One of the most visible interveners in the National Energy Board hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline has withdrawn from an anti-pipeline group.
According to a statement given to the Globe and Mail, the Haisla Nation announced Wednesday afternoon it had left the Coastal First Nations (CFN) organization.
Chief councillor Ellis Ross told the Globe that the reason his group is leaving CFN is due to unspecified "public statements by CFN earlier this year on the Northern Gateway Pipeline and last month with regard to power for proposed LNG projects in Haisla territory."
Ross went on to tell the paper that the statements by CFN conflict with positions held by the Haisla.
The last statements CFN have on its website regarding Northern Gateway date back to September when the alliance central and north coastal First Nations said the Enbridge's consultations were inadequate and Northern Gateway was underestimating oil spill risks.
It's unclear how withdrawing from CFN changes the Haisla's position on Northern Gateway. No one from the Haisla was available for comment .
The Haisla spent days questioning Northern Gateway and government witnesses during recent Joint Review Panel hearings into the environmental assessment of the project to connect Alberta's oilsands with Kitimat. Considered to be one of the better funded intervener groups, many of the questions from the Haisla legal team focused on possible environmental effects along the western edge of the pipeline in and around the Haisla's traditional territory.
The Haisla also commissioned expert reports on the pipeline, which they believe poked holes in the documents submitted by Northern Gateway.
