Protests expected at pipeline meetings

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This article was published 08/12/2014 (3933 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Pipeline executives from TransCanada and Enbridge are set to meet with treaty chiefs today in Winnipeg, sources confirm to the Free Press.

The Southern Chiefs Organization invited chiefs from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario to the closed-door meeting so the two pipeline giants can outline plans for the construction of the $12-billion Energy East pipeline to the Maritimes.

The meeting is also expected to draw protests involving critics from an indigenous rights group outside the downtown Delta Winnipeg.

The private meeting, meanwhile, was jointly organized by TransCanada and the Manitoba First Nations consulting firm Green Water.

Grand Chief Terry Nelson said he hopes the meeting gives chiefs an opportunity to learn what the pipeline giants have in mind. “It’s mostly about ensuring chiefs are better informed and that they know the intent of the pipeline project,” Nelson said.

For the pipeline giants, it gives their executives a chance to sit down with all of the chiefs in a cordial atmosphere.

Both sides are currently preparing for consultations on the pipeline’s route across traditional treaty lands.

The morning session is closed, but a public afternoon session is set to include presentations from energy company representatives.

A spokesman from TransCanada was not available Sunday, but in previous statements the energy giant has said it set a tentative route to cover 4,600 kilometres and carry 1.1 million barrels a day from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Eastern Canada. The Energy East pipeline will cross nearly 160 First Nations and Métis communities, all of which will have to be consulted.

Meantime, No Energy East No Manitoba Justice Coalition, a group of environmental and indigenous rights groups, scheduled a news conference at the University of Winnipeg this morning to challenge the oilsands industry and the federal regulator that must approve pipeline construction.

Coalition spokesman Alex Paterson said Sunday TransCanada filed its application for the Energy East pipeline this fall.

Since then, the National Energy Board has given no indication it intends to review the impact the pipeline or the oilsands industry have on climate change. The coalition plans to release a letter to NEB at 11 a.m.

“We would have confidence in the NEB if they fully reviewed the climate impacts,” said Paterson. But after the premiers of Ontario and Quebec mollified their criticism of the pipeline following meetings with Alberta Premier Jim Prentice last week, the group is feeling uneasy about the politics around the pipeline, he said.

“If they continue to do what they’re doing now,” he said, “it will be a rubber stamp for the industry.”

‘It’s mostly about ensuring chiefs are better informed and that they know the intent of the pipeline project’

— Terry Nelson

The timing of today’s events coincides with plans by Canada’s First Nations chiefs to elect a new national chief in Winnipeg this week.

The election for the new national chief of the Assembly of First Nations takes place Wednesday at a special chiefs assembly at the RBC Convention Centre. The three-day conference wraps up Thursday.

The event, hosted by Manitoba’s northern chiefs at the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, includes a number of other cultural and social events.

By the weekend, about half of the country’s 639 recognized First Nations chiefs were among 1,000 delegates scheduled to attend.

The chiefs and their proxies are the only delegates registered to cast ballots for a new leader.

Former national chief Shawn Atleo abruptly resigned last spring after an internal battle over his agreement to support the federal government’s legal reforms for reserve schools.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca