Vaughn Palmer: Horgan hailed, assailed over his handling of Coastal GasLink project
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2020 02:21:52 +0000
VICTORIA — Premier John Horgan earned a rare honour when he was invited late last year to address the national Assembly of First Nations for having enshrined the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into provincial law.
But this week, Horgan had the principles of the UN declaration thrown back at him by the assembly’s national chief, Perry Bellegarde.
Bellegarde posted a statement on social media lamenting Horgan’s “regrettable comments about the rule of law” in the standoff over construction of a natural gas pipeline in B.C.
The B.C. premier had cited the “rule of law” in arguing the Coastal GasLink line should go ahead, notwithstanding opposition from five hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nations.
Bellegarde intervened to point out that the rule of law was not as clearcut in this case as Horgan seems to think.
“The rule of law includes honouring First Nations laws in their traditional territories,” wrote the AFN leader in a statement posted on Twitter.
“The necessity of respecting those laws and traditions is further underlined by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”
Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs from left, Rob Alfred, John Ridsdale, centre and Antoinette Austin, who oppose the Costal Gaslink pipeline take part in a rally in Smithers B.C., on Friday January 10, 2020. The Wet’suwet’en peoples are occupying their land and trying to prevent a pipeline from going through it.
The reference to the UN declaration hearkened back to the Dec. 3 ceremony in Ottawa, where Horgan became the first sitting Canadian premier invited to address a special assembly of the AFN.
Bellegarde himself hailed Horgan for “leading the way” for the whole country with legislation to enshrine the 46 UN principles into provincial legislation and public policy.
The beaming premier told the assembly it was one of the proudest days of his life when the legislation was unanimously approved by the B.C. house.
Bellegarde is now challenging Horgan to reconcile his push for the gas pipeline with the UN declaration’s guarantee of “free, prior and informed” consent for First Nations.
Horgan took a stab at it earlier this week by insisting the provincial legislation is not a basis for redressing decisions made in the past: “It is forward looking, it is not retrospective.”
The Coastal GasLink project is already approved and permitted. It has also been approved by the elected leadership of all the First Nations along the route of the pipeline. There’s a permanent court injunction against further efforts to block construction. The RCMP is preparing to enforce that injunction.
Hence Horgan’s view that the go-ahead is backed by the “rule of law.”
The five hereditary chiefs do not have the power to block the project? “I don’t believe they do,” the premier told reporters. “And more importantly the courts don’t either.”
But the five chiefs take the position that they, not leaders elected under the federal legislation, are the hereditary custodians of the traditional territories of their people.
Hence Bellegarde’s view that this needs to be sorted out government-to-government, rather than by injunctions and police action.
“The AFN supports the governance and decision-making process of the Wet’suwet’en people. Canada and B.C. must do the same,” he declared. “The federal and B.C. governments must meet with the Wet’suwet’en leadership and work to resolve this matter through dialogue not violence.”
The RCMP set up a checkpoint on the Morice West Forest Service Road on Jan. 13, 2020, as tensions mount between five hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation and a gas pipeline company.
Both levels of government are reluctant. When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked this week, he noted how Coastal GasLink (unlike the Trans Mountain expansion project linking Alberta to the West Coast) would be constructed entirely within B.C.
“It’s a provincial project and provincial processes,” said Trudeau. “It is being well taken care of by the provincial government.”
Over to you Premier Horgan. But he was no more keen to broker the standoff than Trudeau.
Rather, he indicated that the prime responsibility is with the pipeline builders and the developers of the LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat that the line will serve.
“I said quite clearly to the proponents that it was their responsibility to build relationships with Indigenous communities,” he told reporters Monday. “We have not answered in any court proceedings. That’s the responsibility of Coastal GasLink and LNG Canada.”
Still, the Horgan government has extended billions of dollars worth of incentives to the LNG project. The New Democrats signed the project development agreement for what they trumpeted as the largest private sector project in Canadian history.
Were there no undertakings, no guarantees that the province would make sure the thing actually gets built?
“We made no commitment to the company to do anything other than to provide the tax space and other initiatives that were part of our agreement that was made public,” said Horgan.
“We made no commitments other than to support the initiative and do what we can to make sure that the foundations for success, for the company and for the communities, was there.”
Premier John Horgan, top, meets Prime Minister Justin Trudeau via video conference from Victoria to Vancouver on Monday, after an in-person meeting was cancelled due to weather.
The government stands behind the permits it has granted. The premier is confident the pipeline and the terminal will both be completed.
What if the blockade manages to delay or even halt construction of the pipeline? Would there be any fallback recourse for the investors staking billions of dollars on this project? When I asked Horgan about that, he chose not to go there.
“If it’s a question about liability,” said the premier, “I’ll leave that to the lawyers.”
Understandable, given the importance of this project to his economic and political agenda, that he would avoid speculating.
But mere weeks after Horgan collected accolades for his embrace of the UN Declaration, he finds himself in the midst of a controversy that perfectly illustrates the contradictions of his position.
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