Forests & Oceans for the Future Discussion and News

The multi-billion dollar project to pipe and then ship tarsands crude to China places a unique ecological and cultural heritage zone at serious risk.  Over the past several years our UBC/Gitxaala reserach team has been surveying and documenting Gitxaala’s portion of the area known to many as the Great Bear Rainforest.  This region encompasses much of Gitxaala and adjoining Gitga’ata and Kitasoo territories.  Enbridge Northern Gateway plans to send 400+ very large crude tankers through the entire length of Gitxaala’s territory as they ship tarsands to China to fuel that country’s massive industrial explosion.

Over the past several years our reserach has focused on identifying and documenting ancient Gitxaala villages.  Our reserach shows that until very recently (the early 1800s) thousands of Gitxaala people and their neighbours lived along the path of the proposed tankers.  Each village has been surveyed, mapped, and scientific samples of soils and faunal remains have been collected.  What we are learning will ultimately contributed to a major shift in our overall understanding of the nature of BC’s coastline.  Our project, like a handful of others along the coast, is revealing the detailed and extensive use of the entire coast by historical and contemporary Indigenous communities.

The tankers place this critical Canadian cultural heritage at risk in several ways.  First, there is the risk (however small) of a catastrophic spill like the Exxon Valdez that could wipe out not just cultural heritage, but undermine the local ecology that Gitxaala people still depend upon for their livelihood and culture.  more insidious, however, is the long-term cumulative effects of the increased tanker traffic.  Combined with well documented models of increasing sea level intensive heavy ship traffic will lead to rapid erosion and destruction of cultural heritage sites that line the coastline of the Great Bear Rainforest.

Finding social and ecologically sustainable ways to meat our society needs that do not place at risk this important cultural heritage is essential.  Isn’t time to shift from mega-project developments to locally rooted solutions?  One of the really amazing things that we are learning from our reserach is their fine-tuned way that Gitxaala people lived in the thousands for millennia upon millennia within their traditional territories.  The key lesson?  Live locally within one’s means.

Many news sources have been commenting upon Transport Canada’s release of their TERMPOL recommendation that sates they have no regulatory concern with the massive increase of large tar sands carriers running through Gitxaala territory on BC’s North Coast.  Gitxaala’s legal firm, Woodward & Co. released the following press statement Feb. 9th (several days before Transport Canada released it’s own report):

On Monday, February 6, the Gitxaala Nation filed a judicial review application in Federal Court challenging its ongoing exclusion from a non-transparent and critical component of the federal government’s review of the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project. Transport Canada has established a Termpol Review Process to review and assess the Gateway Project’s proposed shipping routes and marine terminal facilities.

A number of government and non-government entities – including the Haisla Nation – are involved in this review process through a specialized committee, but Gitxaala was never invited to participate. Moreover, Transport Canada rejected Gitxaala’s request to be included in the Termpol Review Process.

Under the Enbridge Northern Gateway Project, shipping routes for the oil and condensate tankers would pass through the heart of the Gitxaala’s Territory, including Principe Channel. Gitxaala sustenance, culture, economy, and identity are and have always been deeply rooted in the ocean and marine resources. The proposed heavy tanker traffic and the potential for pollution threaten Gitxaala’s sustainability. An accidental oil spill in or near Gitxaala Territory could be catastrophic for the Gitxaala and their culture.

Gitxaala Chief Elmer Moody explains the impact of the proposed shipping route on his community as follows, “Virtually all Gitxaala, on reserve and off, rely on marine resource harvesting. Marine resource harvesting is in an essential part of our culture. Our culture, spirituality, and governance structure are eternally and profoundly linked to our territory and resources within our territory. The inability to harvest marine resources as a result of increased tanker traffic or an oil spill would cause irreparable harm to Gitxaala. I do not know if our people could ever recover from such damage.”

The central claim in the Application is that Transport Canada is breaching its constitutional duty to consult with the Gitxaala by excluding the Nation from the Termpol Review Process. The Application seeks remedies that would ensure Gitxaala’s meaningful inclusion in that process. Enbridge Northern Gateway has also been named in the Application as a directly affected party.