B.C. salmon and steelhead advocates prepare to battle for Skeena River safekeeping

When Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was elected he was on a breakaway, staring down an empty net for the win. This Wednesday he shot wide right. 

Trudeau’s administration just gave conditional approval to a massive, $11.4 billion, liquefied natural gas export facility to be built on top of the Skeena River estuary, a healthy ecosystem of critically important habitat for millions of salmon and steelhead. And possibly the worst place in all of Canada to build such a monstrosity.

Environmental and First Nations groups have fought this proposal for years and are prepared to continue on despite the setback.

“Now, we will take our fight to the next level. Over the last year we have prepared, with our aboriginal partners, to launch a series of legal actions, and we are prepared to go all the way. Multiple other strategies are in play and under development. We also have economics on our side,” said Skeena Wild executive director Greg Knox. “Adversity only brings us together and makes us strong. I am absolutely confident this project will never be built.”

The initial legal battle will focus on suspect environmental review, showing just how important the Skeena watershed is to local fishermen, tribes and the country due to its economic value as a renewable resource. The project would also be one of the largest greenhouse gas emitters in Canada, sending it backtracking from previous greenhouse gas reduction commitments.

“I think Mr. Trudeau made the biggest mistake of his career … he’s not as straightforward of a guy as everyone perceived him to be,” said Donald Wesley, a hereditary chief of the Gitwilgyoots tribe.

The honeymoon is over, Canada.

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Tom Bie
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Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

Category: Daily Drake
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Author: Tom Bie

Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.

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