By Sonal Gupta, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Leaders in northwestern BC are expressing relief as the federal and Alberta governments say they’re eyeing a southern terminus for a new West Coast oil pipeline.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced on July 2 that Alberta’s proposed one-million-barrel-per-day pipeline would be referred to the federal Major Projects Office. The route is expected to largely follow the existing Trans Mountain corridor and respect the North Coast oil tanker ban, taking Kitimat and Prince Rupert off the table as possible terminals.
Kitimat Mayor Phil Germuth said Kitimat residents would likely be split, with some relieved and others disappointed by the loss of possible economic activity. An oil pipeline was never a simple proposition for their community, he said.
“There’s no project more controversial.”
Germuth and Haisla elected Chief Maureen Nyce met with Smith in November, two days before the federal government and Alberta announced a pipeline memorandum of understanding.
The Haisla Nation’s opposition to an oil pipeline through the region made the northern route unlikely, Germuth said. “It was many, many months ago that Premier Smith took the Kitimat route off the table.” Resistance against pipelines goes back more than a decade. Kitimat residents voted against Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project in 2014 and the Haisla Nation has opposed oil pipelines and tankers in its territory because of spill risks in Douglas Channel, where its main community, Kitamaat Village, sits at the head of the waterway. Their opposition fights, along with legal challenges, helped end the project in 2016.
In an emailed response to Canada’s National Observer, the Haisla Nation said Ottawa’s decision to uphold the North Coast tanker ban allows the nation to focus on projects that align with its values. The First Nation pointed to its role in establishing Kitimat as the site of Canada’s LNG industry and the terminus for the country’s first pipeline to tidewater in more than 70 years, as well as Cedar LNG, a floating LNG project now under construction with Haisla Nation as majority owner.
“Haisla Nation’s position on an oil pipeline and facility through its traditional territory has been consistent for over ten years,” the Nation said.
Germuth said the southern route is still good news for Canada’s resource economy. For Kitimat, he said, the focus now is on other industrial opportunities, including a possible LNG Canada Phase 2 expansion, the Haisla-led Cedar LNG project and the community’s long-standing aluminum industry. The town was planned for about 20,000 people and has fewer than 10,000 today — leaving room for more residents and industrial growth, he added.
Kitimat Coun. Gerry Leibel said he was also relieved the northern route is no longer being pursued. He said Germuth had initially supported bringing an oil pipeline to Kitimat and approached the Alberta government about the possibility, but Haisla opposition made clear the project had no path through the region.
After the meeting in November, Nyce expressed disappointment that Germuth was not firm in his pipeline opposition, saying she might have skipped the meeting had she known that.
“I think it’s important that we listen to Indigenous leadership and communities when they say that they’re not in favour of a pipeline,” Leibel said. “For too long, Indigenous nations have not been consulted about the uses on their territory.”
Leibel doubts an oil pipeline would have brought major benefits to Kitimat. Too often, he said, the community is treated as the endpoint for resource projects without receiving the local jobs and business opportunities residents were promised.
In Prince Rupert, Mayor Herb Pond said the decision validated council’s choice not to enter a heated debate over a project that had not yet taken shape. “I felt a little bit vindicated,” Pond said. “Everybody wanted to drag us into debates about pipelines where there was no route, there was no project.”
Pond said the council focused on immediate municipal needs, including what he called “a different kind of pipe” — water pipes. Prince Rupert is already facing major infrastructure demands tied to growth at the port, housing pressure and aging water systems.
Pond said there had been no direct conversations between the Alberta government and Prince Rupert council, though consultants had held meetings in the community. If a real project had emerged, the council would have needed significant public dialogue before taking a position.
Pond said the community would likely have been divided. Some residents would have welcomed the economic activity, while others would have fought to keep the tanker ban in place.
From a purely economic perspective, Pond said another export project could have brought benefits. But Prince Rupert is already managing about $3 billion in port investment and anticipating hundreds of jobs. “We’ve got more than enough on our plate already,” he said. Julia Hill, executive director of Skeena Wild Conservation Trust, said the northern route would have dragged communities back into a fight they had already settled during the Northern Gateway years. Pipeline projects can pit communities, regions and economic interests against one another, while giving more influence to political and economic actors far from the coast than to the communities that would live with the environmental risks, she added.
Northwest BC has the highest number of projects of any region on the federal Major Projects Office list, with Ksi Lisims LNG, LNG Canada Phase 2, the North Coast Transmission Line and the Red Chris Mine expansion. Hill said that makes strong environmental assessments, fisheries protections and community decision-making more important. “We’re making decisions before we have all of the best available information,” Hill said. “It is not evidence-based decision making. It’s decision-based evidence making.”
