Newly elected Stellat'en First Nation Chief Archie Patrick has added his name to the Save the Fraser Declaration opposing the Northern Gateway pipeline.
Patrick, who leads the government of the First Nation located near Fort Fraser, joins more than 100 other aboriginal leaders in B.C. who have signed document, which says they will not let the northern Alberta to Kitimat pipeline cross their traditional territory because of the risk it poses to the environment.
"Adding [the Stellat'en] on just strengths our unity among the Carrier people at home," Nadleh Whut'en First Nation chief Martin Louie said in a phone interview from Vancouver. "Having a signatory like them gives us more strength for our talks with the government that we're proposing to have."
The Yinka Dene Alliance, who launched the Fraser Declaration in 2010, also announced that non-aboriginal groups have joined in their fight against the pipeline by signing on to a solidarity accord.
Unions including the B.C. Teachers' Federation and Unifor - which represents employees at the Citizen - put their names on the accord, along with groups like the B.C. Wilderness Tourism Association, the mayor and council of Fort St. James and the David Suzuki Foundation.
"Their interest is the same as ours, the protection of the water and land for the future generations of our children," Louie said.
By uniting First Nations and non-aboriginal groups, Louie said they can focus on other common interests like making sure all voices are heard in discussions around future developments and ensuring environmental protections are in place.
Right now, Louie said he believes government decision makers are focused too much on the economic interests of possible development projects.
"[Signatories to the solidarity accord] have the same belief that things have to change in government to allow protections so that development can actually go ahead with the input of everybody," Louie said.
Although the Fraser Declaration was initially formed as a group to fight the Northern Gateway project specifically, Louie said they will stand firmly against other proposed oilsands export developments like the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline from northern Alberta to Burnaby.
"The Alliance has always said that we're going to protect the land no matter what," he said. "That's why we need support throughout the province to protect the land."
