Fierce First Nations opposition could very well topple Enbridge’s west coast pipeline proposal, a Washington-based energy expert argues.
“Native land claims scare the hell out of investors,” Robert Johnson told an Alberta energy conference, according to an Edmonton Journal report. “My level of confidence [in the project] has gone down quite a bit, unfortunately.”
Johnson belongs to senior management at Eurasia Group, which claims to be the “world’s leading global political risk research and consulting firm.”
He predicted TransCanada’s Keystone XL proposal, a hotly contested 3,200 km pipeline plunging south from Alberta’s oil sands to Gulf Coast refineries, would be approved by the U.S. State Department later this year.
Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal, a $5.5 billion pipeline linking northern Alberta to Asian markets, is a much tougher sell, he said.
“You saw the protests at [Enbridge’s] annual general meeting, the native groups saying it’s not about money,” Johnson said. “Gateway could be quite a while.”
Former federal environment minister Jim Prentice agrees. He was in Calgary earlier this month when dozens of First Nations beat drums in protest outside Enbridge headquarters.
“One of the great public policy failures in Canadian history was the failure to actually execute land claim treaties and, in a sense, titlement, in British Columbia over of course of the last 150 years,” Prentice told the Globe and Mail.
“And so the reality on the ground is that the constitutional and legal position of the first nations is very strong.”
Shortly after the Calgary protest, Coastal First Nations president Gerald Amos helped lead another demonstration in Prince Rupert.
“I made a promise to our youth that if Enbridge gets to the point at which it is bringing in the bulldozers, I will put my body in front of it,” he reportedly said. “How many of you will join me?”
An Enbridge executive told a Calgary luncheon Wednesday that the pipeline project would help end Canada’s vulnerable reliance on U.S. energy markets.
(Click here to a read a Tyee dispatch from Hartley Bay, ground zero for First Nations opposition).
Geoff Dembicki reports for the Tyee.
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Talon
1 year ago
add my body
A huge thank you to the first peoples of Canada who will stop the Enbridge pipeline from crossing BC. While the spineless politicians, capitalists, and bankers can only see a loss of profits, the rest of us see a gain in the health of our environment . The environment must come before all else - MOM (matter over mind) always rules! I will add my body to the gathering if the bulldozers do appear.
alive
1 year ago
Not convinced
Let us see what "compensation" the natives will accept, before we thank them.
woodworker
1 year ago
compensation/consultation
[BRANDING AN ENTIRE RACIAL GROUP AS GREEDY IS RACIST AND WILL BE REMOVED FROM THIS SITE. -MODERATOR.]
Ramona777
1 year ago
The Greed of the Natives???
Come on Woodworker, you should know better.
It was the greed of the likes of Dunsmuir, CPR, CNR and countless other "settlers" who stole native land who caused our present situation.
Would you ever get over having your home, property and culture forcibly taken from you and then be marginalized and insulted to boot?
Van Isle
1 year ago
I would say that the 'energy
I would say that the 'energy companies' scare the hell out of me
Skywalker
1 year ago
"Nameless Investors"
These are the nameless, mostly foreign, money interests that seem to dictate and override domestic social and economic initiatives. If governments spent less time catering to these forces we could actually see some improvement in the quality of life for all and maybe Premier Christy might then be able to give credence to her "families first" slogan. Governments continue to pay attention to their greedy interests because the public is sold this of goods that "nameless investors will save the country by right-wing media and other ignorant groups.
Whatever happened to leading from Canada's strong suit. Our resources won't be sold for nothing. You guys want access then here are the rules. They include paying taxes and not whining about them being too high all the time. You pay fair wages and none of this "right to work" crap from other countries and we expect high environmental standards with oversight and if you mess up, we will have your first-born children or equivalent compensation. No continual delay in the courts. People come first and that includes First Nations on whose territories most of you want to mess around.
They won't come to Canada you say? Bull!
woodworker
1 year ago
reply to Ramona777
My grandfather had everything taken from him and started again from scratch in a new country, Came here with the shirt on his back. Like many Canadians not born here. At least the natives get to stay where they have always lived.
And don't give me this crap about stealing the natives land. They were just settling and largely uninhabited land.
And by the way, a native that my son graduated with got $80,000 cash from the band as a graduation gift as do all the people from that band that finish high school. Poor underpriveledge natives indeed.
Lawrence
1 year ago
this is the way it will go
Remember a while ago I stuck my neck way out and said the first nations get bribed in every case, and the environmentalists get thrown in jail, then fined.
I thought, after I said that, oh dear, someones going to dig up an incident where that didn't happen.
So I made some phone call to some of my enviro buddys, and yes I was right.
So here's what will happen; enbridge will win, northern gateway will go ahead, and BC will have oil spills.
Then the BC government of the day will tell the public the oil spills were a fluke, and 40% of the public will believe them 'cause they're dirt stupid and re-elect them.
Sorry, I've seen way too much of this to be anything but cynical.
Fiat lux
1 year ago
BC, and generally Canada,
BC, and generally Canada, and even large areas of the world, are so badly overcapitalized already that they drain the land of all benefits for the people.
The old economics textbooks, when the purpose of economics was still the "distribution of scarce resources", used to define the ideal amount of capital investment as "one wage year per job"
Now, the lumber industry has 70-80 wage years of investment per job. The result is that while two guys can make a good living with a small mill and 50 logging truck loads of timber per year, the overcapitalized , automated mills need 400 loads per job.
And this is how overcapitalization causes poverty and ecological damage, without any public benefits.
But the word "overcapitalization" is now never mentioned in the textbooks and by politicians, draining the world dry and killing people.
Ed Deak