A blockade has been erected at the intersection of the cranberry junction and highway 37, about two hours northeast of Terrace. The Gitanyow hereditary chief, along with members of the Kispiox Valley community and the Kispox Band have erected the blockade to stop LNG trucks and workers from accessing a worksite in preparation for construction of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission pipeline which would carry fracked gas from northeast B.C. to an LNG facility near the Nisga’a community of Gingolx near the mouth of the Nass River.

The pipeline in questions received it’s permits ten years ago but was shelved after the Pacific Northwest LNG project was abandoned by investors. Recently, former owner, TC Energy, sold the pipeline to the Nisga’a Lisims Government for the Ksi Lisims LNG Project, a joint venture between Taxes bases Western LNG and the Nisga’a government.

The company is not trying to prove to regulators that it can complete a substantial start before November, when the ten-year-old permit is due to expire. However, if a substantial start is achieved, the permit with be active indefinitely. 

Although Gitanyow and Gitksan chiefs signed an benefit agreement with PRGT in 2014, several of the signatures have died and others say the project has completely changed and they are calling for a new environmental and accumulative effects assessment to be done before the project can be considered.

But for those that have now taken to the blockades, the message is clear: no pipeline will be built without their consent.

Still, the Nisga’a Lisims government and Western LNG have maintained that although they respect people’s rights to protest, they are proceeding with the project.

In a statement, Nisga’a president, Eva Clayton said, "We do respect our peaceful and lawful protest, but those who block roads do not represent the majority of all of us who are excited about this Indigenous-owned gas pipeline.”

Representatives from the Nisga’a Nation or Western LNG were not available for comment before this broadcast.

Today we’ll speak to those setting up the blockades, Richard Mercer is a Nisga’a community member who says many Nisga’a feel blindsided by the new project. And we’ll hear from Deborah Good, a hereditary chief of the Gitanyow Nation whose territory borders Nisga’a lands and says the pipeline will never be built.