City aboriginals demand LN G consultation
• A First Nation in British Columbia is taking the province to court for a lack of consultation on the massive Pacific Northwest LNG project, even though the band is based more than a hundred kilometres away from where the project would be built.
The Gitga’at First Nation is demanding a judicial review of B.C.’s decision not to include it among the five First Nations entitled to “full consultation” on Petroliam Nasional Bhd’s (Petronas’) $11-billion Pacific Northwest LNG terminal planned for construction near Prince Rupert, B.C.
If successful, the challenge could change the way B.C. determines which aboriginal bands receive full consultation and which are entitled to partial consultation on major projects.
The Gitga’at First Nation is based in Hartley Bay, 121 kilometres south of Prince Rupert, but a release from the nation said two-thirds of the band members live in Prince Rupert, the largest city in the area.
Legal experts and observers called the challenge unusual, as challenges like this are generally based on an aboriginal community’s traditional territory rather than where its members live.
“Our territor y, for e xample, doesn’t go anywhere near Prince Rupert but that doesn’t mean you only use (resources) within your traditional territory,” Gitga’at councillor Kyle Clifton said in an interview.
The province’s Environmental Assessment Office listed five aboriginal groups among the Tsimshian First Nations that required full consultation on the project but that list did not include the Gitga’at.
“We’re not looking to claim ownership of Prince Rupert Harbour, we’re just looking to have our rights to use the area acknowledged,” Clifton said.
He said the Gitga’at have fished and used the area for generations.
Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP partner Thomas Isaac said that the duty to consult is necessary “where folks pot- entially exercise their rights,” and noted this challenge may force the province to better define why some groups are given full consultation and others are not.
“Anthropological evidence and our Adawx, which are the oral records of the Gitga’at, show that we have fished and hunted in Prince Rupert Harbour and the lower Skeena River since before the European settlers arrived,” Gitga’at chief councillor Arnold Clifton said in a release.
Pacific Northwest LNG spokesperson Spencer Sproule said that ships carrying LNG from his company’s terminal would not pass Hartley Bay and said the company has consulted with Gitga’at.
He said the company continues to consult with the five other First Nations that were identified as requiring extensive consultation.
The legal challenge comes a week before B.C.’s politicians gather in Victoria for a rare summer legislative session to vote on the province’s LNG agreement with Petronas.
Petronas , Malaysia’s state-owned oil company, announced in June that it would build the project, designed to supercool natural gas to its liquid state for export to Asian energy markets, if its agreement with the B.C. government is passed in the provincial legislature and if the federal government approves an environmental assessment of the energy project.
Spokespeople for B.C.’s Ministry of the Environment declined a request for comment.