Message from First Nations to Enbridge? No trespassing
Chief Martin Louie in front of a Yinka Dene Alliance sign warning Enbridge against trespassing in its traditional territory.
Last week, as Chiefs of the six member nations of the Yinka Dene Alliance, we sent a cease-and-desist letter to Enbridge, warning the company that any attempt to conduct work on its controversial Northern Gateway pipeline project would be considered trespassing, and would be prosecuted accordingly.
It will surprise many British Columbians to learn that while the province has been clear in its opposition to the pipeline, Enbridge continues to work on the design and engineering of the project, including recent applications for provincial permits to remove trees and build drilling pads at more than 35 locations across the province.
The company has asked the province for permission to build 16 of these geotechnical drilling pads in our member nations’ traditional territories, adjacent to the Muskeg, Stuart and Salmon rivers, which the company is hoping to build its pipeline underneath.
The construction of these drilling sites would bring Enbridge crews into potential conflict with our communities.
We have asked the premier to withhold these permits, which have not yet been granted, and which would violate our Aboriginal rights and title, and the provincial government’s constitutional duty to First Nations. We have made this request to stand up for our communities and the majority of British Columbians, who have made their opposition to the pipeline clear.
B.C. would do well to heed our request.
Our unceded territory makes up 25 per cent of the proposed Enbridge pipeline route, and is also a significant portion of the province’s proposed LNG corridor. At this very moment, major LNG companies from around the world are knocking on our door, asking to discuss their plans to build LNG projects and pipelines, and our response to them will depend very much on how B.C. handles the Enbridge pipeline.
For First Nations, the Enbridge pipeline has become a litmus test for the province’s new relationship with our communities. Responsible resource development requires respectful and trusting relationships, and a commitment to striking the right balance between development and protection of the land and waters that sustain us all. Enbridge, and its record of pipeline spills, has never come close to meeting this test.
Our responsibilities to the land are a sacred trust passed down to us from our ancestors and form the basis for our own laws. We have a duty to those who came before and to future generations to protect and wisely steward our land and resources.
For that reason, representatives of more than 160 First Nations have signed the Save the Fraser Declaration, banning tarsands oil pipelines and tankers from their territories and the migration routes of Fraser River salmon as a matter of Indigenous law.
In the years ahead, Aboriginal self-determination and the issue of our and other nations’ unceded territory will play a major role in the development and stewardship of resources in northern British Columbia, including mining, forestry and LNG.
We have much to discuss, and the success of those conversations will greatly affect the future social and economic prosperity of our communities and the province of British Columbia.
We have invited Premier Christy Clark to engage in government-to-government talks, and she has responded positively, promising meetings with her ministers. She has also given us her personal commitment that the Enbridge pipeline will not go forward unless it meets her five conditions, including that the project meet Aboriginal legal requirements.
While we thank and respect the premier for her position, we need to see it reflected on the land.
As our trespass signs go up, and as we prepare to enforce trespass laws against Enbridge in our traditional territories, we will be looking to see how Premier Clark handles this critical decision-making point in our new relationship.
Will her government grant the permits that would bring our communities into conflict with a company and a pipeline project that the majority of British Columbians oppose; or will the bigger picture and the potential for true and equitable prosperity with First Nations in British Columbia prevail?
As in all relationships, actions will speak louder than words.
Chiefs of the Yinka Dene Alliance: Chief Martin Louie, Nadleh Whut’en First Nation; Chief Fred Sam, Nak’azdli First Nation; Chief Dolly Abraham, Takla Lake First Nation; Chief Stanley Thomas, Saik’uz First Nation; Chief Karen Ogen, Wet’suwet’en First Nation; Chief Ralph Pierre, Tl’azt’en First Nation. The Yinka Dene Alliance includes Nadleh Whut’en, Nak’azdli, Takla Lake, Saik’uz, Wet’suwet’en and Tl’azt’en First Nations in northern B.C. that have banned the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline from their territories as a matter of indigenous law.
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