Canucks Owners Join Aboriginal Businessman to Pitch Alternative B.C. pipeline – CTV NEWS
April 14, 2014
VANCOUVER — An aboriginal businessman and former motivational speaker has teamed with the British Columbia billionaires best known for their ownership of the Vancouver Canucks to pitch an alternative to the struggling Northern Gateway pipeline.
Calvin Helin, CEO of Eagle Spirit Energy, said the project would include a pipeline linking the Alberta oil sands to a tanker terminal on the B.C. coast. It would also include an upgrader to refine the heavy bitumen oil produced in the oil sands to a lighter, more conventional and less controversial product, he said.
But Monday’s announcement, which also included the Aquilini Investment Group, the company that owns the Canucks, raised as many questions as it gave answers, such as where the tanker port would be located and how many First Nations have signed on.
“We’re at the beginning of a process,” Helin said. “Our goal is to earn the social licence to operate.”
The new proposal was endorsed by two small B.C. aboriginal communities.
The Nee-Tahi-Buhn band has 135 members, about 55 of them living on the band reserve near Burns Lake. The Stellat’en is a band with about 500 members, half of them living in the band community near Fraser Lake.
