First Nations leaders both hopeful and dismissive after Harper’s appointment of aboriginal MP.

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The appointment of aboriginal MP Leona Aglukkaq as Canada’s environment minister lends Native activist Art Sterritt cautious optimism.

“She knows how important the environment is to First Nations and Inuit,” the Gitxsan man said about the Inuk politician from Nunavut.

“She grew up with that,” he added in a phone interview with the Georgia Straight shortly after Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled a new cabinet on Monday (July 15). “She’s grounded on the land the same as we are.”

Sterritt is the executive director of the Coastal First Nations, an alliance of indigenous communities opposed to Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway plan.

The Enbridge venture is one of two proposed projects—the other by energy giant Kinder Morgan—that would dramatically increase the volume of oil conveyed from Alberta to B.C. through pipelines crossing many aboriginal territories.

Sterritt noted that he’s quite familiar with Aglukkaq’s career, which includes having served as an MLA in the Nunavut legislative assembly. She was first elected as a Conservative MP in 2008.

“Certainly, she is supportive of development, but it’s always been done with respect for the Inuit,” he said. “The relationship that the Inuit have with industry and others has been one that has been developed over a long time. I think she would recognize that that same kind of relationship-building would have to occur in British Columbia before being able to push any of these oil projects through here.”

Sterritt added that Aglukkaq’s appointment may well be a “huge signal” that the Conservative government recognizes the importance of First Nations in the dialogue around oil and the environment.

However, its track record suggests otherwise. “They have gutted environmental laws, gutted the Fisheries Act, and all kinds of things in their single-minded approach to pushing oil through,” he said.

Sterritt was referring to bills C-38 and C-45, which Conservatives introduced in Parliament last year under the guise of implementing the federal budget. Aglukkaq voted in favour of the two omnibus bills that overhauled several of the country’s environmental laws.

“That’s where the caution is,” he said. “It may be that they’re trying to paint themselves to be more friendly to the environment, when in fact those policies are not changing. If the new minister were to roll back some of those changes, that would certainly set the table for some serious conversation.”

Last June, a joint review panel mandated by the Ministry of the Environment and the National Energy Board concluded hearings about Enbridge’s Northern Gateway proposal. Its report to the federal government is expected to be made public on December 31 this year.

On May 23, Kinder Morgan filed documents with the National Energy Board describing its plan to triple the capacity of its Trans Mountain pipeline. The company intends to deliver up to 890,000 barrels of oil per day from Strathcona County near Edmonton to Burnaby.

Noting that opposition to Canada’s determination to expand tar-sands development continues to grow, Grand Chief Stewart Phillip wonders what Ottawa is really up to in tapping Aglukkaq for the environment portfolio.

“The Harper government is throwing her under the bus,” Phillip told the Straight in a phone interview from Watson Lake in Yukon.

The president of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs was on his second day on the road to Whitehorse to attend the annual meeting of the Assembly of First Nations when the cabinet reshuffle was announced.

“I believe we’re rapidly approaching a watershed moment in the history of this country with respect to the Harper government’s very thuggish and aggressive efforts to ram…large-scale resource developments through,” he said.

If Aglukkaq’s designation as environment minister was meant to blunt Native opposition, it won’t work, according to Phillip.

“What we would demand is that she respects the growing voices of opposition, and begins to seriously consider all of the studies and the science and the safety issues that clearly indicate that government and industry are going down the wrong path,” he said.

The long drive from Fort St. John with his wife, Joan, has reinforced some of the things that the indigenous leader doesn’t want to be lost to the environmental perils posed by an oil rush.

“We’ve seen some incredible landscapes,” Phillip said. “Throughout the last couple of days, we’ve seen caribou, moose, buffalo, mountain sheep, bears, pristine rivers and streams. That’s what’s at stake here.”