BCBusiness

TANyA GOEHRiNG, SOURCE: UNiON OF BRiTiSH COLUMBiA iNDiAN CHiEFS Expansion Project. Although the oil pipeline has won federal and provincial approval, he insists that it will be stopped. What are your objections to the kinder Morgan pipeline expansion? At the end of the day, it's pretty much a battle of oil versus water. The deep concerns with respect to pipeline ruptures or tanker spills, and the impact that'll have on delicate aquatic marine ecosystems. There are other values that are being overlooked or ignored in terms of the multibillion-dollar tourism industry that depends on a pristine environment, and commercial and recreational •sheries. It's no mistake that the vast majority of British Columbi- ans are opposed to heavy oil pipeline projects traversing the watersheds and river systems. This is not simply an Indig- enous issue; the opposition is broad-based. The push is com- ing from Alberta, and the feds have approved the project. So even if there isn't broad support in B.C., does that change the result? fUN fACT A registered B.C. marriage commissioner, Phillip has officiated more than 70 weddings M ore than 40 years ago, Stewart Phillip •rst read Bobbi Lee: Indian Rebel, an autobiogra- phy by Coast Salish writer Lee Maracle. Phillip, now president and grand chief of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs ( UBCIC), appreciated the insights contained in the book's pages. But he was drawn to a photo of the author's sister Joan. Around that time, Phillip was invited to serve on the board of the Vancouver Indian Centre. He arrived a few minutes late to his •rst meeting, only to see the woman from the book staring across the table at him. Face Žushed, Phillip took a seat and tried to regain his composure. The centre's president handed him the meeting's minutes and told him to read them. Phillip began reciting the document until the president interrupted: "To yourself, Phillip." The room, including Joan, erupted in laughter. Since then, Phillip has served the Indigenous community, sitting on the council of the Pent- icton Indian Band in his home- town before spending 14 years as band chief. First elected head of the• UBCIC•in 1998 and now in his eighth term, he's been married to Joan for 34 years. The couple have six children and 15 grandchildren; in 2014, thoughts of the latter compelled Phil- lip to force the RCMP to arrest him at the Burnaby Mountain site of Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.'s planned Trans Mountain Stewart Phillip As the battle over the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion rages on, the Union of British Columbia indian Chiefs president reflects on the future of resource development in B.C. by Nathan Caddell THE CoNvERSATIoN Oh, absolutely. These are the very same questions that were posed during Enbridge's North- ern Gateway [application]. All the people who opposed North- ern Gateway were branded as undesirable. There were further statements made, declaratory statements that said it was a done deal. And yet at the same time, there was enormous opposition. It's a well-established fact that there's no world-class response to clean up a spill; that was ably demonstrated with the barge that went down up in Heiltsuk territory. It took them days and days and days and days, and when they did cobble together some form of recovery, it was completely blown apart by the •rst storm. But more important, bitumen simply sinks to the bottom, and there is no way to recover it. It's a risk that cannot be undertaken by all of the people in British Columbia who depend on the integrity of the environment. It's all about risk and little or no bene•t at all, so the answer is no. What do you say to those who believe in the economic bene- fits of the pipeline expansion? I think we're turning the page in British Columbia and moving away from the archaic notion of the false economic model of boom-and-bust econo- mies in major resource development. If you look at this debate that's FEBRUARy 2018 BCBusiness 23 AbOuT ThE uNION OF bRITISh COLumbIA INDIAN ChIEFS W formed in 1969, after then–prime minister Pierre trudeau proposed abolishing the indian Act and, with it, aboriginal title W Consists of 144 chiefs throughout the province W the UBCiC seeks to give indigenous groups a strong col- lective voice

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