Cancellation of the Trans Mountain pipeline would cost B.C. First Nations hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits, job training, and employment and business opportunities, according to Cheam Chief Ernie Crey.

Crey has emerged as a leading voice for the First Nations that stand to benefit from the project, calling out environmentalists for “red-washing” their fight against the $7.4 billion expansion of the pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby.

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“We have a vigorous environmental movement in B.C. and they have learned that they can use aboriginal communities to advance their agenda,” he said.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has joined public protests against the expansion, but that does not mean all First Nations oppose it, Crey said.

“We are a member of the union, but no one speaks for the Cheam on the pipeline but our council,” said Crey.

The Cheam are one of 43 First Nations that have mutual benefit agreements with Trans Mountain — reportedly worth more than $300 million — that offer skills training for employment, business and procurement opportunities and improvements to local infrastructure.

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Primary contractors and First Nations can also jointly bid on pipeline work. Cheam members are engaged in security work along the pipeline with Securigard, he said.

“Our young councillors negotiated with Kinder Morgan for two years to get that agreement for the Cheam,” Crey said in an interview. “This is no payoff, we negotiatied hard for what we got.”

Premier John Horgan could do real financial harm to First Nations in B.C. by frustrating the pipeline project, he said.

“If this project doesn’t go through it will hurt our people,” Crey said on Facebook. “It appears that Premier Horgan is prepared to actively undermine the prosperity of First Nations in B.C.”

Crey is a co-chair of the indigenous advisory and monitoring committee, a 13-member group funded by $64 million in federal money to monitor construction of the pipeline.

As part of their application to the National Energy Board, which approved the project, Trans Mountain engaged with more than 130 First Nations and other indigenous groups over several years.

The construction phase “will reach the equivalent of 15,000 jobs per year, followed by the equivalent of a further 37,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs per year of operations,” according to Trans Mountain. “We recognize the project will spark ample opportunities for Aboriginal Peoples to secure employment.”

Business leaders met Thursday in Vancouver to issue a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging him to resolve the “crisis of confidence in Canada” driven by pipeline opposition, said Paul de Jong, president of the Progressive Contractors Association of Canada.

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“First Nations groups have shown their support for Trans Mountain pipeline and that underscores that people see this pipeline as a benefit if it is well-managed,” de Jong said. “The polarized narrative that all First Nations groups are opposed to pipelines and LNG is simply false.”

In fact, a group of First Nations — led by Chief Dan George of the Ts’il Kaz Koh First Nation in Burns Lake — has formed the First Nations LNG Alliance to encourage and participate in responsible development of a liquid natural gas industry in B.C.

Among their objectives is to provide “balanced” communications about LNG and provide a venue for “pro-development nations” to discuss environmental issues and priorities.

First Nations are not unanimous in their support for the Trans Mountain pipeline.

Seven First Nations — led by the Squamish and the Tsleil-Waututh on Burrard Inlet — have legal challenges to the pipeline approval making their way though the Federal Appeal Court and the Supreme Court of B.C.