Aerial view of the river Athabasca running through the Boreal forest north of Fort McMurray, northern Alberta.
The tar sand industry has brought wealth and an economic boom to the region but also created an environmental disaster downstream from the Athabasca river, polluting the lakes where water and fish are contaminated. The Mikisew, Cree, Dene and other smaller First Nations communities are seeing their natural habitat destroyed and are largely powerless to stop or slow down the rapid expansion of the oil sands development, Canada's number one economic driver.