Fort Nelson First Nation drums govt, industry out of LNG conference

Members of the Fort Nelson First Nation, led by the strong words of their chief councillor, Sharleen Gale, literally drummed out government and industry representatives from a conference the band was hosting on liquefied natural gas (LNG), Wednesday afternoon. The 3-day conference, titled “Striking the Balance”, was designed to discuss both the economic opportunities and potential environmental impacts of increased fracking in the nation’s territory to supply a gas-hungry, proposed BC LNG industry. But things got off on the wrong foot when the BC Liberal government announced on Tuesday that new sweet gas processing plants would be exempted from environmental assessment. The news came as a shock to First Nations, who immediately made it clear they had not been consulted about the change.