B.C. government offers Gitxsan First Nation signing bonus

The B.C. government has written directly to about 60 hereditary chiefs of the Gitxsan First Nation, outlining a multimillion-dollar gas-pipeline benefits deal.

In the letter, the government offers the Gitxsan about $12-million, plus a signing bonus of over $2-million, if it will allow two pipelines to cross territorial lands.

“The offer takes into consideration the Westcoast Connector Gas Transmission Project and the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project,” states the letter from Laurel Nash, chief negotiator for the lands branch of the Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation.

It offers the First Nation a payment of $6.26-million for the Westcoast Connector and $5.81-million for the Prince Rupert gas line. It proposes an additional $2.4-million payment if a deal is signed by Sept. 30. The bonus declines to $1.81-million if the signing doesn’t take place until Dec. 31 and it drops to $1.2-million if it isn’t signed until March 31, 2015.

The letter, which went to all of the Gitxsan hereditary chiefs, for the first time provides details on the government’s financial strategy to facilitate gas pipelines. The government is trying to negotiate with more than 30 bands on gas-pipeline routes.