Liz Logan and other Treaty 8 chiefs attended LNG Conference

Treaty 8 chiefs were able to present a letter to Premier Christy Clark at the LNG conference last week.

“We met briefly with her at the BC LNG Conference and I presented the invitation letter on behalf of 7 Treaty 8 chiefs to the premier to attend a meeting on June 21st in Fort St John to begin the discussion on LNG,” Chief Liz Logan said. “We told her that we heard her say that LNG is her priority so she best make Treaty 8 her priority also. They need gas from our territory for the pipeline and the LNG facilities so that means B.C. needs to be talking to us. She took the invitation letter and said they’d get back to us.”

The letter expressed dissatisfaction with regard to the provinces are Order-in-Council decision to exempt natural gas processing plants that produce less than two tons of sulphur emissions per day from the environmental assessment process. This was done without discussion with first nations. “While you have since rescinded this order it speaks to the degree of lack of consultation and the inadequate working relationship with First Nations who are directly impacted by such decisions,” the letter stated.

“The Fort Nelson First Nation took drastic action upon the announcement of these changes to the environmental assessment process at the LNG/Shale gas Summit and the Treaty 8 First Nations support their strong stance on the protection of their rights And the requirement of the government to consult.”

This is a symptom of the larger broken relationship with first Nations letter stated.

“While B.C. consistently and publicly states that the relationship between first nations and the B.C. provincial government is extremely important, the actions of your government show a pattern of token consultation with the Treaty 8 First Nations. These LNG projects and the associated source gas and pipelines are the tipping point for the economic benefit of the province. Certainty is required for final investment decisions by the project proponents.”

Certainty is a two-way street and we require certainty for our nations the letter stated.

Treaty 8 has been polling membership and these polls indicate that more than 50 per cent of the communities in the Northeast are undecided about exporting LNG and 20 per cent of them in the opposed.

The letter referred to the Supreme Court of Canada Mikisew decision which sites the long history of small grievances created by indifferent governments affecting aboriginal peoples concerns. The letter calls for honouring of treaty rights, including the fulfilment of outstanding treaty land entitlements to reserve land; environmental assessment process and cumulative impacts, including a regional statistics environmental assessment is recommended by the sightsee joint review panel; economic benefits.

The letter invited the Hon. Rich Coleman and the Hon. John Rustad to join Treaty 8 Aboriginal Day celebrations on June 21, 2014 in Fort St. John. The letter was signed by Prophet River First Nation Chief Lynette Tsakoza, West Moberly First Nation Chief Roland Willson, Doig River First Nation Norman Davis, Saulteau First Nation Chief Nathan Parenteau, McLeod Lake Indian Band Chief Derek Orr, Halfway River First Nation Chief Darleen Hunter, Blueberry River First Nation Chief Marvin Yahey.

Reporting on the event Mychaylo Prystupa wrote the Vancouver Observer, an online news service, said Cree-Dene leaders were both afraid and interested in BC’s multibillion-dollar gas plans for their remote communities.

Christy Clark who told the crowd of 1,500, “If you live on top of the sea of energy, for heaven’s sake, you should benefit from when that energy is extracted from your land,” Clark said. “The kingmaker In all this may well be Fort Nelson First Nation Chief Sharleen Gale. Her Treaty 8 Territory sits atop the largest gas deposist. When the 33-year old took the podium at the LNG summit on Thursday, the industry crowd fell silent,” Prystupa wrote.