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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/838617
54 BCBUSINESS JULY/AUGUST 2017 ADAM BLASBERG IN FEBRUARY 2015, WHEN ANDREW GENAILLE walked into his local co…ee shop in Chilli- wack, he didn't expect to see two men from Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd. They were waiting to meet the elected chief and council of his First Nation. Until then, Genaille thought his leaders opposed the Trans Mountain Expansion Project, whose proposed oil pipeline route runs through their small reserve near Hope. "When we asked them, they would tell us that no, they weren't negotiating," Genaille explains in the lobby of Indig- enous and Northern Affairs Canada's downtown Vancouver of"ices. "They were absolutely against the pipeline." A soft-spoken actor in his early 30s, Genaille sits on the edge of his seat as he talks. He's eager to share the challenges he's been facing in his home community, but he also appears tired, worn down from years of bickering with his band council. "There was a sign on one of the doors to their side rooms that said, 'Peters First Nation,' and inside were two white guys in [suits]," Genaille recalls of his visit to the co…ee shop. He went out to the park- ing lot and saw his chief, Norma Webb, and council arriving at the meeting, which they con-rmed was with Kinder Morgan Canada. "It was just me stum- bling upon it," Genaille says. He later learned that the Peters First Nation council had been negotiating a so- called mutual bene-t agreement with the Canadian division of the Texan ener™y titan for much of the previous year. Stretching more than 1,000 kilometres, the $7.4-billion Trans Mountain Expan- sion Project will twin an existing pipeline from Edmonton to Burnaby. Construc- tion is expected to start in September. Pipeline negotiations are often con- -dential between companies and First Nations leaders. But many indigenous nations have a tradition of making deci- sions by getting the whole community involved. In its landmark 1997 Del- gamuukw decision, the Supreme Court of Canada de-ned aboriginal rights as communal in nature, meaning that all members of a First Nation should have a say. So when news of a con-dential deal breaks, it's common for commu- nity members to become outraged— frustrated that they weren't included in the decision. This culture clash has played out along Kinder Morgan Canada's planned pipeline route and elsewhere in the prov- ince. Besides fuelling division within bands like Peters, it has prompted First Nations members to take their griev- ances to court, potentially tying ener™y projects up in the legal system for years. Seven B.C. First Nations on the Trans Mountain route are trying to stop the pipeline expansion in court, claiming they weren't properly consulted. This is the same legal strate™y that killed Enbridge Inc.'s Northern Gateway Pipe- line proposal last year. But even within First Nations com- munities that inked deals with Kinder Morgan Canada, a lack of trust in the community's consultation process has pushed some grassroots members to cre- ate occupation camps blocking access to their traditional territory. All of this strife puts investments in resource develop- ment at risk. So, what can be done? Some experts and band members believe the best way to ensure project certainty is for compa- nies to make informed consent a priority early on, by consulting everyone in the community. W MILLIONS EXCHANGED, BUT SOME BAND MEMBERS STILL ANGRY In early 2012, before Kinder Morgan Canada -led an application to twin its existing pipeline, it asked the federal gov- ernment which aboriginal communities it had to talk to. Just over a year later, the company received a list of about 130 B.C. and Alberta indigenous groups that the feds said it would need to consult before proceeding with the proposed Trans Mountain Expansion Project. The government went a step further by classifying each aboriginal commu- nity according to how much consultation it thought they deserved. The tiny Peters Band, with its 12 homes and 42 registered adult members, was owed deeper consul- tation because it sat directly in the path of the pipeline expansion. Kinder Morgan Canada took the list and hit the ground running. As of this May, the company had signed mutual bene-t agreements ( MBAs) with 51 aborig- inal groups on or near the pipeline route, including the Peters First Nation, sharing some $400 million in -nancial bene-ts. On the Trans Mountain project website, Kinder Morgan Canada says it has had more than 30,000 points of contact with aboriginal communities, through meet- ings, phone calls and emails. Having fol- lowed the government's instructions, it appears that the company has met its legal duty to consult. But in some communities, it's a dif- ferent story. Although Kinder Morgan Canada consulted deeply with the Peters Band's elected of"icials, Genaille says no one did the same for the band's DONE DEAL? Business consultant Carl Archie thinks the courts could overturn agreements between Kinder Morgan and his Secwépemc Nation in the B.C. Interior