The president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs apologized Wednesday and walked again feedback he made earlier this week suggesting he supported reviving the Northern Gateway pipeline undertaking.
“I don’t help resuscitating lifeless tasks such because the failed Northern Gateway pipeline, which might have been an absolute catastrophe for our lands and waters,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip stated in an announcement launched by the union.
“I sincerely apologize for any confusion on this level.”
Phillip stated he considered his participation in protest actions and authorized challenges in opposition to the pipeline plan that was scrapped in 2016 as “an absolute honour and privilege,” and he wished to commend the hundreds of others who additionally opposed it.
With U.S. President Donald Trump threatening tariffs on Canadian merchandise as early as Feb. 1, some Canadian enterprise leaders and politicians are opening up discussions on the Northern Gateway pipeline undertaking to safe different markets for Canadian oil. As CBC’s Katie DeRosa stories, even some First Nations leaders who as soon as opposed the pipeline are actually open to it.
The union stated within the assertion that the reply to the Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific “remains to be no,” after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recommended reviving the undertaking in mild of U.S. President Donald Trump’s risk of tariffs on Canadian exports.
“The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has an extended historical past of resolutions from the Chiefs Council opposing large-scale damaging useful resource tasks, together with Enbridge Northern Gateway and the proposed Prince Rupert Fuel Transmission pipeline,” the assertion stated. “This mandate has not modified.”
On Tuesday, Phillip had been at a information convention about Smith’s suggestion to revive Northern Gateway, and the chief responded that Canada had “no alternative” however to rethink such tasks given the present standing of relations with the US.
“We’re staring into the abyss of uncertainty proper now with local weather change, the local weather disaster and the American risk,” Phillip had stated, describing previous efforts opposing the pipeline as a “completely different time.”
“I might recommend that if we do not construct that sort of infrastructure, Trump will,” he stated, including that the brand new U.S. president would accomplish that with out “consideration for the setting or the rule of regulation.”
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs says he has rethought his opposition to a proposed pipeline that may ship bitumen to B.C.’s North Coast, arguing it’s mandatory for Canada to tackle the undertaking to counter threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Phillip additionally stated on Tuesday that a lot of useful resource growth agreements since Northern Gateway had yielded “clearly evident” advantages for Indigenous communities.
However on Wednesday, the chief stated that whereas everybody must be planning for the opportunity of U.S. tariffs, it didn’t imply constructing extra pipelines.
Different B.C. First Nations leaders within the union additionally acknowledged their continued opposition to Northern Gateway.
“Our individuals had been on the entrance strains and fought onerous to efficiently cease the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline,” stated Chief Marilyn Slett, elected chief councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council and an government on the union.
“The environmental dangers to our territories had been and are too nice. Nothing has modified, and we aren’t going to again down.”
Slett stated temperatures proceed to pattern larger in B.C., highlighting the urgency of continued resistance in opposition to non-renewable power tasks and infrastructure.
“We should do every little thing in our energy to cease the planet from warming extra,” she stated. “This consists of guaranteeing we don’t help fossil gasoline extraction and transmission by means of pipelines, it doesn’t matter what sort of threats Trump makes.”
Smith had recommended that tasks such because the Northern Gateway are wanted to diversify Canada’s export markets as an alternative of being “so reliant on a single buying and selling companion” such because the U.S.
“That is actually the best way that, by means of these sorts of main infrastructure tasks, that we will begin diversifying our buyer base world wide,” Smith stated in an interview from Washington, D.C.
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