Oldman's water a gold mine for Peigans, says Taylor

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A provincial water rights "mistake" could help the impoverished Peigan Band in southern Alberta join the ranks of oil-rich First Nations.

The nearly completed $350 million Oldman River dam is worth millions of dollars annually in water royalties to the Peigans, says Alberta Liberal agriculture critic Nick Taylor.

The Peigans simply outsmarted the province a decade ago when they signed an agreement with Alberta and Ottawa giving the band the right to any water above what was used downstream at the time, he says.

And that was a "costly mistake," says Taylor. Downstream user need more water - now and in the future - than agreed to when the deal was signed.

It was a nifty piece of bargaining by the Peigans, he says. The province shouldn't have signed the agreement, which also gave the band ownership of the river bottom, without first signing a back-up deal to have access to the water it needs.

Ken Kowalski, Alberta's public works minister, says Taylor and the Peigans are all mixed-up.

Ownership of the river bed - and all the water - rests with the province, he says, pointing to the agreement it signed with the band.

The agreement, which led to the construction of the dam, paid the Peigans $4 million outright plus $400,000 annually for use of the river bed.

however, the Peigans filed a civil action in 1986, formally claiming ownership of the river bed and water rights. The action has yet to be heard in court.

Taylor says his legal experts show the Peigans still own the riverbed - and surplus water.

And there's nothing the province can do to avoid paying the Peigans heavy royalties on the needed water, except negotiate or take it to court and lose, he says, citing recent supreme Court of Canada decisions that go in favor of Natives whenever there's even a remote suggestion that something should favor aboriginal people.

Potential Peigan royalties on water volume could easily amount to millions of dollars annually, says Taylor, adding that he understands the province is studying the possibility of diverting the water to bypass Peigan land.

However, he says the cost of doing that is astronomical: as much as $180 million.

Water diversion is a two-way street, says Taylor.

Unless the province agrees to whatever the Peigans eventually demand, Taylor says the band could legally divert the water elsewhere whenever it wanted, and sell it to whomever they pleased, including the Americans.

Again, says Taylor, there's little the province can do- except pay the price.

Even Mother Nature seems to be working against the province and for the Peigans, he says. Continued global warming, as forecast by scientists, means even more water than ever will be needed in drought-prone southern Alberta in the future.

Taylor r says the governing Tories were "sloppy and careless" when they signed the pact and began building the dam.

After already investing $350 million, the government will be willing to pay millions each year to the Peigans to ensure the Oldman dam does the job it was designed for, he predicted, adding that he opposes the methods used by the Peigan Lonefighters to halt construction of the dam.

The Lonefighters Society, which opposes the dam on environmental grounds, has partially diverted the river on Peigan land in an attempt to prevent the dam from being completed.