John OSA国际影视传媒機onnor recalls when Indigenous harvesters brought in crates and crates of deformed fish that were kept on ice piled high in the band office.

That was decades ago, when OSA国际影视传媒機onnor was fresh in the region as a physician, making trips north to provide health care to Indigenous communities living downstream from the oilsands.

During those trips, elders and other residents told him things were changing in the region, on the land and especially in the waters. Years earlier, before the oilsands, people drank water from Lake Athabasca and boiled it for soups and stews. SA国际影视传媒淚t was an idyllic life,SA国际影视传媒� OSA国际影视传媒機onnor said. But then, the fish and the animals started to show deformities.

The community members, largely from Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation and the Fort Chipewyan Metis Nation, had no idea what was causing these changes, OSA国际影视传媒機onnor said. But their health was beginning to fail, as well.

OSA国际影视传媒機onnor was told there is no word for cancer in the Dene or Cree languages, but now people were seeing it SA国际影视传媒渁ll over the place.SA国际影视传媒�

Now, after hearing that Ottawa will invest $12.5 million to support a community-led health study into the health impact of the oilsands that will span 10 years, OSA国际影视传媒機onnor said the moment feels SA国际影视传媒渂ittersweet.SA国际影视传媒�

The announcement represents the very first acknowledgment of the issue from any level of government. OSA国际影视传媒機onnor applauded the fact the study will be led by the communities and not the governments that have denied potential impacts for years.

OSA国际影视传媒機onnor is no stranger to the denialism that has plagued his role as physician in the region, and as a political whistleblower. He repeatedly raised concerns he heard from his patients while officials threatened to pull his medical licence for what they called was causing SA国际影视传媒渦ndue alarm,SA国际影视传媒� he said.

Those complaints plagued him for nearly three years, and all the while, the health concerns of the communities persisted, OSA国际影视传媒機onnor recalled.

He even recalls the posturing of officials from Health Canada who flew into Fort Chipewyan for the first time. The communitySA国际影视传媒檚 senior physician, in the communitySA国际影视传媒檚 nursing station, drank a full mug of water in front of the media and said, SA国际影视传媒渢here is nothing wrong with the water in Fort Chip.SA国际影视传媒�

SA国际影视传媒淚SA国际影视传媒檓 still scratching my head about that one,SA国际影视传媒� OSA国际影视传媒機onnor said.

Even now, Alberta remains on the sidelines as Ottawa funds the study, OSA国际影视传媒機onnor said. ItSA国际影视传媒檚 not surprising to him he sometimes refers to the province as SA国际影视传媒淥ilberta.SA国际影视传媒�

SA国际影视传媒淭heySA国际影视传媒檙e so anti-people, so anti-environment, so pro-industry,SA国际影视传媒� he said of Premier Danielle SmithSA国际影视传媒檚 government and other conservative governments before hers.

But the problems extend to how Canada understands environmental health, which has resulted in a huge gap in research, he said.

Unlike the European Union and the United States, Canada remains without a dedicated environmental health research arm. Canada also spends hundreds of millions less on it than both the EU and U.S., and significantly less at a per capita rate.

SA国际影视传媒擝y Matteo Cimellaro, Local Journalism Initiative reporter, CanadaSA国际影视传媒檚 National Observer, with files from Emma McIntosh