The National Post reports that, “Chief Jackie Thomas (chief of the Saik’uz First Nation of British Columbia) may turn out to be the greater force in determining the fate of Enbridge’s proposed $5.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline between the oil sands and Kitimat on the B.C. coast. And her stance is not for sale. ‘I value my fish and water more than I value money,’ she said in an interview. …Her top concern is for the hundreds of waterways that would be crossed by the 1,200-kilometre bitumen and condensate pipeline, putting them at risk of a direct or indirect contamination from an oil spill.”
“(The waterways) include the Nechako River, a lifeline for her community, and the most important tributary to the salmon-bearing Fraser River, whose water levels and stocks have thinned dramatically since the building of the Kenny Dam in 1952 by the company that is now known as Rio Tinto Alcan. ‘We can count on our fish, our animals in the bush to feed us,’ she said. ‘If my grandchild has to buy water, and have water shipped in, it’s not good.’ Last year’s Enbridge oil pipeline spill in Michigan, and the BP PLC Macondo well spill in the Gulf of Mexico, re-enforced to First Nations the risk of water contamination is real.”
“Adding fuel to the opposition is what the pipeline would carry — oil from the oil sands. Chief Thomas said solidarity is building between the First Nations of British Columbia and those of Alberta that are negatively impacted by the oil sands, making the Northern Gateway pipeline another lever against their growth. ‘They can’t drink their water and eat their fish,’ she said. ‘So if this pipeline goes through, this oil sands will just get bigger, there is going to be more problems. And who is going to look after them?'”
“Chief Thomas is also concerned that the pipeline crosses First Nations communities, like her own, with outstanding land claims. She questions the authority of regulators such as the National Energy Board to approve and regulate a pipeline over lands whose ownership is in dispute. …Unlike in the rest of Canada, there are no treaties in much of British Columbia.”
“The Saik’uz were one of the First Nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance that rejected an offer from Enbridge last week for benefits of more than $1.5-billion in cash, jobs, business opportunities during the next 30 years as well as a 10% stake in the project.”
The Enbridge plan is that by 2015, an incredible 525,000 barrels of tar sands bitumen a day would be sent through a 1,200 kilometre pipeline across a thousand rivers and streams to Kitimat, British Columbia to be taken by 225 super tankers a year through the narrow Douglas Channel and then across the Pacific Ocean to Asian markets. The Haida, Hasla, Gitga and other First Nations have stated that ‘oil tankers carrying crude oil from the Alberta tar sands will not be allowed to transit’ their lands or waters. Enbridge’s application to the National Energy Board begins the government review of the project, which is expected to be completed by 2012. If approved, construction would begin in 2013.
The Council of Canadians began expressing its opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline in September 2009, http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=1711. In July 2010, Council of Canadians British Columbia-Yukon organizer Harjap Grewal attended the Wer’suwet’en action camp established to opposed the pipeline, http://canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=4566.
The National Post article is at http://www.financialpost.com/news/energy/First+Nation+chief+stands+ground+water+fish/4350085/story.html.
