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.
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CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES/DARRYL DYCK; SOURCES: KINDER MORGAN CANADA, UNION OF BRITISH COLUMBIA INDIAN CHIEFS MAY 2017 BCBUSINESS 21 T H E M O N T H LY I N F O R M E R tmı "You have to bring the crowd to your project; the crowd is not going find it.... You have to guide people to it, just like any other business" –p.23 M AY 2 0 17 INSIDE Crowdfunding clues ... What a dog wants ... The 28-second hover ... Connect with cannabis ... + more NOT SO FAST In Vancouver this past November, First Nations drummers led thousands of protesters opposing Kinder Morgan's plan to twin its Trans Mountain pipeline F rom Larry Commodore's vantage point near Chilliwack at the top of the Fraser Valley, the Trans Moun- tain Expansion Project isn't a done deal. "Not going to hap- pen," vows the former two-term chief of the Soowahlie nation turned grassroots activist. Commodore lays out his oppo- sition to the pipeline: its right- of-way intersects with a burial ground; oil could spill into the Fraser River; First Nations in Alberta need B.C. support. The factor that could kill it? "We were told we would have free, prior and informed consent," he says. "That hasn't happened here." Along the proposed route of the pipeline expansion, which stretches almost 1,000 kilome- tres from northern Alberta to Burnaby and will triple existing capacity, grassroots activists, First Nations and environmental groups are girding for a fight. Despite a green light from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in November, quickly followed by approval from B.C. Premier Christy Clark, foes of the project aren't backing down. It's the next phase of a battle that started in 2011, when Texan energy giant Kinder Morgan announced plans to build a second pipeline. Tensions cul- minated in 2014 with a standoff on Burnaby Mountain that led to the arrest of 130 protestors; now opponents are planning measures from roadblocks to a League of Nations Indigenous leaders and activist groups step to the forefront of the fight against the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion by Jacob Parry NATURAL RESOURCES B.C. and Alberta First Nations consulted on Trans Mountain pipeline expan- sion: 133 B.C. First Nations that have signed mutual benefit agreements: 41 Total value of agreements signed: $400 MILLION Estimated crowd at last Novem- ber's Vancouver rally against the pipeline expan- sion: 4,000