The answer is still no.
That’s what more than 500 Bulkley Valley residents said loud and clear on Saturday morning as they gathered to voice their opposition, once more, to Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
A march and rally, organized by the Friends of Morice-Bulkley, began in front of the Office of the Wet’suwet’en before snaking down Main Street and ending at Bovill Square.
Wet’suwet’en hereditary chief Na’Moks was the first to address the large crowd.
“When I look at these beautiful children here I think we are doing the right thing and nobody can tell us we’re not,” he said.
Earlier this week, Chief Na’Moks travelled to Calgary with a group of other First Nations and northern B.C. residents to let their opposition be known at Enbridge’s annual general meeting.
“It was such a great opportunity to stand there and look at their CEO Al Monaco and make him nervous. Whether we were a small contingent or a large contingent, the fact is they understand British Columbia does not want that project,” he said.
“I wanted to reiterate to Enbridge shareholders that our traditional laws banned pipelines on our territory. These laws are older than those of Canada and we’re committed to upholding our laws.”
Stikine NDP MLA Doug Donaldson said while he is convinced the project is more about money than the greater good, he also thinks if people in the region stand united against it, it will not proceed.
“There’s hope,” he said.
“What we did, all of us collectively, is forced this government into retreat on salmon farms, remember that? We’ve forced this government into retreat on coalbed methane drilling in the Sacred Headwaters, remember that? A tiny group of people in Kitimat, Douglas Channel Watch, they turned a major corporation and the BC Liberal government on its ear with a plebiscite a little while ago. So we can do it.
“We’re going to stand with the Wet’suwet’en and the First Nations all across the northwest, all across B.C., to say, ‘No damn way is Enbridge going to happen.’”
Smithers Mayor Taylor Bachrach said he was proud to be a part of a community whose town council said ‘No’ to Northern Gateway and joined many other cities, towns and regional districts in northern B.C. in doing so,
“I don’t think there’s ever been a project in Canadian history that has posed so much risk and is opposed by so many and yet it seems that sometimes our voices aren’t being heard,” Bachrach said.
“We want our kids to inherit a world in which the fish still swim up the rivers and in which they can drink the water right out of the ground, untreated, just like they do right here in the Town of Smithers.
“No matter how many glitzy, over the top, Orwellian television ads they bombard us with, we will never, ever, ever say ‘Yes’ to the Enbridge pipeline.”
Enbridge’s proposal is to build a twin 1,200-kilometre pipeline from Northern Alberta to Kitimat. One pipeline would transport up to 525,000 barrels of oil per day for transport to Asia through the Douglas Channel, the other would be used to carry condensate.
The federal government will make a decision on the project in the next month.