Our online Outreach session on 23 Feb. 2022 looked at First Nations monitoring and input on the environmental impact of LNG, pipeline, and resource development.
The speakers:
- Candice Wilson, environmental manager, Haisla Nation Council,
- Desiree Bolton, Wai Wah environmental, Kitselas Nation,
- Elizabeth MacDonald of Insight Resources (which trains environmental monitors), and
- Ken Howes, director, major projects & decision support, BC Oil and Gas Commission.
Host Kim Baird opened by describing environmental protection as ‘an extremely important issue’ in which ‘First Nations have to be involved from end to end.’
Candice Wilson
“I work a lot with industry in our area, to ensure our voices are being heard. . . . It’s innate in me to protect the environment, because we utilize all of the natural resources in our traditional territory.”
“With our involvement at the permitting level and environmental assessment, and our values being highlighted from the beginning, resource development can happen in an environmental respectful way, and that, in turn, turns into the economic benefit portion, and how Haisla have been leading the way on economic reconciliation.”
Desiree Bolton
“First Nations participation out in the field . . . is becoming common now. There’s a lot of areas in Terrace that I’ve worked with, various companies in town here, and they are grasping for First Nations participation.”
“It’s really nice to see how . . . the changes have been so positive, and that they (resource developers) are taking everything so serious. . . . I tell them that I’m not an environmentalist, I’m here to make sure that you’re following all the guidelines for the environment. . . . I’m here to assist you, and show you the way that it’s supposed to happen.”
Elizabeth MacDonald
“There is as much value now on traditional knowledge as there is on scientific knowledge,. And I think that’s a change in thought. . . . That’s the way things are done now, and I honestly think that the Haisla have really led the way in that thought process.”
“I think the main part of the training that really has to be included, when you’re working to have monitors that are well grounded and well attached to the territory . . . is realty bringing elders in and talking about how things used to be done.”
Ken Howes reviewed Indigenous participation in a number of BCOGC initiatives, among them restoration of orphan well-sites.
“Areas that were important for hunting, trapping, gathering, and medicinal and food plants, were part of what informs that input from Indigenous groups, so that occurred prior to designating those priority sites . . . before any of the reformation activities actually began, and traditional knowledge was very much informing that process as well.”
There’s much more in the full Zoom recording at http://ow.ly/uq4n50I5hbt
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- Our previous Outreach session on 26 Jan. 2022: How do you get started as an Indigenous entrepreneur? How do you fund and start your own business? See it here (And check out 2021 sessions on that same page.)
(Posted here 27 February 2022)
