Prince Rupert Pipeline Resistance

Revived project meets renewed Indigenous resistance

Sidney Coles

Indigenous people and allies against PRGT

Indigenous people and allies against PRGT (Sidney Coles)

On a forestry road north of Kispiox, Gitxsan land protectors have set up a blockade to protest the Prince Rupert Gas Terminal pipeline (PRGT) on their laxyip (homelands). Their efforts reflect a province-wide struggle for Indigenous sovereignty, environmental health, and cultural heritage.

Back in 2014, a terminal and pipeline project ignited serious opposition from Gitwilgyoots, a house group (matrilineal extended family group) of Lax Kw’alaams (Fort Simpson) First Nation. Beginning in 2015, members of Gitwilgyoots, led by Donny Wesley, wing chief Murray Smith, and their allies, established a camp and a cabin on Lelu Island, where Malaysian-owned Pacific Northwest LNG planned to build an $11.4 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal.

At the time, another First Nations group including Metlakatla, Kitsumkalum, Kitselas, and Gitxaala First Nations signed onto the project agreement and supported it moving forward.

The centre of resistance to the project was Lelu Island’s ecological and cultural importance. The Flora Banks and the Skeena River estuary provide critical habitat for juvenile salmon, a species vital to the region’s ecosystems and Indigenous livelihoods.

In 2017, amid mounting resistance and concerns about environmental and social impacts, Petronas cancelled the PRGT project. Resistance leaders celebrated the decision as a victory for their sovereignty, the environment, and future generations. However, they recognized that ongoing vigilance would be needed to protect their lands and rights from future projects.

They were right. Eight years later, Gitxsan youth, elders, and Gitanyow hereditary chefs are again standing up against the newest iteration of the PRGT pipeline. In March 2024, TC Energy Corporation announced a binding agreement with Nisga’a Nation and Western LNG to purchase all outstanding shares in the PRGT pipeline.

If built, the 800 km pipeline could carry two billion cubic feet of fracked gas per day from Hudson’s Hope in northeastern BC to a proposed LNG terminal and export facility on Pearse Island owned by the Nisga’a Nation. The Nisga’a also signed the original benefit agreement for the PRGT project in 2014.

The Gitxsan Nation and Gitanyow Nation both have traditional territories that the natural gas pipeline would cross. Gitanyow chiefs signed benefits agreements for the first PRGT project proposal. But by the fall of 2023, the Gitanyow chiefs were already expressing concern that the outdated agreement no longer reflected the one that three of eight hereditary chiefs had signed onto in 2014. They noted the original Environmental Assessment certificate expired in November  2024.

At an event marking the expiration of the EA certificate, Gitanyow simooget (hereditary chief) Malii (Glen Williams) said, “This out-of-date and risky project does not meet the current needs of Gitanyow and others, mainly a healthy climate and thriving environment for future generations.”

At a Gixtsan laxyip youth event at Gitimaax Hall in August 2024, co-organizer Drew Harris told those gathered, “We, the youth of the Gitxsan laxyip, stand united in defending our cultural, ecological, and spiritual integrity. As stewards of these lands, we are the inheritors of our ancestor’s wisdom, the guardians of the rivers, forests, and mountains that have nourished our people for millennia. The Gitxsan laxyip is not just land; it is the source of our life, the bedrock of our identity and the foundation of our future.”

Days later, Gamlakyeltxw Wil Marsden and Watakhayetsxw Deborah Good set up a blockade to delay PRGT construction and stop personnel accessing the road 170 kilometres north of Terrace, BC.

“Following our youth-led impact meeting, the Gitanyow Chiefs were inspired to burn their ten-year agreement with the project. They listened to our fears and stood in solidarity with us,” said Harris.

Meanwhile, Nisga’a members were celebrating at a PRGT ground-breaking ceremony. Nisg̱a’a Lisims government executive chairperson Brian Tait said his government signed onto the project because, “For too long, the Nisg̱a’a people have stood on the sidelines while others build wealth on the resources of our lands.”

Economic opportunity or “economic reconciliation” is often the bait-and-switch the provincial government and extractive industries uses to divide and entice impoverished First Nations communities into signing benefits agreements at the risk of the ecological well-being of their lands.

Gitxsan protectors – including Kolin Sutherland-Wilson of Git’luuhl’um’hetxwit Wilp, recent Green Party candidate and hereditary chief Wil Marsden, and Jesse Stoeppler of the Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition – maintain staunch opposition to the project. They emphasized their inherent authority over their traditional territories, which predates colonial governance.

At a fundraiser in Victoria, Sutherland-Wilson told the crowd, “PRGT is the exact same generation as Coastal GasLink. We killed it once. We thought all this was dead in 2017. We focused on the fight for our relatives on Wet’suwet’en territory because Coastal GasLink and PRGT are the exact same monster.”

The Gitxsan resistance to the Prince Rupert Gas Terminal pipeline bears striking parallels to the ongoing Wet’suwet’en resistance to the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline.  In both cases, Indigenous communities are asserting their authority over traditional territories in opposition to industrial projects that threaten ecological and cultural resources.

In October 2024, the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs launched legal proceedings against the Ksi Lisims LNG project. Marsden told the Watershed Sentinel that the case will prove undisputed title in Gitanyow laxyip. Ultimately, he says, “they have two solutions to bring this all to a head; one, title by agreement, versus title by litigation and shutting it all down.”

PRGT in late 2024 applied to the provincial government for a “substantial start” determination, which would extend the EA certificate for the duration of the project, presenting Tamara Davidson, the newly-appointed Minister for Environment and Parks, with a huge decision to make when BC legislators return for the spring session of Parliament.


Sidney Coles holds two PhDs. She is a journalist and writer on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples.

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