The majority of elected chiefs of Wet’suwet’en bands in northern B.C. have rejected a deal struck last month between the federal and provincial governments and Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs.
The agreement was made after a stalemate between the hereditary chiefs and the provincial and federal governments over the construction of a gas pipeline through their traditional territory. The pipeline is crucial to feed the LNG Canada natural gas plant being built near Kitimat.
In a statement released on Monday, chiefs of the Skin Tyee Nation, Ts’ilh Kaz Koh First Nation, Wet’suwet’en First Nation and Nee Tahi Buhn Indian Band said they were not properly consulted by the government or the hereditary chiefs over the landmark agreement. Witset First Nation did not sign the statement.
They said they only got to see the Memorandum of Understanding (struck on April 29) last Thursday when it was presented virtually by hereditary chiefs.
“The meeting was at the request of the Office of the Wet’suwet’en, but they treated us improperly, and failed to adequately inform us regarding the proceedings and processes that have taken place to date. They are not following the responsibilities of Hereditary Chiefs. To ignore their clan members and elected councils, something is terribly amiss,” the elected chiefs said.
The Office of the Wet’suwet’en in Smithers is a non-profit formed in the mid-1990s as hereditary chiefs and elders from the Wet’suwet’en Nation and neighbouring Gitxsan Nation fought and won a landmark Supreme Court of Canada case that acknowledged they had never ceded their rights to 22,000 square kilometres of territory and formally recognized the Wet’suwet’en hereditary system and laws.
The office comprises five clans, with 13 houses, each with a hereditary chief. The Wet’suwet’en bands were created under the Indian Act and have elected chiefs and councils.
Coastal GasLink, the company building the 670-kilometre gas pipeline from Dawson Creek, has struck deals with those bands, including millions in grants and a promise to spend hundreds of millions on First Nations contracts for road building, clearing, camp construction and management, fuel supply and security.
The community is divided over the pipeline proposal, with anti-pipeline leader Molly Wickham making $300,000 from a GoFundMe campaign.
The Wet’suwet’en elected chiefs have called on the federal and provincial governments to withdraw the memorandum of understanding and begin the negotiation process again, including the elected councils as full participants. They are also calling on Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett to resign.
Related
- All five Wet'suwet'en clans meet to discuss tentative land titles agreement
- Wet'suwet'en band that refused pipeline money hopes talks lead to land title
- More First Nations stories and features
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