British Columbia

The Harper government’s already strained relationship with First Nations that oppose oil sands pipelines is being put on trial this week.

Eight B.C. First Nations are in federal court to launch a legal attack on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. The coalition hopes to overturn Ottawa’s conditional approval of the project, which would deliver Alberta crude to B.C.’s north coast.

“Anybody but Harper.”

Grand Chief Phillip Stewart didn’t mince words when it came to the message he has for Okanagan voters.

“Clearly, after nine and a half years of fighting, the Harper government has demonstrated that the Conservative Party of government is very hostile and adversarial to First Nation rights and interests,” he said, Thursday.

“Right from the time they took power, they completely trashed the Kelowna Accord, which presented $5.1 billion in funding for desperately needed new health, education, housing and infrastructure.”

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says Kinder Morgan Inc. may need to move the proposed terminal for the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion to win support for the project.

Speaking at a Bloomberg Live conference in New York, Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Notley said it could be better if the terminal were shifted further south rather than following the current pipeline’s route through Burnaby in British Columbia’s lower mainland.

[Webpage editor's note: This article is part of a series on water supply and use in British Columbia published in the Vancouver Sun daily. This article addresses the water use and abuse by the natural gas fracking industry in the northeast of the province, incluidng the huge expansion of water abuse if plans by the industry to create liquefied natural gas production (LNG) on coastal BC are successful.]

The Lax Kw’alaams First Nation is seeking aboriginal title to Lelu Island and Flora Bank, creating a legal obstacle for a Malaysian-led consortium that wants to build an $11.4-billion terminal to export liquefied natural gas from British Columbia.

The aboriginal group will file a notice of civil claim to launch the legal action next week in the B.C. Supreme Court, Lax Kw’alaams Mayor Garry Reece said in an interview on Friday.

Opponents of BC Hydro’s Site C dam have suffered another legal setback in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

In a ruling released Friday, the court rejected an attempt by the Prophet River and West Moberly First Nations to quash an environmental certificate issued by the government for the $8.8-billion project on the Peace River.

From: Alex Morton [mailto:gorbuscha@gmail.com]
Sent: September 19, 2015 10:49 AM
Subject: Ahousaht get rid of salmon farm!!!

Hello

On September 9th Lennie John saw that Cermaq was trying to drop anchors in his fishing grounds in a bay called Yaakswiis.  He radioed Ahousaht for others to come from the village and soon there were many boats.  Five Ahousaht men stepped onto the farm and told the Cermaq crew to leave.

About 50 members of the Tsartlip First Nation joined in the protest as representatives of Steelhead LNG arrived at the band office Friday for the meeting.

The Tsartlip do not currently support the project, saying they were not consulted before the deal was announced last month.

Chief Don Tom says when industry approaches communities that live in poverty it makes those communities vulnerable.

Fracking is a critical component of the B.C. Liberal government’s aspiration to develop a liquefied natural gas industry, and the public has been assured the practice is safe and well regulated.

A recent B.C. Environmental Appeal Board judgment, however, chronicles a provincial decision-making process around a fracking operation that was informed by untried, slapdash science.

It is not the picture painted by Premier Christy Clark and her government. “We have the best record of fracking in the world,” she told The Globe and Mail in October, 2013. “We’re good at it.”