Members of the Board of Directors for the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako were united in their message when they met with a delegation from the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project during their committee meeting on Thursday, May 23: don鈥檛 exclude us from the conversation.

Chair Mark Parker said, 鈥渨e鈥檝e been chasing this whole process from start to finish instead of being part of it.鈥� Parker said that RDBN wants to be a part of the process from initial consultation.

Other board members echoed his call for more engagement moving forward. Director Christopher Newell said that lack of consultation might have caused safety concerns. Director Stoney Stoltenberg told delegates to be pro-active, not reactive.

The board carried a motion to have an environmental assessment done for a plan to electrify some of the power generation for the pipeline that is done by natural gas.

Coastal GasLink completed installation of 670-kilometre pipeline from northeast B.C. to the LNG processing facility in Kitimat on October 30, 2023 after five years of preparation and construction. The total cost was an estimated $14.5 billion.

The pipeline triggered protests across Canada in 2020 when Witsuwit鈥檈n hereditary chiefs challenged the authority of elected chiefs from 20 Indigenous groups who supported the pipeline. The protests resulted in a Supreme Court Injunction and a standoff with RCMP near Houston, B.C. the led to multiple arrests. Amnesty International has condemned the arrests and called for charges to be dropped.

Mayor Gladys Atrill said that the social impacts will be felt for a long time. Judy Greenaway asked if the costs were worth the tax dollars and questioned if the board would want another pipeline

READ MORE: Construction phase of northern B.C. natural gas pipeline complete