By CAROL CHRISTIAN
Today staff
Thursday February 21, 2008
An exclusive deal first inked between Fort McKay First Nation and Shell Canada in 2006 to develop an oilsands operation on treaty lands has expired.
But that doesn’t mean the Fort McKay band is out of the oilsands business. In fact, it still wants to develop the estimated 8,300 acres of treaty land, and welcomes potential partners to the table for talks, even Shell.
Jeff Winsor, Fort McKay First Nation spokesman, said this morning when the two groups entered into the exclusive agreement, a finite timeline was set for the end of the 2007 calendar year “when we wanted to see something happening.” That deadline came and went with no movement forward on the project.