Flip Flop by Grand Chief Stewart Phillip – Its a matter of Trust

Over the last few days Chief Stewart Phillip went from reviving the Northern Gateway Pipeline to, being apposed it all along.  Chief Stewart Phillip backtracked in a follow up statement saying “I sincerely apologies for any confusion on this point.” Well to be truthful the points he made originally were pretty darned clear and the only confusion that exists now is who put the proverbial gun to his head to make him recant everything he said. 

I will give you a copy “verbatim” his own words, and let you ask the obvious question, you have to be pretty naive to believe he could flip flop that much without having a gun to his head. So who was holding the gun to his head? Was it internal, was he being told to repeal his statement in order to keep his job? Was it the American led environmental movement, or the even less likely threat from Trump himself? Or was it a phone call from the BC Green Party threatening to pull his membership?

Worse it shows he is not in charge of making statements, that he is a puppet for those pulling his strings. It begs the question of who is the puppet and who is pulling the strings?

Why does it matter to us in the Skeena—Bulkley Valley? Because everyone that lives here is dependant local jobs and local economy, projects like this are the backbone of our communities.

 

One thing is certain, as of today, nothing Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says is worth a lick of salt when you can flip flop to such an extreme. But let’s see exactly what Grand Chief Stewart Phillip originally said, its the only untainted version of what he really thinks, the rest is knee jerk reaction to (people with a gun to his head) opposed to “Everything Fossil Fuel”.

 

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip said Tuesday that while he “really fought against” Northern Gateway’s construction before it was scuttled in 2016, that was a “different time” and Canada now has “no choice” but to reconsider.

“We are staring into the abyss of uncertainty right now with climate change, the climate crisis and the American threat,” Phillip said in a news conference ahead of a meeting with B.C. First Nations leaders and the provincial cabinet in Vancouver, highlighting the U.S. administration under President Donald Trump.

“I would suggest that if we don’t build that kind of infrastructure, Trump will – and there will not be any consideration for the environment or the rule of law or anything along those lines.

“I think that we can do better. I think we need to do better.”

 

More from the same man.

Since the days where Phillip and others opposed the Northern Gateway project, a number of agreements that he described as “amazing” between First Nations, governments and corporations on resource development have yielded “clearly evident” benefits for Indigenous communities.

 

 

“The question now is can we trust anything Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says?”

 

 

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip made some really good points.

• that was a “different time” and Canada now has “no choice” but to reconsider.
• I would suggest that if we don’t build that kind of infrastructure, Trump will
• I think that we can do better. I think we need to do better

 

 

“the project was scuttled by politics, not by its lack of merits or due to environmental issues”

 

 

FACTS

 

On 4 December 2009, Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) issued the Joint Review Panel Agreement and the terms of reference for the environmental and regulatory review of the Northern Gateway Pipelines.

Enbridge Northern Gateway submitted its project application to the National Energy Board on 27 May 2010. The eight-volume regulatory application was assessed by a Joint Review Panel (JRP) established by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) and the National Energy Board (NEB) On 19 January 2011, the JRP requested that Enbridge provide additional information on the design and risk assessment of the pipelines due to the difficult access and unique geographic location of the proposed project.

On 17 June 2014 the Canadian government accepted the project’s proposal. It set out 209 conditions, identified in 2013 by a Joint Review Panel, to be resolved during the next phase of the regulatory process.

 

On the same day Grand Chief Stewart Phillip made his comments Alberta Premier Danielle Smith suggested on social media that construction of the pipeline needs to “immediately start.”

 

 

 

 

Its time we gave our collective heads a shake and understand that we as humans are not as stupid as many environmental extremists think we are. Consider this, the Trans Mountain Pipeline construction began in 1952, and operations commenced in 1953. All of this based on information that that is now more that 70 years old. It would be insane to think as humans we have not advance our ability to build better, safer and have better safeguards, better environmental assessments today than we did 70 years ago. Trans Mountain pipeline have been responsible for 78 spills along the pipeline route. To give an accurate list of costs of spills in really impossible and the anti pipeline people (CBC included) bury search engines with “green washed” bullshit paid for mostly by the America Tides Foundation and other anti-everything organizations. However all oil spills are paid for by the pipelines owners and in the end it amounts to a small amount of cost compared the the enormous benefits it brings Canadians.

If we are going to transition away from fossil fuels, we need funding, that could only come from fossil fuels, we will never be able to do that without funding it by selling fossil fuels to the countries that still rely on it.

Not only do we need to build a major pipeline to export our oil, we need to get rid of the most stupid legislation Nathan Cullen ever conjured up as a ways and means to land lock Canadian oil. Likewise we need to repeal Bill C-69 and thankfully the Conservatives have promised to repeal it.

Consider this “Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer, currently supplying 6% of global production. Canada is the fifth-largest producer of natural gas, supplying 5% of global demand. The energy sector (oil, gas, electricity) constitutes more than 10% of Canada’s total gross domestic product (GDP). In 2023, the latest year of available data, the energy sector provided, directly and indirectly, almost 700,000 jobs or 3.5% of all jobs in Canada. And Canadian energy exports totalling $200 billion comprised 28% of all Canadian exported goods.” Keeping the oil in the ground is the most stupid thing Canada has ever done to rob our citizens of their rightful heritage.

MORE INSANITY

“In 2017, Trudeau introduced Bill C-48, which restricts oil tankers off Canada’s west coast and limits the ability of Canada’s oilsands sector to export product to new markets, keeping Canada’s energy resources trapped in a discount-price U.S. market. Also in 2017, much to the fury of many Albertans, Trudeau announced his intention to phase out oilsands production, the foundation of Alberta’s prosperity.” “n 2018, Trudeau introduced Bill C-69, which tightened Canada’s environmental assessment process for major infrastructure projects and made the process of obtaining government permission for major energy projects more costly, time-consuming and arbitrary, thus increasing uncertainty across the energy sector. And he introduced the carbon tax despite strenuous opposition by Canada’s energy sector and energy-producing provinces.”

Please read the following article “Revive Northern Gateway pipeline to build strong resource corridor” there is a lot information there that people need to learn.