Haisla Membership Opportunities

My name is Steven Wilson and I am Haisla. I was the first to sign an LNG agreement with Galveston LNG in 2005. We had an agreement that included a 15% equity stake in the terminal worth $180,000,000. The tolling at the terminal was set at 22.5% Return on Equity. The vision was to have a share and a say how the project was developed. I acquired 30% equity in the PTP Pipeline and helped with the PTP FNLP and accompanying ASETS.

All of that was flushed down the toilet because the leadership listened to the consultants and lawyers who advised them no one would finance the equity. The ROE would generate $40,500,000/year. A return on investment at 6% compounded interest on the ROE would be valued at $1.2 Billion in year 23 of a 50 Year cycle. Of course, that assumes that the EBITA would all go to the investment instead of paying down the debt. But the Capital Cost Allowance would more than make-up for the cost of debt repayment. 

On top of the value we had lined up $650 million worth of direct award contracts, including the lucrative marine transportation, ship assist, and environmental response contracts. At KLNG and LNG Canada, the projects were sold on the economic value to the economy through procurements. While that sounds good, the reality is that has not borne out. The majority of procurements are non-local big corporations. Thee contract to build is a fixed-price incentive contract. The only way to create profits is to cut prices. That excludes the small local contractor. In that fixed-price world, you create efficiencies through scale and scope by way of integration. By setting the standard at $500 million/year revenue companies the local company cannot compete.

The local economy suffers from the cost of living increases and rising cost of resources. To many First Nations, who have been legislated into poverty, residential school syndrome, and academic stranding to technical jobs are out of their reach. The zero tolerance to alcohol and drugs is a clean and efficient way to eliminate First Nations because the Federal and Provincial Crown have done nothing effective to deal with the chronic nature of the addiction cycle created by Residential School fallout.

The environmental certificates should be amended so that they are tied to the performance of how the proponents are going to effectively deal with the social issues that are barriers to employment. As it is we now have agreements that are subject to the interpretation by EPMC who are far removed from the intent of the benefits agreement. More to the point they don't care, especially when they bid low on a fixed-price incentive contract.

The other major issue that the federal crown has failed to address is the banana republic system of the elected chief and council who have too much power to decide who gets contracts and jobs. Normally we First Nations get eliminated when we have no degree, project management certification, or skills. In our case, you only have to be related to the right family member to get preferential treatment for jobs or contracts with nation owned business partners or council. There is no effective conflict of interest rules and the band has no accountability requirements to report the business revenues or expenditures.

In this case, the Haisla Nation Council paid an advisor $30,000/month, a 5% success fee, and 10% equity in the Floating Liquefaction projects for no nominal fees. The substance was part of litigation that was settled through the Supreme Court of BC. There has been no disclosure of any relevant information on the disposition to the Haisla Membership.

There are no clear rules for how our business is managed and there is no audit and compliance for the Own Source Revenues collected from what is the memberships collective interests. Canada has interfered and displaced our traditional laws, governance, leadership, and management systems and left a huge void in accountability. The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People has various sections that deal with the requirement to make informed decisions.

Right now none of the important ethical, moral, and values-based systems of governance that our culture is founded on, are required under the Indian Act. The Indian Industry that has been created by the Indian Act and subsequence assimilation policies and instruments have produced Banana Republics that promote dependency, dysfunction, chronic poverty, unemployment, and addictions.

Policies have to be developed to counter the devastation that has been legislated into existence by the Crown and Corporations. We have documents from the McKenna-McBride Commission that state that the Haisla will be able to hunt and fish as of old.

The Pulp and paper mill destroyed the eulachon stocks and habitat. The Pollution from Methanex further poisoned the Kitimat river. The fish hatchery is reduced to the lowest level of production while the Kitimat river sockeye has become extinct. The other species are at risk with no more wild stocks to speak of. The Kildala, Dala, and Kemano River eulachon runs have become unstable. Rio Tinto Alcan has been fined for managing the flow in the Kemano River so poorly.

More importantly, DFO and the RCMP have criminalized Haisla People for practicing our right to hunt and fish as of old. The Crown policy of only having food, social, and ceremonial rights is legally defective and based on the flawed logic that we do not have a commercial right because we did not have money!

We effectively had an economy that was based on currency. The currency has taken many forms. Our system was so sophisticated that while we could not speak Tsimpsian,  Nisgaa, Haida, Salish, or Nu cha nuulth we still traded with them. Our trade language was Chinook. It was a system of trade and commerce that had rules and forms. When the Russians, Spanish, British, and Americans showed up to our coast, Chinook adapted to include them so we could trade.

Our terrestrial resources from the forest were used to manufacture implements that were used to fish at a commercial scale. We had a share structure to share our lands and resources. The Crown displaced that system and legislated us into poverty and dependency. We even perfected the divide and conquer methods. We became so dependent on the chief and council that whoever controlled council controlled the money and jobs. We destroy each other over the scraps that are left on what should be our very wealthy table. We empower uneducated and small-minded dictators who do not care about anything other than power.

The Crown has a statutory fiduciary obligation to all of us First Nations, not just the elected chief and council. In Delgamuukw, the Supreme Court of Canada established that Title and Rights has a clear economic component that is not frozen in time. As long as new development does not infringe that intent of constitutional protections, then it can manifest in new forms.

Since the Crown has displaced our traditional economy there is a fiduciary obligation to replace it with a modern equivalent. That modern articulation is trades and management that is aligned with the supply chain. Section 15.2 of the Charter is a tool that justifies new models that the 1967 Hawthorne Report Advocated.

That Hawthorne Report, in two volumes, was an excellent road map to deal with the substantive issues that prevail in unresolved land claims. We have waited patiently to have some resolution to the Banana Republic conditions that we have normalized. We have health, mental health, cancer, asthma, diabetes, and addictions that require adequate funding. It seems that the Crown is content to watch us die off slowly and not deal with the crisis we live in. That is not leadership and there is an abundance of resources that have made outsiders rich beyond our wildest dreams. It is our turn. The Crown needs to show leadership on all levels for positive change to happen. It is possible.

Sincerely,

Steve Wilson