Native band signs deal with Enbridge over controversial pipeline

The Gitxsan, a native group based in northwestern B.C., has agreed to take a stake in the contentious Northern Gateway project.

"Over time we have established a relationship of trust with Enbridge, we have examined and assessed this project, and we believe it can be built and operated safely," Hereditary Chief Elmer Derrick said Friday in a statement.

"We believe that the construction of this pipeline is of vital importance to the future of Canadian energy security and prosperity."

The announcement comes a day after Enbridge said that native opposition to the project was not unanimous and that the company was talking to bands that were interested in taking a stake in the project. Enbridge has agreed to provide up to 10 per cent equity in the project to eligible aboriginal communities and has also agreed to provide financing to bands to allow them to take advantage of the offer.

That statement by the company was in response to statements Thursday by native leaders in Vancouver, where they gathered to sign a declaration opposing the project, saying that more than 130 nations in western Canada that oppose the pipelines “form an unbroken wall of opposition from the U.S. border to the Arctic Ocean.”

The Gitxsan traditional territories are in northwest B.C. and include several major watersheds. The group has a forestry business and last month announced the signing of an impact benefit agreement with B.C. Hydro related to the Northwest Transmission Line project.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was in Burlington, Ont. to open a new arts centre, was asked by reporters to talk about the importance of the Northern Gateway project.

Canada’s economic prosperity depends on its resource development and, in particular, the development of its energy sector which is one of the largest and growing sectors of the Canadian economy, he said.

So, “diversifying our markets for those products is, not just essential to our economic prosperity, but to our economic security,” said Mr. Harper. “It is not in this country’s interests that we are a captive supplier of the United States of energy products, especially when we see some of the politics that are going on south of the border.”

There are rigorous processes in place, both in terms of consultations with aboriginal groups and environmental assessment, and those processes will continue, he said.

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Source: Globe&Mail