LNG ‘Watchmen’: Merging Economic Opportunity and Environmental Protection Key for Remote B.C. First Nation

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‘That buy-in is basically allowing Indigenous people to govern the environment and to sustain their families’

Chief Clifford White in Vancouver B.C. Photo by Jennifer Gauthier for the Canadian Energy Centre

There’s a good reason Chief Clifford White, a First Nations LNG Alliance board member and hereditary leader of the Gitxaala Nation near Prince Rupert, B.C., walks a fine line when it comes to resource development on or near his territory.

There’s a lot happening near the remote island village of Lax Klan (Kitkatla) – the $14.5 billion Coastal GasLink pipeline terminus, the $18 billion first phase of LNG Canada, and the proposed $3 billion Cedar LNG facility, 50 per cent owned by the Haisla Nation – all at the Port of Kitimat 120 kilometres east. To the north, the Nisga’a Nation and its partners have proposed the $10 billion Ksi Lisims LNG terminal on Pearse Island.

Once operating, the projects will deliver LNG by ship to Asian markets. A