CHASE, Canada – Members of the Secwepemc Nation in British Columbia say they are building the first of 10 tiny homes that will be placed directly in the path of Kinder Morgan’s $7.4-billion Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.
Kanahus Manuel of the Secwepemc Women’s Warrior Society says the house is a symbol of sustainability in the face of an environmentally damaging project and is based on homes built at the Standing Rock protest in the United States.
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Manuel says she lived in a tiny home at the Dakota Access Pipeline protest for three months in 2016 and asked the designer of the building to create plans for buildings that could be placed in Trans Mountain’s path.
She says the mobile houses will be occupied by people struggling with a housing crisis in the Secwepemc Nation and will be 5.5 metres wide and 3.6 metres tall with a wood stove and solar panels.
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Trans Mountain, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Canada, did not immediately respond to a request for comment but it announced yesterday that it had hired six contractors in advance of planned pipeline construction activities this month.
Fifty-one First Nations have signed mutual benefit agreements with Trans Mountain, including some bands that are part of the broader Secwepemc Nation, but the project still faces strong opposition from some Indigenous groups.