Coastal First Nations Oppose Canada Tar Sands Pipeline

The Coastal First Nations, a coalition of aboriginal communities in Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest, publicly announced their strong opposition this week to the Northern Gateway pipeline, a project would would run tar sands oil from Alberta to a port near the Pacific Ocean.

Enbridge Inc.'s plan is to open export markets for tar sands oil outside the United States — notably China. However, the Coastal First Nations see the pipeline as a major threat to their territory and way of life.

“Our decisions are based on the safety of the project and how it will impact our culture,” said Art Sterritt, executive director of Coastal First Nations. “We have invested several hundred million dollars to create a sustainable economy on the coast; we are not going to jeopardize it with one project that can destroy all that.”

“We are still gatherers, and the ocean is our supermarket,” Sterritt explained. “To jeopardize that so we can eat bologna and spam with the rest of the country is not acceptable. If there was no danger to our environment, to our culture, we would sit down and talk to Enbridge, but they haven’t even made it over the first hurdle: not jeopardizing our culture and the very existence of our society.”

Daniel Bida, a gas and utilities analyst with Riskmetrics, says Enbridge has reason to be concerned that the First Nations' opposition will stop the pipeline.

“They have to go through numerous tribal lands, and that’s a front-and-center issue for the company. No company, other than TransCanada, has an aboriginal relations department,” Bida said.

Enbridge has made considerable investments in wooing the First Nations, according to Bida, but that investment may not pay off. Though the company is only at the permitting phase and has not invested much in the pipeline project yet, the potential upside for the company from a pipeline with consistent oil flow toward China is huge. But Sterritt was emphatic that there was nothing Enbridge could do to get them to embrace the project.

“There is nothing they can offer up. They tried to offer equity and we said no. We don’t base our decisions on financial considerations,” Sterritt said.

The company declined to comment on the opposition from the Coastal First Nations.

“Enbridge is in the final stages of preparing its Northern Gateway regulatory application, which we expect to file with the National Energy Board in coming weeks,” Jennifer Varey, senior manager for corporate and business communications at Enbridge, wrote in an email. “As such, it would not be appropriate to conduct in-depth media interviews this close to the filing.”

Sarah Burt, an attorney with Earthjustice, believes the stakes are much higher than just a loss to Enbridge. They extend to the entire oil sands industry.

The Alberta Clipper pipeline and the Keystone pipeline into the U.S. are currently tied up in litigation. In February, two oil companies even joined in the opposition to the Alberta Clipper pipeline.

In addition, demand for oil in the U.S. has declined, and it’s possible that U.S. climate legislation will make it difficult to import the carbon-intensive oil produced from Alberta's tar sands. Regardless of legislation, oil sands extractors are facing a tough public relations battle in the U.S., where companies like Whole Foods have already publicly committed to boycotting the fuel.