News Release

August 29, 2018

Indigenous Opposition Steadfast as Kinder Morgan Canada Stockholders Prepare to Vote on Trans Mountain Deal

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – August 29, 2018) Tomorrow in Calgary, Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd stockholders are scheduled to vote on Canada’s offer to purchase the Trans Mountain pipeline and tanker project. They are widely expected to accept $4.5 billion from the federal government for a line they only paid $550 million for in 2005.

May 9, 2018, (Estok-Na Territory/Houston, Texas) Indigenous leadership from Canada made an emergency trip to the Kinder Morgan AGM in Houston this morning to present an overview of Indigenous opposition to the proposed Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. 

News Release

April 8, 2018

MAJOR WIN FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS AS KINDER MORGAN ANNOUNCES BEGINNING OF THE END FOR PIPELINE AND TANKER PROJECT

After Saturday blockade by Indigenous leaders and allies, Kinder Morgan announces project to be canceled by May 31 unless BC comes on board

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – April 8, 2018)  A day after a widely reported full day of blockading Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby Mountain tank farm by Indigenous leaders, Kinder Morgan Canada announced Sunday afternoon they were restricting all non-essential spending on the project, in a move seen as a major victory by Indigenous leaders.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC), stated “We said we wouldn’t let Kinder Morgan’s ticking, highly toxic time-bomb of a pipeline expansion happen and we won’t.  Kinder Morgan’s surprise announcement today demonstrates that when people unite and work together to protect Indigenous Title and Rights and the environment, and to stop climate change, we can win.  The proposed Trans Mountain Expansion project is coming to a screeching stop and we will be there until the end. This ill-conceived dirty oil pipeline will never be built.”

Indigenous leaders and people across Canada and the U.S. have promised escalating action to stop this pipeline from moving forward. International opposition to the tar sands project is on the rise.

“Rachel Notley’s increasingly wild threats to get the Kinder Morgan TMX pipeline rammed through are completely devoid of any acknowledgement that the project cannot happen without Indigenous consent,” said Chief Bob Chamberlin, Vice-President of UBCIC. “Even if Alberta becomes a shareholder in Kinder Morgan, that pipeline is simply not going through Indigenous territory without the ‘free, prior and informed consent’ of the Indigenous peoples impacted, as provided in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.”

Chief Judy Wilson, Secretary-Treasurer, stated “Yesterday, the full political Executive of the UBCIC stood with Indigenous leaders including my mom Minnie Kenoras, and expressed our staunch opposition to the TMX project.  It is no accident that today, Kinder Morgan has announced the beginning of the end. Opposition continues to grow as people learn of the devastating effects this pipeline expansion would have. This should be a warning to all investors: you must respect Indigenous Title and Rights, or your projects have no certainty.”

Current opposition to Kinder Morgan’s pipeline and tanker project includes the Province of British Columbia, the state of Washington, the cities of Vancouver, Burnaby, and Victoria and 19 other BC municipalities as well as 250,000 petition signers and more than 23,000 who have pledged to do “whatever it takes” to stop Kinder Morgan’s risky and destructive pipeline and tanker project.

MEDIA INQUIRIES:

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip –250-490-5314

Chief Bob Chamberlin – 250-974-8282

Chief Judy Wilson – 250-320-7738

(Unceded Coast Salish Territory / Vancouver, B.C. – January 1, 2018) As the days start to grow longer, there remains a smoldering, undiminished sense of determination, inspiration and hope in our hearts as we approach Battleground 2018.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, BC – August 11, 2017) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) remains steadfast in its ongoing opposition to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion Project (TMX). 

January 27 2017, Turtle Island—The newly named National Energy Board (NEB) panel tasked with reviewing TransCanada’s Energy East tar sands pipeline application has just announced that it had no choice but to restart the review process at square one due to the bias shown by the previous panel, just as many First Nations that are part of the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion - www.treatyalliance.org - had demanded in submissions made to the NEB. 

Dear Prime Minister, 

You completely failed to do your job when you arrogantly announced that you were acting in the national interest by approving the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) and Enbridge Line 3 pipelines. Your main job as leader of Canada is to protect Canadians’ health and safety.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – November 29, 2016) Today, Canada approved the Kinder Morgan Trans-Mountain Expansion (TMX) pipeline and Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline, while dismissing the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and committing to advance a tanker moratorium on the north coast of British Columbia.

(Coast Salish Territory/Vancouver, B.C. – November 03, 2016) The Union of BC Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) remains steadfast in their outright opposition to the Kinder Morgan (KM) Trans Mountain Expansion (TMX) Pipeline, despite today’s sunny report by the Ministerial Panel. 

September 22, 2016, Montreal/Vancouver—First Nation and Tribal Chiefs gathered today in Musqueam Territory (Vancouver) and Mohawk Territory (Montreal), to sign a new continent-wide Indigenous Treaty — the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion — that commits already some 50 First Nations and Tribes from all over Canada and the Northern US to working together to stop all proposed tar sands pipeline, tanker and rail projects in their respective territorial lands and waters.