Representatives of Wilp Luutkudziiwus, a house (Wilp) of the Gitxsan Nation, are in British Columbia’s Supreme Court this week asking the Court to overturn the Province’s substantial start decision that enables the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline project to proceed through Luutkudziiwus’ Madii Lii territory, located in the upper Skeena watershed.
The 800-km Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline (PRGT) would carry gas from northeastern British Columbia to the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG export facility, a distinct project, on the Pacific Coast. The pipeline would cross more than 34 kilometres of Wilp Luutkudziiwus’ Madii Lii territory, including some of the last remaining areas of untouched wilderness, as well as areas that Wilp members rely on to sustain their culture, identity and livelihood as Gitxsan people.
Hereditary Chief Luutkudziiwus (Charlie Wright) says: “The Province’s substantial start determination is silencing the significant and irreversible consequences that this decision will have on our territory. The Province’s decision will compromise our rights, title and the use of our lands—and we’re prepared to take this issue to the Supreme Court of Canada.”
Last June, the province announced the PRGT project was ‘substantially started,’ despite the fact that construction was prohibited on any section of the project, aside from an area that falls solely within Nisga’a Treaty lands and represents less than eight percent of the total project area. Nisga’a Nation and Western LNG are co-owners of the PRGT project. The project has not received a Final Investment Decision.
“The province has never properly consulted our Wilp. The substantial start determination leaves our concerns outstanding and unaddressed,” said Luutkudziiwus.
In the absence of a positive substantial start determination, the PRGT project’s 11-year-old environmental certificate expires and a new environmental assessment is required.