Article content continued

The hereditary chiefs are understandably delighted with the agreement and feel their historical claims were finally recognized. But how will entrenching hereditary leadership affect the lot of community members? What will be the chiefs’ authority and jurisdiction and what will fall to the democratically elected band councils? Will the people be able to overrule leaders they did not chose? How will differences between the hereditary chiefs, the band councils and community members be resolved?

Then there are broader questions about the development of Canada’s vast natural resources. To whom will the constitutional requirement for consultation apply? Hereditary chiefs, band councils or both? So far, the courts have decided that consultations do not imply a veto right. But the prime minister has promised to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples this year. How will the courts interpret its requirement for “free, prior and informed consent” and to whom would that apply?

We do not need dozens of pipelines to the coast. But we do need a few if our landlocked oil and gas reserves are to be sold anywhere but in the highly discounted U.S. market. Canada has about 100,000 kilometres of transmission pipelines, the large-diameter pipes that transport crude oil and natural gas (out of more than 830,000 kilometres of pipelines in total). The Coastal GasLink project is 670 kilometres in length, while the Trans Mountain Expansion Project would be 1,183 kilometres. Together they would add less than two per cent to total length of large-gauge pipelines already in the ground in Canada.