Wet'suwet'en News
Pipeline likely to be built despite opposition, Enbridge says
May 16, 2011
Vancouver Sun
May 12, 2011
B.C. natives march to Enbridge’s Vancouver head office to protest against pipeline.
The Northern Gateway bitumen pipeline likely will be built despite fierce opposition from First Nations communities along the proposed Alberta to British Columbia line, Enbridge Inc.‘s top executive said.
The pipeline and energy company will seek full approval from all communities before building the $5.5 billion twin pipeline project, but recognizes it likely is improbable, said chief executive Pat Daniel Wednesday.
While representatives of aboriginal groups from Alberta and B.C. sang and drummed their protests outside Enbridge’s annual meeting in downtown Calgary, Daniel told reporters the 2013 timing of the project has not changed significantly. “I’m hoping that we can get complete agreement but it probably would be unrealistic for me to expect a project of this size and magnitude could have the unanimous support of all Canadians,” he said. “That would probably be naive of me.”
Aboriginal and environmental groups have fiercely opposed the Northern Gateway project since its inception in 2000, with the disastrous BP oil spill off the U.S. Gulf Coast last year heightening calls to legislate a ban on tanker traffic on the northern B.C. coast.
On Wednesday, first nations representatives told Daniel and shareholders at the annual meeting that the Northern Gateway project had no future without the approval of communities along the route.
“Enbridge … as well as other fossil fuel development projects including [TransCanada Corp.‘s] Keystone XL, must not proceed without obtaining the free, prior and informed consent of all affected first nations,” said Geraldine Thomas Flurer, reading from a statement signed by representatives of eight Alberta and B.C. first nations.
The Yinka Dene Alliance, representing aboriginal communities along a quarter of the Enbridge pipeline project in B.C., argue the threat of oil spills on traditional lands and in the ocean outweigh any benefit the project could have.
“We were not there to negotiate,” said Chief Jackie Thomas, of the Saik’uz First Nation. “We were there to deliver a message that this project does not have our consent.”
Public hearings on the line have been scheduled in Alberta and B.C. for January and June 2012. Enbridge said it expects a decision on the project by 2013 from the National Energy Board, a slight delay from original estimates of 2012. Analysts said the project likely will go ahead, given the push to diversify Canadian markets for oil, but cautioned about the impact of concerted efforts to stop the pipeline and its associated marine terminal in Kitimat, B.C.
“The risk here translates to a delay of the project,” said Bill Gwozd, vice-president of gas services with Ziff Energy Group. “That’s the type of risk that I see as opposed to the risk of not going ahead.”
Enbridge, which moves the bulk of Canadian oil exports, has promoted the pipeline as critical to national interest as it will open markets in Asia for Canadian oil that is now landlocked and captive to the United States.
Enbridge has offered First Nations communities along the proposed pipeline a 10-per-cent equity stake in the project, as well as numerous benefit packages. Daniel said a number of aboriginal communities support the pipeline but declined naming which bands have signed on, saying he did not want to stir up internal conflict among the first nations.
Peter Erickson, hereditary chief of Nak’azdli First Nation, said the alliance was in Calgary to raise public awareness of their opposition to the project rather than up the financial ante. “There has been a lot of play on the economics, but we’re not here to negotiate or trying to hedge for a better position,” he said. The five B.C. communities will not allow the project to move ahead without a full guarantee of zero spills, something Enbridge has recognized is not achievable, Erickson said.
