First Nations in Quebec, Ontario to study impact of Gazoduq pipeline on their territories

But working agreement with company does not equate to consent

The proposed pipeline would carry natural gas to the Port of Saguenay where a proposed LNG plant and marine terminal would be built near this existing wharf. (Julia Page/CBC)

Eight communities from three First Nations in Quebec and Ontario have signed a working agreement with Gazoduq Inc.,  the company behind a proposed 780-kilometre natural gas pipeline, to analyze the impacts of the project on their territories.

The collaboration does not, however, “in any way” mean the communities have given their consent, said Adam Jourdain, the president of the collaborative entity named Mamo Aki.

The communities are located in Quebec’s Abitibi, Mauricie and Saguenay regions, as well as Northern Ontario, all places the pipeline would run through if it is approved.

The Wahgoshig First Nation, Abitibiwinni First Nation, Lac-Simon Anishnabe First Nation, Atikamew of Opitciwan, Atikamekw of Wemotaci, Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation, Essipit First Nation and Pessamit First Nation will now be represented under Mamo Aki.

Jourdain, who is also the director of economic development for Wemotaci, said being able to speak as one united front will ensure communities have the same information and a stronger voice as the project moves forward.

Normally, he said, companies would have to go door-to-door and sign separate agreements with each community.

“Now we are all at the same table and we have the same information — we’ll be able to put more pressure,” he said.

Each community will still decide on their own whether or not they support the pipeline in the long run.

But the budget allocated by Gazoduq to Mamo Aki will allow the hiring of independent environmental and legal experts.

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“It serves as a lever to help us make a free and informed decision at the end of this process,” Jourdain told CBC News.

Louis Bergeron, the president of Gazoduq, said the company has been working to reach this kind of agreement for the past two years.

“It makes it more efficient to have these eight communities working on the same page and having one co-ordinated approach with Gazoduq,” Bergeron said.

Critical timing

The company hopes to carry natural gas to a liquefaction terminal on the Saguenay River, a sister project being pushed by GNL Quebec.

Both GNL Quebec and Gazoduq recently found out that one of the main investors in their $14-billion endeavour was pulling out, leaving a $4-billion gap.

Gazoduq said it continues to move forward with the project, and said a final decision on the investment plan will be made in 2021.

The pipeline extension, in yellow, would begin near the Ontario border and cross the Abitibi and upper Mauricie regions, ending at the Port of Saguenay. (Joan Dymianiw/CBC)

 

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada (IAAC) is currently reviewing Gazoduq’s initial project description.

The company also intends to submit to Quebec’s environmental review board, known by its French acronym BAPE, in 2020.

Bergeron said that when they do, they will already have the input they need from First Nations.

“They will themselves conduct some specific studies regarding the environment and traditional activities on their own territories,” said Bergeron.

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By including First Nations early on in the process, Bergeron hopes Gazoduq will be able to give a more complete portrait of the project to the BAPE.

“We’ll be in a position to talk about remediation and I would say mitigation, and how we can better deal with the issues, the specificities of their territories and their traditional activities.”

Company remains unphased despite protests

In recent weeks, both Innu and Anishnabe communities in Quebec have protested in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and the construction of a natural gas pipeline in northern British Columbia.

The protests didn’t block traffic or cause any major disruptions, but showed some local opposition to the Gazoduq pipeline.

Innu groups around Saguenay have expressed concerns over the pipeline that would run across their ancestral territory. (Priscilla Plamondon Lalancette/Radio-Canada)

The company said even though it will be dealing with one centralized group from now on, it will be able to address divisions within the communities thanks to the studies they will submit to the company.

“They will collaborate to the filing of the application, meaning that all their concerns and preoccupations will have been taken into account,” said Bergeron. SOURCE

Meeting between Trudeau and cabinet ministers to discuss how to handle anti-pipeline protest underway

Prime Minister is foregoing today’s planned trip to Barbados

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Incident Response Group will talk about how to handle the protests against a natural gas pipeline that crosses Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia. (Thomas Kienzle/AFP via Getty Images)

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is meeting with an emergency group Monday to discuss anti-pipeline blockades that have shut down swaths of the country’s train system.

Trudeau says the Incident Response Group will talk about how to handle the protests against a natural gas pipeline that crosses Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia.

Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs are opposed to the project.

The group was described upon its inception in 2018 as a “dedicated, emergency committee that will convene in the event of a national crisis or during incidents elsewhere that have major implications for Canada.”

Doug Ford asks for ‘immediate action’

Trudeau is foregoing today’s planned trip to Barbados, where he was slated to meet with Caribbean leaders to campaign for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council.

He faced criticism last week over his presence in Africa and Europe as the protests were beginning, so Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne will represent Canada in Trudeau’s place.

There’s mounting political pressure for Trudeau to put an end to the blockades.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke with Trudeau late Sunday and issued a statement urging the federal government to take action.

“Premier Ford asked the prime minister to take immediate action and provide detail on a clear plan to ensure an end to this national issue,” the statement read.

Scheer wants end to ‘illegal blockades’

Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said last week that Trudeau should tell Public Safety Minister Bill Blair to use his authority under the RCMP Act to end what he called the “illegal blockades.”

But Trudeau shot back, arguing that Canada is not a country “where politicians get to tell the police what to do in operational matters.”

A protester stands between Mohawk Warrior Society flags at a rail blockade in Tyendinaga, near Belleville, Ont., on Sunday. The protest is in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs opposed to the LNG pipeline in northern British Columbia. (Lars Hagberg/The Canadian Press)

 

Thus far, the public-facing part of Trudeau’s plan appears to centre on discussions and negotiations, rather than police action.

Carolyn Bennett, the minister for Crown-Indigenous relations, is due to meet today with her British Columbia counterpart, Indigenous Relations Minister Scott Fraser. Bennett is also ready to meet with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, should they give the go-ahead.

‘Did we learn from Ipperwash?’

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller met with Mohawk Nation representatives for hours on Saturday and said they made “modest progress.” The focus of their talks, he said, was on the pipeline in northern B.C. rather than the blockade on Tyendinaga territory near Belleville, Ont., which was at that point in its 10th day.

In an appearance on CTV’s political show Question Period, Miller pointed to the Oka and Ipperwash crises as reasons why dialogue is preferable to police intervention.

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A police officer died during a police raid in 1990 when Mohawks at the Kahnawake reserve south of Montreal blocked the Mercier Bridge, which became the Oka crisis. Five years later at Ipperwash, Ont., one man was killed during a standoff over a land claim by Chippewa protesters outside a provincial park.

“Thirty years ago, police moved in in Kanesatake and someone died,” Miller said. “And did we learn from that? Did we learn from Ipperwash?”

But while Ontario Provincial Police have so far declined to enforce injunctions and remove protesters from that blockade, RCMP in B.C. have made more than two dozen arrests while enforcing similar injunctions near worksites for the pipeline at the centre of the dispute. SOURCE

 

B.C. chiefs gather in Smithers to support Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs

Chief Judy Wilson, secretary treasurer of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said she was planning to attend the meeting and other members of the group had already flown to Smithers.  (JUSTIN TANG / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

Hereditary chiefs opposed to a natural gas pipeline in Wet’suwet’en territory in northern British Columbia are holding a gathering of solidarity on Wednesday that is expected to attract Indigenous leaders from across British Columbia.

…the difficulty that the hereditary chiefs have had in getting their authority recognized by industry and government is familiar.

Elected band councils are based on a colonial model of governance, she said. Under the tradition of her Secwepemc First Nation in the B.C. Interior, title belongs to all of the people within the nation.

“Collectively, people hold title for our nation.” MORE

Gidimt’en in northern B.C. anticipating RCMP action over anti-pipeline camp

First Nations group is calling for support as it anticipates enforcement of court injunction order

Cody Merriman, who carries the name Wedlidi, in the cook tent at the Gidimt’en access point camp constructed in northern B.C. to oppose the construction of a natural gas pipeline. (Chantelle Bellrichard/CBC)

Dozens of Indigenous people and their supporters have set up camp in a remote part of northern B.C., using a strategic access point to control who can get into the territory, as RCMP officers set up nearby.

The camp was built following an interim injunction from the B.C. Supreme Court in December to support Coastal GasLink with starting construction on a nearly 700-kilometre pipeline through the territory.

Coastal GasLink has said it needs access to the area as soon as possible to meet construction deadlines for its role in an estimated $40-billion natural gas pipeline and transformation plant.

The Gitimd’en are one of five clans that make up the Wet’suwet’en. In total, there are 22,000 square km of Wet’suwet’en traditional territory in this northern region of B.C., an area that was part of the landmark Delgamuukw case where the Supreme Court of Canada confirmed the Indigenous nation’s land rights and title had never been extinguished. MORE