FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Coast Salish Territory, Vancouver – Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to uphold Bill C-48, the 2019 Oil Tanker Moratorium Act.
In an Open Letter issued to Prime Minister Carney today, the Nations make it clear their stance against oil tankers has not changed since they banned them from their territorial waters in 2010 based on their ancestral laws, rights, and responsibilities.
“There is no pipeline and oil tankers project or proponents that would be acceptable to us on the North Coast,” says Marilyn Slett, President of the Coastal First Nations-Great Bear Initiative and Chief Councillor of the Heiltsuk Tribal Council. “Anything that proposes to send crude oil through our coastal waters is a non-starter.”
The North Pacific Coast is home to one of the richest and most productive cold-water marine ecosystems on Earth, and it remains a source of sustenance, culture, and livelihood for coastal communities and all British Columbians.
For 25 years, Coastal First Nations has focused on building a sustainable conservation economy that has delivered over 1300 jobs and 130 new businesses on the coast, all while protecting and enhancing the marine environment for future generations.
“We are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to stand with us and reject any new proposal for a crude oil pipeline to the northwest coast,” said Slett. “We ask instead that he joins us in focusing on nation-building projects that meet the needs of our future generations, not projects of the past that could destroy our coastal ecosystems and economies.”
—
Media Contact:
Caitlin Thompson, Director of Communications, CFN-GBI
cthompson@coastalfirstnations.ca
Cell: 250-305-8756
