Companies consult First Nations, but information overload a problem
A lot has changed since Canada’s first oil pipeline was built in Ontario 150 years ago. Then, likely no one even thought of native rights.
Today, companies such as Enbridge and Kinder Morgan routinely consult communities that stand to be affected by megaprojects.
Enbridge’s $6 billion 1,170-kilometre Northern Gateway dual pipeline, running from Bruderheim, near Edmonton, to Kitimat, would affect 45 First Nations. Kinder Morgan has reached out to 111 First Nations who could be affected by its plan to twin the TransMountain pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby.
Government bears the legal responsibility for consulting with First Nations on projects. But it’s a task the energy companies in Canada take on.
“Our role is to make sure people fully understand the project and its potential impact, then to answer questions and respond to any concerns,” John Carruthers, president of Calgary-based Enbridge, said. “Many times the pipeline has actually changed its routing to address concerns.”
Enbridge and Kinder Morgan have policies that set out principles for involving and consulting First Nations. Northern Gateway’s policy talks of building “mutually beneficial relations ... through consultation and engagement”; Kinder Morgan’s talks of engaging “in forthright and meaningful consultation with Aboriginal communities.”
In the initial phases of projects, both companies offer capacity agreements and aboriginal traditional land-use studies to First Nations. Capacity agreements establish protocols for working with the First Nation, and also provide funds for the communities to make their own assessment of the project. For the aboriginal traditional-use studies, the companies make experts available or provide funds for proprietary reports on land use. The process of pipeline approval begins with oral evidence, mostly from aboriginal communities, given to a joint review panel of the National Energy Board and Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency. A formal hearing process follows; the one for Northern Gateway began in September 2012 and wrapped up at the end of April.
Not all First Nations take part.
The Nadleh Whut’en Nation is in the path of Northern Gateway, but Chief Martin Louie hasn’t been attending hearings. He said he doesn’t want the hearings to stand for consulting his people.
“The way it’s set up, if you participate, you’ve been consulted with,” Louie said. “If the majority of people approve, then we’re put in the same category.”
Louie says he is inundated with information on the pipeline.
“I must get about 50, 60 emails a day from different organizations and companies,” Louie said. “And double the amount in letters and books, talking about how they’re going to proceed. I don’t think any First Nation has the capacity to address all these things at once.”
Carruthers said attendance at the hearings does not signal agreement with the project. “There would be no indication if you showed up that you were in support.”
“It’s a long process,” Carruthers added. “We would have filed something in the order of 30,000 pages of information. Because it’s so thorough, it could be a daunting task to participate regularly. But that’s why the NEB and CEAA look at that in light of representing all Canadians. But fr any one individual to absorb all that would have been difficult.”
Even with funding, First Nations struggle to do the same level of assessment as energy companies.
“I think Northern Gateway called over 20 people as witnesses on the science issues and issues related to oil spills, either technical advisers or sworn witnesses,” Rosanne Kyle, lawyer for the Gitxaala Nation, said of the recent review hearings. The pipeline isn’t in their territory, but they stand to feel the effect of the pipeline on their ocean-dependent way of life because of tanker traffic.
“Of course, Gitxaala doesn’t have the resources to hire 20 scientists to help them express their concerns.”
And native communities have complained recently about lack of consultation before pipeline surveyors and related researchers come onto their lands.
Gary Youngman is the lead for aboriginal engagement for Kinder Morgan’s TransMountain pipeline expansion.
Youngman, who has worked on public consultation for construction of the Millennium and Canada Line transit lines in Metro Vancouver and on the aboriginal participation strategy for the 2010 Olympics, says his Kinder Morgan job was specifically set up for this project, although Kinder Morgan has had an aboriginal relations manager for several years.
The company wants to twin and expand the capacity of its line from 300,000 barrels per day to 890,000 barrels per day. Kinder Morgan intends to submit its formal proposal to the National Energy Board near the end of the year.
“What we wanted to do is start out early, 18 months before that application,” Youngman said. “We have done that. We started back in May (2012) and sent out letters to a number of different groups. We’re talking to these groups along the line, sharing information about the project and finding out what concerns they have.”
Along with capacity agreements or funding and aboriginal traditional use studies, Kinder Morgan sponsors what Youngman calls “ecological knowledge studies.”
“We walk the line with our environmental consultants and they bring along members of the community, elders and so on, have a good knowledge of their land to identify issues of concern.” There is no case law or government guidelines requiring them to do this, Youngman said.
“The reality of the situation is you have to be prepared to support First Nations’ engagement. And we’re prepared to do that.”
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