CALGARY — Enbridge Inc. is in discussions with aboriginal communities along the route of its proposed Northern Gateway pipeline, offering them a potential equity stake in the controversial project.
The talks began earlier this month and are expected to run until mid-December, Enbridge chief executive officer Pat Daniel said in a speech Tuesday.
Enbridge (TSX:ENB) hasn’t pinpointed the maximum ownership percentage it would be willing to offer, but 10 per cent is “probably a reasonable level of participation,” Daniel told reporters.
The $5.5-billion Northern Gateway project includes two parallel pipelines running 1,172-kilometres between an oilsands hub near Edmonton and the West Coast port of Kitimat, B.C.
One of the lines would ship oilsands crude to the Pacific coast for export to energy-hungry Asian markets. The other would bring in imported condensates, which are used to dilute heavy oilsands crude so it can flow more freely in pipelines.
Opposition to Northern Gateway has been vehement, with many northern and coastal B.C. communities worried about the damage a spill would cause to the ecosystems on which they rely.
On Tuesday, representatives from coastal First Nations and environmental groups, as well as B.C. commercial fishing and tourism industries, travelled to Ottawa demanding a federal ban on West Coast tanker traffic.
“Our nations have declared a ban on oil tankers through our waters because a spill would kill our livelihoods and wipe out our culture,” Art Sterritt, executive director of the Coastal First Nations, said in a release.
“We have used our ancestral law to ban tankers from our territories. The Liberals and NDP have recognized the importance of protecting this coast, and now it’s time for Parliament to join us in legislating a federal ban on tankers in this region.”
While many First Nations have come out strongly against Northern Gateway, Daniel said others have expressed support.
So far, Enbridge has entered into 30 formal protocol agreements with groups along the corridor, which pave the way for dialogue between the company and the groups. There are roughly 20 more groups both along the corridor and near the coast that have not signed an agreement.
In July, an Enbridge pipeline in southern Michigan spilled millions of litres of crude into the Kalamazoo River. Less than two months later, another line leaked in the Chicago area. Critics of Northern Gateway have used those high-profile incidents to underline their point that the project poses a danger to the B.C. environment.
“There obviously has been some opportunism by those opposed to the project, who say: ’Oh look what happens, Enbridge,”’ Daniel said.
“There is no doubt that it did not help us, with regard to our public relations issues relating to Gateway.”
However, most people recognize that it’s simply not feasible to simply halt all energy development — even if it comes with some risk, he said.
“That’s akin to if ever an airplane crashes, say no more air traffic. We can’t do that,” Daniel said.