Chief Marilyn Slett: Protecting B.C. coast also protects First Nations economy
Critics of legislation banning oil tanker traffic on Canada’s northwest coast like to argue that coastal First Nations communities are anti-development and against job creation, by pointing to our support for Bill C-48, currently before the Senate, which prohibits large oil tankers from B.C.’s north coast.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, it is precisely because we support the re-establishment of healthy coastal economies in our traditional lands that we insist on protecting our local environment and its ecosystems.