B.C. child welfare program offer to First Nation backfires over LNG ties – Globe and Mail
Oct. 15 2014
A ham-fisted attempt to win First Nations support for the province’s liquefied natural gas ambitions has backfired, threatening support for the Pacific Trail pipeline needed to bring natural gas to Kitimat for a proposed LNG plant.
The Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs have returned a cheque to the province and have backed away from a proposed agreement on the pipeline after the B.C. Ministry of Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation linked its LNG offer to continued funding for vulnerable children in the northern coastal community.
“When we saw that they had rolled up our child welfare program in the LNG offer, we were dismayed. This is an absolute proof of the sharp dealings across this province to get this LNG initiative,” said Debbie Pierre, executive director for the Office of the Wet’suwet’en.
The provincial government has reached agreements with 15 of the 16 First Nations communities needed to move ahead with the gas pipeline, but the Moricetown Indian Band – one of the six Indian Act bands within the Wet’suwet’en territories – has yet to sign on. In an Aug. 1 document presented in Moricetown, titled “B.C.’s offer with respect to proposed natural gas pipelines,”
