Today Alton Gas announced it will be decommissioning its Alton Natural Gas Storage Project! After eight years of constant resistance from Mi’kmaw water protectors, grassroots grandmothers, Elders, youth, and settler allies, including Council of Canadians staff and supporters, from across Mi’kma’ki and beyond, this is welcome news for our movements!
This is a huge victory for this grassroots resistance. Years of organizing, a diversity of tactics, enormous participation by a diversity of people, and constant commitment to protecting the lands and waters along the Sipekne’katik River have led to this success.
We would like to express our sincere and deep gratitude to the people and communitiesthat worked tirelessly to stop Alton Gas. Through the wise and patient leadership of grassroots Mi’kmaw water protectors, grandmothers, and Elders, we were able to collectively organize a powerful movement that resisted Alton Gas’s proposed project, challenged colonial notions about land ownership and stewardship, and defended the lands and waters of the Sipekne’katik River.
To everyone who sat on the frontline, built the Treaty Truckhouse and the other structures along the river, visited the Treaty Truckhouse on the banks of the river, wrote a letter, signed a petition— including thousands of Council of Canadians members and supporters, donated time and money to the cause, spoke publicly, and shared airtime with this movement – thank you!