Newsletter: Alliance launches podcast series

Our newsletter: 19 March 2022

Alliance launches podcast series

Now online, the first two podcasts in our initial Leadership Showcase series of four.

First up was Kim Baird (above), former elected chief of the Tsawwassen Nation, chancellor of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, and a key advisor to the Alliance.

She talks of LNG, the energy transition and the climate future, and says: “I think it’s important that we . . . think about First Nation involvement in all of that, whether it’s renewable energy in the future, or the strategies involved in the critical minerals that will be needed for green energy.”
And on the Road to Reconciliation: “The history of Canada is one of colonization where First Nations were pretty much taken out at the knee, and then blamed for not being able to sustain themselves with the tiny reserves they were herded onto and resources systematically taken away, including access to economic opportunities, and participation in the mainstream economy. This undermining has happened for well over a century and then people are surprised about the current situation. And it’s not just a First Nation challenge. It’s one for all Canadians to be concerned about, to overcome the poverty and overcome the inequities.”

Second in the podcast series was Crystal Smith (above), elected chief councillor of the Haisla Nation, chair of our First Nations LNG Alliance, and a key person in her nation’s Cedar LNG project.

On LNG: “We’re so grateful today that LNG Canada and Coastal Gaslink both announced their positive final investment decisions, thus giving us the opportunity to start training, providing educational supports for our membership, bringing our people home, and implementing programming that would essentially work on behalf of them as opposed to any other level of government. We’ve seen . . . our nation progress through signing Impact Benefit Agreements, and being actively a part of the development and the construction of these facilities. And now, on to our next level of reconciliation . . . actually ownership and major ownership of a project and that is Cedar LNG.”

On reconciliation: ‘I am seeing so many First Nations that are that are willing to be a part of that process. And that willingness to be a part of the process, and essentially take our own future into our own hands, I think that is the beginning. That is the beginning of progressing this conversation and progressing our nations forward in this country.”

 Future podcast guests scheduled:

  • Clifford White, a hereditary leader and a former elected chief councillor of the Gitxaala Nation, and vice-chair of the Alliance;
  • Eva Clayton, elected president of the Nisga’a Nation, secretary of the Alliance, and a leader of her nation’s major Ksi Lisims LNGproject.

The interviewer and host is Stewart Muir, executive director of Resource Works.

Next online Outreach session

Our 10th Diversity and Inclusion session is coming up on Wednesday March 23. The topic: safe and inclusive work spaces. As ever, it will run from 11:45 am PDT to 1 pm, and you can register here: https://bit.ly/3oAaXe4

Our ninth session was held via Zoom on 23 Feb. 2022, and looked at First Nations monitoring and input on the environmental impact of LNG, pipeline, and resource development.

Read about it here: http://ow.ly/UOm550Im4nI

And the winners are . . .

Congrats to the three winners of iPads in our recent survey: Marie Nobles of the Ts’il Kaz Koh Nation; Eloisa Turgeon, Nak’azdli Whut’en; and Jason Alexis, Saik’uz.

And our thanks go to the 94 people who filled in the survey, which closed on March 10.

ALSO IN THE NEWS

EVENTS

  •  March 29: Haisla Chief Councillor Crystal Smith speaks on charting a course to an inclusive, net-zero future in Canada, while contributing to Indigenous self-determination. This is part of the Globe Forum, in person and online. Info/register: http://ow.ly/bp2i50ImEbX
  • And on March 30, leaders and partners from the First Nations Climate Initiative unveil their blueprint for aJust Transition to net zero by 2050 in Northern BC. This, too, is part of the Globe Forum, in person and online: Info/register: http://ow.ly/bp2i50ImEbX
  • April 25-26: the two-day hybrid (in-person and online) conference of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition. You can register here (free for Indigenous communities): http://ow.ly/5OoP50GKXKA
  • The Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase hosted by the Resource Works Society, is set for May 26-27, in-person and online. Indigenous participants are eligible for a complimentary virtual ticket. Learn more: https://www.indigenoussuccess.ca/ Register: https://events.eply.com/IPSS2022

Know someone who might be interested in our newsletter? Please let them know they can subscribe here, for free.

You’ll also find us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

(Posted here 21 March 2022)

 

First Nations LNG Alliance Newsletter