Re: Fixing the Broken Review Process for Tar Sands Pipelines
WENDAKE, QC, Dec. 17, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ – Kindly accept our sincere congratulations on your election victory. There are real opportunities now for the federal government to finally recognize First Nations’ rightful place at the core of Canada’s past and its future. One such opportunity is the critical roadmap provided in the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). We are pleased that your Government is committed to implement all 94 Calls to Action.
First Nations and Canada have a lot of work to do regarding measures needed to finally put us all on the path of reconciliation and partnership. We focus here on one such measure – the overhaul of the review and assessment process for Tar Sands export pipelines.
The current system, a product of the unconstitutional Omnibus Bills C-38 and C-45 which First Nations vigorously opposed, has: recklessly compressed pipeline reviews; sidelined critics; excluded essential considerations such as climate change; and violated Indigenous rights and sovereignty. Meanwhile, the National Energy Board (NEB) is no longer an independent arbiter in such reviews. It has become a politicized and industry-captured ‘rubber stamper’ that pays only lip service to the respect for the positions and rights of First Nations. All of these changes unravel opportunities for First Nations who are directly impacted by regulators like the NEB to offer them and industry vitally important information about the lands and resources. The current restrictions further damage the relationship with First Nations and undermine the public trust, legitimacy and openness of the federal environmental assessment process.
All of the current NEB reviews of proposed Tar Sands export pipelines suffer from the same major defects identified above, including the reviews of TransCanada’s Energy East pipeline (potential for 1,100,000 bpd of Tar Sands), Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline (potential for 760,000 bpd of Tar Sands) and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline (expanded potential to at least 890,000 bpd of Tar Sands).
The current review and assessment process for the above pipelines has violated:
The following remain some of the most egregious flaws in the NEB process:
In light of your Government’s stated positions in respect to such matters, our First Nations in British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec call for the establishment of a new pipeline review and assessment process, to be developed and implemented in collaboration with First Nations, that will enable a thorough and objective environmental assessment of these pipelines that respects our rights under the Constitution of Canada as well as under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
The crafting of a new Canada-First Nations review and assessment process for these pipelines needs to also be part and parcel of a greater collaboration between First Nations and Canada. Aimed at ensuring that the already unsatisfactory environmental regulatory framework in Canada – further weakened by the Harper government’s Omnibus Bills C-38 and C-45 – is transformed into a system that we can all be proud of. Conscious of newcomers’ legacy of broken promises and the taking of First Nations’ land and resources without consent, First Nations wish to see a new relationship based on the protection of First Nations’ alliance with Mother Earth. Environmental regulatory frameworks should be the hallmark of building strong and healthy relationships between First Nations, governments, regulators and industry.
Before proceeding with such desperately needed reforms, however, we insist on the immediate cancellation of the NEB review processes for Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain, Enbridge’s Line 3 and TransCanada’s Energy East Tar Sands pipelines. Such reviews will need to be completely re-thought in line with the above reforms to be established collaboratively by First Nations and Canada. We are encouraged that Liberal MP Terry Beech, Burnaby North-Seymour, has already said there will be no decision on Kinder Morgan in January, and that Kinder Morgan will have to go through a new, revised process.
Finally, we applaud your recent announcement of an oil tanker ban on the North Coast of British Columbia, which would mirror under Canadian Law the ban instituted by a number of First Nations pursuant to their Indigenous Laws. We look forward to the swift legally enforceable implementation of the ban under Canadian Law as well as a rejection of Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Tar Sands pipeline permit approval. We can only hope that your Government will be just as open to listening to and cooperating with First Nations on the key issues set out in this letter as you have been in the Northern Gateway file.
In Peace and Friendship,
Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador (AFNQL)
Regional Chief Ghislain Picard
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC)
Grand Chief Derek Nepinak, llb, ba (Hons)
c.c.
The Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs
The Honourable James Gordon Carr, Minister of Natural Resources
The Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Mr. Peter Watson, Chair/CEO, National Energy Board
