UBCIC Demands Halt to Proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline Over Climate Concerns

The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) has called on the governments of Canada and Alberta to halt efforts to advance the proposed West Coast Oil Pipeline. The pipeline threatens both the inherent rights of First Nations and accelerates the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, which is exacerbating climate disasters across the country.

The UBCIC Chiefs Council reaffirmed opposition to a new oil pipeline and tanker projects transporting oil to and through Canada's Pacific Coast in British Columbia. They express alarm about the climate impacts of new oil pipelines and reject efforts to characterize pipeline expansion as being in the national interest where First Nations' title, rights, jurisdiction, and environmental protection would be undermined.

The UBCIC calls on Canada and Alberta to halt any decision to list the West Coast Oil Pipeline as a project of national interest unless they have consulted and cooperated in good faith with the First Nations concerned in order to obtain their free, prior, and informed consent. They must respect the decisions of First Nations that withhold consent and ensure that any assessment fully addresses cumulative effects, oil-spill and marine-shipping risks, impacts to lands, waters, salmon, and other species, and the destructive and disastrous climate consequences of the oil production growth required to support the pipeline.