The Fort McMurray regions’s 10 First Nations and Métis community say they want to be pipeline owners. (Terray Sylvester/Reuters)
‘Let’s move on and let’s start building a pipeline and start moving the oil’
First Nations and Métis communities in the Fort McMurray region are expressing interest in becoming business partners in the pipeline industry.
The indigenous communities want to either buy a stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline or partner and build another future line.
“We want to be owners of a pipeline,” Allan Adam, chief of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, said in an interview. “We think that a pipeline is a critical component to the oil and gas sector, especially in this region.”
“If Fort McMurray and Alberta are going to survive, the Athabasca Tribal Council has to be alongside.”
Adam, a board member with the Athabasca Tribal Council, an umbrella organization that represents the regions’s five First Nations, admitted, the details still need to be worked out.
Ron Quintal, president of the Athabasca River Métis, the organization that represents five Métis communities in the region, confirms it too is on board with the proposal.
But, Quintal said, he expects they would need backers to help guarantee loans to help fund the multi-billion dollar project.
Tired of fighting oil companies
The announcement happened on the heels of the groups’s meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the basement of a Fort McMurray hotel on Friday.
Participants say it was the first time region’s Cree, Dene and Métis communities met together with the head of the federal government. Typically such high level meetings don’t take place together.
Allan Adam, chief of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, says the Fort McMurray region’s First Nation and Métis communities back pipelines and they want to own one. (The Canadian Press)
Also in the background is the uncertainty over the fate of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion which would ship bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast.
On Sunday, Kinder Morgan announced it will halt “non-essential activities” and related spending on the project and set a May 31 deadline to decide whether the project will proceed. The company declined to comment for this story.
Premier Rachel Notley said the May deadline is a serious concern and suggested Alberta may become a co-owner in the pipeline’s construction.
The announcement from Adam is a change in position for the chief who is no stranger to pipeline opposition. The chief has posed with celebrities and activists critical of the oilsands’ environmental legacy.
Most recently, Adam was pictured with Hollywood actress Jane Fonda who described the oilsands on a 2016 trip to Fort McMurray as if “someone took my skin and peeled it off my body over a very large surface.”
Adam denied he was ever anti-pipeline or against the oilsands, rather the chief said he is critical of the feverish pace the oilsands developed without environmental considerations.
But, Adam also admitted fighting oil companies and industry has been tough and it’s time for a change.
“The fact is I am tired. I am tired of fighting. We have accomplished what we have accomplished,” Adam said. “Now let’s move on and let’s start building a pipeline and start moving the oil that’s here already.”
Archie Waquan, chief of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, also supports a pipeline partnership.
“No disrespect to the other First Nations that are against the pipeline in B.C.,” Waquan said.
“From our end — from this northern territory where the oilsands comes from — we would like to see more things happen and hopefully this will go ahead.”
Ultimately we are the keepers of the land
The region’s Métis communities say their Indigenous pipeline ownership would help alleviate the roadblocks the oil and gas infrastructure have been facing lately.
Elaborating, Quintal said, First Nations and Métis would provide ease of access for the pipeline route on their traditional territory.
Also, he said, Indigenous owners would take the upmost care to ensure the pipeline route would avoid sacred or sensitive areas and the infrastructure is maintained to the highest standards to prevent spills.
Chiefs and heads of the Athabasca Tribal Council and the Athabasca River Métis Council pose after a meeting Tuesday at Fort McMurray’s Raddison Hotel where they announced they are willing invest in pipelines. (David Thurton/CBC)
“From our perspective, the Métis have always for the most part been pro-pipeline,” Quintal said. But, “I am not saying that it’s an open book or a blank cheque for the industry to develop pipelines.”
“Ultimately we are the keepers of the land and it is of the upmost importance that lands are protected as much as possible.”
Quintal also said, Indigenous owners behind a pipeline, might also lend credibility that could quell some of the opposition.
This article was originally published by · CBC News · Posted: Apr 15, 2018
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