Friday, September 29, 2023
No Result
View All Result
  • Media
Support Us
Macdonald-Laurier Institute
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Coates in the Globe: Fate of Northern Gateway rests with Aboriginals

June 18, 2014
in Columns, Domestic Policy Program, Economic policy, Energy, In the Media, Indigenous Affairs Program, Latest News
Reading Time: 3 mins read
A A

Writing in the Globe and Mail, MLI Senior Fellow writes that winning the approval of First Nations groups for the Northern Gateway pipeline will be a key component of the project now that the federal government has given its conditional approval.

Coates says it’s up to the government and businesses to build public support by engaging First Nations with initiatives such as Aboriginal equity investment and job creation and training opportunities.

Ken Coates, June 17, 2014

The government of Canada has made an obvious and much-anticipated decision on the Northern Gateway pipeline, but the debate is far from over. Based on the report of the Joint Review Panel, which recommended approval subject to important modifications and conditions, and the government’s strong commitment to resource development, few expected the plan to be rejected.

Now the real work begins. The criticism of the Northern Gateway project is broad and comprehensive, but there are three main opponent groups who have to be addressed:

First are the environmentalists, who oppose the expanded development of the oil sands and see the northern Alberta resource as a climate-change danger. This group is substantially unreconcilable. Their critique is well-known, and the federal government has rejected their intervention on many occasions. There is no federal effort to mollify this group.

Second are the environmentalists concerned about the potential effects of an oil spill on northern British Columbia and the coastal waterways outwards from Kitimat. The worries expressed by this group are widely held and would mobilize many residents to take action. Here, the government is making a commitment to world-leading standards of construction, supervision, emergency response and remediation.

The third group of critics are the First Nations along the proposed pipeline route. Some First Nations are in the first two groups. But there is a large group – the relative size is unknown – that insists on proper attention to aboriginal rights, an appropriate level of consultation (much higher than has been used to present), adequate and substantial participation, and a fair return to First Nations from the project, should it proceed.

It is with the latter group that the fate of the project, in political terms, rests. First Nations are upset about how the Northern Gateway proposal has unfolded to this point. They are far from reconciled to the idea of a major bitumen pipeline through their traditional territories. With land claims unresolved throughout this territory and with widely different views of the meaning of the Supreme Court orders on “duty to consult and accommodate,” First Nations believe – and assert – that they hold the power to determine if the Northern Gateway Pipeline proceeds.

The First Nations’ position is legally tenuous – many years of court hearings would be needed to determine the final answers – but practically realistic. It is difficult to imagine the pipeline proceeding in the face of strong and angry First Nations opposition. The political and logistical challenges – imagine Caledonia times five or 10 – would be formidable and the political fallout so substantial that it could easily prove to be destabilizing on a national scale. For a variety of reasons, First Nations people have come to see the Northern Gateway as the turning point in their role in national economic development and environmental protection. In its announcement, the government requires the company to undertake additional consultations with First Nations.

It is not difficult to imagine the pipeline proceeding, however. To a degree that governments have been reluctant to say, perhaps for fear of skewing the national debate, governments need the revenue from the oil sands. Greater understanding of the relationship between the oil sands, Northern Gateway and the sustainability of health care, educational and social services would perhaps provide Canadians with a greater sense of the real choices at hand.

With a sustained and collaborative approach to First Nations by government and businesses, it is possible to imagine an appropriate and mutually acceptable strategy for moving forward. This model would likely include aboriginal equity investment, training and job creation opportunities, a key role for First Nations in environmental monitoring, protection and remediation, and long-term payments to First Nations for their participation in a project that crosses their traditional lands.

There are two possible outcomes from the Northern Gateway Pipeline approval: sustained aboriginal opposition that would generate nationwide support and challenge resource development across the country, or an inclusive and collaborative approach that recognizes aboriginal rights and interests, that is creative and forward-looking, and that respects First Nations as long-term partners in Canadian prosperity. Canada’s economic future may rest, to a surprising degree, on making sure that government and the affected businesses opt for the second option.

Ken Coates is Canada Research Chair in regional innovation at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy in Saskatchewan, and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute. He is co-author of theMLI paper “The Way Out: New Thinking about Aboriginal Engagement and Energy Infrastructure to the West Coast”.

Share this:
Previous Post

Newsletter Vol. V, No. 7 (June 16, 2014)

Next Post

MLI authors quoted in the Globe, Star Phoenix on Northern Gateway

Related Posts

Kishida’s mixed bag of successes and shortcomings: Stephen Nagy in the Japan Times
Columns

Kishida’s mixed bag of successes and shortcomings: Stephen Nagy in the Japan Times

September 28, 2023
MLI in Parliament: Richard Shimooka on defence procurement
Video

MLI in Parliament: Richard Shimooka on defence procurement

September 28, 2023
Conservative populism can break elitism and fix institutions: Jamil Jivani in the National Post
Columns

The dark reality of foreign transnational repression in Canada: Marcus Kolga in iPolitics

September 28, 2023
Next Post
Chinese Communist Party

MLI authors quoted in the Globe, Star Phoenix on Northern Gateway

Newsletter Signup

Follow us on

Macdonald-Laurier Institute

323 Chapel Street, Suite #300
Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 7Z2 Canada

613.482.8327

info@macdonaldlaurier.ca
MLI directory

Support Us

Support the Macdonald-Laurier Institute to help ensure that Canada is one of the best governed countries in the world. Click below to learn more or become a sponsor.

Support Us

  • Inside Policy Magazine
  • Annual Reports
  • Jobs
  • Privacy Policy

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Who Makes MLI Work
    • Tenth Anniversary
  • Experts
    • Experts Directory
    • In Memoriam
  • Issues
    • Domestic Policy
      • Agriculture and Agri-Food
      • Canada’s Political Tradition
      • Economic policy
      • Health Care
      • Innovation
      • Justice
      • Social issues
      • Telecoms
    • Energy Policy
      • Energy
      • Environment
    • Foreign Policy
      • Foreign Affairs
      • National Defence
      • National Security
    • Indigenous Affairs
  • Projects
    • The Great Energy Crisis
    • Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad
    • Dragon at the Door
    • Canada and the Indo-Pacific Initiative
    • The Transatlantic Program
    • DisInfoWatch.org
    • Competition Policy in Canada
    • Speak for Ourselves
    • Justice Report Card
    • COVID Misery Index
      • Provincial COVID Misery Index
      • Beyond Lockdown
      • COVID and after: A mandate for recovery
    • Indigenous Prosperity at a Crossroads
      • Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resources
    • Past Projects
      • The Eavesdropping Dragon: Huawei
      • Talkin’ in the Free World with Mariam Memarsadeghi
      • An Intellectual Property Strategy for Canada
      • Munk Senior Fellows
      • A Mandate for Canada
      • Confederation Series
      • Fiscal Reform
      • The Canadian Century project
      • Fixing Canadian health care
      • Internal trade
      • From a mandate for change
      • Size of government in Canada
      • Straight Talk
      • Labour Market Report
      • Leading Economic Indicator
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Past Events
      • MLI Dinners
      • Great Canadian Debates
  • Latest News
  • Libraries
    • Inside Policy
    • Papers
    • Commentary
    • Columns
    • Books
    • Video

© 2021 Macdonald-Laurier Institute. All Rights reserved.

IDEAS CHANGE THE WORLD!Have the latest Canadian thought leadership delivered straight to your inbox.
First Name
Last Name
Email address

No thanks, I’m not interested.