Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
Why? If it's going through their territory then they have every right to be consulted on it in a meaningful manner. Putting a time constraint on it and planning to ram it through regardless of their concerns isn't meaningful consultation. The narrative that we have the right to demand FN communities accept our pipelines is completely colonialist.
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I just wanted to touch on this point from a few pages back, because this is sort of my first chance at it, but I really think this is an often overlooked and huge problem facing the nation due to this pipeline debate.
I'm going to tread carefully here, due to my line of work, and I'm going to try to be as moderate and fair as possible in my comments based on my experience. But First Nations' consultation in BC has become a very difficult if not impossible task for pipelines. This would be because of the lack of treaties in BC causing claims on traditional territory that may not be anywhere remotely close to where a FN group is. Basically, if a pipeline has to go across the province to the coast (LNG facility), there's a chance every FN group will demand consultation. It's pretty disingenuous. What results strikingly resembles extortion of both producers and pipeline companies, as ongoing "consultations" start to unravel and the truth comes out for many FN groups simply looking for cash payments when not truly warranted. If payments aren't made, projects are held up.
Now, of course, there are some bands that have legitimate consultation requirements. Those groups who's lands are actually impacted by the pipeline, not some group living over 1,000km away but claiming that 2,000 years ago their ancestors may have walked around where the pipeline may go. No government is willing to address this very delicate issue because ultimately it would end up in the supreme court. I recall hearing some pretty crazy stories from some folks that worked on some larger BC pipeline projects. Consultation ended up being around 16 bands and taking 5-6 years, and it still wasn't resolved. There also was the issue that one band didn't like the other and therefore would never agree to a project that band supported, and vice versa.
How is any business supposed to get done (not even efficiently, just done in general) with that kind of red tape, bureaucracy and hold ups? A few years ago, so much East Asian capital was invested in the WCSB. The FN consultation process and environmental regulatory regime in BC has effectively blocked that entire province from shipping hydrocarbons anywhere else in the world. And for what? What are we REALLY trying to achieve here? What are the bands trying to achieve? Now all that Asian capital is drying up and as has been mentioned by several experts over the last couple years, the window for the Canadian LNG business is slowly but surely closing and a massive economic benefit to BC likely lost. There are some pretty disappointed international investors now who realize that there's zero chance for egress off the western Canadian coast. That might not be bad, but that might not be good either. This does impact Canada's reputation world wide.
It's all about money, at the end of the day, and the reality is that many bands were starting to get funded by international interests to hold up Canada because Canada was ahead of the game originally. FN bands were being paid to block the pipelines and projects. Now look at Oregon, and the US, and we see that indeed their LNG projects are on pace or ahead of ours.
So in the end, was it really about "consultation"? Or was it about politics, competition, and international access to the LNG market and capitalizing on that market?