Published by West Coast Environmental Law
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Late last week (Thursday, September 8th), the Canadian government, after working for almost a decade to develop a plan to manage BC’s North Coast, known as the Pacific North Coast Integrated Marine Area Plan (PNCIMA), suddenly announced that it is withdrawing from an agreement which would ensure adequate funding to complete the plan by December 2012.

Prime Minister Harper’s government apparently had concerns that PNCIMA (if completed), “could be used to rally opposition to Calgary-based Enbridge Inc.'s proposed $5.5 billion Northern Gateway pipeline.”, but ironically the government’s heavy-handed blocking of this process could give new legal arguments to the Coastal First Nations opposing the Enbridge Pipeline, heightening uncertainty for the Pipeline’s potential investors.

The Coastal First Nations and Enbridge

The First Nations that have lived on the North and Central Coast for time immemorial have been making themselves heard, asserting their rights over their traditional lands and waters.

The most high profile recent example of this was the Great Bear Initiative, in which the Coastal First Nations negotiated new environmental and economic initiatives for the Great Bear Rainforest (North and Central Coast) Region.

The landmark agreement was supported by five forest companies, environmental organizations, and, in 2006, the provincial government. These negotiations, with funding from several major Foundations, and from the provincial and federal governments, led to the creation of the Coast Opportunities Fund, to “support sustainable economic development and conservation management in the Central Coast, North Coast and Haida Gwaii areas of coastal British Columbia.”

But the Coastal First Nations have been among the most vocal opponents of oil tanker traffic on BC’s North Coast, and the Enbridge Pipeline which would bring the oil for the tankers to the coast. Recognizing that the pipeline would punch right through the heart of the Great Bear Rainforest, and that the tankers would pose an oil spill risk to each of their territories, the Coastal First Nations on March 23, 2010 declared:

As Nations of the Central and North Pacific Coast and Haida Gwaii, it is our custom to share our wealth and live in harmony with the broader human community. However, we will not bear the risk to these lands and waters caused by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and crude oil tanker traffic. …

Therefore, in upholding our ancestral laws, rights and responsibilities, we declare that oil tankers carrying crude oil from the Alberta Tar Sands will not be allowed to transit our lands and waters.

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