The province of British Columbia and Enbridge Northern Gateway are being ordered to pay $230,000 in court costs to both the Gitga’at First Nation and Coastal First Nations after a January 2016 ruling found both parties failed to fulfill a legal obligation to consult with First Nations on the Northern Gateway pipeline.

The B.C. Supreme Court found the province contravened consultation rules in 2010 when it signed an equivalency agreement that granted environmental decision-making authority for the pipeline to the federal government. 

The January ruling was seen as a major vindication for coastal First Nations who felt the province failed to live up to its continual promise to work with and consult with First Nations communities along the pipeline route.

The awarded court costs have added to that feeling.

“We are very pleased with the decision,” Coastal First Nations Chair Kelly Russ said. “The decision is a victory for the tireless work of our leaders and our Gitga’at community in the fight to protect the waters, lands and resources in the Great Bear Rainforest.”

Madam Justice Koenigsberg, who delivered the ruling, said court costs were awarded to the groups after finding the case met a public interest test. Koenigsberg said the subject matter of the case was “truly exceptional” and was of “significant and widespread societal impact.”

“This ruling is a win for the Gitga’at Nation and all First Nations who are directly impacted by resource extraction and transportation proposals,” Arnold Clifton, Chief Councillor of the Gitga’at First Nation said.

“It’s also a message to project proponents that consultation must be between the Crown and a First Nation and that duty to consult and protect cannot be transferred to third party interest groups.”

Last month the province ordered Enbridge to seek a provincial environmental assessment certificate. The B.C. Environmental Assessment Office said it will use an environmental assessment conducted by the National Energy Board in its provincial environmental review, but that consultation with First Nations must begin from square one.

Enbridge received conditional approval for the pipeline project in 2014. That approval will expire if the company does not begin construction by December 31, 2016.

Last week Enbridge asked the National Energy Board for a three-year extension to that permit.

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In August 2014, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau made the trek to the tiny Gitga’at community of Hartley Bay, located along Enbridge’s proposed oil tanker route in northwestern B.C.

There, in the village of 200 people accessible only by air and water, he met with community elders and Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations.

“He came to Gitga’at because he wanted to make sure he was making the right decision in terms of Northern Gateway and being there certainly confirmed that,” Sterritt told DeSmog Canada on Tuesday.

“My confidence level went up immensely when Justin … visited Gitga’at.”

Two months before that visit, in May 2014, Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa that if he became prime minister “the Northern Gateway Pipeline will not happen.”

With Monday’s majority win by Trudeau, Sterritt — who retired three weeks ago from his role with Coastal First Nations — says he is “elated” and “Northern Gateway is now dead.”

“I know they’re going to live up to the commitments that they’ve made. I have absolutely no doubt about that,” Sterritt said, while taking a break from carving a totem pole. “Tears of joy will be flowing in Gitga’at.”

The fight against the 525,000-barrel-a-day oilsands pipeline goes back more than a decade.

“We’ve gone through some tough times with all that’s been peddled in the past decade, especially the last few years — all that’s been done to pave the way for oil,” Sterritt said. 

“There were many, many, many people who worked every day to stop Northern Gateway from jeopardizing everything we stand for.”

'Promises are Promises': Trudeau Will Face Corporate Pressure, But Must Hold Firm

Gerald Amos, former elected chief of Haisla, told DeSmog Canada communities are  going to have to keep up that fight to make sure the project dies.

“There’s a pretty darn good sense now that it won’t see the light of day,” Amos said. “It’s going to be a huge challenge for Justin Trudeau to make it happen, but promises are promises.”

That “challenge” will be in the form of corporate pressure, Amos said.

“I don’t think we should underestimate the power of the corporations,” he said. “I think that there’s going to be a lot of pressure come to bear on them from the corporate world.”

Smithers Mayor Taylor Bachrach is also cautiously optimistic.

“There are probably community leaders and First Nations and people all across the northwest waking up this morning with a sense of relief that that particular pipeline is no longer looming over our heads,” Bachrach told DeSmog Canada.

“It’s been a long road and it’s brought people together, but it will be nice to move on to other conversations about the future of our region.”

Bachrach said it’s too early to say definitively that Northern Gateway is dead, but added: “Mr. Trudeau has made clear commitments to the region and I look forward to having him follow through.”

Enbridge did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Fight Againt Enbridge Northern Gateway Has Brought Communities Together

Terry Teegee, tribal chief for the Carrier-Sekani Tribal Council, said he’s always been confident Northern Gateway will be defeated due to court cases led by two Carrier-Sekani communities.

But he also emphasized that communities can’t let up until the project is dead for sure.

“I hope he lives up to that commitment and kills the project,” Teegee said. “Now that we have them in a place where we want them, we can’t let up politically or judicially until the project is dropped.”

Fighting Enbridge “has cost a lot of energy and a lot of resources and a lot of our time,” Teegee said.

But the fight has also brought communities together.

“We really are testing our rights and title, we’re testing our mettle as people. It really helped us develop relationships beyond our asserted title,” Teegee said.

“Asserting our rights and title collectively, we can really determine our own future, we can determine how development happens in our territory, we can determine what happens on a national scale. It would really send a message to oil and gas companies that it’s not ‘business as usual.’ You really need consent of First Nations."

Teegee thinks the battle over Northern Gateway has planted the seeds for a more proactive, productive conversation about the future.

“The next step is to keep the momentum going and start really discussing our issues. I think we need to have a real talk about energy and having an energy strategy for our people,” he said. 

Conservative Bullying Backfired in B.C.

Sterritt said ultimately the Conservatives misjudged British Columbia.

“Harper and Joe Oliver made the mistake of thinking they were going to bully their way through British Columbia,” Sterritt added. “They realized they made a mistake and have been pretty quiet for a long time.”

Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal hasn’t been the only oil pipeline proposed for northern B.C., however.

“We’ve got lots of noise,” Sterritt said. “We’ve got Mr. Black pushing for a refinery. You’ve got Eagle Spirit proposing something similar. But these are all just proposals. I think in light of how the people in the Pacific Northwest look at their place, I think these other projects are going to be hard-pressed to try to move ahead in the wake of Northern Gateway.”

In June 2010, the Liberal Party of Canada declared its support for legislation banning oil tankers on B.C.’s north coast. If that legislation is passed, it will spell the end of all oil tanker proposals for northern B.C.

Trudeau has also said the review process of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain oil export plan, which would see hundreds of oil tankers a year transit Vancouver’s harbour, will need to be re-done.

Image: Liberal MP Jody Wilson-Raybould, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Art Sterritt walk on the boardwalk in Hartley Bay, B.C.

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Northern Gateway launches new TV ad promising a “better pipeline.” We say change one letter and you’ve got a deal.

By: Heather Libby & Kai Nagata

Kai: Remember Enbridge’s “disappearing islands” video, the one where the company deleted 1000 square kilometres of inconvenient, tanker-sinking rocks and reefs? Or the watercolour “Pathway to Prosperity” animations, spoofed by then-Province cartoonist Dan Murphy? Those ads were so galling, people booed them in movie theatres. Well, the new ones are even worse.

Heather: After Greenpeace and Coastal First Nations leaked the scripts for Enbridge’s schmaltztastic new Northern Gateway campaign last week, we assumed it meant Enbridge would scuttle their latest marketing plans. We were half right. They yanked the most ridiculous ad, “Janet and the Orca,” after realizing what a liability it would be.

Kai: But here’s the thing about pipeline companies. They can’t, by their nature, take no for an answer. And their answer to every problem is “throw more money at it.” So when 65% of a province says no to the Northern Gateway Pipeline, really, Enbridge’s only move is to bombard us with more ads.

Heather: Last night the new campaign’s flagship ad started airing in primetime on BC television stations. As expected, it’s fantastic. There’s soft-voice narration, instagram-worthy vignettes of people doing real-life things, gorgeous shots of our stunning coast and a soaring soundtrack.

Kai: There’s just one problem. It’s an ad for a pipeline that will jeopardize everything you see on screen, paid for by a reckless company still desperately trying to clean up its massive bitumen spill in the Kalamazoo river in 2010.

Heather: We started thinking. What if Enbridge could put all that money and creativity into an ad campaign for something British Columbians actually want?

Kai: Looking at Enbridge’s original scripts, we quickly realized that changing a single letter could turn Northern Gateway into a delicious project people would love. That’s right, a butter pipeline.

Heather: So what’s it going to be folks? A bitumen pipeline, or a butter pipeline? We want to hear from you. Click to vote at: ButterPipeline.ca. Something tells me we can find more supporters for the idea of a delicious butter pipeline, than a diluted bitumen pipeline.

Kai: After all, we’re the country that proved that an onion ring could gather more Facebook fans than Prime Minister Stephen Harper. So please, point your friends toward ButterPipeline.ca and send Enbridge a clear message: if you want to build a pipeline across BC, it better be a butter pipeline.

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Coastal First Nations (CFN) has launched a new website to help educate the public and drum up support for the First Nations ban on bear trophy hunting in BC's Great Bear Rainforest. The website provides easy access to information about the bears, their habitat, and the First Nations ban on hunting them for trophies.

The website is a part of the Bears Forever project, launched on September 4 with the release of the short documentary 'Bear Witness' and the results of a poll documenting the opinions of BC residents on the trophy bear hunting ban.

"This website gives all British Columbians a chance to meet some of our real coastal bears, and speak up on their behalf," said Heiltsuk Coastwatch Director William Housty.

The CFN is an alliance of Wuikinuxv, Heiltsuk, Kitasoo/Xai'xais, Nuxalk, Gitga'at, Metlakatla, Old Massett, Skidegate, and the Council of the Haida Nation, collaborating to create a sustainable economy on BC's North and Central coast and Haida Gwaii.

The ban was announced by the CFN last September, prohibiting trophy hunting for bears within the unceded territories of member nations. The September 2013 telephone poll conducted by McAllister Opinion Research for the CFN Bear Working group shows that 87 percent of British Columbians surveyed agree with the ban, with 71 percent "strongly" in favour.

Angus McAllister, president of McAllister Opinion Research, said that 91 percent of hunters surveyed "agree that their fellow hunters should respect First Nations laws and customs when on First Nations territory. And 95 percent of hunters agree that people should not be hunting if they're not prepared to eat what they kill."

Despite the ban, a young grizzly bear first sighted by field technicians camping in the Kwatna estuary during spring, was killed by trophy hunters in May 2013. The bear, named 'Cheeky' by the technicians for its playful curiosity, was shot three times while he browsed in an open field. His head, paws and skin were cut off for trophies by the hunters, and the rest of his body left to rot in the estuary.

Housty said that the "so-called sport is a violation of First Nations laws and customs," and that the poll "shows people across the province share these values. Trophy hunting for bears is wasteful and unfair."

Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations told the Vancouver Sun that he "[doesn't] agree with the approach they've taken to ban the activity within their traditional area." Thompson argued that the province's "policy approach provides the appropriate balance and respects the traditional opportunities and economic contribution that both resident hunting and guide-outfitting provide for B.C."

Current BC provincial regulations permit bear trophy hunting in the Great Bear Rainforest during spring and fall. Hunters are allowed to pursue bears that have just woken from hibernation or are feeding by the banks of salmon streams. Some use planes or SUVs to spot the bears.

The Great Bear Rainforest encompasses the world's largest intact temperate rainforest, stretching along the BC coast from the Discovery islands to the Alaska panhandle. It is home to grizzly bears, black bears, and is the sole habitat of the white Kermode or "spirit bear."

The CFN argues that trophy bear hunting is wasteful, disrespectful to First Nations culture, and gets in the way of ecotourism ventures like wildlife viewing. It could also prove damaging to the ecosystem of the coastal rainforest, as "nobody knows how many bears there are in the Great Bear Rainforest," according to the site.

The Bears Forever project aims to shed more light on the role of bears in the ecosystem, through a science project bringing together the University of Victoria, the Wuikinuxv, Nuxalk, Kitasoo/Xai'xais and Heiltsuk Nations, and Raincoast Conservation Foundation.

"Bears are an essential part of our culture, and the coastal ecosystem," said Nuxalk biologist and elected councillor Megan Moody. "Here in the Great Bear Rainforest, the salmon they carry into the forests is responsible for up to 80% of the nutrients in our huge old-growth coastal trees. Whether we see it or not, all sorts of plants and animals rely on bears, including us as people."

The website encourages visitors to sign a pledge showing support for the First Nations ban on trophy bear hunting. Visitors can also make donations to help get the word out and alert hunters of the ban.

Image Credit: Douglas Neasloss / Bears Forever

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