After a four-day tour of the Gulf Coast area affected by the BP oil spill, a delegation of B.C. First Nations is renewing the fight against Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project, which would carry crude oil from Alberta to a tanker port at Kitimat, B.C. and bring a greater number of oil tankers into B.C.'s coastal waters.
During the trip in the bayou country of south Louisiana, the delegation spoke with local fisherman and residents affected by the Gulf spill, as well as leaders from the United Houma Nation on Louisiana's coast.
"They felt for the first time ever that their culture was under siege, and they're not sure whether or not it can survive oil," said Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations, an alliance of nine Nations on B.C.'s north and central coast.
The delegation returned from the trip with a renewed commitment to opposing unmitigated oil development in northern B.C.
"Enbridge is asking us to expose the north coast to risk. We don't have to take that risk," he said.
"For the sake of providing someone else with petrochemicals, we want to risk a billion and a half dollar a year industry in the coast of B.C.," he added. "And even more than risking the industry, risking a culture."
"That was the bottom line from the Cajuns and the Houma."
While Sterritt was visiting Louisiana, Vancouver city council held a special meeting on Monday to discuss rising oil tanker traffic in the Burrard Inlet.
Sterritt said if he had been at the meeting, he would have warned council to recognize the imminent dangers of increasing oil traffic in the city's port.
"We can override our environment now, for probably the first time in our history," said Sterritt. "We have to be cognizant of our power, and make sure we do things that give us the best chance of surviving as a particular culture."
City councillor David Cadman, who attended Monday's meeting, said he was not confident that B.C. has that chance, and that current contingency plans to clean up an oil spill in the city's port are inadequate.
"What was very telling to me was Environment Canada wasn't there, B.C. Environment wasn't there, and the Coast Guard, which is responsible, wasn't there," said Cadman. "They don't want to be there, because all of them are going to say they don't have the capacity to do anything."
"I think it's very worrying, and I think we now see that there is no plan if there's a spill."
Mayor Gregor Robertson held the council meeting to discuss the implications of an oil spill, as well as clean-up strategies, but conceded that the city has no jurisdiction over the federal Port Metro Vancouver.
Robyn Smith is completing a practicum at The Tyee.
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