environment or do anything in the environment, you get shot as part of your application.
39:17That would fix them up.
39:19The Canadian government denies that the industry is causing harmful levels of pollution
39:24and says that toxicity levels are no more than would naturally be expected.
39:29However, after much pressure, it's recently set up an advisory panel to look into the monitoring of the tar sands.
39:36But it feels like it will come too late for the people of Fort Chip.
39:41Something fundamental has already been lost here.
39:44The people's trust in the land and the water to provide for them.
39:50Over the last 20 years, the native people living here say they've experienced an abnormally high incidence of rare forms
39:58of cancer.
40:00Many believe that the tar sands are responsible, although government health officials say there's no evidence to suggest this.
40:09Community elder Stephen Cottrell, like many, has lost a relative to cancer and is committed to fighting the expansion of
40:17the industry.
40:17All the money in the world isn't going to fix what has happened.
40:22The drastic changes have happened.
40:24Ain't going to bring back all the damage that's been done.
40:28After everything is said and done, only then our white brothers are going to realize that they can't drink oil
40:36or eat money.
40:38Because everything will be destroyed, the animals, the plants, the water, the land.
40:44And they're reaping the benefits while we're suffering.
40:47And that's something that's going to change.
40:57I want to know more about the tar sands and the people who work there.
41:01So I head back to Fort McMurray.
41:05I've arranged to meet Chief Jim Boucher.
41:07He's a First Nation Indian chief and chairman of the Fort Mackay Group of Companies.
41:13They supply services to the tar sands industry and provide jobs for the indigenous people.
41:20They're making big money.
41:23How much is 50 of these worth?
41:25The book value is about $40 million.
41:26In terms of asset value of the Fort Mackay Group of Companies right now, it's over $100 million.
41:30$100 million just in assets?
41:32Yeah.
41:32Just the one company.
41:34Wow.
41:35And we have a wide variety of companies.
41:37Okay.
41:38So you're pretty solvent.
41:39Yeah, we're a pretty good entity.
41:42Yeah.
41:42Pretty solid.
41:43These native owned companies provide support services to the industry.
41:48Fuel distribution, land reclamation, haulage and warehousing.
41:51With a turnover of $500 million a year.
41:55So, as well as being chief of the village, Jim is also chairman of a multi-million dollar business empire.
42:02But you have to have the ability to do the work that's out there.
42:05And you have to do it professionally and in a safe way.
42:08So I think that's what's different about Fort Mackay.
42:11You know, the perspective we have is that we need to be able to doing the job properly
42:16and demonstrate that on a continuous basis.
42:19Tar sands oil is also known as dirty oil.
42:23Extracting it from the bitumen-soaked sand requires huge amounts of energy.
42:28It takes a whole barrel of oil just to produce two more barrels.
42:33The industry has only become profitable in the last decade, largely due to the high price of oil.
42:39This is what it's all about. Mixed in with this dirt here is the oil.
42:43And in front of me, you've got one of the shovels, of which there's dozens all over the area.
42:48Scooping up the sand and then taking it to the processing plant,
42:53where through seven days of manufacture and process, all of this gets turned into oil that's good enough to go
43:01into your car.
43:03This industry never sleeps.
43:06Trucks haul dirt 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
43:11And will do so until it all runs out in about 200 years' time.
43:17The expansion of the tar sands site has created a boom town in Alberta.
43:23Thousands of people have flocked here to get rich quick.
43:27With weekends and overtime, you can make more than $1,000 a day.
43:32We're bringing in people from the Philippines, from Mexico and other parts of the world, from Europe.
43:38But today, we know most of the people are coming from Canada.
43:41And wages are high. People are keen to be here. There's a demand for labour.
43:45There is an upsurge with regards to employment opportunities and business opportunities in this region as a result of oil
43:51sands development.
43:52This is the big driver with regards to the economy, not only for Alberta, but for Canada also.
43:57So you have to remember that oil sands are the major contributor to the Canadian economy.
44:02The Fort Mackay Group provides food and board for over 3,000 oil workers.
44:07I'm curious to see what they think about this industry.
44:10Tar sands, everyone's talking about it around the world.
44:13There is a fair bit of negativity out there. Does that come into your minds when you make the decision
44:17to come here?
44:18I've never heard anyone complain about the tar sands being a bad thing.
44:21If it wasn't for us, nobody would drive cars. Everybody would be riding around in electric vehicles.
44:27As long as the world has a dependency on oil, they don't care where it comes from, but they'll bitch
44:32about every aspect of it.
44:34But as long as we can make a good living out of it, it's no problems.
44:38I could do less freely.
44:41And if it was proven that it was causing serious issues?
44:46If it was proven and put all over the news and my face was on it saying what I just
44:53said, I wouldn't like it.
44:54But they're not going to let it get that bad.
44:56The oil companies make too much money to have that bad image all over TV.
45:00So they're going to be working their damnedest to get to the highest standards of being environmentally friendly.
45:07So I don't think we have to worry about much.
45:17The nearby town of Fort McMurray is where the workers come to let off steam and spend some of their
45:23hard earned cash.
45:25With a population of 70,000 migrant workers, mostly men, the town feels pretty grim.
45:34This place here kind of sums this town up for me a little bit.
45:37Because it is. It's like a boom town. It's a gold rush here.
45:41Wages here are twice three times what they would be in a normal town somewhere else in Canada.
45:46And everybody is here for one thing alone, and that is money.
45:57Fort Mackay First Nations runs a haulage business on site.
46:01And Jim has arranged for me to meet one of his drivers to go for a quick tour of the
46:05facility.
46:07Patricia is going to be my driver.
46:09And my tour bus is one of Jim's 100-ton trucks.
46:14What do you like at driving these? Are they quite fun to drive?
46:17Oh, yeah. It's good. It's a good job.
46:21We're off on one of Patricia's regular runs, hauling dirt from a cleared area to a newly made mountain at
46:28the other end of the site.
46:31Is this a career forever for you, do you think, or are you saving up for something else?
46:34I've seen myself doing this for a long time.
46:36Really? Yeah.
46:37Because you enjoy it and the money's good?
46:39You can move out, but I want to learn how to operate different equipment, so I'm definitely going to be
46:46here for a while.
46:46Sure.
46:47Yeah.
46:50Are there any people in the community that disagree with all of this, you know, big industry happening here?
46:59Um, well, with the things with wildlife and animals, that's probably the only thing I could see, but other than
47:06that, this is the way they support their families.
47:08Yeah.
47:09You know, this is the way, this is the way of living right now, so.
47:12Sure.
47:13You know what I mean? That's all we have around us, so.
47:17Patricia's a single mum, so she's working here to help support her children.
47:22She's also a member of the Fort Mackay First Nation.
47:25Her family have been hunting and trapping here for generations.
47:29My grandma grew up, she grew up in a bush. She was a top old lady.
47:33What does she think of all this?
47:35Well, she's old. She doesn't know, like, they're not told, like the elders said.
47:44I don't think they're told how much actually pollution and how much damage they're actually doing to this, you know?
47:49As soon as they wave a little money in front of them, you know, it's all fine.
47:54Keep them quiet for a bit, right?
47:59Does it make you sad?
48:00Hmm?
48:01Does it make you sad?
48:02Yeah, I just wish I was, you know, I wish I was a lawyer.
48:05I wish I could get right in there and, you know, really try to understand, because I don't understand a
48:14lot of it either myself.
48:16If I really understood, really, really understood, I mean, maybe I'd want to do something about it.
48:22But, you know, you can fight this industry, you know what I mean? You'd be crazy.
48:35Everything about this place is on an epic scale.
48:41Five minutes ago, I was in one of these trucks.
48:43And at that time, it was the biggest truck I'd ever seen in my life.
48:48But that was five minutes ago.
49:00This, baby, is 400 tons.
49:05And it can carry up to 400 tons as well.
49:11It's as big as an apartment block.
49:13It's a moving apartment block.
49:18You just don't want to get in its way.
49:23I want to know what it was like here before the industry began.
49:27So Chief Jim agrees to take me out on the Athabasca River.
49:32As chief of the Fort Mackay First Nation, Jim has seen a lot of changes during his time here as
49:38leader.
49:39At first, Jim's people tried to oppose the industry.
49:43But the government claimed ownership of their land and has now sold leases to over 90 oil companies.
49:51What does this make you feel like when you see it here?
49:55This was a good spot for our people to spend the summer.
49:58We come here to pick berries, hunt waterfowl here, fish, hunt moose, make moose meat.
50:07And how did you feel when you came up against the power that's here, Jim?
50:12What chance did you have?
50:14You know, in 1963, we had no chance whatsoever in terms of stopping this one going on.
50:20It was a decision that was made south of here by a white government.
50:26And they made a decision based on what's in the best interest for them.
50:31The people in the community didn't have the resources or the means to challenge the decision of this magnitude.
50:37And we had no say in terms of what goes on here.
50:43Then, in the 1980s, a successful anti-fur campaign led to the collapse of the tribe's fur trapping business.
50:52When that occurred, overnight, our economy disappeared.
50:58Our people had nothing left to do on the land with respect to trapping.
51:02So the anti-fur campaign shut down our traditional economy and put our people into poverty.
51:09We were faced with a dire situation where the only opportunity we had was welfare from the government of Canada
51:16and the government of Alberta.
51:18And that was not a very desirable prospect.
51:21So we turned to this opportunity with some reluctance and trying to make the best of it so that our
51:28people in our community can have a future.
51:38Your ancestors, Jim, used to believe that the land was actually alive.
51:43What would they make of this?
51:44I think they would have a hard time.
51:47They loved the land.
51:49They loved the...
51:51This was their country.
51:52This is what they knew.
51:55This is all they knew.
51:57And it's something that was passed on from generation to generation.
52:01Everywhere you go, you can see signs of where your ancestors were, where your family was.
52:08And you can have a good feeling about going to visit places where your family was.
52:14Now, this place here was an important place for our people.
52:19It was a gathering place.
52:20So when that's gone, all our memories of that place is gone too.
52:30Jim wants to show me a small reminder of how things used to be.
52:36His family own a hunting cabin that belonged to his father, still standing within the heart of the extraction site.
52:44We're accompanied by a convoy of PR and safety people.
52:48It's a beautiful spot.
52:49Yeah, it's a beautiful spot.
52:51This is where my dad used to stay quite a few years ago.
52:54I built this cabin for him.
52:55You built it for him?
52:56Yeah, I built it for him.
52:57My brothers and I.
52:59How long ago was it, Jim, that you built this?
53:01Oh, I don't know.
53:02Oh, jeez.
53:03Fifteen years ago, maybe.
53:04Okay.
53:04Yeah.
53:05Quite a few years.
53:05And could you hear that...
53:07That noise?
53:08No, no.
53:09Fifteen years ago?
53:10No.
53:11What was here fifteen years ago?
53:12There's nothing here.
53:13Just squirrels and rabbits and beavers and muskrats and fish and ducks and geese and...
53:22What a great spot.
53:23Yeah.
53:25Oh, it's pretty dry in here.
53:26It's nice.
53:27How do you feel now being here?
53:29I feel good.
53:30I feel like I'm...
53:31Like the old times.
53:32It's good that it's still here.
53:33It's good that, you know, there's memories here and...
53:37And, uh, you can feel the spirit of your dad here and, yeah.
53:46It's the second time on this trip that I've visited an old family cabin.
53:50But this is very different to Stephen's parents' place back in Old Crow.
53:55We're having quite a strange barbecue with all the oil people and Jim's older sister,
53:59Rose, is cooking up moose and caribou and clearly hasn't read the script.
54:03Look at the land now.
54:05It's being raped.
54:08That's how I see it.
54:10The land is being raped.
54:12You know, Mother Earth is being raped.
54:14Look at...
54:15Trees are being cut down.
54:18Things are taken out of...
54:20Out of the land.
54:23Not being put back properly.
54:25The water is being abused.
54:28The animals are being abused.
54:31You know, where will they go?
54:34It's our land.
54:36It's my land.
54:37It's my father's land.
54:38And we should have access to it, you know.
54:41And I believe in progress.
54:43You know, to make things better.
54:45But not to totally erase what was there before.
54:52And doing so, you know.
54:54Not to totally erase away a life or a whole nation or, you know, just for progress.
55:02No, I don't think so.
55:07I asked John Rind, Chief Operating Officer of Shell Albion Sands, what his company does when it finishes digging up
55:14the land.
55:15Our job is to reclaim that land.
55:18And so when we started our operations, one of the things that we do, before we even start putting a
55:23shovel into the ground,
55:25is we make agreements in terms of how we're going to reclaim, when we're going to reclaim, and what it's
55:30going to look like at the end of the day.
55:32So some of what you would have flown over as you were looking at the other older existing operations,
55:38some of that land's already been reclaimed, and most people can't tell from the air.
55:42It looks like a normal boreal forest.
55:44So our job is to return the land back into the same condition or similar condition to what we found
55:49it in.
55:50But simply replanting trees just doesn't deal with the much larger environmental impacts here.
55:58The economic benefits, however, are plain to see.
56:02At Jim's village, Fort Mackay, they spent $40 million last year on new facilities.
56:07And every man, woman and child in the tribe gets a dividend of $10,000 a year as a share
56:13of the profits.
56:15And the cash just keeps rolling in.
56:18Fort Mackay is now looking to start its own oil extraction company.
56:22Amongst the trappings of corporate success in Jim's office, his traditional headdress stands out as a symbol of the past.
56:32It's beautiful, Jim.
56:33Thanks.
56:34How does it make you feel wearing it?
56:36I feel like I should go to the bar tonight and see if there's any girls that say this shit.
56:41On a serious note, it's like every mark of success for a modern person and community.
56:48Wealth, happiness, health, material goods.
56:51But yet you know what you had in the past as well.
56:54Is it all worth it?
56:55I would prefer that we had the old way of life.
56:59But the fact of the matter is the old way of life is gone.
57:04It died with my grandfather.
57:07It died with our ancestors.
57:09It died when oil was first produced from the ground in this region.
57:16And we will never be able to bring it back.
57:23Old Crow feels like a long way away from here.
57:26I've met two very different men on this trip.
57:30Jim has accepted his place in an industrial world, while Stephen is still living with nature
57:37and embodies a way of life and a set of values that are disappearing from the Arctic.
57:43Chief Jim has given in to big industry.
57:47But what other option did he have?
57:50It would be so convenient to just blame everyone working here in Albertans for all the damage that's happening.
57:57But really it's more complex than that.
58:00We're all to blame in some way or other.
58:02Anyone who's using oil, including me and this huge car flying around the place.
58:06It's our addiction to oil that's driving the economy that is driving what is happening here.
58:12And until that changes, this sort of thing is going to continue.
58:17But the cost of oil doesn't take into account the damage to the landscape and to the people who were
58:25here first.
58:26If it did, would we be willing to pay the price?
58:35Next time, I'm in Northern Europe.
58:38I live with the most modern of reindeer herders.
58:44Once again, I'm knackered.
58:47And as my journey ends, I witness the magical return of the Arctic night.
58:52I've just been treated to the Northern Lights, which are finally out to play.
59:04Still on the way tonight, the story of how we discovered there was an ice age.
59:08Men of Rock is next.
59:09And then Human Planet takes us back to the Arctic to see just how to survive.
59:13That's at midnight here on BBC HD.
59:16That's at midnight here on BBC HD.
59:17I hope you can see.
59:18Don't be Michel AdLER back here.
59:24That's howые….