Sim’oo’git Geel sits in her living room and gazes out the window at Sdiky'oodenax̱, the commanding peak whose name means “big brother” or “stands alone mountain” and rises above Gitanmaax, a Gitxsan community in northwest British Columbia.
Geel, who also goes by Catherine Blackstock, grew up just down the road in Old Hazelton, a vibrant village nestled on the shores of the Skeena River. Her mother ran several small businesses and her father drove a logging truck.
But with local industries like fishing and forestry on the decline, the community has changed, she says.
“Hazelton is the most economically depressed town that I can think of across the province,” she says. “We have to do something different. We did our best to turn over every stone to make sure that, before we said, ‘OK, we’ll allow you to trespass,’ we’re taking care of those things.”
Geel is among the Gitxsan hereditary leaders who signed agreements more than a decade ago supporting the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline, or PRGT. The proposed 750-kilometre pipeline would carry gas from northeast B.C. to an LNG export facility on the coast, passing through 130 kilometres of Gitxsan territory on its journey.
PRGT presents a “tremendous opportunity for the Gitxsan,” Geel says.
She says the Chiefs who agreed to the project have been working to balance the potential economic benefits with environmental and other community concerns.
But nation members who oppose the project say it received consent through agreements signed behind closed doors and without broad consultation. They fear that pipeline construction would dramatically alter the region and affect salmon watersheds.
Sim’oo’git Geel, who also goes by Catherine Blackstock, sits in her home in Gitanmaax. The proposed PRGT pipeline project presents an opportunity for a region that has seen an economic decline in recent years, she says.
Photo for The Tyee by Amanda Follett Hosgood.
In a recent statement issued by the Gitxsan Huwilp Government, some hereditary leaders also expressed broad concern about the LNG industry, including the fast-tracking of major projects and health concerns related to excessive flaring at the LNG Canada plant in Kitimat.
And having watched their neighbours to the south, the Wet’suwet’en, grapple with the Coastal GasLink pipeline, the Chiefs say they won’t accept court injunctions or militarized police used against Gitxsan who oppose the project.
“We don’t want that here,” Geel says.
Despite the concerns, she says she still supports PRGT. She says the decision wasn’t an easy one. But as Head Chief for her wilp, the name for a Gitxsan house group, she says decisions over what happens on her laxyip , or territory, are ultimately up to her.
“We have conflict in our community. We have opposing opinions to whether the pipeline should go through or not, by Chiefs and by young people,” she says. “But only I can make a decision on Wilp Geel laxyip. Nobody else. People may not like it, they may not agree, but that’s our law, our ayookw .”
Waiting on an LNG boom
The Gitxsan share many similarities with the Wet’suwet’en.
The nations are longtime allies and jointly fought Delgamuukw v. British Columbia , a landmark Aboriginal rights case that determined that the nations’ titles had never been extinguished.
The 1997 Supreme Court of Canada decision also affirmed that Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan hereditary leaders, as the plaintiffs, represent the nation when making decisions about what happens on their traditional territories.
Despite the declaration, Coastal GasLink agreements signed with Wet’suwet’en band councils — which were created under the Indian Act to govern reserves — were used as evidence of the nation’s support for the pipeline by the company and government.
In the case of PRGT, the company signed agreements with the Gitxsan hereditary leaders.
“When it comes to doing land-based activities, anything off-reserve, the process is the Hereditary Chiefs are the rights and title holders and the ones that get consulted,” says Chaz Ware, whose Gitxsan name is Baa'm Goot.
Ware, who grew up in northern B.C. and is now based in Calgary, is the chief operating officer for the Gitxsan Development Corp., or GDC, the nation’s economic development arm. The Gitxsan Development Corp. was incorporated in 2011 to capitalize on what appeared at the time to be a wealth of LNG opportunities, he says.
Ware describes the “gold rush of LNG,” when nearly 20 export terminals and half a dozen pipelines were proposed for B.C.’s north coast.
Gitxsan Development Corp. executive director Chaz Ware says the company has been getting by on smaller contracts as it waits on the promise of LNG.
Photo via Facebook.
But those projects were gradually whittled down to just a few.
Enbridge-owned Pacific Trail Pipelines, which would follow a more southerly route parallel to Coastal GasLink, was considered substantially started a decade ago, but the project has been largely inactive in the…
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