September 2010 protest against Gateway
“If Northern Gateway is pushed ahead, it will spark protests that will make Idle No More look like an afternoon tea,”
by Derrick Penner and Peter O’Neil / Vancouver Sun
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s envoy to First Nations on western energy projects concluded there “has not been constructive dialogue” with aboriginal communities — something the federal government must take drastic steps to change if it expects to win support for the projects.
That was the blunt assessment delivered Thursday by Douglas Eyford, appointed eight months ago by Harper to engage with First Nations, industry and governments to figure out a way forward on issues of aboriginal rights and title related to two key projects — Enbridge’s $6.5-billion pipeline to Kitimat and Kinder Morgan’s $5.4-billion expansion of its existing pipeline to Burnaby.
Eyford described a lack of trust by First Nations, as well as the B.C. and Alberta government’s frustration with what they view as a federal system “comparatively leaden or indifferent” about collaborating with First Nations.
The emissary laid out several recommendations on how to change that dynamic, including the establishment of a Crown-First Nations-corporate “tripartite energy working group” as a forum for open dialog on energy projects.
“I’m not sure it’s too late,” Eyford said about the possibility of re-establishing consultations with First Nations over Northern Gateway.
But he warned in his report that projects are time-sensitive and important opportunities will be missed if relations continue on their current course.
“It’s certainly been my experience in the work that I do that it’s never too late to engage and do so in a process of good-faith negotiations.”
The challenges of doing so were illustrated the same morning when Northern Gateway’s most vocal First Nations opponents gathered to restate their position.
“The report they gave out this morning, it doesn’t change anything on the landscape,” said Chief Martin Louie of the Nadleh Whut’en First Nation, a community of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council west of Prince George.
Eyford said there is no “monolithic” First Nations view of energy projects. He wrote in his report that most aboriginal representatives expressed a clear understanding of the opportunities offered through economic development, but were adamant that developments be environmentally sustainable.
And while some First Nations remain bitterly opposed, especially to Northern Gateway, 26 of 48 communities on the project’s route have signed agreements with Enbridge on equity participation in the heavy-oil pipeline.
Eyford laid out a series of recommendations for Ottawa to follow, including:
• establishing a joint initiative with First Nations on environmental stewardship and habitat enhancement to address concerns about cumulative effects of major resource projects;
• developing a federal framework and time frame for Crown engagement with First Nations;
• entering into negotiations to advance reconciliation measures in areas of federal jurisdiction and responsibility in response to proposals from Coastal First Nations and Haida Nation.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver, in Vancouver for the report’s release, said Eyford listened to aboriginal communities and conveyed what he heard in his report and recommendations.
Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, an umbrella group that represents several Save-the-Fraser signatory communities, characterized Eyford’s work as a “serious effort to educate the federal government” and a clear blueprint for what Ottawa needs to do to re-engage First Nations over future energy projects.
But “Northern Gateway is dead,” he added.
Eyford’s mandate was not to address specific projects, but Sterritt said “the reality is, Northern Gateway was the foundation that the First Nations talked about as being everything that’s bad about this industry.”
“His recommendations are intended to correct everything that Enbridge did wrong,” Sterritt added, and anything done now “is not going to get them a pathway to the Pacific.”
Northern Gateway opponents — led by the Interior Yinka Dene Alliance under the banner of the Save the Fraser, formed in 2010 to oppose oil pipelines through B.C. — said Thursday that they remain an “unbroken wall” in the way of Northern Gateway and other oil-pipeline projects.
Chief Archie Patrick of the Stellat’en First Nation, another Carrier Sekani community near Fraser Lake, became the 130th signatory to the Save the Fraser declaration.
He added that if Northern Gateway is pushed ahead, it will spark protests that “will make Idle No More look like an afternoon tea,” referring to last winter’s national uprising of aboriginal youth.
At a ceremony at Vancouver’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, the Yinka Dene unveiled a Solidarity Accord of non-aboriginal support for their efforts, including environmental organizations David Suzuki Foundation and Greenpeace, the Council of Canadians, private-sector union Unifor and former federal environment minister David Anderson.
