I have participated directly and indirectly in a major remediation project here for more than a decade. It is as sensitive as it is volatile and has been the focal point of some of the leading experts and environmental consultants among us who have worked hard to achieve the delicate balance of quick response while considering the concerns of all the affected parties.
Some of those participants brought years and years of pent-up anger to the table at times so intense that moving forward seemed impossible.
That the work has continued for so long is because the stakes are high and everyone who works on it knows that. Missteps could result in further contamination, thus illness and even death and that is just at the local level. A cataclysmic event could affect all of Canada and even the world. Thus, the project has been handled with kid gloves by dedicated overseers who are well aware of its intense scope.
An international engineering and construction management company was brought in from the United States to manage the clean-up. That team has worked hard to bring in a local labour force from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous parties. The goal was to ensure that Northern stakeholders are well represented. Everyone who works on it is aware of the cleanup's singular importance. For some contractors, it's personal. Family and friends have been affected. There has been enough grief and loss around the contamination and now the cleanup and the goal is a concerted effort to get it right. Key players know this work is for the well being of people living here now and those to come after.
Bottom line: it's emotional and linked to our survival.
Sadly, the tensions which have built up over the last few weeks between the U.S. and Canada have also cast a spotlight on the project. Not because of the quality of the work or dedication of the team, but because we don't want Canadian money flowing south. Canadians do not want to support a country threatening our very existence.
It's not even a country that is trying to hurt us, but one man: Donald Trump. His unpredictable nature and lack of logic puts everything - including our very survival - at risk. A sideways glance from him could put a time and environmentally-sensitive project such as this one in Yellowknife in jeopardy despite the years of hard work dedication.
This is the face of greed.
It's hard to say what will happen with this contract at this point because things are heating up fast and unpredictably. When the situation was noticed a few weeks ago, the relationship between Canada and the U.S. was just starting to heat up. Though feathers were ruffled, the nature of the work was considered too important to let it be disturbed by lunatic ramblings at higher levels. Now, however, we have the feeling that nothing is safe and Canada must concentrate power into its own hands.
There is no predictability and no certainty anymore. Even our American friends tasked with the work may be losing control over their own efforts. Everyone and everything is vulnerable.
The tragedy in all of this is that while we are narrowing it down to us and them, ours and yours, in the great scheme of things there are projects such as this which affect the well-being of people on both sides of the border. The importance, though, is reduced to rubble by shallow people with shallow understandings at the top.
That may be politics, but it is not life supporting. It's just politics. We should all be working for the public good, no matter what side of the border on which we live.
As Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said repeatedly to our American friends, we are sorry, we truly are, but Trump is trying to back us into a corner and we must and will come out fighting. The last thing any of us want is to see projects like this put in jeopardy. Questioning the continuance of this contract is not about you SA国际影视传媒� we are trying to deal with him.
Maybe this is something we can all thank Donald Trump for: his ability to show us the darkest side of human nature and to never take our life and freedom for granted.
The work will continue on this clean-up of course - that's a given - but sadly, part of the foundation might have to be rebuilt so that the work can go on safely. There are many among us who have great sadness around the loss of these important and valuable relationships, but these are trying and testy times for everyone.
LetSA国际影视传媒檚 hope this rocky road doesnSA国际影视传媒檛 last long.
SA国际影视传媒擭ancy Vail is a longtime Yellowknifer with an interest in social justice.
