Coastal GasLink pipeline primer
VANCOUVER— Protests continue across the country as the RCMP enforce an injunction requiring opponents of the Coastal GasLink pipeline to clear the way for construction in northern British Columbia. Here is a look at the project and its history:
The project: B.C. Premier John Horgan announced provincial support for the project on Oct. 2, 2018. To get natural gas to the export plant in Kitimat, Coastal GasLink Ltd. is building a 670kilometre pipeline from the Dawson Creek area in northern B.C. at an estimated cost of $6.6 billion.
The route: Planning for the route included the establishment of a “conceptual corridor” through B.C. in 2012 that the company said included consultations with First Nations, local governments and landowners.
First Nations: The dispute has highlighted a debate over whether hereditary chiefs should have more power under Canadian law. The Indian Act established band councils, made up of elected chiefs and councillors, who have authority over reserve lands. Hereditary chiefs are part of a traditional form of Indigenous governance that legal experts say the courts have grappled with how to recognize.
Indigenous support: The pipeline has support from 20 elected band councils along the route. All of them have signed benefit agreements with Coastal GasLink. Chief Coun. Crystal Smith of the Haisla Nation in Kitimat said last month that the project will help the community become less reliant on federal funding.
Indigenous opposition: Five Wet’suwet’en hereditary clan chiefs say the pipeline cannot proceed without their consent. The hereditary chiefs say they have authority over the broader 22,000 square kilometres of traditional territory that the pipeline would partially cross, while the elected band councils only administer smaller reserves.
Protests and injunctions: The RCMP arrested 14 people when it began enforcing a court injunction on a forest service road near Houston on Jan. 7. After talks failed to find a solution to the dispute last week, the RCMP began enforcing a separate court injunction on Thursday and arrested six people, followed by additional arrests in the days that followed. Vancouver police say 33 people were arrested on Monday as they enforced an injunction preventing blockades at entrances to the Port of Vancouver and the DeltaPort container terminal.