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Photo by The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck

But they did get the backing of everyone whose reserve lands will touch the project

The specific language used by Trans Mountain is that where the project will cross First Nations reserve lands, “we have received their expressed consent.” Of course, this only covers reserve lands, not traditional territory that might form part of a future treaty (with large swaths of B.C. on untreatied land, most nations do not have a final agreement with the Crown). However, the company has claimed that they’ve obtained support from 80 per cent of First Nations “within proximity” to the pipeline right-of-way. The company’s mutual benefit agreements are confidential, but the details can be revealed by a First Nation if they wish. This was the case with the Whispering Pines First Nation, a band with about 100 members near Clinton, B.C. In 2015, then-chief Mike Lebourdais told local media that their agreement was worth between $10 and $20 million over 20 years.

Don’t think this hasn’t been a divisive subject

Alberta and B.C. are currently toe-to-toe in one of the messiest regional standoffs in the history of Confederation. Miniature versions of the Pipeline War have been playing out among First Nations for years. In 2016, Haida clans stripped three hereditary chiefs of their titles for allegedly having approached Northern Gateway as rogue representatives of the community. Pipelines were the central issue at the 2016 annual gathering of the Assembly of First Nations in Gatineau, Que. In front of a room packed with some of the most anti-pipeline political leaders in the country, Jim Boucher, chief of the Northern Alberta Fort McKay First Nation, said “we’re pro-oilsands; if it weren’t for the oil my people would be in poverty right now.” In B.C.’s tiny Peters First Nation, a potential windfall of pipeline money opened up decades worth of familial divisions. Controversy over whether or not to back the pipeline can also be seen in several close community votes on whether to accept an agreement with Kinder Morgan. The nine bands within the Chilliwack-area Ts’elxwéyeqw Tribe rejected their agreement by 55.5 per cent to 44.5 per cent, with just 301 members of the bands turning out to vote. The Lower Nicola Indian Band approved an agreement, but the ‘yes’ side only came in at 59 per cent of the vote.