British Columbia’s new NDP government campaigned on a promise to transition the province’s fish-farming industry away from open-sea pens to land-based sites, but First Nations are pushing for more aggressive action. They want the province to revoke the licences of unwanted salmon farms operating in their territorial waters.
B.C.’s aquaculture industry was once again in the spotlight last week after thousands of Atlantic salmon may have escaped a Washington State fish farm near the border.
A United Nations panel on racism is calling on the B.C. government to immediately halt construction on the $8.8-billion Site C dam, arguing the province needs to review the controversial project in consultation with the First Nations communities facing irreversible destruction of their lands.
August 24, 2017. For immediate release. Ernest Alexandra Alfred and a small group have peacefully occupied the Marine Harvest salmon farm, Swanson Island. They state that they will remain on the farm until their chiefs are satisfied that the Province of BC has cancelled that farm’s Licence of Occupation and thus it has to leave the territory. The farm is located 17km east of Alert Bay.
Despite opposition from Indigenous leaders and the provincial government, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is moving ahead, with construction set to begin in September.
Kinder Morgan plans to twin the existing pipeline running from central Alberta to British Columbia’s Lower Mainland, increasing capacity from 300,000 barrels of oil a day to 890,000. The company has announced its intention to begin construction next month on private land, which could include the Westridge Marine Terminal in Burnaby and a tank farm near Simon Fraser University.
Two recent decisions from the Supreme Court of Canada — Clyde River v Petroleum Geo-Services Inc. and Chippewas of the Thames First Nation v Enbridge Pipelines Inc. — are being hailed as landmark cases on Indigenous peoples’ right to be consulted about projects that threaten to damage their traditional territories.
On 26 July, the Supreme Court of Canada announced its decision regarding Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline. The Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, located near London, Ontario, had argued that due process had not been followed in the government approving significant changes to the existing pipeline. The Supreme Court ruled against the Chippewas of the Thames, and in favour of the National Energy Board and, in effect, Enbridge.
The Kwantlen Student Association is contributing $6,000 to the project
With some financial support from the Kwantlen Student Association, the Kwantlen First Nation is planning a building project meant to throw an obstacle in the way of the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
The KSA will contribute $6,000 towards a healing lodge that will be constructed on Kwantlen First Nation Territory, directly in the path of the planned oil pipeline. The build is expected to begin in August with the lodge to be fully functional by September.
