When the people of the Haida nation won a decades-long battle for recognition that an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia in Canada was rightfully theirs, it was a long overdue victory.
The unprecedented deal with the provincial and the federal governments meant the Haida no longer had to prove that they had Aboriginal title to the land of Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai, “the islands at the boundary of the world.”
Now, both governments will have to face what that might mean.
On Thursday, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, and the Alberta premier, Danielle Smith, agreed an energy deal centred on plans for a new heavy oil pipeline reaching from the province’s oil sands to the Pacific coast.
Heralded as a major political breakthrough between deadlocked parties, the deal lays the groundwork for an oil duct that could carry more than a million barrels each day from the oil sands to the Pacific. With new legislative powers, Carney’s government could also slash permitting and approval delays.
But the response from politically powerful nations, such as the Haida – whose consent the government needs – was both quick and simple: “This project is not going to happen.”
Gaagwiis, the president of the Haida nation, said the federal government had a duty to “uphold the honour of the crown” when working with his community.
“Trying to ram through a project puts that ‘honour’ in jeopardy,” he said. “This is an opportunity for the government of Canada and the prime minister, to look in the mirror and see what kind of country he wants to lead and what kind of country he wants Canada to be.”
Despite Carney’s pledge to obtain the full consent of First Nations – and to share any windfall – on any possible pipeline project, Gaagwiis said there was nothing federal or provincial leaders could say to move his nation.
“Because there’s absolutely nothing that can fully guarantee the safety of our communities from an oil spill, there’s nothing that can be said to convince us otherwise.”
Marilyn Slett, the president of the Coastal First Nations (CFN), which represents eight coastal First Nations including the Haida, said the group had no interest allowing tankers in coastal waters.
“We have zero interest in co-ownership or economic benefits of a project that has the potential to destroy our way of life and everything we have built on the coast,” she said.
Carney has been working to calm political strife among provincial leaders, and Thursday’s announcement was met with enthusiasm in Alberta. Speaking to the Calgary chamber of commerce, the prime minister received a standing ovation, a near-impossible feat for a Liberal leader in a conservative-leaning region.
Business groups have come out in favour of the deal, which the Canadian chamber of commerce says moves the country towards “economic cooperation, greater regulatory certainty and reduced tension”. Recent polling shows that a majority of Canadians – including a slim majority in British Columbia – are open to the idea of a pipeline. The vague outlines of a major infrastructure project have also piqued the interest of some First Nations in Alberta who have been promised a possible equity stake in any project.
The premise of Carney’s energy plan is that oil and gas exports can be increased while meeting the federal government’s climate targets. The federal government will exempt a possible pipeline project from the existing coastal oil tanker moratorium and emissions cap. In exchange, Alberta must raise its industrial carbon pricing and invest in a multibillion-dollar carbon capture project.
In theory, the deal goes a long way in bringing together Alberta and Ottawa in the pursuit of a common, nation-building goal. But critically, no private company has expressed an interest in backing a pipeline project that would face stiff opposition.
“No proponent, no route, no money, no First Nation support,” the British Columbia premier, David Eby, said after the announcement.
Eby, a strong critic of the deal after his province was excluded in talks, said any pipeline proposal “cannot draw limited federal resources, limited Indigenous governance resources, limited provincial resources away from the real projects that will employ people, provide the country with money that we desperately need, and provide investment and access to global markets”.
The agreement also cost Carney one of his most prominent cabinet ministers, Steven Guilbeault, who resigned hours after the signing of the agreement.
In a post on social media announcing his resignation, Guilbeault said the decision came with “great sadness”, but was necessary given his values as a longtime environmental advocate.
The decision to lay the groundwork for a possible heavy oil pipeline also reflects a political shift by Carney, who, before entering politics, developed credentials as a global economist focused on attaining a net zero future.
Jessica Green, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said: “Everything in this [agreement] says more fossil fuels, except the first line – where it says Canada and Alberta remain committed to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
“Call a spade a spade: if you want to double down on fossil fuels, at least have the guts to say it out loud.”
Green said the pact was a “dumpster fire” of a climate agreement after signalling politically that Canada was “all in” on fossil fuels.
But a protracted trade war with the US, Canada’s largest trading partner and closest political ally, has dramatically upended the country’s economic security. Much of Carney’s brief tenure as prime minister has focused on expanding potential markets outside of the US.
“Without the trade war and the tariffs, I imagine the economy would not be hurting in the way that it is,” said Green. “Nobody’s got a crystal ball, but in a world where we’re not haemorrhaging from the trade war, I imagine we don’t see this level of aggressive pandering to fossil fuel interests and infrastructure.”
For the remote coastal First Nations whose harvests and livelihood come from the Pacific Ocean, the threat of a pipeline is more than just a question of climate policy.
Gaagwiis said: “When people talk about this project, they need to understand an entire ecosystem could collapse in the event of a spill. Losing a culture that developed relationships with the ocean over thousands of years would be devastating. There needs to be respect for that.
“I see the reality setting in soon that there is no project, there’s no pipeline route, there’s no proponent – and there’s no support. Everyone here is against it. There are other ways for Alberta to find more business in moving oil. But it’s not going to be through the coast.”