Uproar in Gitxsan First Nation after support for Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline announced By Mike Hager and Peter O’Neil, Vancouver SunDecember 4, 2011 9:46 AM Members of the Gitxsan First Nation were “in shock and embarrassed” after Enbridge Inc. announced Friday that aboriginal community had become an equity partner in its embattled Northern Gateway pipeline proposal. Photograph by: Frank Wolf, Frank Wolf Two chiefs of the Gitxsan First Nation say their nation was “in shock and embarrassed” after Enbridge Inc. announced Friday that aboriginal community had become an equity partner in its embattled Northern Gateway pipeline proposal. Norman Stephens and Marjorie McRae say they have the support of most of the other 63 chiefs and the rest of the first nation in denouncing Friday’s agreement announced by Enbridge and Hereditary Chief Elmer Derrick. Friday’s deal was projected to bring at least $7 million to the community. “The majority of the hereditary chiefs didn’t know that this nonsense was coming — we didn’t even know he was negotiating with them,” said Hereditary Chief Stephens, who goes by the traditional name Guuhadawk. “The hereditary chiefs did not know about it and are opposed to it. “The claimed $7-million benefit shouldn’t even be a part of it because it goes nowhere to compensate the Gitxsan for any damage to our fishing stocks if there was a spill.” Most of the hereditary chiefs heard of the announcement through the media as they were attending a funeral for a matriarch and hereditary chief Friday, which made the timing of the announcement disrespectful and in violation of Gitxsan law Stephens said. Stephens said the majority of the hereditary chiefs are in opposition to the agreement, which he said was announced Friday as part of Enbridge’s PR strategy to counter Thursday’s coalition of 130 B.C. first nations groups that vowed to present an “unbroken wall” to block construction of the project. Today, Enbridge spokesman Paul Stanway told The Sun there was no correlation between the two announcements and that it is confident Derrick speaks for the greater Gitxsan First Nation. “We’ve done a lot of research and we think we understand the governance structure of the Gitxsan quite well and we’re comfortable with the way this has proceeded,” Stanway said. “We’re convinced we’re speaking to the right people.” Derrick made Friday’s announcement while acting as the chief treaty negotiator for the nation. He could not be reached Saturday. On Friday Derrick said the Gitxsan gave the Enbridge proposal careful scrutiny before making a decision, including scientific work by the Gitxsan Watershed Authority to examine streams within Gitxsan territory that would be impacted. Stephens is part of a group of chiefs that are plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the B.C. Treaty Commission and the Gitxsan Treaty Society over problems with ongoing federal and provincial treaty negotiations. Stephens said he and other chiefs will hold an emergency meeting on Monday and want Derrick removed from his negotiator position in the Gitxsan Treaty Society. “In [Derrick’s] announcement he said all hereditary chiefs are behind this,” Stephens said. “Yet he’s not producing any of those chiefs.” Meanwhile, Stanway said Enbridge has executed agreements with other first nations, though he wouldn’t name any. “All I can tell you is it’s a considerable number and we’re confident that more first nations will enter into agreements with us,” Stanway said. The $5.5-billion Northern Gateway project’s route is south of the southern border of the Hazelton-based first nation’s 33,000 square kilometres of territory. The line would pass by six streams that flow into Babine Lake, a vital resource to the Gitxsan. The Northern Gateway pipeline would bring diluted bitumen 1,200 km from Alberta’s oilsands to B.C.’s pristine coast and on to Asia. The Gitxsan were the first aboriginal group to publicly support the project, something which Stephens said embarrassed the Gitxsan in the eyes of neighbouring first nations who oppose the pipeline. The Gitxsan were not one of the 61 first nations communities who signed the Save the Fraser Declaration in public opposition to the pipeline. In an exclusive interview with The Sun last week Enbridge’s CEO Pat Daniel boldly predicted in the interview that at least 30 of the 45 First Nations along the pipeline route from Bruderheim, near Edmonton, to Kitimat on the B.C. coast, will have deals with Enbridge by next June. And he said he hopes all 45 will be onside by 2013, when Enbridge hopes to get regulatory approval to start a project that is set to be completed by late 2017. A federal review panel is set to begin hearing from the public on the pipeline in January. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, meanwhile, once again defended the importance of Canada finding a way to get oilsands bitumen to Asian markets after the Obama administration’s decision to delay the Keystone XL pipeline to the U.S. “It is not in this country’s interests that we are a captive supplier of the United States of energy products, especially when we see some of the politics that are going on south of the border,” Harper told reporters. The Gitxsan in northwestern B.C. are one of the province’s most prominent aboriginal groups — due to its role in the landmark 1997 Delgamuukw land claims decision in the Supreme Court of Canada — and has a population estimated by Enbridge at around 13,000. mha...@postmedia.com http://www.twitter.com/MikePHager
