KITIMAT, B.C. - A B.C. First Nations leader took a defiant stand against a plan to build an oil pipeline across B.C. as he appeared Tuesday before a federal panel holding hearings on the massive project.
Carrier Sekani Tribal Council vice chief Terry Teegee was among 35 speakers at the hearing, which is reviewing Enbridge's proposal to build a $5.5 billion pipeline from Alberta's oil sands to a tanker port on the northern B.C. coast at Kitimat.
"(Enbridge president and CEO) Patrick Daniel asked me what it would take for me to turn no into yes," Teegee told a protest rally outside the hearings. "I said to him: `What is it about no you don't understand?"'
The Carrier Sekani Tribal Council represents eight bands west of Prince George, some of which are opposed to the proposed pipeline project.
About around 300 people showed up for the hearings in Kitimat on the Enbridge plan, known as the Northern Gateway project.
Speakers raised concerns over what would happen if an oil spill occurred, which body would be responsible in the event of an accident, whether proper consultation was being held and whether there is an economic and social case to be made for the venture.
There was some support for the pipeline, with speakers saying the Enbridge project would deliver much-needed jobs to a community hit hard by the recent economic downturn.
The anti-pipeline protest outside the hearing attracted about 200 people.
Another 200 gathered outside Enbridge's Vancouver headquarters Tuesday and marched to a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Speakers, including Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh and New Democrat Finn Donnelly, said they'd work for a crude oil tanker ban for B.C.'s northern waters.
