Alberta minister opens 'dialogue' with First Nations on pipeline, not trying a 'hard sell'

After a respectful meeting with Alberta Indigenous Relations Minister Rajan Sawhney, leaders of Gitga’at First Nation say they remain adamant they won’t support oil tankers passing through their waters off British Columbia’s north coast.

“We’ve been dealing with this for a long, long time, and our stance is very clear that the world does not know how to clean up an oil spill yet,” Cameron Hill, Gitga’at First Nation’s deputy chief, said in an interview.

Following the landmark memorandum of understanding signed by the Alberta and federal governments to pursue a possible new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast, Sawhney met with some First Nations. She said she wanted to hear their concerns, but not to sell them on a project.

“The whole idea was to be able to have a dialog. I wasn’t there to tr