A delegation of First Nations leaders from British Columbia have come to Calgary to relay a message to pipeline executives face-to-face — steer clear of investing in a new bitumen pipeline to the northwest coast or risk a prolonged legal fight.
Haida Nation President Jason Aslop, who also goes by Gaagwiis, said he and fellow community leaders are obliged to look after the ocean and the food security it provides. Crude tankers sailing northern B.C. waters would risk that, he said.
“We are prepared to use all the tools available to us to uphold that responsibility,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
“And that makes investment in a pipeline to the north coast a significant risk — legal risk, financial risk.”
Chief councillor Arnold Clifton of the Gitg’aat First Nation recalled the “David and Goliath” fight northern B.C. communities won against Enbridge Inc., whose Northern Gateway proposal to Kitimat, B.C., was scrapped a decade ago amid fierce Indigenous opposition.
“I think it’s going be a lot stronger now if anything would come up because we’ll have everyone involved to fight,” he told The Canadian Press.
The delegation had a meeting in a downtown Calgary hotel on Wednesday with senior leadership from Pembina Pipeline Corp. and Trans Mountain Corp.
Pembina Pipeline is mainly focused on shipping natural gas in western Canada and has partnered with the Haisla Nation on the Cedar LNG liquefied natural gas project currently under construction in Kitimat. Pembina has not expressed interest in pursuing a new bitumen pipeline.
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Trans Mountain, a Crown corporation, operates a pipeline connecting Alberta crude to the Vancouver area. It is one of the companies advising the Alberta government on its early planning work on a new oil pipeline, but has been focused on expanding its existing infrastructure.
The province aims to submit a proposal to the new major projects office this summer for a new B.C. pipeline, looking to de-risk the project enough for a private-sector firm to take it over.
The First Nations delegation extended invitations to Enbridge as well as crude shipper South Bow Corp. and natural gas pipeline operator TC Energy, Aslop said. The group was unable to schedule meetings with those companies, but they delivered letter advising them of the risks of backing a B.C. oil pipeline.
The Alberta and federal governments announced a sweeping energy accord late last year that lays out a path forward for a new B.C. pipeline, to be built in tandem with massive carbon capture and storage project in Alberta.
The pipeline would require the lifting or changes to legislation that would bar a new oil tanker port on a stretch of the northern B.C. coast.
The Alberta government has expressed a preference for Prince Rupert, B.C., as the pipeline’s end point, given its deepwater port and shorter shipping distance to Asia.
The Globe and Mail reported earlier this week that it’s considering a southern route to Vancouver that could face fewer environmental hurdles and less opposition.
“I think its better for us,” Clifton said of a plan that would avoid northern waters.
Hereditary Chief Darin Swanson of the Haida Nation, who also goes by Ginaawaan, said no amount of money would convince him to support a bitumen pipeline and tanker port.
“Our beaches are pristine. You could walk down the beach, you could pick up crab off the beach to eat. You can dig for clams. There’s halibut grounds right there, that rear their young,” he said.
“So any risk is not worth it. It doesn’t matter how much money or how many jobs.”
When all of the taxpayers have fled BC and only the homeless and jobless are left will the FN finally realize where their funding came from. Cant squeeze water from a stone.
Earl Richards Canadian laws do not apply outside of Canada’s claimed waters. Super tankers transit daily from Alaska to the mainland US. Funny thing though, ocean currents that would carry spills into land don’t respect silly imaginary lines.
Again, the tanker ban is meaningless and nothing but symbolic
Anonymous
The tankers would have to be less than12,000 tonnes, which is the maximun allowed by the Act.
Earl Richards
The US tankers are still there, the ban is meaningless.
FN have been embolded by what a pussy David Eby is, but the fact remains that the laws require consultation, they do jot hand FN a veto.
The Oil Tanker Moratorium Act was passed into law for a reason. No exemptions should be allowed from this Act to avoid another Exxon Valdez-type spill in BC. The oil tanker moratorium has to be extended to the southern half of BC’s coast. Only coastal, product tankers carrying refined, petroleum products should be allowed to transit BC’s coast.
In 150 years from now,Canada will be the Global Museum of how humanity lived during the beginning of the 21st Century.
The Liberal Government will still be in power but reduced to a handful of ticket booth operators and custodians to collect sales income and keep the country tidy.
It is their right to protest peacefully. It is not their right to use extortion to get pipeline companies to give them partial ownership in the pipelines. It is not their right to threaten.
Maybe BC should hold a referendum to ask if the Haida natives should return Queen Charlotte Islands to the province.
It is good that they were not included in discussions any more than the mayor of Terrace was included.
It’s a charade. They are just feigning this opposition so they can extort bribes to make it go away.
OK. Now they have played their trump card. They have made their positions clear and now they most definitely have been consulted. Now stand out of the way. They don’t have VETO rights.