Tag Archives: Wet'suwet'en Nation

Indigenous Nations, Politics

Behind the Campbell River Premiere of Yintah

21 people attended the premier of the feature documentary Yintah at the Campbell River Community Center on February 20th, 2025. This screening is sponsored by the North Island Powell River (NIPR) Federal Green Party Riding Association and follows the Wet’suwet’en land defender’s 10 year struggle to keep gas companies  from building a pipeline through their territory. Cortes Currents interviewed two of the event organizers about the film and some of the deeper issues within the local community. 

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Energy

how 2025 is shaping up to be a big year for LNG in B.C.

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

After years of construction, nearly 100 arrests, billions in government subsidies and dozens of environmental infractions, B.C.’s long-promised liquefied natural gas, or LNG, export industry is poised to start shipping overseas this year.

It’s been more than a decade since an idea to transform a little northern B.C. industry town into the first community in Canada to export LNG across the Pacific Ocean was just a twinkle in a corporate boardroom. This year, LNG Canada will send its first shipments from Kitimat, B.C., to Asia, marking Canada’s entry into the global LNG market.

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Energy, Indigenous Nations

Frustrated with government, Gitxsan Hereditary Chiefs wavering on support for B.C. pipeline

Editor’s note: The Wet’suwet’en Nation is about 300 miles due north of Campbell. While there is no statistical data to show how widespread this sentiment is, a number of local residents have expressed sympathy for their struggle against the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline. Max Thaysen, the current Alternate Director for Cortes Island, was a legal observer when the RCMP ‘invaded’ Wet’suwet’en Territory on February 7, 2020. There were protests in support of the Wet’suwet’sen on Cortes Island and in Campbell River. Many Quadra Island residents participated in the latter. When former MLA Claire Travena held a BC Ferries meeting on February 28th, 2020, she was forced to devote the first 20 minutes to a discussion of the Wet’suweten crisis.

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

On a bitterly cold morning in early March, Gitxsan Simgiigyat (Hereditary Chiefs) stood outside the provincial  Supreme Court building in Smithers, B.C., their regalia fending off the  icy air.

“Our way of life has been subverted by the  Canadian government,” Simogyat (Chief) Molaxan Norman Moore told a  gathering of supporters and observers, his voice reverberating off the  drab concrete building.

Inside, proceedings continued for a Hereditary Chief of the neighbouring Wet’suwet’en Nation, who was found guilty of criminal contempt  in February. The Simgiigyat organized the demonstration to show their  support for Dinï ze’ (Hereditary Chief) Dsta’hyl, who was arrested in  October 2021 after decommissioning Coastal GasLink machinery at pipeline construction sites on his Likhts’amisyu Clan territory. 

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Energy

The door to B.C.’s liquefied natural gas export sector is about to open. Here’s what you need to know

Editor’s note: In February 2013, the Christy Clark government proclaimed “LNG development is poised to trigger approximately $1 trillion in cumulative GDP within British Columbia over the next 30 years.” Eleven years later, the list of ‘proposed or under construction projects’ has shrunk from 20 to 7. The only local proposal, Discovery LNG in Campbell River, is no longer on the list. 

According to Natural Resources Canada, “LNG Canada, in Kitimat, BC, will be Canada’s first large-scale LNG export facility once complete, aiming for first exports by 2025. The majority of the other projects target beginning operations between 2027 and 2030.”

By Matt Simmons, The Narwhal, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

As Teresa Waddington proudly proclaimed LNG Canada is on track to wrap up construction in Kitimat, B.C., this year, the room full of hundreds of attendees at the BC Natural Resources Forum erupted in cheers.

“We are 90 per cent complete, bringing Canada’s first LNG export facility to life,” she said in mid-January, at the annual gathering of industry bigwigs and hopefuls, First Nations leaders, provincial and federal politicians and civil servants who had travelled from around the province to Prince George for the event.

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Energy

Eyes turn to B.C. as U.S. pauses approval of LNG projects

Editor’s note: According to Natural Resources Canada, “There are eight liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects in various stages of development across Canada.” At one point there were 20 proposals in BC alone. One of them was on the old mill site in Campbell River. The most recent post Cortes Currents could find on the web was a Jan 21, 2019 article in the Campbell River Mirror which states a Calgary-based company, Rockyview Resources Inc, purchased the property in May 2016. “Rockyview is an oil and gas exploration firm that aims to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facility at the site, a project dubbed Discovery LNG.”  The company’s website is no longer operational and Rockyview Resources Inc was ‘struck off the registry’ of Alberta Corporations on Nov 2, 2017. Discovery LNG is not on Canada’s list of LNG ‘Projects proposed and under construction,’ but it is listed as one of Campbell River’s top 10 municipal taxpayers for 2022 (albeit under a different owner).

By Matteo Cimellaro, Canada’s National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Calls from climate advocates to follow the lead of the United States and pause Canadian liquified natural gas projects face a serious challenge: a promise of economic reconciliation tied to capital and liquified natural gas (LNG) development.

Biden’s move to pause LNG approvals until after the November elections was celebrated by the climate movement in the U.S. and at home. But coastal First Nations leading LNG projects say the facilities will boost their communities’ prosperity. With industry partners, Haisla Nation is developing Cedar LNG and Ksi Lisims is proposed by the Nisga’a.

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