Jun 03, 2024
(Bloomberg) — Some Indigenous leaders in Canada are asking investors not to buy bonds issued by a natural gas pipeline company that’s marketing the country’s largest-ever corporate debt deal.
Hereditary Chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation said investors should shun the multibillion-dollar financing, citing violations of Indigenous and legal rights, environmental and regulatory concerns and financial risks. The project, Coastal GasLink, is owned by pipeline operator TC Energy Corp., KKR & Co. and Alberta’s public pension manager.
“We are asking you to publicly announce a commitment to deny new debt ahead of TC Energy’s bond issuance this June, and fully divest from CGL,” said a letter signed by Hereditary Chief Na’Moks of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation and others.
The pipeline project involved “a yearslong campaign of violence, harassment, discrimination, and dispossession against Indigenous Wet’suwet’en land defenders,” the letter asserts, citing an Amnesty International report.