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The proposed Northern Gateway pipeline appears locked on a collision course, as First Nations chiefs put Enbridge officials on notice again that they won’t budge from their opposition.
“We are a very patient people,” warned Chief Na’moks of the Wet-suwet’en nation, near Smithers, B.C., at Enbridge’s annual general meeting in Toronto on Wednesday.
“We don’t base the wellbeing of life on money,” said April Churchill, vice-president of the Haida Nation. “Money will not change our minds. “There is no compensation that is acceptable that will kill off cultures and kill off people.”
First Nations leaders have repeatedly sent their message to Enbridge officials, and they travelled thousands of kilometres from British Columbia by train, to make their point again in Toronto.
They argue the pipeline may bring jobs, but will also change their way of life, and possibly destroy land and water in the event of a spill or accident.
They were joined by more than a hundred protesters outside the King Edward Hotel, holding placards ranging from “no tankers” to “no pipeline without consent.” “We can’t drink oil,” they chanted.
Inside, Enbridge CEO Patrick Daniel also repeated his message again and again that the pipeline is of critical national interest.
Designed to move 525,000 barrels of oil a day, it would bring bitumen from Alberta’s oilsands across to the west coast of British Columbia, where the crude could be loaded on tankers to Asia, especially China.
It will also bring 193,000 barrels of condensate a day from Kitimat to near Edmonton, used to thin heavier oil for pipeline transport.
But Daniel said Enbridge won’t unilaterally impose the $5.5 billion pipeline, which would stretch 1,172 kilometres from Bruderheim, Alta., to the port of Kitimat, B.C.
“We’re not going to force anything through,” he said.
He said energy is a way to enable “the kind of life we all want,” though he conceded people don’t want that infrastructure in their backyards.
And he acknowledged getting unanimous support was unlikely.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we have done a project anywhere where we had 100 per cent acceptance,” Daniel said. “No energy infrastructure project is accepted by everyone.”
He said some communities along the pipeline are supportive of the project, in part because of the potential economic boon the construction would bring. To date, he said 22 out of 45 First Nations groups affected have signed on for a 10 per cent equity stake.
For the rest of this article, please go to the Toronto Star website: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1175569–police-out-in-full-force-at-enbridge-s-annual-general-meeting