Joint Review Panel Hearings Fort St.

James, July 19, 2012

The National Energy Boards Joint Review Panel (JRP) community hearings were held in Fort St. James on July 19, 2012. In an attempt to provide you with a sense of what is being said at these hearings, we have selected excerpts from the presentations and will continue to do so through to the end of the community hearings in July. For those of you wishing to read the complete text of a statement, it is available on the JRP website: gatewaypanel.review-examen.gc.ca/clf-nsi/prtcptngprcss/hrng-eng.html

Just the construction of this pipeline and the greenhouse gas created by the construction would more than offset any value ever created by the pipeline itself. The damage done to our medicine and food plants and the effect on the animals during construction far outweigh any benefits our territory and our people will ever get from this project. Leaving a time bomb within our community to -- for our people to watch and wait to when it breaks -- not if it breaks, when it breaks -- would have -- add untold stress on our people who have suffered innumerable offences against us over the years, would not be allowed and I dont think our people should be subjected to any further stress which would cause a further decline in our population after weve already lost approximately 90 percent of our people. Chief Peter Erickson The oil in Alberta has been locked in sand for millions of years. We Canadians dont have to use it all in one or two generations. Let us slow down, save some for coming generations. When we are asking the questions: Why dont we refine oil here in Canada?, we are told it costs -- it is too expensive. But show us numbers. It is not cheap to build a pipeline, and shipping oil to China and back. On top of that, factor in the cost of cleanup after a spill, the environmental impact, the loss of livelihood. The fact the pipeline will be left in the ground after its use is unreasonable to landowners and the province because of the pollution concerns. Jorgen Christensen

We have rafted down the Bulkley and Stikine Rivers and camped and canoed with our family around many of the local rivers. We highly value our rivers and the life they offer. Other people here obviously value these gifts. Some have travelled, some have missed work or had to hire a babysitter to be here and at other public hearings, and some werent able to make it at all because they still had to go to work. This is unlike representatives from Enbridge or their foreign investors, who are all paid to promote their cause. This gives us an unequal playing field. The government also is happy to have foreign investment in this project but not allow foreign sources of funding for groups that value their living space. This, too, leads to an unequal playing field. Louise Burgener I want to speak on behalf of the Great Chief Kwah. The salmon, the rivers, the lakes, the ocean are all one. The salmon unite the people, the waters and the land. For thousands of years, the salmon have sustained us. Now you come along and say you have a better plan for us, for the people, the lakes, the ocean, a pipeline. Progress. Your plan shows your lack of respect for our traditions, for life itself. This is not new to us. The fur traders have come and gone. The government experts have mishandled land resources, fish and wildlife, forestry, environmental pollution. This continued mismanagement and poisoning of our country puts us all in real danger. What is the global plan for clean water? How do we fit into it? What is the global plan for healthy forests, for survival of all species? How does Enbridge plan to fit into this? It doesnt. To Enbridge, it doesnt matter. Dennis Cumberland They always complain its too much money, too much infrastructure and not enough skilled labour to further refine the bitumen in Alberta, in Canada, but I think we could do that. The bottom line is that they just want to push it out as quickly as possible. And within a generation, most of the -- most of that easy to get to resource will be gone, our environment will be ruined and the culture, especially of Alberta and the First Nations there, will be ruined. Ive been called a lefty and a radical for having this point of view, but heres just some fun little true conservative values. Behave like an owner. Get your fair share. Save for a rainy day. Slow down. Add value. Do one project at a time. So even with all the environmental concerns aside, strictly on an economically conservative angle, this is wrong. Add in the threats to our environment, to our culture and to the way of life of the Aboriginal peoples of this land, this is a non-starter, a wrong-headed idea that must and will be stopped. Lionel Roy Conant

Another reason that Im opposed to this project is that I have no faith in the Enbridge Corporation. Ive no faith in their ability to prevent a spill, to respond to a spill, and to put communities and environment before their profit margins. They have been cavalier and dishonest in conversations with us in this community. They have been found to be negligible in their handling of the Kalamazoo spill of 2010 yet come to our community expecting accolades for their cleanup efforts. Their information was at best inaccurate, insufficient, and dishonest, and at worst insulting and degrading to those community members who asked them questions. Louise Evans-Salt

Many ways, especially those medicine we get out of the land, berries, everywhere we use it. Trapping, now, were already -- the boys are getting ready, the trail for the fall time to start trapping. We dont just live on store or anything like that. We have to use our hunting and everything. Teach our young people. Even summer theyre all out with us. What theyre going to do? Like, they taught us when we were young. Our parents they taught us how to be trapping, fishing and hunting. I think its our best that, if the pipeline, best is not to use -go through our land. We are very worried things happening today, no matter what, everything always -- something happens. I think this is all I could say and thank you for listening to me, and hope for the best for our young people, for the future. Betsy Leon We, as Aboriginal people, we live -- like Betsy said, we live off the land. We love to eat our moose meat, our bear meat, we love to pick our berries, we like to eat our fish and if the pipeline goes through, were not going to have any of that and how are we going to survive? Youll continue destructing our country in Canada and our people are going to be -- our Aboriginal people are not going to be faring very well because we live off the land and I would really like for the -- for all of you to really think about the destruction that is going to destroy our land here in Fort Saint James area. Susan Crookes

So in conclusion, I would like the Review Panel to think; think about building a pipeline that is guaranteed to spill, be poorly regulated and maintained, that ships a product that is proven to be doing irreversible damage to our planet, putting our provinces growing tourism industry under threat and discrediting Canada worldwide. We know better, so lets do better. Do better so you can look at yourself in the mirror in 20 years and know you did the right thing for the generations that follow you. I know I am. I say no tankers, and no thanks. Jana Gainor

We live off the land and we live off the water, and thats where I get my food for my children, and the berries and medicine we get in the bush. And all this is being affected by all these things. We need it to survive, especially my children and grandchildren, not only them, but other young people. And they need -- we need to -- you need to think about these things and spare us these things that we need. We need these things to live on, and thats what we were taught. I dont know how to explain it, but thats our survival for the native people here and the way we live and the way we act. Selina Lazarre

Once the pipeline crosses in front of Sandras house, it runs up her driveway to Airport Road, where it eventually hits Dells place. Dells a farmer. Hes in his mid-80s and hes still farming like hes always done. The proposed pipeline runs alongside his property. In fact, the permanent right-of-way will obliterate his potato field, and those potatoes look fabulous right now, I have to tell you. From the pump station, the pipeline crosses more rich agricultural lands and, as it heads across the highway it goes along Frost Road. Frances lives further along the proposed route on Frost Road. The pipeline, as proposed, runs, to be honest, right through the middle of her kitchen counter. So the pipeline is not, as the Application repeatedly states, always in a remote, sparsely populated rural area. It runs through neighbourhoods like mine, not only here, but in Burns Lake and in other communities. Kandace Kerr

Thirdly, in my opinion, this proposed pipeline facility is designed to go in the wrong direction. From a Canadian perspective, why do we import over half of our energy from offshore in order to satisfy the needs of Eastern Canada and then ship up to 850,000 barrels per day of petroleum-based product in an unrefined form across a large portion of our globe in order to have this project refined where environmental safeguards are in no way guaranteed? This defies rational explanation and suggests that the decisions promoting this project are being made on values that have very little to do with the environment and of interest to downstream stakeholders. George Labrush

And I just imagine how one oil spill would impact the salmon and impact our life. I cant imagine not having salmon. And its not -- its our identity, that is who we are. That is what we are about; from the land we get our identity. From the language we get our identity. And my children have a right to continue to live as Dakelh people. And that is what I want to tell to Enbridge, you have no right to come in here and say that you need this. This is a project that is profits for a few but consequences for everybody. And the rights of my six year old daughter I want her to know that I stood up and I fought for her and her children to be able to live off the land, to be able to continue to fish, to be able to provide for her family. Anne Marie Sam The fish that come from the Stuart River and the Stuart Lake are -- all of the species that come from there, the salmon, the Stuart -the early Stuart run, the late Stuart run, the char, the rainbow trout and all of the other species that we fish are all very, very important to us. Theyre important to us being able to maintain our culture. Theyre important because they feed us. And I just cant say enough how important it is to us that this project has the potential to wipe out these salmon runs that we depend on and I dont believe that we will -- our community -- any of our communities along the pipeline will benefit from this pipeline. And I hope that this Review Panel will respect our decision that we cannot let this pipeline through. Rosemarie Sam

I am very concerned about the proposal for the pipeline to cross the Stuart River. A spill at this point would devastate the river. We have not signed any agreement with Enbridge, nor were consulted. Its so important for us to fight for our land, the environment. What we have is God-given to us. I think the government, people from other places that live in cities, do not know how we live. I work with Parks Canada in Fort St. James as interpreter, and we get tourists from Germany -- even from Vanderhoof. As close as Vanderhoof, they dont know how we live. I demonstrated to them what the beaver was, and how we lived, how we trapped, how we hunted. The kids were so amazed. And I work with Royal B.C. Museum. We did exhibits in Civic Centre in Prince George. Theres 500 school kids came through. And I showed them how we got out meat from the land. I said you guys go to McDonalds, we go out in the bush and we get our moose. Then I showed them how we process the hide, and then how it comes to be with tanned hide and moccasins. And the little children were so amazed at who we were, what we can do, how our ancestors survived. We are a proud people, and we pray that you would listen to us. Lillian Sam In every society across the world, water is the most important thing. Without that, you dont exist. So just to have the threat of something destroying our waterways and our animals and fish and all these things that live in there and depend on this water is scary. It is scary because there are too many people involved, too many animals involved. Our lifestyle, our being here, it will not be stopped. As long as I live and breathe, Enbridge will not come through Nakazdli. Keith Prince

It is up to us as a community to stand together as we are, which Im very proud to be a part of. We need to look after our back yard. We need to look after our neighbours back yard. We need to look after our communitys back yard. We need to look after Nakazdlis back yard, and we also need to look after the provinces back yard. And the voice from our back yard is loud and clear, and its saying no to this pipeline. Chad Lantz

I have lived in this area for over 40 years, and every level of government has supported any corporation who has been interested in developing a resource in this area with or without any public consultation. And why not? Even Enbridge calls this the wilderness. It is sparsely populated and we are, for the most part, farmers and loggers and First Nations. There are too few people to make a difference, and that demographic has framed our past and dictates our future. Maintaining power is a politicians main concern, and we have no impact at the ballot box. Now they want to put this awful pipeline under an important salmon-bearing river that is less than 20 miles from my house, and Im luckier than most people in this room. Have you any idea how tired we are of all of this? This is our home, and none of the people in power care that it is being destroyed because its all about money. When Enbridge came along with the plan to build this dual pipeline all across the north, Im sure that Mr. Harper thought it would be a cakewalk and he would quickly give it a thumbs up, like 90 percent of all projects in this country. But surprise, this one is different. This one affects our entire province. That is why there are thousands of us against it. Glenda Olson We have the government along with other big companies like Enbridge sell our resources to foreign countries. This is just being very greedy. Greed is a bad word for our native people. We share and all this is going to foreign countries while we do without or pay the price that we cannot afford and ruining our livelihood. You got foreign countries where the poor people are kicked off their land for business and for everything, just for money, and theyre out in the desert, no water, no food, and theyre crying for people to help them. And this is what were heading for, and this is what we want to prevent. If this happens to us, even now we have to buy water -- thats no no. If this happens is Enbridge going to turn around and say, Here, you poor people, heres some clean water. Heres some food, are they going to come and help us? Catherine Coldwell

And I realized that were sort of in a situation thats much like a dystopia. You might recall what some of those dystopias are, like Orwells 1984 where there was -- you know -- the big brother thing and the information that that character had was very limited. And he knew something was wrong but he didnt really know what it was. Or in the Brave New World where all the children are trained right from birth; theyre inundated with this idea that materialism is the most critical thing. You know, you dont reuse your clothing; you dont do any of those sorts of things. That those things are really a -- a part of what makes everyone happy. So theyre indoctrinated from birth to believe that materialism is critical and that conformity to the norm is part of what makes the world a happy place. And some of the younger people in the audience may be familiar with the Hunger Games, which is also a dystopia. And in all of these worlds, what they have in common is that individual rights are tightly controlled by corporations and that theres always a dehumanized government that has no direct connection with the people. And theres these philosophical and ideological dictatorships. And I started to think about how much we are becoming like that. How it may be subtle and it may not seem as insidious, but it really is a concern. So I felt like I had a duty to my students to speak up even if I believe it will take a lot more of us with a much bigger voice to stop this pipeline project in the long run. Shelley Van Erp Basically, I want to sum up my personal feelings because I have lived here all my life. My family built our home and a business and raised us five children. I eventually moved away and went travelling across the world over to Africa. I went as far away from here as I could go, but I could not find a more beautiful place and ended up back here to raise my children. I deny Enbridge social licence. I oppose this pipeline project. I do not legitimize this project. I will not stand by and watch Enbridge move in and think they can take this history away or the opportunity to raise my children in a free wildlife experience. Loretta Turgeon

I grew up here in Fort St. James. We moved here over 40 years ago when I was a kid. I made my way home back after graduate school and married into a long-time local family. My mother-in-law and my sister-in-law and my husband own a half section of land immediately across the road from the proposed pumping station. The pipeline crosses the top of our family property and then crosses Pitka Creek. Pitka Creek lies within my mother-in-laws -- within our family property. So my family is a directly affected landowner. Pitka Creek is on our property and, within our property, it is fully treed and undisturbed. The pipeline would, of course, remove this vegetation and create more risk of sediment delivery to an already compromised fish-bearing stream. Pitka Creek flows directly into Stuart Lake. A full bore rupture into Pitka Creek could significantly contaminate Stuart Lake and, of course, potentially the Stuart River. Joanne Vinnedge Unfortunately, theres no formula yet that will convert elements of nature into dollars and cents. Can you image; a $100 for every salamander over 5 years old; $1,000 for every 100 cubic metres of pure river water; $2,000 for every mature seal. It sounds cold and calculated I know, but how else will decision-makers be able to envision the whole picture on environmentally risky projects like this? As it stands, the projected budget sheets for such projects will always be inaccurate because they do not and cannot include the value of the natural world. So the natural world becomes virtually invisible on balance sheets. Sure we can plug in dollars and cents to represent the commercial fishery and tourist industries, but do we ever consider that other services that nature provides to us? What services do organisms in the soil provide that are essential for the functioning of the entire ecosystem? How much are these services worth? These services are just as essential to our functioning on this planet as the income from industries, but they are glossed over and poorly understood. For me there is no dollar amount that could ever justify the risks inherent in this project. As humans, we simply have no means to replace what we stand to lose. Lisa Burgener So why are we preparing to ship hydrocarbons halfway around the world? If the planet produces them, they are likely to be just as abundant there. Bryan Muloin

Last September, when I began to put my thoughts together for this presentation, we did not hear much about how well Canada provides for its own needs for crude oil. I think we felt that if we were considering the export of crude oil to the U.S. and all over the world, then we would be providing for our own needs first. I think we assumed that there was an East/West pipeline within Canada taking Alberta crude oil to Ontario and Quebec to provide the raw resources needed by oil refineries there. I have since found that there is no pipeline crossing Canadian territory delivering Albertas crude oil to Canadian refineries in Eastern Canada. Ive also read that there has not been an oil refinery put into production since the mid-70s. Ive heard that about one-half of Canadians living in Ontario and east are dependent upon other countries to supply our refineries in Eastern Canada with crude oil needed to be turned into petroleum products they need. For Canada, a country supposedly self-sufficient in crude oil to be dependent on other countries, some of which are either unstable or unfriendly, for crude oil to keep our refineries producing product and employing Canadian workers is difficult to understand. I expect the National Energy Board, one of the participants in this Joint Review Panel, would recognize that in the interest of Canadian energy security, this situation is just not acceptable. Denis Wood

Produced by the Northwest Institute