In this week’s episode of The Line: Alberta Podcast, Rob Breakenridge speaks with Stephen Buffalo, who is president and CEO of the Indian Resource Council, board chair of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, and a member of the Samson Cree Nation.
The Assembly of First Nations has voted to call on the federal government to withdraw the Alberta-Ottawa memorandum of understanding (MOU) on a new pipeline deal and to express support for the First Nations on the B.C. coast who have spoken out against the proposal.
Stephen Buffalo, though, maintains that the AFN resolution was pushed through without meaningful debate and that the process excluded the Indigenous voices that support energy development and see the benefit in partnerships and ownership stakes in such projects. The Indian Resource Council, for example, represents more than 150 First Nations.
We’ll get Buffalo’s perspective on how the conversation about First Nations and energy developments needs more balance and how much progress has been made with government and industry on moving projects forward with Indigenous involvement and partnership. He believes that there is tremendous opportunity for communities to generate wealth and employment opportunities and that these First Nations can also help be guardians when it comes to ensuring environmental protections.
Certainly the issue of Indigenous consultation and participation will be front and centre as this MOU and the pipeline project move forward. We’ll find out what a successful path forward might look like.
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The Line: Alberta is a provincial bureau of The Line, edited by Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney. Email us at alberta@readtheline.ca.
