I live in Fort Smith NWT, a small community downstream from the Alberta Tar Sands. Fort Smith is situated on the Slave River, [whose major tributaries include the Athabasca and the Peace Rivers, both of which have oil sands deposits], and marks the boundary between the North West Territories [NWT] and Alberta.

Certain rights for First Nations are in the Canadian constitution, these include things such as [right to hunt, fish, trap, etc] on traditional lands. If a First Nation can demonstrate the "nature and extent," of an impact to these rights, they have the grounds to take the party responsible to court, and have these impacts mitigated. And yes i recognize that their are some difficulties associated with this process, but properly done can result in some positive change. [ex: the gate house to the road to CZN's prarie creek mine to keep hunters out of certain prime habitat]

The First Nations in the NWT are way more organized and politicized than most people think, and are already starting to take aim at the oil sands. [the majority of the people in the NWT live in the Mackenzie watershed, which includes the tar sands].

These court cases and cross boundary demands for consultation will have an interesting impact on how the development of the tar sands proceed. For the crown has a legal obligation to take these rights into consideration. And no matter how badly the Alberta government would like to ignore these the courts will always force them to. Thank my lucky starts that our supreme court judges are elected hacks.

This summer we had a large gathering in Fort Smith concerning water use. The NWT will never let water become a commodity, the FN's basically have access to it guaranteed to them in the constitution.