Miles Morrisseau
ICT
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s plan to unite the country behind his Build Canada Strong strategy has hit a snag over a proposed oil pipeline, dividing provinces and causing a member of his cabinet to quit in protest.
With support from chiefs across the country, First Nations are uniting against the pipeline, which will carry bitumen — a heavy, tar-like crude oil — from Alberta through the northern part of British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs believes that the Canadian government is going to move forward despite any opposition and without consultation.
“They have every intention to fast track and run these projects through; Carney has every intention of doing that,” Phillip told ICT. “There is no indication of an intention to plan and organize a consultation process in alignment with that agenda. “They have every intention of ramming these projects through, which will trigger a legal, political, and at the end of the day, boots-on-the-ground response.”
Carney told First Nations at a recent special assembly that the Build Canada Strong agenda was going to be done in partnership.
“It’s only by working together that we can build stronger, more prosperous First Nations communities and a stronger, more resilient Canada in a more dangerous and divided world,” he said. “Canada is choosing to build from major national projects to local infrastructure, including in housing and water. And above all, we are choosing to build brighter futures for all our people across this great land. This mission of building is a positive endeavor. The question is not what we’re against, but what we’re for, what we want to build together, because this approach must be informed by and can only move forward with First Nations.”
Carney’s administration passed the Building Canada Act in June with the goal to “build critical infrastructure at speeds not seen in generations.”
In November, the federal government signed a memorandum of understanding with the oil-rich western province of Alberta committing to building infrastructure to move natural resources, including pipelines. Minister of Culture and Identity Steven Guilbeault quit the Carney cabinet after Canada signed the agreement, which promises to “unlock and grow natural resource production and transportation in Western Canada,” including pipelines, rail, ports and an integrated transmission grid.
Guilbeault, who was elected a Member of Parliament in the Quebec district of Laurier-Sainte Boniface and acted as Carney’s lieutenant in the French-speaking province, said the agreement goes against his commitment to the environment.
“As you know I chose to enter politics to champion the fight against climate change and the protection of the environment,” Guilbeault said in announcing his resignation. “Over the past 10 years, our country has made historic progress in reducing climate pollution, protecting nature and the environment while our economy continued to grow.”
Guilbeault pointed to the changed relationship with the United States, and said he supports the prime minister’s efforts to ensure the country remains united and that all regions feel they have a voice. But he said the growing threat of climate change is paramount.
“Despite this difficult economic context, I remain one of those for whom environmental issues must remain front and center,” he said. “That is why I strongly oppose the memorandum of understanding.”
The Bloc Quebecois is the third-largest federal party in Canada, and gets all its electoral support from the French-dominated province of Quebec. Leaders are opposed to the pipeline project.
“The Prime Minister has signed an agreement with Alberta that requires Canada to deploy the means to export 1.3 million barrels of oil, without even the agreement of British Columbia and the First Nations,” Yves-Francois Blanchet, the leader of Bloc Quebecois. “We will wage a merciless fight against this project. Quebec has already feared that the passage of Energy East will be imposed on it and only an extraordinary citizen mobilization has made it possible to stop the project. We will not lose this battle either.”
During their special assembly on Dec. 2-4, the Assembly of First Nations gathered in Ottawa to make the resolutions and policy decisions that will govern the organization’s actions over the next year.
The First Nations Chiefs and proxies in assembly unanimously passed a resolution to support the North Coast Protection Declaration. The declaration was signed on Nov. 5 between the province of British Columbia and First Nations chiefs to oppose new pipelines and uphold the oil tanker moratorium act. The act was passed in 2019 to prohibit tankers carrying more than 12,000 metric tons, which excludes most oil tankers.
The emergency resolution was put forward by Chief Donald Edgars, Old Masset Village Council, located on Hadai Gwaii, the islands off the northern coast of British Columbia.
“Whether you support the pipeline or not, we can all agree that any government must seek our free, prior and informed consent before any proposed projects take place on our land and waters,” Edgars said. “This [memorandum] provides no such assurances. The MOU enables the government to do business as usual.”
The resolution received the full support of the chiefs in assembly as a threat to the environment and to Indigenous rights.
“This is really a step backwards,” Merle Alexander, hereditary chief of Kitasoo Xai’xais First Nation, said of the pipeline project. “Obviously the possibilities of a catastrophic event would completely destroy and eliminate the very Aboriginal and treaty treaty rights that are protected.”
Despite the Carney administration’s intent to move quickly to get the big projects going, the fight against pipelines is one that British Columbia First Nations are ready to take on.
“We have amazing allies here in British Columbia, so you’re not only looking at the coastal First Nations,” said Phillip, the grand chief. “Here in British Columbia, as in the past, we’ll have the full support of the environmental movement here, church groups, other human rights organizations. So it will be a rerun of previous pipeline battles.”