Indigenous engagement underway as Alberta pitches pipeline west

Alberta is leading the application to send more crude west and off to market, but First Nations seem split on whether to embrace the pitch.

Alberta government officials have met with more than a dozen Indigenous communities and groups -- including five in person -- as the province continues to pitch a crude oil pipeline to northwest British Columbia.

Alberta announced earlier this month it would lead the application for a new pipeline to the west coast in what Premier Danielle Smith called a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to unlock our wealth of resources.”

As a formal application to the Federal Major Projects application is developed, Alberta is engaging with First Nations groups for support and about a financial stake in a possible pipeline.

“When you’re looking at the scales metaphorically, the support (side) is actually a little bit heavier than anybody could have anticipated,” Minister of Indigenous Relations Rajan Sawhney said of her first meetings.

“I think the encouraging thing to focus on is that there’s not outright opposition unanimously.”

Opportunity for First Nations communities

Some Indigenous leaders are fully supportive of the proposal, saying equity in any such project would provide opportunity for First Nations communities.

“It means prosperity, it means a seat on the board, it means being able to control a major project like this and have input and influence and meaning of being able to get our people involved in the training and employment that comes with it,” said Dale Swampy with the National Coalition of Chiefs, a group in favour of “responsible development” within the natural resource sector.

There is strong opposition, too, with B.C. Premier David Eby among those speaking out about Alberta’s announcement.

“Premier Smith continues to advance a project that is entirely taxpayer-funded, has no private sector proponent, is not a real project and is incredibly alarming to British Columbians,” he said in early October.

The Coastal First Nations group, which is an alliance of several Indigenous communities along the Pacific Coast, said a crude pipeline is a firm “no.”

“We must inform Premier Smith once again that there is no support from Coastal First Nations for a pipeline and oil tankers project in our coastal waters,” read part of a statement from Marilyn Slett, the CFN president and the Chief of the Heiltsuk Nation.

“Premier Smith’s continued talk of oil pipelines and tankers, and the risk of a catastrophic oil spill in BC’s coastal waters, is not nation-building.”

Alberta says its initial engagements with communities will continue next month.

An application to the Federal Major Projects Office is expected in the spring.