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“We need to have the benefits of our land. We need to be able to have equity stakes in projects that come forward.”

The hereditary chiefs were being supported by environmentalists, Tait Day said, who were disrespecting the rest of the Wet’suwet’en community.

“We feel like we have been hijacked by the protestors who have their own agenda.”

Photo by Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press

Bennett said she and her B.C. counterpart were prepared to return to the community to sign the agreement when the Wet’suwet’en community ratified it. She said the agreement was only meant to be the start of the process.

“What we agree on is that now the conversation begins. How does the nation make decisions together?” she said. “That is why the hereditary chiefs chose to take it back to their house and their clans to see if there is support for that.”

But Tait Day criticized the consultation process.

The chiefs who met the ministers have indicated they would take the draft agreement to the community to get consensus on whether to move forward. But Tait-Day said they had not held large public meetings, only smaller clan meetings of 20 or fewer people.

Bennett said the agreement wasn’t about the pipeline project, but taking broader steps to solve the land claim settlement that the Wet’suwet’en people have had outstanding for years.

“My appearance was not about one project. It is about the future of Canada.”

We need to have the benefits of our land

She said settling land claims and getting Indigenous communities to self governance was the key to prosperity for Indigenous communities and would prevent the kind of stand-offs that emerged in this situation.