Victoria Coun. Ben Isitt says stepping into the Coastal GasLink dispute in northern B.C. was the right thing for council to do. A Liberal MLA and former elected Aboriginal leader, however, says “absolutely not.”
City councillors took about 20 seconds on Jan. 24 to vote 6-1 to endorse a declaration calling on the provincial and federal governments to take action in the Coastal GasLink dispute in northern B.C. Coun. Geoff Young was the lone councillor to oppose the motion.
The motion calls on the governments to “end any attempt at forced removal of the Wet’suwet’en People from their traditional territories and refrain from any use of coercive force against Wet’suwet’en People seeking to prevent the construction of the Coast GasLink pipeline through non-violent methods.”
In response, the First Nations LNG Alliance, a collective of First Nations in support of LNG development in B.C., wrote its own motion: “A declaration on the audacity of a city government to meddle in the affairs of First Nations, having done nothing to look into the complexity of the issue.” The declaration argued Victoria council has no right to interfere in the democratic processes of First Nations or “meddle in an issue that is for the Wet’suwet’en people alone to decide.”
Hereditary chiefs representing five clans of the Wet’suwet’en Nation near Smithers say the project does not have their consent. But five elected Wet’suwet’en band councils on the route, as well as 15 other elected Indigenous band councils, have supported it.
On Dec. 31, a B.C. Supreme Court judge extended an injunction against Wet’suwet’en members and anti-pipeline protesters so Coastal GasLink could access the pipeline route.
The First Nations LNG Alliance notes that Coastal GasLink has offered to meet with the five hereditary chiefs who oppose the project with a goal of resolving the matter peacefully, but with no success. It maintains that denying Indigenous pipeline supporters employment and economic development opportunities, and accepting continued poverty, is a “form of violence.”
Skeena Liberal MLA Ellis Ross, chief councillor for the Haisla First Nation from 2013 to 2017, noted that 20 First Nations whose territory runs along the path of the proposed Coastal GasLink pipeline — including the Wet’suwet’en — have signed agreements with the gas company. First Nations leaders, elected and non-elected, spent years investigating LNG, he said.
If anything, Victoria council’s interference makes the issue more complicated and more difficult to resolve, Ross said in an interview. “I hope other councils will see through this as a purely political maneouvre by Victoria council poking its nose in where it doesn’t belong.”
Outsiders, he said, are trying to undermine and dismiss years of careful consideration and consultation with elected chiefs who want to secure a bright economic future for their members.
However, Isitt, who submitted the Victoria motion with councillors Sarah Potts and Sharmarke Dubow, insists the public wants local governments to take stances on issues of concern. “I think specifically, when we look at issues around Indigenous and non-Indigenous relations and reconciliation and decolonization, I think there is a strong interest in having debate and discussion about these issues.”
The motion came in the wake of a morning traffic blockade Jan. 20 on Highway 17 targeting B.C. Ferries sailings out of Swartz Bay, and occupation of a provincial government lobby on Blanshard Street the following day for 18 hours.
Isitt said he’s pleased by B.C.’s appointment of former Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen as a liaison for the groups involved. “The province has signalled a desire to de-escalate the situation.”
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