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By James Peters

Coastal GasLink Dispute

Kamloops MP on Wet’suwet’en dispute: ‘The government has been asleep at the switch’

Feb 19, 2020 | 4:29 PM

OTTAWA — The MP for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo says the federal government could have avoided the confusion around who speaks for the Wet’suwet’en community.

Hereditary chiefs are split on whether to allow the construction of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline in northern B.C., including a section on traditional Wet’suwet’en territory. The majority of elected band chiefs along the route support the project.

While she acknowledges the project is largely provincial jurisdiction as it sits within B.C. boundaries, Cathy McLeod says the federal government should have sorted out the decision-making matrix.

“The structure around how decisions get made in those communities is something the federal government should have been talking about,” McLeod told CFJC Today Wednesday. “They knew there were issues between the elected chiefs and the hereditary chiefs; they’ve known that for a number of months but have not had those conversations in terms of who speaks for the people.”

McLeod acknowledges there is opposition to the project, but believes the community has spoken in favour of Coastal GasLink.

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“From my perspective, when you have 20 elected chiefs, when you have referendums that have happened in many of the communities where they have strongly supported the project, you have elders who are speaking out — my sense is the community is supportive (of the project),” said McLeod.

Tension around the project has led to demonstrations across Canada that have crippled rail infrastructure. The House of Commons held an emergency debate on the issue Tuesday night, but McLeod says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been reluctant to take anyone else’s advice.

“Interestingly enough, last night, (independent MP) Jody Wilson-Raybould said, ‘Here’s four things you should do.’ The leaders of the opposition parties are saying, ‘This is what we suggest that you do,'” said McLeod. “But [the Liberals] actually don’t have an action plan and that’s what concerns me the most.”

“The government has been asleep at the switch. This has been going on for a number of weeks, and you could say months now. All of a sudden, when it’s an absolute crisis, they’re calling for calm,” McLeod continued. “The prime minister should have dealt with this a long time ago. Instead, he was over in Africa, trying to win his U.N. (Security Council) seat.”

As of Wednesday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett had offered to meet with Wet’suwet’en hereditary leaders along with her B.C. counterpart, Scott Fraser.

The hereditary leaders responded that they would not meet until Coastal GasLink workers and RCMP members left their territory.