Jobs vs. the environment: First Nations face a tough choice – The Globe and Mail
Oct. 28 2014
For the past few years, British Columbia’s Moricetown Indian Band has mulled whether to join 15 other First Nation groups who have teamed up to get a stake in the Kitimat LNG Project and pipe-line. A large plant and export terminal, spearheaded by California-based Chevron, would ship up to 10 million tonnes a year of liquefied natural gas from Bish Cove, near Kitimat, on the province’s northwest coast. The band is weighing the environmental and cultural risks against the prospect of jobs, training and millions of dollars worth of other benefits for its 2,000 members.
In recent months, those conversations have often hung on another thread: a June Supreme Court of Canada decision that recognized aboriginal title over more than 1,700 square kilometres of territory in Interior B.C. The case dates back to the 1980s, when the province authorized logging on lands B.C.’s Tsilhqot’in Nation considered their own. The decision was the first in Canada to confirm aboriginal title to a specific tract of land, and set off a flurry of speculation about what it might mean for other First Nations, and for resource companies that want to build pipelines, plants or other projects in areas subject to unresolved land claims.
