“If TransCanada tries to build this pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory without Lubicon consent — based on approval of an application to an Alberta Government regulatory agency that does not have legitimate authority in unceded Lubicon Territory — the Lubicon people will oppose it every inch of the way, every way we can, for as long as TransCanada Pipelines tries to operate in Lubicon Territory.”
These are the concluding remarks of a statement delivered earlier this week by the Lubicon Cree Nation at an Alberta Utilities Commission hearing in Edmonton. A Lubicon Press Release explains, “the hearing was held to decide who, if anyone, has standing to make presentations at a full hearing on the proposed North Central Crossing Pipeline that would run through unceded Lubicon Traditional Territory. After making the statement, the Lubicon representatives and a room full of supporters walked out of the hearing.”
For more information you can contact the Friends of the Lubicon at fol@tao.ca, or by calling 416-763-7500. Friends of the Lubicon Alberta has also put together a list of things you can do to help.
April 14, 2008
The Lubicon Lake Indian Nation has submitted a more detailed statement to the Prehearing Meeting of the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) that the Lubicon people urge interested parties to read. Copies of the Lubicon submission are available from the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation and on the Application Attachment web page of the AUC. (It’s sixth from the bottom. For your convenience, you can download it here (pdf))
A brief summary of the full Lubicon submission is as follows:
The Alberta Utilities Commission is a regulatory agency of the Alberta Government charged by the Alberta Government with responsibility for regulating, among other things, the routing, tolls and tariffs of energy transmission pipelines and transmission lines on land under the jurisdiction of the Alberta Government.
The government of Alberta claims to have obtained land and resource rights to Lubicon Territory from the Government of Canada in 1930 by virtue of the Natural Resources Transfer Agreement, “subject…to any interest other than that of the Crown in the same…”
The government of Canada claims to have obtained rights to lands and resources in Lubicon Territory through negotiation of treaty with the original indigenous owners under the Royal Proclamation of 1760.
The members of the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation are the original indigenous owners of the lands and resources in Lubicon Territory and the Lubicon people have never ceded Lubicon land and resource rights through treaty with the Government of Canada or in any other historically or legally recognized way.
The Government of Canada has therefore never been in rightful possession of rights to Lubicon lands and resources and could not transfer rights to Lubicon lands and resources to the Government of Alberta. Alberta is consequently not in proper possession of rights to lands and resources in unceded Lubicon Territory and the AUC cannot legitimately authorize construction of a pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory without Lubicon consent.
The Lubicon people do not recognize Alberta jurisdiction over unceded Lubicon Territory or the right of the Alberta Utilities Commission to authorize NOVA Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL), a wholly owned subsidiary of the TransCanada Corporation, to build the proposed North Central Corridor Pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory without Lubicon consent.
Lubicon Territory belongs to the Lubicon people and will continue to belong to the Lubicon people unless and until there is an agreement between Canada and the Lubicon Lake Indian Nation whereby others legitimately obtain rights to Lubicon lands and resources.
If TransCanada tries to build this pipeline across unceded Lubicon Territory without Lubicon consent — based on approval of an application to an Alberta Government regulatory agency that does not have legitimate authority in unceded Lubicon Territory — the Lubicon people will oppose it every inch of the way, every way we can, for as long as TransCanada Pipelines tries to operate in Lubicon Territory.
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