Energy First Nations Economy
TD Waterhouse Marketwatch has picked up an analysis from Reuters Enbridge pipeline deal with native group fraying. Not the best news for Enbridge now that a major bank is letting the markets know about the unraveling deal with the Gitxscan Treaty Organization and Elmer Derrick.
A deal with a native chief that Enbridge Inc
held up last week as an example of rising support of their planned oil
pipeline to the Pacific appears to be unravelling as the community
battles over who has the authority to make a deal.Pipeline
operator Enbridge touted the Gitxsan agreement to take an equity stake
in the Northern Gateway pipeline as the first public display of what it
says is substantial support for the C$5.5 billion ($4.5 billion) project
among British Columbia’s First Nations…Enbridge signed the deal with Hereditary Chief Elmer Derrick, chief
negotiator for the Gitxsan Treaty Society (GTS), an embattled
organization that is facing a legal challenge to its authority from four
of the five community bands that make up the first nation….“Many of the hereditary chiefs said that they
had not been directly posed the question of ‘Do you want to sign this
deal with Enbridge?’,” said Doug Donaldson, who represents the region in
the British Columbia legislature. “From a Gitxsan governance point of
view, that’s not the way decisions are made, as far as not consulting
everyone.”