Project Development Group
May 25, 2015
Attending: Ingrid Maccoll, Trudy King, Prabin Rokaya, Sarah Baines, Toddi Steelman, Kiri Staples
1. Introductions
2. Prabin Rokaya (graduate student) – overview of his project

My project is looking at the Peace-Athabasca and Slave River watersheds. I will focus on
the impact of water withdrawal and climate change impact. Data from previous years
indicates that the water has gone down significantly. In light of changes caused by
climate change, we want to know what will happen in the future and what this will
mean for the people in delta communities.
o
For the Peace River, we are focusing on water regulation impact (the impact of
dams), flooding and ice cover change
o
For the Slave River – the connections between impacts upstream affecting
things downstream
o
For the Athabasca River– looking at the impact of climate change

We are making different models for different scenarios, understanding what the future
might look like for the different deltas.

Toddi: When we conceived of DDN, we thought we would have some students doing
research on community issues, and others work on modeling to understand climate
change and the regulation of water flows to understand what is impacting delta. Prabin
is the person who has just come on board to understand the biophysical changes in
water and climate. This will complement the other DDN projects that focus on
community issues – mainly Sarah’s project on Aboriginal Base Flow and Kiri’s project on
knowledge mobilization.

Toddi: We will get a write-up from Prabin and send it around to everyone so people can
circulate as they like.
3. Review of last meeting’s discussion (Toddi)

Sarah’s project is progressing in the Peace-Athabasca Delta. At the previous meeting we
asked for comments and approval on spending the $7,500 that has been allocated for
this project. Since then Toddi has gotten comments back from one-on-one discussions,
but wanted to bring this back to the group again to make sure everyone is ok with this.

We also had $7,500 dedicated to Saskatchewan River Delta project that was allocated
for following-up with work we did there in the summer and developing curriculum.
Again, wanted to see if there were any other concerns

No concerns have been raised, so we will go ahead with allocation of money.
4. Are there other concerns or topics people want to discuss? (Trudy and Ingrid)

This year in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, the water levels have been very low, making it
harder and harder to get into the delta. Around Tuk, whales are beaching up dead, and
they don’t know what’s causing it.

It is the same in the Saskatchewan River Delta. I was at the dam recently and it was sad
to see on one side of the dam they are holding back all the water, and the other side is
almost bone dry. They are holding back quite a bit of water. This would have a big
impact on hunting, trapping, fishing, and even the reservoir is low and we have been
asked to not use too much water.

There may even be a ban around Fort McKay because water levels were so low.

So we are noticing low water levels everywhere, and what this means for hunting,
trapping, fishing in the deltas.

This spring there were very few ducks in the Slave River delta, not many people got
ducks.

I know from recreational fishing, it’s not good fishing in the Saskatchewan River Delta
right now.

We are still working on a watershed committee in Cumberland House – probably
meeting again in September or October.
o
The Saskatchewan River Delta has not had an organized group like in the PAD
and SLRD – there is an effort to put together a watershed committee.

With climate change it’s affecting a lot.

I’m not sure about the fish in the Peace-Athabasca delta right now, but next time I will
have more info.

Toddi: Some of the research that Prabin is doing - because what he is focusing on what
is caused by climate change and what is caused by the dam - it will help understand
what is leading to the drying of the delta.
5. Delta Day (Toddi and Sarah)

Delta Day has been a way for the University to celebrate different projects in the
different deltas over the years. Tim Jardine had been the leader for this in the past
years. Previous Delta Day events have focused on a single delta. However, this year
want to bring all of the deltas together here in Saskatoon so everyone has a chance to
meet each other and build relationships. Sarah has been working on plan for what Delta
Day might look like, but we want to hear what some of your ideas are on what we could
do with this event.

The current plan for Delta Day is that we want to bring different folks together and
share what we have learned as a whole team over the past few years. We want to give
people a chance to get to know each other in person, so we have extended the event to
three days. The theme is “connections” – between deltas, deltas and researchers,
building relationships so they can move on going forward. There is no set participant list,
so we want feedback on who should come – hopefully a mix of Elders, youth, knowledge
holders…

We have a few ideas for topics to discuss at Delta Day, but they are just ideas and are
not set in stone. We would love to hear what you think. So far the ideas include:

o
youth talking about projects that they have been doing and their ideas about
they can be involved in delta stewardship
o
community based monitoring programs and how different deltas can learn from
each other about how they are empowering themselves to do their own
monitoring
o
what can we as researchers do to better communicate with people in the deltas
about the work that we do, how can we incorporate knowledge from the delta
into our work
The event will be held roughly around March 2016 – does this timing work?
o
Yes, this timing is good

The phone connection is poor, so Sarah will send around a one page description of what
we have in mind and circulate that for discussion via e-mail. People can circulate that as
they want.

Who should come to this event?
o
Elders and youth who know about the delta
o
We want equitable representation from all three deltas. We want to send
people who will have conversations with folks from other deltas who are doing
similar things.
6. Update on community coordinator in Peace-Athabasca Delta

Current community coordinator has stepped down and we are reevaluating who might
take over the position.