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/813780
22 BCBUSINESS MAY 2017 possible referendum. For First Nations, emboldened by the defeat of Enbridge Inc.'s North- ern Gateway project, it's part of a revival in indigenous activism that flowed from the Idle No More protests. The scale of their involve- ment is a big change for the environmental movement in B.C., says Karen Mahon, the Canadian director of Stand .earth, the environmental group formerly known as Forest Ethics, and a veteran of the so-called War in the Woods during the early 1990s to preserve Clayo- quot Sound. "The contrast is that [First Nations] are really in a leadership position now," Mahon says. "The relationship is a lot tighter; we've learned to step back and let them take the lead." Few indigenous leaders have been more vocal than Rueben George, director of the Tsleil- Waututh Sacred Trust. On the North Shore, west of the Second Narrows, his community sits across from the hodgepodge of oil drums and piping that form the Kinder Morgan export ter- minal. "It's a direct attack on our way of life," George says. "We don't want to take the risk of an inevitable spill." But opposition is far from unanimous. Among the 71 First Nations groups that Kinder Morgan consulted in B.C., 41 have signed mutual benefit agreements, while 13 have taken a formal stance against the project. Over the spring, a dozen more bands are set to weigh agreements with Kinder Morgan, some through executive deci- sions by their councils, others via nationwide votes. If there is a unified opposition, it comes from grassroots activists and not-for-profits. At the fore is the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs, an umbrella group that champions First Nations interests. Under the leadership of Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, the UBCIC has emerged as an institu- tional and a moral authority in the fight against the Trans Mountain expansion. That push grew out of its successful campaign, Save the Fraser, to stop Northern Gateway. "This is the window of oppor- tunity if we're to speak out and make a difference," Phillip says. To that end, the UBCIC has con- centrated on building Coast Pro- tectors, an effort to support direct action and provide a legal fund for protesters facing charges. It's also spearheaded a partnership with advocacy group Dogwood Initiative to hold an HST-style ref- erendum on the project this fall, should the B.C. Liberals retain power in the May election. The chance of a showdown like the one between pipeline protesters and authorities at Standing Rock in North Dakota looms in activists' minds. If that happens, the feds' position is clear: "No, they don't have a veto," Trudeau told the Vancouver Sun in December when asked about First Nations opposition to Trans Mountain. Kinder Morgan maintains that it has been proactive with First Nations. "We recognized very early on in our project planning that the engagement with and understanding of First Nations concerns and interests had to be a priority," says Ian Anderson, president of Kinder Morgan Canada. "We've worked for years, going back to 2011, on the ground in these communi- ties. I've been with all the chiefs and many of the councillors." The company is ready for pro- tests and blockades, Anderson says. "Our number-one priority is safety of people and the environ- ment," he asserts. "While we will never get in the way of peaceful, law-abiding protest, we'll be prepared for whatever outcome occurs in terms of opposition activity." For activist Commodore, Trans Mountain can't proceed, no matter who's in government. "Idle No More was in part about opposition to omnibus legisla- tion that gutted the National Energy Board, which made it less of a regulator," he says. "It's a deeply flawed process that's long concerned us at the grass- roots level." Commodore adds with a laugh, "I haven't been idle for years." • BARRELLING FORWARD That's the premium ticket-seekers were facing on resale sites in January, only minutes after U2 seats went on sale for the May 12 concert at Vancou- ver's BC Place. The rise of ticket-buying software—known as scalper bots— has been increasingly frustrating for out-of-luck fans, sparking demand for government action across North America. (Early last year, B.C. MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert repeated his 2009 call for anti-scalping legislation, and last fall Ontario and the U.S. announced plans to outlaw automated ticket buying.) Tim Silk, a senior instructor of marketing and behavioural science at UBC's Sauder School of Business, says the practice is tough to police. But he thinks laws may be the only solution, given that concertgoers seem to prefer forking over cash to boycotting the show. "Fairness is always based on the norm, and over time, this is becoming normative," Silk says. "If we don't push back on it soon, it will eventually be accepted." by Melissa Edwards Ticket Denied NUMEROLOGY SOURCE: KINDER MORGAN CANADA 470% Estimated cost of Trans Mountain Expansion Project: $7.4 BILLION Daily pipeline capacity after expansion: 890,000 BARRELS OF OIL Estimated new jobs from construction: 15,000 Estimated new permanent jobs: 50