A Haisla Nation Council delegation will be meeting with federal government ministers and Rio Tinto top brass this week to discuss a number of issues affecting the Haisla and the district.
Haisla chief councillor Crystal Smith said the delegation will be looking at securing a better deal for the Haisla Nation and for the region.
“We’re looking to duplicate the relationship we have with the provincial government, with the federal government, for the betterment of the entire region,” said Smith.
She said federal government’s support for the LNG projects in Kitimat would be one of the issues on the agenda in the meetings. The delegation is also meeting with the prime minister’s office and is hoping to secure a meeting with him as well.
“We have a number of projects which we want to advocate for, to make these projects competitive for international markets,” said Smith.
The delegation will consist of Smith, deputy chief councillor Brenda Duncan, Stakeholder Relations Committee chair Kevin Stewart, chief executive officer Jason Majore and Business Partnerships manager Tony Brady and will be in Ottawa on Monday and Tuesday, January 29 and 30.
Smith said the delegation will meet with a number of ministries, including Natural Resources Canada and Environment and Climate Change, and the Department of Finance.
“A lot of our work continues to be advocacy and major projects. We want the federal government to know what projects we have worked on and have successfully completed in Haisla territory,” said Smith.
“One of our top priorities will be to get federal government support for a number of projects, including LNG Canada, as well as to ensure the protection of existing projects in the district.”
She said the delegation would meet with natural resources minister Jim Carr in support of LNG Canada, to address the environmental assessment review.
“It all comes back to LNG and the success of that in our territory,” said Smith.
She said the delegation would also meet with Rio Tinto chief executive Alf Barrios to discuss the company’s relationship with the Haisla “beyond the modernization project”.
“Since the end of the modernization project we have had such low employment numbers for our members. We’ve seen a number of employees retiring, but we’re not seeing them being replaced,” said Smith.
“We want to focus on long-term employment and contracts for the Haisla within their operations.”
She said the recognition of Aboriginal rights within any project taking place on Haisla territory is very important.
“There is a requirement of some level of respect. That is what I want to further establish,” said Smith.
“The impact of their operations within our territory must be beneficial in terms of employment of our members.”
Smith said the delegation would also be establishing a discussion around land ownership and discussing the protection of the environment with Rio Tinto.
“The environment protection aspect is important to us and we’re currently reviewing documents and studies been provided to us.”
She said the issue of SO2 scrubbers is definitely “a glaring issue” and that the delegation would get caught up to speed on it.
“We don’t have an opinion on the scrubbers, but we are definitely looking into it. We have already brought up that issue with Rio Tinto and it might be part of the discussions.”