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First Nations eyeing Trans Mountain stake want ‘influence and control’

RANDY SHORE Vancouver Sun VANCOUVER — First Nations seeking an equity stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline and its proposed expansion aren’t just seeking profit, they want “influence and control” over its environmental impact.
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Chief Michael LeBourdais: "Grand Chief Phillip's letter is indicative of an old way of thinking."

RANDY SHORE

Vancouver Sun

VANCOUVER — First Nations seeking an equity stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline and its proposed expansion aren’t just seeking profit, they want “influence and control” over its environmental impact.

“As shareholders of this pipeline, we want to be able to appoint a director who will promote Indigenous concerns, who will provide environmental oversight,” said Michael LeBourdais, chairman of the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group and chief of the Whispering Pines/Clinton Indian Band.

The band had sought an ownership stake during negotiations with Kinder Morgan Canada on a mutual-benefits agreement related to an expansion that would triple the capacity of the 60-year-old pipeline.

The Trans Mountain pipeline was purchased by the federal government from Kinder Morgan in August of last year for $4.5 billion. Ottawa is expected to approve a $9.3-billion expansion in June after completing a new round of consultations with First Nations ordered by the court.

Several First Nations have expressed interest in buying a stake in the pipeline since the purchase.

“We always wanted to buy,” LeBourdais said. “We always wanted equity. But in our negotiations with Kinder Morgan, equity was not on the table. When the government of Canada bought the pipeline, it opened the door to equity.”

Whispering Pines is one of 43 First Nations in B.C. and Alberta that have signed mutual- benefits agreements with Trans Mountain worth about $400 million.

But a number of First Nations have opposed the project in court on a legal landscape that is exceptionally complex.

While elected band councils have signed agreements with the pipeline proponents, the courts have recognized that hereditary First Nations leaders must also be consulted and accommodated on matters concerning the use of their traditional territories.

Last week, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs wrote an open letter to B.C. First Nations warning them against investing in the pipeline.

Phillip said Trans Mountain is not profitable in its current form and that construction costs on the pipeline’s expansion have gone up 72 per cent since it was first proposed.

Phillip also questioned the existence of a market for the oil that an expanded pipeline would carry.

“In a world where demand for oil has peaked and is declining, the oilsands, which has higher costs and higher carbon emissions than other sources of oil, will be some of the first oilfields to be shut down,” Phillip wrote.

LeBourdais fired back this week with a letter of his own, taking on Phillip’s claims point for point and denouncing the union’s positions as “dead wrong.”

“Grand Chief Phillip’s letter is indicative of an old way of thinking … where Indigenous peoples are left out from the benefits of developments on their title land and decisions are made without their consultation,” he wrote.

He said ownership would give First Nations along the pipeline route the power to lead environmental risk assessments and “realize the largest economic benefits.”

“This pipeline goes right through the middle of our reserve … so we are very familiar with where this pipeline goes and how it works,” LeBourdais said.