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Last Thursday, reporter Matt Simmons spotted a series of social media posts that caught his attention.
Indigenous leaders and community members were gathering on a remote road in northwest B.C., with some important legal paperwork — and pocket lighters.
Matt, who lives in Smithers, B.C., grabbed his camera gear and drove for two hours. He arrived just in time to witness Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs burn an agreement they had signed 10 years earlier in support of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Line (PRGT) — a pipeline that, if completed, will stretch 800 kilometres, from Treaty 8 territories in B.C.’s northeast to the mouth of the Nass River on the Pacific coast.
“As far as we’re concerned, this pipeline needs a new environmental assessment,” Gamlakyeltxw Wil Marsden said as he lit the agreement on fire. “We just want to make our ancestors happy.”
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Three days later, on the other side of the province, farmers Ken and Arlene Boon watched as the Site C dam flood waters began to rise in the Peace River Valley.
“It’s going to be pretty dramatic — and traumatic,” Ken Boon told me, after I got BC Hydro’s construction update email. The Boons’ story, along with stories from many other people who are now watching the destruction of an ecologically and culturally important Canadian valley, had led me to write a book on the Site C saga back in 2018.
“It’s one of those sad, surreal moments that you wish never would happen, but inevitably, it’s happening,” West Moberly First Nations Chief Roland Willson told me of the Site C dam reservoir filling, set to flood 128 kilometres of the Peace Valley and its tributaries, destroying Indigenous hunting, trapping and fishing grounds and cultural sites — among many other significant and irreversible impacts.
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Hundreds of kilometres apart, the two events are inextricably linked.
The publicly funded Site C — its price tag has risen to $16 billion, making it the costliest hydro dam in Canadian history — will help provide energy for B.C.’s new liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry. One of those LNG facilities, Ksi Lisims, will get its gas from the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline.
“The tensions around this have been building for so long … now, they’re finally here,” Matt added, reflecting on years of covering communities intertwined with the push to build fossil fuel infrastructure.
Both projects — the dam and the pipeline — will have significant impacts on the land, wildlife and many Indigenous communities.
The kicker to this news-heavy August? B.C.’s political landscape is set to shift dramatically: the leader of the floundering BC United Party just suspended his campaign and endorsed the BC Conservatives in the provincial election this fall. (Both parties have pledged enhanced support for resource extraction projects — from LNG exports to industrial logging — and we’re keeping track of it all here.)
Take care and always connect the dots,
Sarah Cox
B.C. bureau lead
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Narwhal On The Coast
It’s been one full year since Meta started blocking news in response to the Online News Act — nope, you haven’t been able to access news on platforms like Facebook or Instagram. Whew.
And yet, readers of The Narwhal have helped us find the bright side.
Arik Ligeti, The Narwhal’s director of audience, went on CBC’s On The Coast to chat a bit about the news ban and The Narwhal’s response, which earned us an INNovator nomination from the Nonprofit News Awards.
“We decided we needed to take things into our own hands and really emphasize to our readers the kind of steps that were needed to build those direct relationships with them when we couldn’t be relying on the tech platforms anymore,” he told CBC.
At the core of bringing people environment news they can trust is growing a community of newsletter subscribers like you who help us shape our strategy — and we love nothing more than sharing the news with you all. If you value our independent reporting, sign up to become a member here.
Check out the CBC interview here — and read more about how The Narwhal and other news outlets are building community in this Nieman Lab article.
— Karan Saxena, audience engagement editor
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This week in The Narwhal
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Why would Canadian taxpayers fund a dock in Alaska to serve mines that … don’t yet exist?
By Eva Holland
The Yukon’s plan to fund mining infrastructure in the U.S. has frustrated some residents, and left many more with questions.
READ MORE
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Being a parent is my most important job — caring about wildfires and climate change is part of that
By Brittany Hopkins
READ MORE
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5 things to know about B.C.’s lucrative salvage logging industry
By Zoë Yunker
READ MORE
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The rail strike shows Canada’s transit systems are fragile — and need fixing
By Fatima Syed
READ MORE
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What we’re reading
Tlingit language learners spent three days in July on the Juneau Icefield, immersing themselves and “holding the embers” of a language considered to be critically endangered. Mike Graeme tells that story for IndigiNews.
Just like in the ‘90s hit film Fly Away Home, a group of European scientists became human foster parents to flocks of birds and guided them by microlight aircraft to teach them the migration route. Their effort helped bring the northern bald ibis back from the brink of extinction, Bobby Hardy and Stefanie Dazio write for Associated Press.
Researchers in the Pacific Northwest are investigating the secret life of bees — and identifying new species all the time. It goes to show just how little we know about the native pollinators, Anne Shibata Casselman reports for Hakai Magazine.
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Where do whales go to get their teeth straightened? The orca-dontist! This punny joke is our gift to you — use it to make a new friend, then invite them to join the pod by subscribing to The Narwhal’s newsletter.
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