The Dominion - Wet'suwet'en Territory

In BC, Pipes Spell Double Trouble

Moira Peters — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 09:01:27 +0000

KSL gas pipeline is low profile, high threat

VANCOUVER—The struggle against the proposed Enbridge pipeline, which has galvanized First Nations throughout northern BC and earned popular support from people across the country, has become one of the highest profile Indigenous and environmental issues in Canada. Concerns are mounting that in Enbridge's shadow, other energy projects are slipping under the radar—with potentially explosive consequences.

The Kitimat Summit Lake (KSL) gas pipeline, also called the Pacific Trails Pipeline, is of emerging concern to Wet'suwet'en land defenders and local residents. If built, this pipeline would connect to an existing Westcoast Energy Pipeline at Summit Lake, near the geographical centre of BC, and cut west to Kitimat.

“The general location of the pipeline was the first phase of BC’s new and controversial Energy Corridor discussions; other phases...included the Enbridge oil pipeline from Alberta’s tar sands to Kitimat, which many First Nations strongly opposed in early 2011,” reads a recent report prepared by the BC Tap Water Alliance about the KSL pipeline proposal.

At the western end of the proposed pipeline would sit a brand new Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) port, which is being built by a handful of former Duke Energy insiders on Haisla reserve land at Bish Cove, an area described in media reports as pristine beachfront. First planned as a pipeline to supply the tar sands with natural gas, the project has since been modified to provide an export channel for the emerging shale gas bonanza in northeastern BC and Alberta.

“In 2004, for all of the energy processes in North America, we didn’t have enough gas,” said Will Koop of the BC Tap Water Alliance. “Now they want to export this gas, they want to change the direction of the import gas proposal from Kitimat to the tar sands and reverse it,” Koop told The Dominion.

The proposed KSL pipeline would be almost 500 kilometres in length and 91 centimetres in diameter; it would also be flanked by an 18-metre right-of-way on each side. The project has quietly received approval from both the federal and provincial governments, and is awaiting the final nod from the National Energy Board, the federal agency that oversees oil and gas projects in Canada.

“Nobody showed up for the first open house in Houston—three people I think—so they cancelled all the other open houses. There was never another open house on the KSL pipeline,” said Glenda Ferris, a long time environmentalist who lives in the Buck Creek Valley near Houston BC. “There was never even a news article about this pipeline in the local papers...They did this all under the table,” she said.

In February 2011, Vancouver-based Pacific Northern Gas sold its stake in the KSL project to the Houston-based Apache Corporation and EOG Resources (formerly Enron).

Ferris is not alone in feeling left in the dark about the plans to build the KSL pipeline.

In early April 2011, Freda Huson, a spokesperson for the Unist'hot'en Clan of the Wet'suwet'en, received a letter from Pacific Trails Pipeline, indicating that the company planned to put drilling pads on the site of her family’s camp. A week later, Huson visited the location, the company having neglected to seek permission or prior consent from her clan as traditional land owners.

On the site, Huson noted fluorescent ribbons inscribed with the words “Pacific Trails Pipelines” hanging from tree branches, marking the path the pipeline would follow. Enraged, Huson took down the ribbons, and returned the next day with members of her family to build a makeshift fence around the area.

These days, Huson is entertaining the idea of moving into a cabin on-site so that she can keep a closer eye on what is happening on the land she says her family has depended on for trapping and fishing for hundreds of years.

“I received a telephone call and they said they were wanting to meet with us, because we told them they were not coming in, and we would block them,” said Huson, referring to her last interaction with one of the pipeline companies.

Unlike in the case of the Enbridge pipeline, elected officials from the 14 First Nations along the KSL pipeline path have already agreed to the project. Some have received incentives, including employment for band members, for agreeing to the project. The Haisla Nation did not respond to a request for an interview before press time.

The cumulative impacts of the infrastructure connected to the KSL pipeline will be enormous, and range from LNG terminal and storage areas near the coast to the massive shale gas projects in northeastern BC, which are slated to use a significant portion of the energy generated by the proposed Site-C dam. A recent study from Cornell University indicates that natural gas extracted from shale through a process known as hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) may actually release more carbon emissions in the long run than coal or oil.

Oil and gas pipelines running side by side also make a dangerous combination.

East of the Morice River, lying to the west of the town of Smithers, BC, a significant distance separates the proposed route of the Enbridge oil pipeline and that of KSL. However, closer to the river as well as to the west, the proposed pipelines would run side by side.

“When they go up the Morice and through the coast mountains to Kitimat, they’re right on top of each other,” said Ferris. “The basic probability of failure is an explosion, why would you ever allow an oil pipeline to be built next to the KSL pipeline?"

“I’ve never seen Enbridge acknowledge the KSL pipeline,” she said, “and what hazard the KSL pipeline is going to pose to an oil pipeline.”

Enbridge did not return this reporter’s request for an interview before press time.

Dawn Paley is a journalist in Vancouver.

Treeline

A Wet'suwet'en Grassroots Alliance

dru — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 11:54:46 +0000

WET'SUWET'EN YINTAH—Despite losing most of their homelands and resources primarily to the effects of colonial dispossession, agriculturalism, deforestation and mining activities, the Wet'suwet'en continue to resist the illegitimate imposition of federal and provincial government jurisdiction. The Wet'suwet'en view the federal and provincial governments as illegitimate regulatory systems. By imposing very small Indian Act reservations at the turn of the 20th century, the federal government has deliberately sought to disempower the once impenetrable territories of these fiercely independent peoples.

This situation is changing.

Frustrated by the sedated response of the Office of the Wet'suwet'en to a recent Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, a grassroots Wet'suwet'en group has moved to resurrect and implement their ancient laws and the necessary vehicles for enforcing their laws. In 2008, the newly resurrected Wet'suwet'en Warrior Society, known as the Lhe Lin Liyin, began to hold meetings and camps with members of their Wet'suwet'en communities. The proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway project involves construction of a 1,170 kilometre-long dual oil and condensate pipelines through Wet'suwet'en territories from the Alberta tar sands to Kitimat, BC. Other companies such as Kinder Morgan, the Pembina Pipeline Group, and Pacific Northern Gas are also interested in using this same corridor.

For many Wet'suwet'en people, nothing seemed to be happening to protect their lands from these threats to their livelihoods. In late 2009, the Unist'ot'en Clan of the Wet'suwet'en took a brave step and made a bold statement to the outside world, separating from the central tribal organization because they felt their interests were not being protected; rathe, they felt they were being undermined by their own elitist leadership and tribal office staff. The Unist'ot'en territories make up approximately two thirds of the 22,000 square kilometres of the entire Wet'suwet'en land base.

A statement made by Enbridge CEO Pat Daniels on January 22, 2011, characterized the First Nations resistance to the proposed pipeline as “hurdles” for the project. Lhe Lin Liyin co-founder Mel Bazil bravely stepped forward to say that “We are not merely a hurdle for the Enbridge Northern Gateway project, we are an impenetrable wall which is fortified by the same fighting spirits of our warrior ancestors who also refused to allow trespassers onto our sacred lands.”

Unist'ot'en spokesperson Freda Huson addressed all industrial impacts on their once pristine territories in a sobering statement. “Our territories have been decimated from industry. We will tolerate it no longer. We will do what it takes to protect it."

This fight for jurisdiction and Indigenous rights is far from its end. The Lhe Lin Liyin and Unist'ot'en are gearing up for a new season of resistance—resistance which will make their ancestors and unborn generations proud.

Toghestiy Wet’suwet’en is hereditary chief of the Fireweed Clan of the Wet’suwet’en Nation.

This article was published in A People's Forecast: The Climate Justice Issue, our 2011 special issue. To read more articles as they are published, click here.

wet'suwet'en

A Public Relations War on all Fronts

Tim McSorley — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:46:02 +0000

BC gov't aims to win hearts and minds, and open province to extractives

VANCOUVER—Beyond rhetoric about establishing British Columbia as a centre for innovation, among the most concrete strategies suggested in the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources 2010/11-2012/13 Service Plan are government-sponsored marketing campaigns to promote the benefits of the extractive industries.

The Service Plan, released in early March, outlines the BC government's primary strategies for the energy, mining, and oil and gas industries up to 2013. The public relations efforts articulated throughout the plan contradict the demands of Indigenous nations, in whose territories these projects would be built.

One of the objectives of the Service Plan is to increase the involvement of First Nations in the oil and gas industry. This includes "advising" First Nations on how resources can be developed in an "environmentally responsible manner" by strengthening links to industry and government and negotiating revenue-sharing agreements.

The government also aims to "facilitate involvement by local First Nations in oil and gas pipelines through the proposed Northern Energy Corridor between Kitimat and Prince George." Given the level of resistance to pipelines in Northern BC, and the fact that much of land mass to be traversed by the pipelines was never ceded by Indigenous people, it appears the BC government is on a collision course.

Toghestiy (Warner Naziel), a member of the Wet'suwet'en Nation, has extensively researched the Northern Gateway energy pipeline, a proposed part of an energy corridor which includes two Enbridge pipelines and a Kinder Morgan pipeline. The BC government has been promoting this energy project for over a decade.

"One hundred per cent of people [in my community] were completely against any type of development, especially anything in relation to this energy corridor," Toghestiy told the Vancouver Media Co-op in February.

Another objective of the Ministry's Service Plan is to create the social license for increased development of the extractive industries in BC. This can be achieved, according to the plan, by financing public relations and educational campaigns.

"Develop and implement focused promotional programs to inform British Columbians about opportunities in the energy, mining and natural gas industries," reads one strategy. "...Engage school students in a discussion of responsible energy, mineral and natural gas resource development," reads another.

"They're trying to promote a pipeline that is completely unwanted," said Macdonald Stainsby, an anti-tar sands activist with oilsandstruth.org.

"People who promote these kinds of developments in areas where the benefits will be little to none tend to use a war on all fronts—from friends and neighbours to glossy pamphlets to promises of money that will never arrive," he said.

Stainsby calls the proposed PR strategy proof that despite his green image, BC Premier Gordon Campbell still takes his marching orders from Ottawa and Washington. "These efforts are linked to increasing energy supply from the tar sands, rather than reducing energy supply," he said.

Enbridge, Kinder Morgan, Shell, Teck, and Imperial Metals Corporation have all faced fierce resistance, led by Indigenous land defenders and supported by allies locally and around the world.

Dawn Paley is a journalist based in Vancouver.

This article was originally published by the Vancouver Media Co-op.

Landscape in Wet'suwet'en Territory