Gitanyow sustainability director Tara Marsden warns Blackstone-backed PRGT pipeline would accelerate climate change
Photo: Tara Marsden, sustainability director for the Gitanyow hereditary chiefs. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC).
The CBC reports: “Tara Marsden, sustainability director for the Gitanyow hereditary chiefs, worries the current push to approve new projects [framed as breaking “Canada’s dependence on the U.S. energy economy”] will sideline environmental concerns.”
The article adds: “Marsden has helped organize opposition to a new pipeline in their traditional territory, the proposed Prince Rupert gas transmission [PRGT] line that would run 800 kilometres to a planned terminal on a coastal island, which Marsden warns will harm salmon habitat and accelerate climate change.”
The CBC article then highlights: “Marsden points out [that PRGT co-owner Texas-based Western LNG] has significant backing from Blackstone Inc., a major American asset manager whose CEO publicly endorsed Trump and contributed to his campaign — undermining any notion that the project is needed to push back against the American president. ‘This isn’t about getting out from under the thumb of Americans,’ she said. ‘It’s actually about enriching people who are in Trump’s inner circle.’”
Marsden: “Companies will bring in militarized police”
In the CBC-TV version of this report, Marsden says: “From the Coastal GasLink pipeline we learned that companies will do whatever it takes, they will bring in militarized police and they will remove Indigenous people from their lands.”
Video still from CBC National News.
On a PBI-Canada webinar last year, Marsden also commented: “Our learning is that consent only works when we say yes, if we say no, even if we say no with science behind us, and our knowledge and our laws behind us, then we will be met with force from the C-IRG, from militarized invasion and occupation and intimidation and harassment.”
The C-IRG refers to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Community-Industry Response Group (C-IRG) now rebranded as the Critical Response Unit (CRU-BC).
The C-IRG is currently under systemic investigation by the Ottawa-based Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) after the agency received nearly 500 formal complaints about the unit, including allegations of excessive force, illegal tactics, unprofessional behaviour, racism, discrimination and Charter violations.
Decision on PRGT expected this spring
If approved and built, the 800-kilometre PRGT pipeline would carry fracked gas from Hudson’s Hope in northeastern British Columbia across an estimated 120 kilometres of Gitxsan territory as well as Gitanyow territory until it reaches the proposed the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal near the Nass River estuary on Nisga’a territory in northwestern BC.
In December 2024, the Pipeline Technology Journal reported that the British Columbia provincial government decision on the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline “is expected by March 2025”. On March 26, 2026, Global News reported: “The provincial government is expected to make a decision on an amendment to the pipeline’s original environmental assessment certificate this spring.”
We continue to follow this.
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