First Nations Announce Review Process for Gateway Pipeline Project
COMMENT:Whooeee! No pipeline has ever sat across the table from a group as organized as this, with as much legal authority to say no.
How do you frame the question on many minds? Will the money beat the principles? Will the money and the engineering offset the risks?
Looking at the spate of agreements between the provincial government and its many bargaining units leading up to midnight, March 31st, one has to think there's a tactical approach suggested there that Enbridge will be considering.
Chess players and poker players may see some opportunities for First Nations in that approach, too.
But migosh, two pipelines and as many years of tankers as it takes until the oil runs out. The odds?
Please read our comments in
17 years after Exxon Valdes: What have we learned
Who to blame when disaster is inevitable?
The sinking of the Queen of the North vividly underscores the near-inevitability that if something can go wrong, it eventually will. When we're talking about drilling and tankers along British Columbia's coast, it's the likelihood of catastrophe that we're toying with, and not just a game of odds.
April 6, 2006
For Immediate Release
First Nations Announce Review Process for Gateway Pipeline Project
A group of First Nations throughout Northern B.C. are pleased to announce that an inaugural Steering Committee has been formed to establish a First Nations Review Process (FNRP) to examine the proposed Enbridge Gateway Project.
The FNRP will consider the potential impacts of the proposed oil export pipeline and import condensate pipeline between Edmonton and Kitimat, and will also consider the associated tanker traffic that we could see oil leaving a port in Kitimat as well as condensate (diluent) entering the same port in Kitimat.
“Our people have responsibilities for the well being of our territories, and a duty to our people to determine whether or not a project of this magnitude should be allowed in” said Guujaaw, FNRP Steering Committee member and President of the Haida Nation.
The proposed project could go through the territories of a number of the participating First Nations Treaty lands or un-extinguished Title, and coastal tanker traffic will threaten the territories of others.
Enbridge has been advocating a process which would only consider a pipeline and not the tankers essential to the project. This process would examine the full scope of the project to determine whether or not it should proceed.
"We will be amongst the first people in line of risk and cannot sit idly by," said Geraldine Thomas-Flurer, FNRP Steering Committee member, and Saik’uz First Nation member.
The Steering Committee will establish the terms of reference for the First Nations Review Process, the identity of the Panel members, the scope of the inquiry and hearing processes in the coming months. The participating First Nations will authorize the panel and process. The First Nations will also determine the extent of interest of municipalities, non governmental organizations and even interests outside of BC and Canada in establishing the process.
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Contact:
Guujaaw, Council of Haida Nation, 250-559-4468
Geraldine Thomas-Flurer, Saik’uz First Nation, 250-567-6050
Wayne Campbell, Wilps Nikat'een, 403-284-1551
Backgrounder
First Nations Review Process Steering Committee
First Nation or Group - Appointed Representative
Burns Lake Band - Ryan Tibbetts
Gitxaala First Nation - Clarence Innis
Haida Nation - Guujaaw
Heiltsuk Tribal Council - Ross Wilson
Nadleh Whut’en - Beverly Ketlo
Nak’azdli First Nation - Vince Prince
Saik’uz First Nation - Geraldine Flurer
West Moberly First Nations - Clarence Willson
Wilps Nikat'een - Skid’m del Hoya’t (Wayne Campbell)
Participant First Nations
Allied Tribes LaxKwalaams
Burns Lake Band
Doig River First Nation
Fort Nelson First Nation
Gitxaata Nation
Halfway River
Heiltsuk Tribal Council
Nadleh Whut’en
Nak’azdli First Nation
Saik’uz First Nation
Saulteau First Nation
Stellat’en First Nation
Takla Lake First Nation
Tl’azt’en First Nation
West Moberly First Nations
Wet’suwet’en First Nation
Wilps Nikat'een
Yekooche First Nation
Tara Marsden, M.A.
Interim Project Director
Aboriginal Interests & Use Study of the Enbridge Pipeline
Carrier Sekani Tribal Council
P:250-562-6279 ext. 236
F: 250-562-8206
tmarsden@cstc.bc.ca