Alberta First Nations leading charge on buy-in on Trans Mountain pipeline

A aerial view of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain marine terminal, in Burnaby, B.C., is shown on Tuesday, May 29, 2018. JONATHAN HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS

by Gordon Hoekstra & Rob Shaw, Vancouver Sun, July 4, 2018

First Nations from B.C. and Alberta are expected to meet later this month in Vancouver to discuss the possibility of purchasing a stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline, Postmedia News has learned.

The meeting on July 25 at The Vancouver Convention Centre is to be hosted by the Fort McKay and Mikisew Cree First Nations, according to Fort McKay First Nation chief Jim Boucher.

Fort McKay First Nation says it’s ready to take legal action against oilsands project if approved

A Fort McKay elder and some youth at the Moose Lake reserve. (Fort McKay First Nation)

‘The AER has already put blinders on what really matters to us,’ Fort McKay chief says

By David Thurton , CBC News, Jan 9, 2018

The Fort McKay First Nation says it’s ready to take legal action against any approval of an oilsands project near the First Nation’s ancestral homeland.

The Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) began public hearings in Fort McMurray Tuesday on Prosper Petroleum’s Rigel oilsands project.

Environmentalists have impoverished First Nations, pro-pipeline chief says

Jim Boucher, chief of the Fort McKay First Nation; doesn’t comprehend that colonialism impoverishes Indigenous people, and that the tar sands will not last forever.

‘If it weren’t for the oil, my people would be in poverty right now’: Fort McKay chief Jim Boucher

By John Paul Tasker, CBC News, December 7, 2016

Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline has been vehemently opposed by many First Nations groups, but voices on the other side of the divide emerged Wednesday to launch a strong defence of the oilpatch.

Fort McKay First Nation to put $350M into Suncor oilsands tank farm

$1B storage facility part of $13.5B project that is expected to begin producing first oil in late 2017

The Canadian Press, September 6, 2016

Suncor Energy is bringing in a northern Alberta aboriginal band as partner in a $1-billion storage facility being built to serve its Fort Hills oilsands project.

The Calgary-based company says the Fort McKay First Nation will pay about $350 million when its new tank farm becomes operational next spring in return for a 34 per cent interest.

Fort MacKay First Nation members short on cash after oilsands profits dip

Tar Sands factory complex in northern Alberta.

Band CEO blames low profits for missing annual payments

CBC News,  July 11, 2014

Some residents from the wealthy Fort McKay First Nation are in financial trouble after the band failed to provide an expected dividend from oilsands profits last month.

Band members have long been receiving the payment, known as a PCD, which the band is able to pay out due to profits gained from oilsands-related operations. Recently, members collected more than $10,000 per year from the funds. 

Well-entrenched in oil sands, Fort McKay First Nation eyes even deeper ties

Aerial view of part of Alberta Tar Sands operations.

Yadullah Hussain, Financial Post, March 13, 2014

With annual revenues of about $700-million and as many as nine joint ventures focused on oil sands services, Fort McKay First Nation resembles more a sprawling Fort McMurray, Alta. business group than an aboriginal band. But the 700-member group is well-entrenched in the oil sands and considers the surrounding industry as its primary customer. The group is even looking to develop oil sands on its territory.

Oilsands benefit First Nations

Some of the “scant evidence” of the environmental impacts of the Tar Sands referred to by Quesnel; trucks the size of houses haul earth from the Tar Sands.

Protestors show ignorance of reality of oilsands development

By Joseph Quesnel, Winnipeg Sun, January 31, 2014

Aboriginal peoples benefit from oilsands development.  That was the one reality missed by protesters at a recent lecture at the University of Winnipeg involving Phil Fontaine.

Tar Sands facing aboriginal “legal onslaught” in 2014

Tar Sands factories in northern Alberta.

First Nations plans challenges of new rules for regulatory approvals of energy projects

CBC News/The Canadian Press, Jan 02, 2014

Simmering disputes over the oilsands between Alberta aboriginals and the provincial and federal governments will break into the open in 2014 as virtually every one of the many recent changes in oversight of the controversial industry comes under legal and political attack.

The Oilsands: First Nations struggle to save traditions while profiting from boom

Tar Sands in northern Alberta.

By Marty Klinkenberg, Edmonton Journal, December 15, 2013

FORT CHIPEWYAN — On a hill overlooking Lake Athabasca, the big water that sustained their forefathers for 9,000 years, a dozen residents of Fort Chipewyan gather in a teepee with the legs and shoulders of a freshly killed caribou before them.