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CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
On board
Brett Muller wears his Vancouver Canucks jersey while he skateboards at the Rotary Skate Park on Wednesday afternoon. The Canucks played the opening game of their first-round playoff series against the Calgary Flames at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Wednesday night. For full coverage, see page 11.
Appeal court upholds First Nations lawsuit against Alcan
Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca
Two north-central B.C. First Nations will be able to take their claims against Rio Tinto Alcan to trial, the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled.
An attempt by the Saik’uz and Stellat’en First Nations to sue the company over the diversion of water from the Nechako River since the 1950s had hit a roadblock in December 2013 when B.C. Supreme Court Justice threw out their lawsuit.
But that was overturned Wednesday as the Court of Appeal rejected Alcan’s argument that First Nations have to prove aborginal title before bringing a claim against a private party.
“We are very pleased with the court’s decision,” Saik’uz First Nation Chief Stan Thomas said in a statement.
“We intend to pursue our action for an injunction to protect the Nechako River, our fisheries and our way of life.”
Located about 185 kilometres west of Prince George, the Kenney Dam was constructed in 1952 and created the massive Nechako Reservoir which provides hydro power to Alcan’s aluminum smelter in Kitimat in northwest B.C.
The lawsuit claims that the 1987 and 1997 Settlement Agreements entered into by Alcan, B.C. and Canada are not defenses against the First Nations, based on constitutional grounds.
The appeal court agreed it was a valid argument for the First Nations to make in court.
Alcan spokesman Kevin Dobbin said the company’s legal team will look at the decision “and we won’t have any comment until we’ve had a chance to do that.”
The First Nations’ lawyer, Gregory McDade, said it’s a “very significant decision” in aboriginal law because it establishes that aboriginals have the same rights under Canadian common law as any other landowner.
Rio Tinto Alcan has 60 days to apply for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. If that falls through, McDade said the next step will be to take the matter to trial and prove that Alcan’s operations are harming the river. If Saik’uz and Stellat’en are successful, McDade said arguments will follow over how best to resolve the issue.
That could include building a long sought cold water release facility, an idea that gained prominence following the 1997 deal between Alcan and the previous NDP government after the Kemano 2 completion project was scuttled.
Then estimated to cost $120 million, it was to be built at Kenney Dam and is supposed to make the river’s temperature cold enough for salmon, while also saving water otherwise released from the Skins Lake spillway.
It will add up to a lengthy process, McDade said. The lawsuit was first filed in October 2011.
Expert gasses LNG myths
Companies are
extremely attuned to these risks. That's why it's not surprising to me that none of them have made a commitment.
— David Hughes
Samantha WRIGHT ALLEN Citizen staff sallen@pgcitizen.ca
An energy expert is in town to talk about myths that mess with our understanding of the natural gas industry.
“The myth of ever-growing cheap gas from shale is the big one,” said David Hughes, a geoscientist and president of Global Sustainability Research Inc.
Hughes is speaking at the annual lecture for UNBC’s Natural Resources and Environmental Studies tonight.
“The myth is that production will go up in a linear manner and keep going up.”
Not so, according to his research into the major shale and unconventional gas sites in the U.S.
After the first three years, the well production typically declines by about 70 per cent and similar numbers should be expected in Canada.
“They typically have a core area which is the most productive and then they have a larger area which is less productive,” he said, adding that in larger areas more wells are needed to yield a similar output.
He referenced Texas’ Barnett shale
that peaked in 2011, the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana down 50 per cent from its peak in 2012, and Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, now 20 per cent below its peak.
“The wells don’t get any cheaper, it’s just that they’re less economic.”
His October 2014 report dubbed Drilling Deeper advises caution for those projecting a constant energy boom.
“B.C. is in a much earlier stage of development of its unconventional gas, however it’s likely to follow the same trajectory as the U.S. plays will,” said Hughes, who for 32 years worked at the Geological Survey of Canada as a scientist and research manager. “It’s directly analogous. It’s the same technology.”
Despite the drop in oil prices - used to estimate LNG shipment prices - B.C. has maintained its projection of three export terminals by 2020.
To Hughes, that’s optimistic.
“My take would be somewhere between zero and two (LNG export terminals).”
At the height of LNG hype about four years ago, gas costs in Japan were around $18, Hughes said. Compare that to the $6.80 US it brought in April, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
“They’ll probably go higher but if you look at the history of gas, it’s been volatile,” he said, also adding if North American costs rise, that affects the value of exporting.
“Companies are extremely attuned to these risks. That’s why it’s not surprising to me that none of them have made a commitment.”
While private companies may bring their business elsewhere, state-owned companies like Petronas could still be convinced despite low gas costs and high oil prices.
— see ‘CANADA NEEDS A REAL STRATEGY,’ page 3
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