B.C. First Nation leaders tell Alberta minister they're against changes to tanker ban
CBC
Leaders of a First Nation on British Columbia's northern coast say they met with Alberta's minister of Indigenous relations on Friday to express opposition to any changes to Canada's tanker ban needed to service a potential new pipeline.
The Gitga'at First Nation says in a statement they presented Minister Rajan Sawhney with scientific and historical evidence affirming there is no proven method for recovering bitumen spills on B.C.'s North Coast, which it says has some of the highest tidal ranges on Earth.
Gitga'at First Nation Chief Councillor Bruce Reece says in the statement the nation remains opposed to any removal or weakening of the oil tanker moratorium that has been in place for more than 50 years, and the nation will uphold its responsibility to safeguard marine ecosystems.
Gitga'at Deputy Chief Cameron Hill says in the statement that the nation's members source 60 per cent or more of their diet directly from the ocean, and the risk of a spill is too great.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) last month on steps that would happen if a private company is found to want to build a pipeline to the northwest coast. It also included the provision for Ottawa to adjust the tanker ban "if necessary."
The plan has faced heavy pushback, particularly from Coastal First Nations who say the project is never going to happen.
Last week, the Assembly of First Nations chiefs voted unanimously to call on the federal government to withdraw from the MOU during their annual meeting in Ottawa.
"When it comes to approving large national projects on First Nations lands, there will not be getting around rights holders," AFN National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak said in her opening remarks to the group of 630 chiefs.
The federally-imposed ban currently prohibits oil tankers from carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of crude oil, or persistent oil products, in B.C.'s North Coast waters.
Although the federal restriction was only formalized in 2019, the moratorium has been in place since 1972. It stretches from the B.C.-Alaska border and Haida Gwaii, all the way south to the mainland coast, across from the northern tip of Vancouver Island.
The ban protects the waters of the Dixon Entrance, the Hecate Strait — which separates Haida Gwaii from the mainland — and the Queen Charlotte Sound.
There is also a voluntary tanker exclusion zone, in place since 1985, stretching about 100 kilometres from the west coast of Haida Gwaii.
British Columbia's NDP-led government has also express its opposition to changing the moratorium.
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