Photo: UBCIC image.
Yesterday, Global News reported: “Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith have signed a memorandum of understanding that commits them to working toward building an oil pipeline to the West Coast.”
UBCIC: “We will not stand idly by”
In response, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) says: “We will not stand by while the Carney government and Alberta attempt to bulldoze our rights and disregard the catastrophic risks of a spill in the corporate profit interests of the global fossil fuel industry. No bilateral deal can extinguish our inherent title and rights, and no federal legislation can erase the Crown’s obligation to obtain free, prior, and informed consent.”
CFN: “Member Nations will use every tool in their toolbox”
And Marilyn Slett, President of the Coastal First Nations (CFN)-Great Bear Initiative and elected Chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, says: “As the Rights and Title Holders of the Central and North Coast and Haida Gwaii, we are here to remind the Alberta government, the federal government, and any potential private proponent that we will never allow oil tankers on our coast, and that this pipeline project will never happen.”
Ksi Lisims and LNG Canada Phase 2
The Canada-Alberta memorandum of understanding on a new bitumen pipeline follows the Carney government’s recommendations to the Major Projects Office to fast-track approvals for the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal (that would be fed by the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline on Gitanyow territory) and the LNG Canada Phase 2 expansion (that would involve the construction of two compressor stations on Wet’suwet’en territory to increase the flow of Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline).
North Coast Transmission Line
It also follows the recommendation to fast-track the North Coast Transmission Line that would power multiple other projects.
Wet’suwet’en land defender Molly Wickham (Sleydo’) has posted on Instagram: “Recently, Carney visited the North and announced the government and industry’s plan to create a ‘conservation corridor’ through the North to the coast and to the Yukon, opening up all the unceded Indigenous lands along the way to every type of industry that can make them billions of dollars.”
Wickham further noted: “If you plan to oppose open pit coal mines, mines of all kinds, pipelines (oil and gas), LNG facilities creating Hell on earth conditions in your backyard, if you care about the climate crisis that is currently worsening, then THIS (transmission line) is the project to oppose and put everything you’ve got into stopping it. Everything else that’s coming is dependent on this project.”
Video still from The Juice Media that highlights that the Site C hydroelectric dam on the Peace River near Fort St. John in northeastern BC would be connected to the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal to be built near Gingolx north of Prince Rupert in northwestern BC.
The Tyee has previously reported: “The North Coast Transmission Line is slated to run about 450 kilometres between Prince George and Terrace. It would deliver increased electrical capacity to B.C.’s northwest, in order to expand industries like mining and LNG production.”
The Narwhal has reported that the electricity carried by the 2,200-megawatt North Coast transmission line could go to multiple megaprojects including mines (900 megawatts, of which 220 could go to the KSM mine and 307 could go to Galore Creek), as well as to critical mineral mines in the “Golden Triangle” (1,000 megawatts), and to LNG (including possibly 600 megawatts to the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal).
Image from BC Hydro.
PBI-Canada concerns
PBI-Canada remains attentive to the Indigenous land and environmental defenders who may resist the construction of a new bitumen oil pipeline, the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission fracked gas pipeline, compressor stations on Wet’suwet’en territory, the North Coast Transmission Line, and multiple other extractivist megaprojects that would impact Indigenous territories in British Columbia.
Among our specific concerns is the safety and protection of Indigenous land defenders who face criminalization, police violence and surveillance for upholding their sovereign rights as well as their right to free, prior and informed consent.
That criminalization can include the use of court injunctions (a critique of these injunctions can be read in this Toronto Metropolitan University Law Review article by Shiri Pasternak and Irina Ceric), police violence by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (specifically by its C-IRG unit now under systemic investigation by a federal watchdog agency) and surveillance by Canadian Security Intelligence Service (the subject of recent CBC News investigative reports).
A final investment decision on the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline is expected by the end of the year with construction starting soon thereafter, the Alberta government intends to submit a proposal for the next oil pipeline to the Major Projects Office next spring, construction on the North Coast Transmission Line could begin in the summer of 2026, while the construction of the compressor stations on Wet’suwet’en territory could be fast-tracked by the Major Projects Office.
Ring of Fire
We also remain attentive to the fast-tracking of critical mineral mining on Indigenous territories in the “Ring of Fire” area of northern Ontario. This past summer, Neskantaga and Attawapiskat land and environmental defenders began constructing a village to block road construction to the Ring of Fire.
Construction on the Webequie Supply Road to the Ring of Fire area could begin in June 2026. The Government of Ontario now says it hopes to see “shovels in the ground” for the Marten Falls Community Access Road (MFCAR) by next August.
The Northern Road Link would connect the Webequie supply road and Marten Falls community access road and intersect with where the Neskantaga and Attawapiskat land defenders are constructing the village.
While the timeline of that road is not clear at this moment, proponents want to see construction on the Eagle’s Nest mine, the first mine that could be operational in the Ring of Fire area, start in 2027.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) would be involved in the response to Indigenous protests and blockades of the Ring of Fire.
In response to the warning of Indigenous blockades against mining without consent, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has stated: “You can’t break the law. Simple as that. … They need to move on or they’ll be dealt with appropriately.” Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Sol Mamakwa cautions: “What is the OPP going to do to the First Nations, once they start fighting on the land? That’s the scary part.”
PBI-Turtle Island
The Brussels-based International Office of Peace Brigades International recently highlighted: “This last year saw our team in Canada begin developing a framework to extend PBI’s protective accompaniment into a Northern territory. This transformative proposition would mark a move away from traditional models and start to recognise and address the human rights abuses that threaten us all.”
Stay tuned for more.
