By Cara McKenna

Chief Maureen Thomas of Tsleil-Waututh Nation went to Ottawa last month in order to make a plea to the federal government to reject the Trans Mountain pipeline project.

Squamish Chief Ian Campbell, Musqueam councillor Howard Grant and Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson joined her in a delegation.

Thomas told reporters in Ottawa on June 7 that any risk of a spill from the pipeline is too great a risk for her people to bear.

“The government and the people of this country really need to start looking at alternatives,” she said. “We can’t wait for someone else to do it, we really need to stand up now and start speaking what needs to be done.”

She talked about the contamination that has existed in the Burrard Inlet for many decades. The chief said it is so extreme that she believes it to be causing cancer in people from the nation who eats the fish from the polluted areas.

“We continue to be there and we want to be there,” she said. “The pollution in those waters not just from Kinder Morgan, but from other [industries], is vast, taking away the life of our inlet.”

Chief Campbell said the current pipeline was put in at a time when the First Nations had no say, but now things have changed.

“We weren’t citizens in our own land and we had no legal recourse to challenge industrial projects,” he said. “This is an era of reconciliation.”

Meanwhile, Vancouver Mayor Robertson spoke about how the pipeline would affect Vancouver’s green economy and environmental goals. “We are here representing our citizens on the West Coast.

“Over the past two years with the independent research and analysis, we have concluded (the project) is not in the public interest,” he said.

“The risks of an oil spill… on Vancouver’s economy are far too great and do not justify this pipeline being built.”