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An agreement has been signed between the Kitselas First Nation and TransCanada.
The deal is an important milestone in the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline project, as the Kitselas First Nation has been negotiating with TransCanada for the last few years. Though the particular details of the agreement cannot be released, Kitselas Chief Joe Bevan said that they include immediate payment upon signing, long-term contributions to the First Nations group over the course of the project, training initiatives, and the hearing of environmental issues or concerns.
“Even though the pipeline does not run through our traditional territory, it does affect our traditional marine harvesting areas,” said Bevan. In particular, the environmental concerns were on how the proximity to the pipeline would impact the seabed and access to traditional harvesting areas.
(Photo Credit: Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project)
“We were happy with the way negotiations went,” said Bevan. “TransCanada is an outstanding corporate citizen. They worked with us hand in hand to develop some trust as well, so that goes a long way for us.”
He says that the benefits of the agreement will help not only the Kitselas, but the whole northwest with the ability to both mitigate risks and address problems. “From what we see from the management plan, we’re fairly happy that things will go off with very low impact to the harvesting areas,” said Bevan.
TransCanada has also signed deals with the Gitanyow and Nisga’a First Nations, the latter being most directly affected as the pipeline is going straight through their territory.
(Photo Credit: Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project)
“It has always been the highest priority for us to negotiate with, and have the support of, every Aboriginal group that will be directly impacted by our proposed pipeline,” says Davis Sheremata, a spokesperson from TransCanada.
“PRGT has made substantial changes to the route in response to First Nation and stakeholder input, to avoid areas of environmental sensitivity, and to improve constructability of the project,” said Davis. “As a result, PRGT's route length has increased from 750 km to almost 900 km, including over 100 km of marine pipeline that was not part of our initial project description.”
The proposed pipeline would transport natural gas from a point close to the District of Hudson’s Hope to the proposed NorthWest LNG facility on Lelu Island near Prince Rupert.
(Photo Credit: Prince Rupert Gas Transmission Project)
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