Jim Peacock: First Nations, energy industry can work together
Credit to Author: Hardip Johal| Date: Thu, 07 Nov 2019 02:00:25 +0000
It was the early 1980s and the land claims of B.C.’s many First Nations were much in the news. UNDRIP was still to come.
But leaders of two groups — one from the energy industry, the other from B.C.’ s Indigenous community — understood that, with trust and effective communications, they could agree to a solid working partnership to make possible the approval of a multi-billion-dollar project to ship natural gas from Canada to Japan.
Between them, these two groups achieved the kind of certainty referred to in The Sun’s Oct. 26 opinion piece by Greg D’Avignon and Laird Cronk in the wake of the introduction of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People’s Act in the B.C. Legislature. D’Avignon, president of the Business Council, and Cronk, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, wrote that, in their experience “when trust is formed and common facts developed, we have more that connects us than divides us and as a result we are always better off.” I believe the very fact these leaders from business and labour co-authored the article speaks in support of that claim.
As an 88-year-old long-time resident of B,C. and one who has observed Indigenous relationships from direct involvement in several, from the Western LNG Project to the B.C. Treaty Commission when it began, I want to congratulate them for the communications initiative they have taken. That should help everyone understand better the potential benefits for all British Columbians from this step.
It has taken a while, but lessons from back then apparently are being learned.
In a memoir entitled Remember the Good Times, I have recalled 2½ years I spent advising the proponents of the Western LNG Project, and a Jan. 5, 1986, commentary prepared for the Legal Services Society Schools Program Newsletter: “In the debate surrounding native Indian land claims, two things ought to be clear by now: First, settlement of land claims will take time. Second, the issue is impairing industrial development in British Columbia, particularly in the natural resource industries.
“The latter should be unnecessary, but not everyone agrees on how the province’s industrial development can move ahead smoothly while Aboriginal claims are resolved. British Columbia can find one recent and excellent lesson in this regard in the experience of participants in the Western LNG Project.”
In hindsight, the lesson was largely ignored at the time. Now, as the Business Council and Labour Federation leaders note so well, an act of the legislature seeks to legally enshrine actions to achieve similar positive results.
The Western LNG project involved proposed investment of $4 billion to transport surplus Canadian natural gas to Japan through pipeline, liquefaction and deep-sea shipping facilities. Its principal proponent was Dome Petroleum of Calgary, in partnership with the Japanese trading company Nissho Iwai. The First Nation involved is the Lax Kw’alaams of Port Simpson, a coastal village on the Tsimpsean Indian Reserve land 30 kilometres north of Prince Rupert.
Dome and the Lax Kw’alaam found a successful process through which the band was able to support the LNG project without being concerned that its position on land claims was being impaired. The process was founded on goodwill, understanding, consideration of the other’s point of view, effective communication and patience. Together these allowed a sense of trust to develop between the two — and upon that trust, they built a legal agreement which worked to the advantage of both.
The agreement was filed in evidence during National Energy Board hearings into the project’s applications for licences. It was in no small way responsible for the fact the hearings in Prince Rupert, scheduled for seven days, ended in two. Other Aboriginal groups praised both sides, not a single voice of opposition was heard.
The Western LNG Project died when energy prices sagged and it became uneconomic. But the lesson about trust, goodwill, communication and stability was no less important.
Jim Peacock spent 15 years as a journalist, provided public relations advice to many clients, including large energy projects, and has recently published a memoir recalling much of his career.