Oil and Gas

Tribal Chief David Luggi stated, “It’s been obvious who was behind the financing of this doomed project, and now we have confirmation that Sinopec, a huge Chinese refining company, is one of those interested in the project.”  Luggi continued, “Enbridge is setting up these companies for disappointment, because as far as we are concerned, this project is not going ahead.  They are misleading investors that they are achieving certainty.  Carrier Sekani First Nations have unequivocally said no to this project, and it is not allowed in our territories.”

“Enbridge can be fully subscribed for their delivery of dirty oil to refineries in Asia, however they still do not have First Nations approval,” said Vice Tribal Chief Terry Teegee.  He added, “The unilateral approach of these major project reviews, via the Joint Review Panel and the National Energy Board, are not working for First Nations as they cannot appropriately address our aboriginal rights and title, including our right to be part of the decision-making process.  Our people have reviewed the risks to the proposed project and concluded that it was not worth the risk, and we have said ‘NO’ to this project.”

In 2006 the CSTC completed an Aboriginal Interest and Use Study (AIUS) that examined the impacts from the proposed pipeline.  First Nations in BC are actively seeking to work with investors that are respectful of Aboriginal rights and title, particularly those from the Asia-Pacific region.  The CSTC member First Nations are not adverse to development, but it must be appropriate, respectful and equitable for current and future generations.

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For more information please contact:

Tribal Chief David Luggi: Office (250) 562-6279 e.222. Cell: (250) 640-6622
Vice Tribal Chief Terry Teegee:  Office (250) 562-6279 e.223.  Cell: (250) 640-3256

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“Enbridge’s pipeline isn’t happening, period. It doesn’t matter who they get a deal with. They plan to come through our territories and we’ve already said no, and we’ll use every legal means we have to stop them. Their proposed pipeline is against our laws because we refuse to put our communities at the risk of oil spills.

Getting industry to support their plan is not going to help them. These lands belong to First Nations and they will never get our permission because our lands and rivers are not for sale.

There are now more than 100 First Nations in western Canada who’ve said no to their pipeline and tankers. From the Rockies to the Pacific, every mile of their pipeline and tanker route goes through a First Nation that has banned their project.

This pipeline is dead in the water.

The Yinka Dene Alliance includes Nadleh Whut’en, Nak’azdli, Takla Lake, Saik’uz, and Wet’suwet’en First Nations in northern BC who have banned the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines from their territories.

Contact Information
Yinka Dene Alliance
Geraldine Thomas-Flurer
Coordinator
(250) 570-1482

It will be a difficult message to accept. The pipeline between the oil sands in Alberta and Kitimat on the northern coast of B.C. is a big plank in the oil-and-gas industry’s strategy to develop a new market for its products in Asia, a major part of Enbridge’s growth strategy, a key piece of strategic infrastructure for all of Canada, and a major job creator for Western Canada.

But it’s a message that requires full consideration.

The cost of moving against a united and powerful aboriginal front that is getting angrier by the day is considerable: lengthy litigation regardless of whether the project receives regulatory approval (there are no treaties in much of B.C., opening a decision to a legal challenge), damage to the corporate reputation from disrespecting the wishes of B.C.’s matriarchal communities, vulnerability to sabotage during and after construction, and continuing demonstrations.

It also threatens to erode the goodwill earned by the sector from First Nations in other parts of the country where it operates.

With oil spills continuing — the latest coming only a week ago, when 28,000 barrels spilled from a Plains Midstream Canada pipeline near the Lubicon First Nations village of Little Buffalo in Alberta — B.C. aboriginals’ fears of oil contamination of water, wildlife and way of life, is hardly unfounded.

The pipeline would cross hundreds of streams and lakes in the province’s interior, then oil would be carried on tankers in the Pacific ocean, where memories of the Exxon Valdez disaster loom large.

To be sure, Enbridge’s 12-member board of directors, chaired by David Arledge, a former U.S. energy executive from Florida, and its top executive group, deserve full credit for meeting directly Tuesday with a delegation headed by Jackie Thomas, Chief of the Saik’uz, to hear its unvarnished views.

And Enbridge, Canada’s largest pipeline company, deserves recognition for going above and beyond corporate norms to garner First Nations support.

In February, it announced an offer to B.C. First Nations affected by the project worth $1.5-billion in cash, jobs, business opportunities during the next 30 years as well as a 10% stake in one of Canada’s most strategic infrastructure projects.

But what it has failed to recognize is that this group, led by many female chiefs, has different values.

In an interview with the Financial Post ahead of the board meeting, the delegation said money isn’t what they are after.

In fact, monetary benefits have been counterproductive. The more money is offered, the more the opposition hardened. Opposition to the pipeline has spread to all of B.C.’s aboriginal community and is spreading within Alberta’s, chief Thomas said.

“There is a cultural divide that they don’t seem to get,” said Geraldine Thomas-Flurer, coordinator of the Yinka Dene Alliance.

“We are taught at a very young age that we have to respect the land, that you don’t take anything out of greed, you take out of need, and if you take something you give something back.

“They have to learn that at the end of the day, when everything is gone, what are they going to spend their money on, when they don’t have clean drinking water?”

Peter Erickson, a councilor with the Nak’azdli band, said B.C. First Nations are poverty-stricken, but still value preserving their way of life more than having a pipeline through their lands.

“We are not in a negotiation. We are not here to get a better bargaining position. We are telling them that the project is not going to proceed within our territory,” he said.

On Wednesday, busloads of First Nations representatives, including elders and children, from B.C., Alberta and elsewhere, are expected to bring their message directly to shareholders, inside and outside the annual meeting, through formal speeches and demonstrations.

Ta’kaiya Blaney, a 10-year-old girl from the Sliammon First Nation on the B.C. coast, is scheduled to sing a song she composed for Enbridge, called Shallow Waters, reflecting First Nations’ dread of oil spills.

“We plan to shake Enbridge to its core, I hope, and hopefully they will reconsider what they are trying to do to us,” Ms. Thomas-Flurer said.

Alberta’s Lubicons are also expected to attend.