MARTEN FALLS FIRST NATION — The recent public information event in Marten Falls First Nation presented a forward outlook for economic growth and stability for Marten Falls and the surrounding communities.
Marten Falls has a winter access road that connects the First Nation community with the provincial highway, but the unreliability of that road severely limits services.
Transporting food, medical supplies, and equipment can come at a higher cost to the community, but an all-season community access road increases the flow of services by bringing down the cost of supplies.
"It will lower the cost of food. Access to better health services because we are depending on air transportation right now and it’s not always there to use. Sometimes due to the weather, we’ll wait a couple of days. Especially if somebody is sick,” community planning lead Bob Baxter said.
Land access to Marten Falls is only available during the winter months through ice roads; however, they aren’t always dependable.
Baxter explains that over the last 30 years, the ice roads have been depleting as the colder winter months become shorter.
“You got about a week and a half of usage,” Baxter said.
At the moment, the community access road is at the environmental assessment age, according to project advisor Qasim Saddique.
“This is the stage where we get to access the different alternatives and move toward a decision on the preferred alternatives of the project,” said Saddique.
The environmental assessment will evaluate the impacts on animal habitats, as well as, the forest area to determine the spatial boundary of the access road.
“There is a lot of time that goes into planning. There is a lot of work that goes into collecting the data and information like studying the plants and animals, we are working with community members to understand their concerns, and then, work with them to address those concerns,” Saddique said.
The public information sessions are a step into the process of addressing environmental concerns.
“There are some mixed feelings. Some people want it. Some people don’t," Baxter said. "The majority want road access for the community so they could be free to travel. To go out of the community anytime they want.”
Baxter highlighted the social benefit of having an all-access road for Marten Falls. He describes that current and future generations will be able to have that freedom of movement.
Young people can leave the community and access education opportunities and return home to visit family members without having to experience the expensive cost of a flight.
Alternatively, that freedom of movement extends to those Marten Falls community members as well. They will be able to leave Marten Falls and join their family that live in distant communities.
As well, the economic development of the project will create jobs within the community adding to the social impact of the project.
Saddique said that out of the two alternative plans, the access road will be roughly 200 kilometres in length. Once construction on the road begins, the project will be employing, including training, community members to build the road.
As for long, it will take before construction to begin, Baxter expresses jokingly, “well I hope I see it in my time.”
However, he is confident that if all the data is collected and processed that Marten Falls will have its all-access road soon enough.