The Indian Resource Council (IRC) met last week to discuss buying the planned Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from the Canadian government.

The advocacy organization represents the interests of 134 First Nations with oil and gas rights on their reserves and traditional lands. Dozens of indigenous leaders convened to debate the best financial model for such a deal; the meeting took place at the TsuuT’ina Nation’s Grey Eagle Resort and Casino in Calgary, Alberta.

More than 100 First Nations are considering the joint investment, amidst an on-going fight by some First Nations and environmental groups to stop the pipeline expansion from being built. The roughly 715-mile (1,150 kilometer) twin pipeline would run parallel to the original pipeline, which was constructed in 1956 to carry crude from the Alberta oil sands to the coast of British Columbia. The expansion would triple the pipeline’s capacity to an estimated 890,000 barrels a day.

In summer 2018, after Kinder Morgan failed to secure an alternate buyer, the Canadian government put up $4.5 billion for the Trans Mountain pipeline. “We have no interest in being a long-term owner of a pipeline, but we will be the temporary caretaker,” Canadian Finance Minister spokesperson Daniel Lauzon previously told The Canadian Press. (The purchase did not include construction costs.)  

The IRC’s mandate is to guarantee that First Nations with rights and title to land and resources benefit from natural resource development. IRC president and CEO Stephen Buffalo said the IRC is driving the coordinated effort for an Indigenous-owned pipeline to generate revenue that would go directly to First Nations, empowering infrastructure and jobs.

“I don’t know a chief in the world that would not want to be part of future economic development for the community,” Buffalo told the Star Calgary.

The IRC envisions a 100 percent Indigenous-owned and -operated pipeline project.

In late August, a Federal Court of Appeal stalled the project, ruling more consultation with First Nations is necessary. First Nations’ “buy-in” along the pipeline route is inconsistent. Some Nations have signed benefit agreements to support the project, whereas others are protesting it and involved in legal challenges.

“We all want a safe and proper environment; the environment is so key,” Buffalo has said. “But we can continue to still do some economic development and have that balance. And that’s what we need to strive for — to find that balance.”