Walkom: Northern Gateway pipeline faces ‘unbreakable’ wall
May 09, 2012Thomas Walkom
Protesters opposing the planned Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline assemble outside the King Edward Hotel in Toronto on Wednesday. Enbridge was holding its annual general meeting at the hotel.
RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR
Prime Minister Stephen Harper may have the legislative muscle to ram his controversial oilsands pipeline through Parliament.But Jackie Thomas and a host of equally stubborn British Columbia Indian chiefs are here to tell him that the proposed Northern Gateway conduit is far from a done deal.
“We will be the unbreakable wall,” Thomas tells me in a Toronto coffee shop. “No, we are the unbreakable wall.”
Two other B.C. chiefs sitting at the table nod silently.
Thomas is head of the Saik’uz first nation near Prince George. She and about 50 other B.C. Indians opposing the planned Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline are in Toronto.
On Wednesday, they led a noisy demonstration on King Street outside the hotel hosting Enbridge’s annual general meeting.
It is the endpoint of what the chiefs describe as an exhilarating but exhausting cross-country railway trip aimed at publicizing native opposition to the pipeline — a pipeline that has become the central symbol of Harper’s majority Conservative government.
Technically, the Enbridge pipeline is roaring ahead. The Harper government has introduced legislation that will give it the right to approve the pipeline — regardless of what a National Energy Board environmental assessment panel studying the proposal decides.
Calling the pipeline an economic necessity, the prime minister is using his majority to ram the bill through Parliament with a minimum of debate.
His government has also made it clear that it regards anyone who opposes the pipeline as un-Canadian.
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver dismisses critics of the plan to ship oil from the Alberta tar sands to China via B.C. as “radicals” funded by foreign “socialist billionaires.”
So Thomas is here to make the point that she and the roughly 6,000 members of the Yinka Dene Alliance are not enemy aliens.
They are real people living real lives in the pathway of a project they fear will ruin those lives.
“It’s about the water,” says Martin Louie, chief of the Nadleh Whut’en.
And so it is. There are two great river systems in B.C., the Fraser and the Skeena. The province’s ecology, and to a large extent its economy, are built around them.
The Yinka Dene, an alliance of five first nations in central B.C. whose lands sit along the proposed pipeline route, fear the project will foul those great water systems. Breaks in the line, Louie says, are inevitable.
Yes, he says, there is already a natural gas pipeline through Yinka Dene land. It was built before the courts ruled that aboriginals must be involved in decisions that affect their land.
“Besides,” says Thomas, “gas is different.” It doesn’t spill.
So what will these first nations do to stop the pipeline? First, says Louie, they will say no. The Yinka Dene are not taking part in what he describes as bogus pipeline hearings.
Second, they are warning those who would finance the Enbridge pipeline that the project is doomed.
“We’ve talked to the five major Canadian banks,” says Thomas “and warned of the financial risks.”
As my colleague Vanessa Lu has reported, one significant Enbridge stockholder — NEI Investments — is already worried.
Third, they are contemplating court challenges. “We want to exhaust all other options before we go to court,” says Louie. But if, in the end, nothing else works, to court the Yinka Dene will go.
That could delay matters for years.
In the end, they are sure they can wait out both Enbridge and the ruling Conservatives. They are used to waiting. They are very patient.
“It’s not going to happen,” says Thomas. “Enbridge should just accept it and save themselves some money.”
February 8th, 2012
the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, PC., B.A., M.A.
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6
Dear Mr. Harper,
The National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC ), representing many thousands of members across Canada is alarmed at the potentially devastating risks to the environment posed by the Enbridge Northern Gateway proposal to build a pipeline to carry tar sands bitumen from Bruderheim Alberta, to the deep water port of Kitimat British Columbia, and from there by ocean tanker to the markets of Asia.
The building of this pipeline over a 1,177 km land route will present extraordinary challenges, and the passage of hundreds of thousands of barrels of bitumen crude oil per day along its length, will create multiple opportunities for accidents which could cause irreparable ecological damage. The pipeline will pass through the unforgiving Northern Rockies and the Coast Mountains of BC, over wetlands, flood plains and bird sanctuaries; and will cross, or come very close to, more than 800 streams and rivers, 600 of which are fish spawning habitat . The bitumen will then be transported by ocean tankers which must negotiate the very treacherous and ecologically sensitive waters of the BC shoreline before heading out into the broader ocean.
In 1925, members of the National Council of Women of Canada were concerned about the leakage of crude oil from ships and placed this issue on the agenda of the International Council of Women. Then the concern was the damage to birds caught in the slicks of crude oil discharges. This remains a serious issue to-day, especially as the number and size of the oil tankers has increased. As we have noted, further challenges, and significant risks lie along the rugged and sensitive shoreline route to the ocean, where if accidents happen they are exceedingly difficult to remediate.
We expect that the established environmental Regulatory Panel will hear many voices who share our concerns, as well as the economic arguments that will be put forward by proponents of the pipeline. NCWC has always urged the government to take a "precautionary" approach. To-day, this involves a thorough examination of the life cycle of a proposal and consideration of all the probable costs in every stage and circumstance. We feel that the long term costs cleaning up an oil- spill , the environmental damages and loss to livelihoods in the event of an oil-spill, should all be considered. We are strongly of the opinion that if all these factors are included in a comparative evaluation that the Regulatory Panel will not recommend approval of the pipeline.
Should this be the case, we urge your Government to accept the Panel’s decision.
NCWC is an inclusive group of voluntary sector member groups and individuals across Canada, with no monetary interest in the issue, which adheres to democratically developed policies speaking to the health of the environment, family and society .
We respectfully urge you to keep an open mind and act in a "precautionary" manner in the best interests of all Canadians.
Denise Matok, President.
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