(Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds)

By Dylana Kneeshaw

TRANS MOUNTAIN PIPELINE

Plans advancing for First Nations’ pipeline purchase

Dec 12, 2019 | 4:27 PM

KAMLOOPS — A leader of one of the First Nations communities situated right along the path of the Trans Mountain pipeline says plans to buy the project are moving along.

Chief Mike LeBourdais of the Whispering Pines Indian Band has been working on the proposal for a 51 per cent stake in the pipeline for First Nations people.

LeBourdais recently returned from the east coast from meetings updating the federal finance ministry staff, bank financing and legal teams, and the chosen pipeline operator.

Now that agreements have largely been sorted out with governments and stakeholders, he says they’re about 90 percent of the way there — with First Nations consultations being the last piece of the puzzle.

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“We’re just literally signing up First Nations along the line. A lot of it is logistics because you have 55 chiefs going in different areas. They all have different priorities,” he explains. “Certainly environment is a high priority — it’s just ‘Is this the best way for them to protect the environment?’, and that’s what we seem to think.”

The pipeline expansion has been met with pushback from various protest groups, however, LeBourdais says the leaders for the pipeline are staying the course.

“We don’t necessarily meet with the protestors. You know, it’s government, shippers and customers, and First Nations. Those are the folks I want to meet with,” he notes. “If I spent my time meeting with protestors, I wouldn’t have time for things like this.”

Now that talks have been progressing around what bands could do with the money coming from the pipeline purchase, LeBourdais says the potential benefits have many people excited.

“If you take the folks in the North Thompson and the Fraser Valley — we live beside the pipe, and we’re always wondering what’s going on. So now we’ll know, and you can add comfort to the community.” he stresses. “The other thing is reclamation of salmon-bearing streams like the chinook runs, the sockeye runs. Particularly in the North Thompson and the Fraser Valley.”

First Nations groups working on the purchase say the benefits of owning the pipeline go beyond the financial boost, and Indigenous environmental management. LeBourdais says it can also contribute to a higher level of self-governance.

“What better way to reconcile with First Nations than to let us buy it? Give the taxpayers their money back — we don’t want it for free, we’ll pay for it with our bank partners and operators. We’ll buy it back, get the Canadian taxpayers their money back, and then we’ll operate this pipeline as safely as possible because we’re the ones that live beside it.”