The Haisla First Nation's Kitimaat Village is seen in an aerial view along the Douglas Channel near Kitimat, B.C., on Jan. 10, 2012.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Three B.C. First Nations have reached a pact in which two of the groups have agreed to help the third tackle the environmental effects of industrial development on their traditional territories.
The memorandum of understanding was announced Monday by the Haisla, Nisga’a and Halfway River First Nations after being developed through the First Nations Climate Initiative, or FNCI, a network launched in 2019 to focus on climate change and Indigenous concerns. Both the Haisla and the Nisga’a nations are pursuing liquefied natural gas projects in their respective territories.
For Halfway River Chief Darlene Hunter, the memorandum is overdue recognition that her community – located 75 kilometres northwest of Fort St. John in a region crisscrossed by logging roads and oil and gas operations – has been heavily affected by industrial development.
“We sit on top of the Montney play and everybody’s trying to get in there,” Ms. Hunter said Tuesday in a telephone interview, referring to the Montney natural gas formation that straddles the British Columbia-Alberta boundary.
Montney natural gas fields in northeastern B.C. would feed LNG Canada, a liquefied natural gas processing facility under construction in northern B.C. on a Kitimat industrial site on the Haisla Nation’s traditional territory.
The same region is a likely source for other proposed LNG projects, including Cedar LNG, a partnership between the Haisla and Pembina Pipeline Corp., and the Ksi Lisims project, being pursued by the Nisga’a and Rockies LNG and Western LNG.
Through the memorandum of understanding, the three nations plan to explore nature-based solutions on the Halfway River territory – including planting trees and restoring wetlands – to protect and restore ecosystems, as well as nurturing carbon sinks.
The FNCI on Monday also called on the B.C. and federal governments to expand carbon markets, saying those markets could help governments reach net-zero targets and help foot the bill for massive restoration projects on Indigenous territories.
Carbon markets have existed for years but have been dogged by concerns over accreditation and verification.
The B.C. government is in the process of reviewing its forest carbon offset protocol, which was introduced in 2011 before being repealed in 2015. Projects approved under the former protocol continue to generate credits under grandparenting provisions of other provincial regulations, and there is increasing demand for offset options from purchasers in the offset market, the government said in a 2021 discussion paper.
In an online address to FNCI members meeting Tuesday in Vancouver, B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman said he expects the revamped protocol to be published in the coming months.
“We want to make sure that the B.C. system in place will address both ecological stringency and market opportunity – and to do that, we have to ensure that we meet international verification standards,” Mr. Heyman told the gathering.
An enhanced carbon market could help First Nations restore landscapes, enhance wildlife habitat and protect waterways for future generations, Ms. Hunter of Halfway River said.
“We need the governments of British Columbia and Canada … to expand carbon markets to make these nature-based solutions a reality,” she said.