Indigenous leaders are meeting in southern Alberta this week to prepare a bid on a majority interest in the Trans Mountain oil pipeline and its twinning project to the B.C. Lower Mainland.
The Indian Resource Council of Canada represents 134 first nations that have oil and gas resources. Its annual general meeting at a casino resort near Calgary begins Wednesday with an B次元官网网址淏次元官网网址� to prepare a proposal for the federal government, which bought the pipeline and expansion project for $4.5 billion last year.
Mike LeBourdais, chief of the Whispering Pines First Nation between Kamloops and Barriere, has been travelling the right-of-way of the pipeline, completed in 1954 from northern Alberta to a terminal in Burnaby and Washington refineries. He has met with bankers, refiners and federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau, and the intention is to present a bid for 51 per cent ownership of the pipeline by this spring.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檝e always wanted equity,B次元官网网址� LeBourdais told Monday. B次元官网网址淲hen we started negotiating with Kinder Morgan when they owned this pipeline, back in 2007 when we started talking to them, equity was always part of the discussion. They said thereB次元官网网址檚 no equity in the first pipe, weB次元官网网址檒l talk about it later. So we grudgingly agreed to that.B次元官网网址�
During a recent visit to Kamloops, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he is interested in the Indigenous equity proposal, but the federal government is focused on meeting additional consultation demands from the latest court decision holding it up. LeBourdais said that could extend beyond next NovemberB次元官网网址檚 federal election, and he wants TrudeauB次元官网网址檚 answer on a bid before that. Without participation by Indigenous investors, the project likely wonB次元官网网址檛 be built, he said.
Stephen Buffalo, CEO of the Indian Resource Council, is blunt in his remarks about OttawaB次元官网网址檚 performance and the interference of B次元官网网址減rofessional environmentalists who claim to speak for usB次元官网网址� and stage anti-pipeline demonstrations in cities.
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B次元官网网址淭he environmentalists and their supporters celebrate each time the courts put the kibosh on pipelines, such as what happened with the Federal Court of Appeal decision on Trans Mountain,B次元官网网址� Buffalo said in his message to summit delegates. B次元官网网址淚n the meantime, our Liberal government appears clueless on a way forward. Sure, they have put together some sort of plan to address the two important issues raised by the court B次元官网网址� Indigenous consultation and marine impact considerations B次元官网网址� but they have failed to provide a coherent plan on how they will build the pipeline they now own.B次元官网网址�
The Indian Resource Council also denounces Bill C-69, the Trudeau governmentB次元官网网址檚 pending legislation that would add more hurdles to pipeline construction such as downstream greenhouse gas and even gender impacts of resource development.
That legislation and other restrictions depressing the price of Alberta oil will cost every family in the Kainai Nation of Southern Alberta about $1,400 a year, Kainai Chief Roy Fox wrote in a recent letter to Trudeau.
LeBourdais says the equity stake isnB次元官网网址檛 just about revenues for impoverished Indigenous communities, it also guarantees a real say in environmental oversight of projects like TransMountain.
The B.C. government made a similar agreement on environmental monitoring with Indigenous communities with ocean-based salmon farms in their territory off the north end of Vancouver Island.
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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