Last updated Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2011
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

LAX KW’ALAAMS FIRST NATION DEMANDS BC HYDRO PROJECT STOP UNTIL COMPENSATION DEAL IS REACHED

A native band in northern B.C. has thrown a wrench into work on the first stage of the $400-million Northwest Transmission Line, saying BC Hydro must reach a deal on compensation before the project can continue.

Members of the Lax Kw’alaams were travelling a narrow logging road north of Terrace that leads to a section of the proposed line on the weekend when they came across a crew unloading equipment to begin geotechnical drilling work.

The band members, working as “cultural monitors,” ordered the contractors to stop work. The Lax Kw’alaams argue that BC Hydro should not be doing preliminary work in their traditional territories until they reach an agreement.

The crew stopped work and packed up their equipment, but a BC Hydro official said the crew was working in another band’s territory and will be back at work shortly.

“We understood we were working in Kitsumkalum territory,” said Greg Reimer, B.C. Hydro's executive vice-president for transmission and distribution. “We’re going to mobilize the crew and get them back to work in the area in the next few days. We are anticipating we won’t have any more difficulties, and we are hoping we can get on with negotiations with the Lax Kw’alaams.”

The Northwest Transmission Line will cross 344 kilometres from a point near Terrace to a new substation near Bob Quinn Lake, passing through lands claimed by eight separate first nations. BC Hydro has reached agreements with five of those communities.

Overlapping land claims are not uncommon in B.C., where few treaties have been settled with natives.

The first 28 kilometres of the line would pass through land claimed as traditional territory by the Lax Kw’alaams.

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