Coastal First Nations hold firm on tanker ban after Carney meeting

Coastal First Nations on Canada’s north-west coast have told Prime Minister Mark Carney they will not accept a heavy oil pipeline or any weakening of the oil tanker ban that protects their waters.

The coalition represents nine First Nations, including Haida, Heiltsuk and Nuxalk communities along British Columbia’s central and north coast and in the Great Bear Rainforest. At a meeting in Prince Rupert last week, president K̓áwáziɫ Marilyn Slett said the group wanted to ensure “any time there is a discussion about our territories, we need to be in the room”.

Leaders described the tone of the meeting as respectful, saying they felt the prime minister listened to their concerns about Alberta’s proposed northwest bitumen pipeline, which would terminate on the coast and require oil tankers to cross the Hecate Strait. “We felt like he was listening,” Slett said afterwards.

But they were equally clear that their answer on tankers remains no. Coastal First Nations say they will never support lifting the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, the federal law that since 2019 has prohibited large tankers carrying more than 12,500 tonnes of crude or persistent oil from stopping, loading or unloading along British Columbia’s north coast, a measure intended to safeguard salmon, coastal wildlife and local economies.

Slett stressed that the coalition’s position is driven by stewardship rather than short‑term economics, warning that “just one spill would ruin our way of life”. The memory of the 2016 Nathan E. Stewart tugboat grounding near Bella Bella — which spilled about 110,000 litres of diesel into key harvesting areas and caused long‑term cultural and economic damage — still shapes local fears about any increase in tanker traffic.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed last year, Ottawa and Alberta agreed to explore a new heavy oil pipeline from the oil sands to the Pacific. The MOU allows for “appropriate adjustment” of the tanker moratorium if the project is declared in the national interest under federal infrastructure laws, something Carney has promoted as a potential win for Alberta and Canada’s economy.

Coastal First Nations counter that any such move would violate Canada’s commitment to free, prior and informed consent under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Slett has signalled the coalition is prepared to use “every tool in the tool box”, including litigation, if the pipeline is pushed ahead without their consent.