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CALGARY – Ron Quintal was barbecuing with his family on Sunday when he received a text from one of Teck Resources Ltd.’s vice-presidents, requesting an urgent phone call.

“I thought it was an invite to Ottawa,” said Quintal, president of the Fort McKay Metis Nation, noting that he expected good news and to attend a ceremony approving the project this week. “It’s devastating,” he said.

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The Fort McKay Metis was one of the 14 Indigenous groups that had signed benefits agreements with Vancouver-based Teck for Frontier, a proposed 260,000 barrels per day oilsands mine that would have required 7,000 people to build it.

If one of our own can’t get a project built, then who can Ron Quintal

Quintal said Teck leadership had been in meetings for four consecutive days and came to the decision Sunday afternoon. The cancellation of the project has come as a “shock” to his community.

Now, Quintal said, his members are asking him, “What the hell is going on?”

On Sunday night, Vancouver-based Teck announced it was withdrawing its application to build the 270,000-barrel-per-day oilsands mine in northern Alberta just days before Ottawa was set to approve the project.