About 50 Squamish Nation members attended the second Nation meeting on the proposed Woodfibre LNG export facility and associated FortisBC natural gas pipeline expansion on Tuesday night.
Experts brought in by the Squamish Nation held a technical briefing on the Mission Reserve in North Vancouver about preliminary findings of the Nation’s independent review of the projects.
Squamish Nation Chief Ian Campbell said members expressed concerns about various aspects of the projects and process.
“Overall, the magnitude of development in Squamish territory, the accumulative impacts, how does this fit with the overall vision that the Nation has for the revitalization of Howe Sound – those are general concerns of trust of government and industry [that were raised],” Campbell told The Squamish Chief Wednesday morning.
In terms of his own trust of government and industry, Campbell said the Nation has made progress.
“By conducting our own analysis, that has certainly changed the status quo on how things have been done through Canada’s regulatory assessments. Typically in the past, First Nations have more or less been looked at as stakeholders for governments to make decisions and weigh our concerns. Here, the Squamish Nation is exercising their authority to be able to conduct their own independent analysis.”
The first technical briefing was held last week in Squamish.
Next, all the scientific data – and members’ responses – will be collected. Squamish Nation Council will make a decision when it votes on the proposed projects this spring.
