OH, CANADA: ‘Not going to happen’: First Nations threaten to end Carney’s pipe dream.

The Canadian PM’s breakthrough oil deal with Alberta cost him a cabinet minister and will still face stiff opposition
Fri 28 Nov 2025 09.30 EST

When the people of the Haida nation won a decades-long battle for recognition that an archipelago off the coast of British Columbia in Canada was rightfully theirs, it was a long overdue victory.

The unprecedented deal with the provincial and the federal governments meant the Haida no longer had to prove that they had Aboriginal title to the land of Xhaaidlagha Gwaayaai, “the islands at the boundary of the world.”

Now, both governments will have to face what that might mean.

On Thursday, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, and the Alberta premier, Danielle Smith, agreed an energy deal centred on plans for a new heavy oil pipeline reaching from the province’s oil sands to the Pacific coast.

Heralded as a major political breakthrough between deadlocked parties, the deal lays the groundwork for an oil duct that could carry more than a million barrels each day from the oil sands to the Pacific. With new legislative powers, Carney’s government could also slash permitting and approval delays.

But the response from politically powerful nations, such as the Haida – whose consent the government needs – was both quick and simple: “This project is not going to happen.”

Gaagwiis, the president of the Haida nation, said the federal government had a duty to “uphold the honour of the crown” when working with his community.

“Trying to ram through a project puts that ‘honour’ in jeopardy,” he said. “This is an opportunity for the government of Canada and the prime minister, to look in the mirror and see what kind of country he wants to lead and what kind of country he wants Canada to be.”

Despite Carney’s pledge to obtain the full consent of First Nations – and to share any windfall – on any possible pipeline project, Gaagwiis said there was nothing federal or provincial leaders could say to move his nation.

How about: Your subsidies will end if we don’t get this? Somebody’s dickering here. But if this fails it’s just another reason for Alberta to secede.