With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/411627
infringement or failure to adequately consult by obtaining the consent of the interested Aboriginal group," she wrote in her decision. In short: consult first, assume title exists and skip the legal battles. So what needs to be done on a practical front to earn that consent? While the jobs and cash expected from energy development could ease the high levels of poverty experienced by many B.C. First Nations, money is not the first priority, according to Chief John. "Our biggest concerns, right across First Nations territories, is about protecting the environment and the land that provides food for our people," he says. The health of the environment is a real life-or-death issue for First Nations people in a way that city dwellers don't experience. "Fish, hunting, resources, medicines, plants— these are things that our people have depended on throughout our history." For all the confrontational talk over pipeline projects in B.C., many First Nations groups have lined up in support of B.C.'s nascent liquefied natural gas industry and are doing what they can to push those projects forward. Former Ontario Premier and federal Liberal MP Bob Rae is now the chair for FN ( PTP) Group Limited Partnership, or FNLP—a limited part- nership of 15 First Nations along the proposed 480-kilometre-long Pacific Trail Pipeline route between Summit Lake (north of Prince George) and Kitimat. The $4.5-billion project, called Kitimat LNG, has some of its environ- mental permits in place, and with First Nations on board, it's positioned to be one of the first Canadian LNG exporters out of the gate. "I am doing a lot of work with First Nations groups around the country, and this struck me as having a lot of potential in terms of the economic ben- efits that will flow to First Nations," Rae says. The project has a National Energy Board permit to export as much as 10 million tonnes of natural gas per year, with the pipeline construction employ- ing an estimated 4,500 people. The Kitimat terminal will be built on land leased under an agreement with the Haisla First Nation. FNLP secured guaranteed payments from Kitimat LNG to be paid on a regu- lar basis to the partnership's member First Nations throughout the life of the pipeline. "Obviously those payments will depend on a final investment decision being made by the company," says Rae. "But already there have been substantial payments made to First Nations communities, and there will be more even before the final investment decision. The total value of those finan- cial payments is well over $200 million dollars, which is the largest amount that has been generated by a project of this kind." Rae notes that other benefits of the partnership include jobs and a number of procurement possibilities for member First Nations. Rae and the aboriginal leaders he represents do worry that their demands could drive the price of gas shipped from the B.C. coast to unviable levels. "The reality is that B.C.'s proj- ects have to be competitive on a world basis," he says. "They have to be able to compete on price, on reliability and predictability on when the project can be completed, with projects around the world." But Rae adds that First Nations won't temper their demands for environmental safety, no matter if it costs them the economic benefits of a pipeline project. "Our group would not want to see the environment being compromised. In fact we're building in additional protection and giving a stronger role to environmental stewardship for the First Nations. I think that's very doable, and I think it's essential. It's certainly essential to build the confidence and the good will of the First Nations." Ultimately, the veteran politician believes that any effort to make B.C. or Alberta gas more competitive will require financial concessions from all partners—govern- ment, industry and First Nations. Chief Louie's Nadleh Whut'en First Nation is one of the partners in the FNLP—a small band that could use the financial boost. The hills surrounding the Nadleh Whut'en reserve are today covered in a patchwork of spruce and stubble. Forestry companies have spent more than a century taking lumber from land the band once controlled; giant stacks of timber pile up just a few hundred metres from the band's ceremony site, awaiting shipment to distant markets. For Chief Louie, the promise of the new gas industry is not measured in dollars or jobs. "There is just a little labour here and there," he says of the pipeline's construction. "There is nothing for us." Instead, the potential windfall for industry and the province has given his band leverage to take control over its territory and fate. "Everyone has their own laws about how to protect their land," says Louie, his voice hardening with the exasperation brought on by decades of negotiations and legal battles. "Those laws can work within provin- cial structure. I am not against devel- opment; I am not against anything. It's how it's done. In my laws, you keep something for the kids after you're gone. We can't do that unless our laws are recognized within Canada." ■ 52 BCBusiness december 2014 " [B.C.'s projects] have to be able to compete on price, and on reliability and predictability... with projects around the world" —Bob Rae, former federal MP and chair of FNLP 51% Of Albertans say natural resources are the most important component of their province's economy THE WEST SpEAKS OUT