B.C. belongs to resource companies. Clark's just the paid caretaker.

Unless Christy Clark’s bulldozer hits a ditch, the Liberal party’s power in British Columbia will probably grow. Just like the provincial debt, the horrid finances of BC Hydro and the evolution of Vancouver into a vast private club for the super-rich.

All this is supported by the nonsense view that Christy posing beside hulking dump trucks once every few years vanquishes all — including any zany notion of standing up for the environment. Even from a distance, surveying B.C. politics is like watching a python swallow a peacock.

Aboriginal rights a threat to Canada's resource agenda, documents reveal

The Canadian government is increasingly worried that the growing clout of aboriginal peoples’ rights could obstruct its aggressive resource development plans, documents reveal.

Since 2008, the Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs has run a risk management program to evaluate and respond to “significant risks” to its agenda, including assertions of treaty rights, the rising expectations of aboriginal peoples, and new legal precedents at odds with the government’s policies.

First Nations Relationships Need To Be Fixed For Energy Projects To Move Forward, Forum Hears

LAKE LOUISE, Alta. - Governments and industry must fix their relationships with First Nations communities if large-scale energy projects are to move forward in Canada, speakers at a business forum in Lake Louise, Alta., said Friday.

The warnings, from both First Nations and industry leaders, came as regulators are expected to rule within weeks on a the contentious Northern Gateway pipeline proposal by Enbridge Inc. (TSX:ENB)

Miles Richardson, former president of the Haida Nation in northwestern British Columbia, said aboriginal right and title must be recognized.

Ottawa highlights weight of natural resources in economy

Canada’s natural resource sector is responsible for 20 per cent the country’s economic activity, much higher than previously estimated, the federal government announced Tuesday.

In 2010, the government said natural resources accounted for just 11.5 per cent of GDP.

Feds shouldn’t rely on $30-billion in resource projects for economic development in North

The federal government is banking on some $30-billion worth of resource projects to bring social and economic development to Canada’s territories, but industry watchdog Mining Watch Canada says the resource boom can’t replace cuts to federally funded development programs.

Mining Watch Canada coordinator Ramsey Hart said that his organization fully supports benefits from resource projects going to aboriginal communities in the territories, but noted that it is important for those groups to be fully informed of the impacts that such projects have on the local environment and culture.

'Undermining our voices': Indigenous communities oppose resource extraction industry

Today is the Continental Day of Action Against Canadian Mega Resource Extraction. There are actions happening across the country and also throughout the hemisphere, from El Salvador to Colombia, including a vigil outside mining giant Goldcorp's headquarters today (4:30pm, 666 Burrard St., Vancouver).

Like many Indigenous peoples worldwide, the Wet'suwet'en Nation in northern B.C. has resisted mining on their territories, as well as the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. On Vancouver Co-op Radio's W2 Morning Radio Project this morning, I spoke with three B.C. Indigenous land defenders about the impacts of mining and resource extraction on their territories.

Nexen deal China’s Canadian bridgehead

Stephen Harper won’t stand in the way of Beijing’s biggest-ever foreign investment, a $15.5-billion (U.S.) bid unveiled Monday for Calgary-based oil producer Nexen Inc. by China’s state-owned Cnooc Ltd., or China National Offshore Oil Corp.

Indeed, the Canadian prime minister will be applauding.

If Athabasca is rivalled only by the Middle East in its vast oil reserves, the world’s top creditor nation has its own vast resources — of cash — that Harper is eager to tap. Chinese firms already have pumped $17 billion into North American oil and gas plays since 2010. But there’s at least another $2 trillion of acquisition firepower where that came from.

Natural resources to define first nations leader’s next term

Two months ago, 23-year-old Brendon Grant left his northern British Columbia hometown for San Diego, where he now lives a 10-minute jog from La Jolla beach. He moved south to start work as a junior analyst with RA Capital Advisors LLC, a private investment bank that has worked on more than $60-billion in financial transactions. Next month, he intends to start training toward becoming an investment banker.

Mr. Grant is Haisla, and his is not a traditional career path for a young person whose grandfather taught him to fish salmon and halibut.

Attawapiskat chief wants share of revenues from nearby diamond mine

OTTAWA—Chief Theresa Spence says she has the answer to turning around her troubled aboriginal community of Attawapiskat — getting a share of the resource revenues flowing from a nearby diamond mine.

Without that, she warns that the troubling living conditions on her northern Ontario community will likely worsen and that lives may even be lost.

“Great riches are being taken from our land for the benefit of a few, including the Government of Canada and Ontario, who receive large royalty payments while we receive so little,” Spence said during a lunch speech Tuesday.

“Our lands have been stripped from us and yet development on our land area in timber, hydro and mining have created unlimited wealth for non-native people and their governments,” she said.

A day after aboriginal leaders held an historic meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to chart a new course for Canada’s First Nations, fresh warnings Tuesday of lost lives and civil unrest added a reality check to the challenges confronting both sides.

The housing crisis in Attawapiskat hit the headlines after reports that families were living in makeshift tents and sheds without running water, electricity or heat.

First Nations have right to resources, Atleo says

First Nations are more than just stakeholders and have rights to resource development that must be recognized, Shawn Atleo said Wednesday.

The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says the chiefs who met with Prime Minister Stephen Harper Tuesday told him they have real rights through their treaties when it comes to pipeline and mining projects.

"Right now, government feels that through their actions and through their regulatory processes and licences that First Nations are simply stakeholders," Atleo said.

"That simply is not the case. The treaty relationship said that we would be full partners in designing and determining what would happen within our respective territories and that First Nations would benefit from the wealth and from the resources of the land."

Atleo pointed to the notion of having free, prior and informed consent over what happens in First Nations territories.