Kitselas FN Signs IMBA; Concerning Language in the Throne Speech
Yesterday, Western LNG announced that Kitselas First Nation, which is located in and around Terrace, has signed an Impact Management and Benefit Agreement with the Ksi Lisims LNG project. As Western writes, this agreement is "the first of its kind for the project." Ksi Lisims and PRGT are in many ways one project, but the government and proponents treat them as separate for a variety of reasons. PRGT has a number of Impact Benefit Agreements (IBAs) signed with First Nations bodies along its route that date back about ten years, but Ksi Lisims LNG has signed none of these.
Last fall, Gitanyow ceremonially burned their old PRGT IBA, arguing that conditions had changed and they no longer consented to the project. IBAs are typically held under lock and key, so we can't find out the terms of these contracts, but there are a few exceptions that have allowed us to gain some insight. A leaked copy of a draft IBA for the Coastal GasLink project included a variety of concerning (and possibly illegal) features detailed in this brief published by the Yellowhead Institute. The IBA included a particularly concerning section that requires band governments to police dissent among their own people.
This kind of language is also in leaked documents related to IBAs for PRGT that were signed by some Gitxsan chiefs in 2016. You can find these documents, along with a presentation that explains the content of a contract we don't yet have access to, on the Lax'yip Firekeepers website. The described Article 11, "Support Covenants," requires signatories both to ensure that they will not support dissent by any Gitxsan members and to claim sole legal authority over their wilp's entire land base. Aboriginal title is held collectively, as far as both Canadian jurisprudence and Gitxsan law is concerned, and the legality of these agreements even within the colonial framework is questionable, but because of their punishing non-disclosure clauses and other forms of counterinsurgency, they haven't been challenged in court (as far as I'm aware). The people who would have the legal standing to challenge them — grassroots nation members, for lack of a better term — are typically unable to even see them.
It is likely that Ksi Lisims is pursuing similar agreements with other First Nations in the area. These agreements help the proponent and government to brand the project as "economic reconciliation" while undermining the potential for dissent from within surrounding Indigenous nations.
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Throne Speech
The 2025 "throne speech," delivered, bizarrely, by King Charles, made it clear that one of Carney's priorities is to make Canada the "world's leading energy superpower in both clean and conventional energy." Exactly what that means was left unclear. Canada is already the 4th largest producer of oil in the world. We are also a significant producer of so-called "clean energy," although that's overwhelmingly a result of massive-scale hydro development, and while we export some power to the US, domestic production hardly makes us a "superpower."
Some hints lie in the fact that Carney's Minister of Energy and Natural Resources has been using the term "nation-building projects," and Carney has apparently asked the provinces to identify major projects that the federal government can help fast-track. Some industry groups have started talking about reviving Energy East or LNG facilities in Quebec, but what everyone seems most serious about, including Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, is the idea of an "energy corridor" across northwest BC. Coastal GasLink was a beachhead for this project.
Chris Varcoe, a columnist for the Calgary Herald, suggested that the federal government will be seeking "quick wins" over the coming months and that these might include fast-tracking (likely through massive subsidies) "the second phase of the LNG Canada project and the Ksi Lisims LNG development." Exactly how the federal government will engage on these projects is unclear, but we're likely to find out one way or another in the coming months.