Sixty-five years is a long time. That’s enough time to graduate, fall in love, get married, have kids, and maybe even retire.
That’s also how long Enbridge Inc., an Alberta-based multinational pipeline and energy company, has been pumping natural gas through First Nations territories across British Columbia (BC).
Enbridge’s Westcoast pipeline spans a massive 2,900 kilometers, stretching from BC’s northeast to the Canada-United States border.
Enbridge has reaped the financial benefits of the pipeline, but First Nations communities, whose land the pipeline was built upon, haven’t seen the same benefits – until now.
Earlier this month, Enbridge signed a deal that will see three dozen First Nations communities in BC benefit from the Westcoast pipeline.
“People often ask what economic reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples looks like…this is it,” said Chief David Jimmie, president and chair of Stonlasec8 Indigenous Alliance LP, representing 36 BC First Nations.
The Alliance is set to invest $715 million for a 12.5 percent stake in the Westcoast pipeline system, supported by a $400 million loan guarantee from the Canada Indigenous Loan Guarantee Corporation (CILGC).
The CILGC manages the $10 billion federal Indigenous Loan Guarantee Program, which supports Indigenous groups like the Alliance in acquiring equity ownership in major projects across the country.
Enbridge’s Westcoast pipeline is one of these projects. According to Jimmie, returns from the pipeline will be distributed equally among the Alliance’s First Nations.
“But we all face similar challenges with infrastructure needs, housing needs, how we allocate for additional support for elders, support for youth. We look at everything that builds the community and how we can help support members in our communities and also help to advance economic development opportunities,” said Jimmie.
The Other Side of the Coin
Jimmie claims that returns from the pipeline will go toward supporting First Nations communities, including the Squiala First Nation near Chilliwack, BC, which he is the chief of.
Jimmie isn’t the first Indigenous leader to feel this way. In 2019, Mike Lebourdais, the chief of the Whispering Pines/Clinton band in BC, announced that the Western Indigenous Pipeline Group he represents wants a 51 percent stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline.
“It will change the First Nations along these valleys forever…We want to be able to provide for our people. I don’t want Ottawa providing for our people,” Lebourdais told CBC News.
Not all First Nations agree with Jimmie and Lebourdais’ desire to purchase a stake in pipelines. Lee Spahan, chief of the Coldwater First Nation near Merritt, BC, thinks the idea is shortsighted.
Unlike many First Nations across the country that don’t have safe drinking water, Coldwater sits on an aquifer of potable water, meaning the community can drink it without treatment.
The existing portion of the Trans Mountain pipeline that runs through Coldwater is over 60 years old. Given the pipeline’s age, Spahan believes that it isn’t a matter of if there is a spill, but when.
“It’s scary. It’s a huge pipe right beside our water — right on top of our water…How is money gonna help you out when the water is gone? Or it gets contaminated?,” said Spahan.
Lebourdais claims that it is because of his environmental concerns that he believes a stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline is the best course of action.
“Right now we don’t get any environmental updates or environmental reports about the pipeline. We get most of our news — from the news,” said Lebourdais.
“We want to be able to enjoy the equity first of all, and then have the environmental oversight so we can rest comfortably that it’s being operated safely…We have been shut out of that conversation since 1953. Not anymore,” he continued.
What the Future Holds
Alberta is no stranger to pipelines or pipeline deals.
In 2022, a consortium of 23 First Nations and Métis communities agreed to acquire an almost 12 percent stake in seven of Enbridge’s pipelines in the Athabasca oil sands region of our province for $1.12 billion.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has promised to make Canada an “energy superpower,” and says pipelines are one part of the formula.
“If you want a simple answer on ‘Will I support building a pipeline?’ Yes. That the simple answer. I’ve given that multiple times,” Carney told CTV News.
Alberta is already home to many pipelines, including the Alliance pipeline and Trans Mountain pipeline. Under Carney’s government, we could see more.
The Liberal government’s willingness to at least consider pipelines is music to the ears of Premier Danielle Smith, who is desperately pushing for the revival of the Northern Gateway pipeline.
The Northern Gateway pipeline proposal was criticized by many First Nations.
Sixty-one First Nations signed the Save the Fraser Declaration, in which they stated, “We will not allow the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipelines, or similar tar sands projects, to cross our lands, territories, and watersheds, or the ocean migration routes of Fraser River salmon.”
Other First Nations showed their disapproval by protesting the pipeline.
“Our people were on the front lines and fought hard to successfully stop the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline…The environmental risks to our territories were and are too great. Nothing has changed, and we are not going to back down,” Chief Marilyn Slett, elected chief councilor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council, told CBC News.
The Northern Gateway pipeline project was scrapped in 2016 after the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that Indigenous Peoples affected by the pipeline hadn’t been adequately consulted.
In BC, 95 percent of land is unceded and the BC Energy Regulator is responsible for the Crown’s legal obligations to consult and accommodate Indigenous Nations within the regulatory scope.
In contrast, all land in Alberta is treaty land and Indigenous consultation for energy projects involves First Nations, the Alberta Energy Regulator, the Aboriginal Consultation Office (ACO), and project developers.
The result is messy consultations that often leave Indigenous peoples in Alberta feeling unheard on projects where Indigenous consultation is deemed “unnecessary.“
If more pipelines are in Alberta’s future, will proper Indigenous consultation finally be brought to the forefront? Or will economic reconciliation continue to be used as a band aid fix?
