First Nations kick B.C. out of LNG summit over sweet gas assessment exemption

A group of B.C. officials has been kicked out of a First Nations forum on liquefied natural gas over the government’s decision to exempt most of the gas produced in the province from mandatory environmental assessment. Chief Sharleen Gale of the Fort Nelson First Nation, organizer of the summit in the northeast corner of the province, asked the bureaucrats to leave and escorted them out. “There was no consultation as far as changing that policy,” said Chief Terry Teegee of the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council, which represents eight First Nations communities in northern B.C. “We were blindsided.”