What Will Aboriginal Title Rights Mean for LNG Development? – Huffington Post

06/10/2015

Last summer, I wrote that the Supreme Court’s Tsilhqot’in decision, which for the first time granted Aboriginal title outside an Indian reserve, was going to be a real game changer and would “increase uncertainty in Canada’s natural resource sectors in areas lacking treaties with First Nations.”

Since then we’ve seen First Nations in British Columbia serve eviction notices to corporations, take resource companies to court over title claims, and most recently, the Lax Kw’alaams band reject a billion dollar deal from Pacific NorthWest LNG for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project proposed on Crown land. Last Wednesday, Premier Christy Clark said that project will move forward, although negotiations are ongoing with the band. This project, if it eventually breaks ground, could net up to 4,500 construction jobs and an investment of $11 billion in B.C.

All of this this uncertainty, spurred by last summer’s court decision, has reduced confidence in B.C.’s mining sector. For example, in 2014, 50 per cent of respondents to the Fraser Institute annual survey of mining company executives indicated that land uncertainty was either a strong deterrent to investment or a reason to simply not invest, up from 32 per cent in 2013…

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ravina-bains/lng-first-nations-consultation_b_7422890.html