Profiles
Faces of so-called radicalism: Three opponents of the Northern Gateway
Viewed from the government’s perch in Ottawa, the pipeline's opponents are agents of "environmental and other radical groups.' But the faces of the opposition go well beyond the stereotype of anti-development tree-huggers
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Mike Hicks is a fisherman, a businessman, and stalwart federal Conservative voter; in fact, he once ran as a Progressive Conservative candidate. He has done battle with environmentalists over development on Vancouver Island.
And he is convinced that the Enbridge pipeline, with its requirement for more oil-tanker traffic to bring Alberta oil to market, will spell disaster for marine life in the rich waters off B.C.’s coast, from the tiny krill to the humpback whales that pass by his Port Renfrew fishing lodge every year.
“I don’t have some huge philosophy, I’m very selfish,” he explained Monday. “It’s absolutely inevitable there is going to be an oil-tanker collision in the Juan de Fuca Strait.”
Mr. Hicks now finds himself on the same side as the Dogwood Initiative, an environmental organization he has sparred with in the past. “I’m not a radical environmentalist. Fiscally, I’m a conservative, no question.”
Premier Christy Clark has refused to take a position on the pipeline, and her government has carefully endorsed the federal government promise to speed up the review process only on the grounds that business needs to hear the federal government’s decision more quickly.
But Mr. Hicks, as an elected official for the Capital Regional District on southern Vancouver Island, calculates that he is speaking for his constituents on this one. “The good people of Juan de Fuca who I represent can’t afford the chance of an oil disaster.”
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Dr. Charles Helm is a family physician in Tumbler Ridge and is practical-minded about resource development. “I work in a coal-mining town and people have this bad image of coal,” he said. That, he said, is an undeserved rap when it comes to Tumbler Ridge’s metallurgical coal, used in the manufacturing of steel. Although he won’t commit to any political party, he is a proponent of nuclear energy, putting him more in alignment with the federal Conservatives than with the Greens on energy policy. And he is not rabid about battling “big oil,” describing his exchanges with Enbridge officials as “very pleasant.”
But the avid outdoorsman (and amateur paleontologist) is joining, for the first time in his life, an environmental protest movement.
“I don’t like the word radical,” he said. “As a physician I’m trained to be evidence-based.”
Dr. Helm has lived in Tumbler Ridge for 20 years where he has developed a network of hiking trails. He and his fellow fossil hunters have explored the backcountry intimately, giving Tumbler Ridge a newfound status as a hotbed of dinosaur footprints and fossils.
“There has been so much attention on what this pipeline means for the coast, it seems to me everybody has forgotten that this pipeline is going over a remote stretch of the Rocky Mountains. It’s impact is not minimal,” he said. “There are very few areas that are as truly virgin and pristine.”
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For the past seven years, Kevin Derksen has been working to the rural town of Burns Lake on the map as a tourism destination. The cover of Bike magazine has featured the result under the heading, “Miles from nowhere, is Canada’s Burns Lake Mountain Biking Nirvana?” The initiative last year earned the Premier’s Innovation award.
The proposed pipeline would run right through the Burns Lake network of designated trails that that have earned international biking recognition. By the time that happens, the Burns Lake Mountain Biking Society estimates it will have spent $1-million on trail work on a 4,000 hectare area with a camp site, race track and skills area.
Mr. Derkson, who grew up in this resource-dependent town, is sympathetic to the cause of moving Alberta oil to Asian markets. “I get the economics behind it, to relieve ourselves from dependence on the U.S. for our oil markets. Those are huge issues,” Mr. Derksen said Monday. “And our area has been primary industry since the dawn of time. You’re not going to see a lot of hard-core environmentalism here.”
But the tourism jobs are real and ongoing, he said. Enbridge faces a tougher time explaining how residents of Burns Lake will benefit from a pipeline going through their backyard.
“We’ve got this economic development happening, we have hotels benefitting and bike shops opening. The long-term vision is sustainability and bringing dollars into the community,” he said.
“But if this pipeline goes ahead and goes through the rec area, it will kill the project. One you cut a huge swath through the park, it’s lost its attraction.”
