Another big B.C. project, another big problem

It is vital to the future of Canada that the Coastal GasLink pipeline project goes forward in northern British Columbia.

The $40-billion to be invested in this major initiative would act like a massive vitamin-injection into Canada’s sluggish economy, above all providing a necessary boost to struggling communities in northern B.C.

But that’s far from the only reason this pipeline should proceed and that a small number of Indigenous leaders now opposing it should be brought onside.

If this project is stopped — as so many other Canadian pipelines have been in the past — it would tell the world it is no longer possible to build a major infrastructure project in this country or, at the very least, most of the territory this country claims to be Canadian. It would also represent a huge blow to Canadian democracy and our rule of law.

The democratically-elected governments of Canada and British Columbia both approve of the pipeline that would carry natural gas to a Pacific port, where it would be processed into liquefied natural gas and shipped abroad.

The democratically-elected representatives of all of the 20 First Nations band councils living along the pipeline’s 670-kilometre route unanimously support the initiative, too.

They know it would pump hundreds of millions of dollars into an economic backwater and create wellpaying jobs for First Nations workers living in a region plagued by high unemployment. Their consent is not only the most persuasive argument in favour of the pipeline, it can’t be ignored.

In addition, B.C.’s most powerful judicial arbiter — its Supreme Court — upheld the legality of the pipeline’s construction when it issued an injunction in December ordering protesters to allow workers access to a road so they could do their jobs.

Yet despite all these endorsements and the legal arguments underpinning them, a group of hereditary chiefs from the Wet’suwet’en First Nation claims sovereignty over the area, opposes the pipeline and says it wants to stop the project in its tracks.

Earlier this week, RCMP officers enforced the Supreme Court injunction by removing 14 protesters who were impeding the construction workers at one site. While the police handled the situation with care and their action was justified, it sparked angry protests across the nation.

Why? The company behind the Coastal GasLink Pipeline did everything right. TransCanada Corp. consulted the First Nations communities, as Canada’s Supreme Court has ruled it must. The company made a deal with all those elected band councils for the pipeline to proceed. That’s wonderful, even though another Supreme Court ruling said prior consent was not essential for a project to go ahead. Unfortunately, in this case the company could not win the consent of a group of hereditary chiefs. And this pulls back the curtain to reveal the most frustrating problem facing Canadian governments and companies as they try to forge better relations with the country’s Indigenous peoples. It’s impossible to reach a perfect agreement with Indigenous communities that disagree with each other.

So where do we go now? No one wants to see confrontations on this pipeline route that lead to violence, injury and a possible flare-up of tensions nationwide.

As a start, the opposing Indigenous leaders must try to sort this out themselves. Meanwhile, the federal and

B.C. governments need to help both the elected band councils and hereditary chiefs find a way for this project to proceed for everyone’s benefit.

Consult. Negotiate respectfully. Seek legal advice. But in the end, let’s agree to do what so many Indigenous people in B.C. want — get shovels in the ground.