Tanker ban target of online funding push
First Nations leaders behind the proposed $16-billion Eagle Spirit pipeline project from Alberta to the British Columbia coast launched a funding campaign Wednesday to help pay for a court challenge to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s oil tanker ban on Canada’s northern West Coast.
The project’s chiefs council say the tanker moratorium and the establishment of Great Bear Rainforest “were promoted largely through the lobbying of foreign-financed ENGOs and without the consultation and consent of First Nations as required by the Constitution.”
The chiefs, representing more than 30 First Nations in British Columbia and Alberta participating in the project, said they will always put protection of the environment first, but it must be balanced with social welfare, employment, and business opportunities.
“These government actions harm our communities, denying our leaders the opportunity to create the hope and the brighter future for their members that all Canadians take for granted,” the chiefs said in a statement.
The project said it is a sad comment that “this action is required to be taken by Canada’s poorest people against a federal justice department with unlimited resources with an indigenous minister,” referring to federal justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould.
The GoFundMe campaign would help pay for legal and administrative costs to challenge the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, which is making its way through Parliament.
Eagle Spirit chairman Calvin Helin, a lawyer and member of the Lax Kw’alaams tribe near Prince Rupert, said as much as $1 million will be needed to fund the lawsuit, which he said could go as far as Canada’s Supreme Court.
“First Nations are completely opposed to government policy being made by foreigners when it impacts their ability to help out their own people,” Helin said. “The energy industry is critical to Canada’s economy, and by some reports we are losing $50 million a day,” because of discounts on Canadian oil.
“From the Indigenous point of view, they have constitutionally protected rights and they are sick and tired of being dependent on the government and want to be able to move their communities forward with non-transfer payment funding. This is one of the biggest projects in the history of their communities that would deliver more benefits in terms of employment, business opportunities and revenues and cannot be duplicated from government programs they are seeking to escape.”
The ban is the major obstacle to the project. Trudeau announced it in November 2016, at the same time the Liberal government halted Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway pipeline.
The ban was promoted by environmentalists who want to keep tankers away from the West Coast, particularly the Great Bear Rainforest.