Alberta
MB/SK/AB NeeStaNan Utilities Corridor: First Nations-led utility corridor is a 21st-century nation-building initiative
Port Nelson is 300 kilometres south of Churchill and has a longer ice-free season. In fact, a concrete jetty constructed (and never used) at Port Nelson nearly a hundred years ago remains in place.
From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Terry Etam
“The trading of goods has been in our DNA as Indigenous People for centuries, but somewhere along the way this was lost. It’s time to regain our prosperity, for the betterment of our communities and for our country.” – NeeStaNan website
Ever feel like you’re being neglected by either governments or the various power centers that dominate life? The big places get all the attention, have all the votes, have all the buzz. In Canada, fewer than ten such centers dominate the country. If you’re not in one of those, you won’t know much political power, there won’t be much clout, there won’t be much of anything.
And if you want to know how far you can get from a circle of influence, consider Census Division No. 23, a great big administrative district in northern Manitoba. The size and ruggedness are mindboggling; No. 23 encompasses an area of 233,578 square km/90,185 square miles, six times the area of Switzerland, yet the region’s total population is 4,690. The population density, rounded to the nearest person-per-square km, is zero. If you round it to the nearest tenth of a square km, it is still zero.
It is extremely hard for people of regions like this to register on the national radar for any number of reasons, some of which are just logistical (remote location) and some of which are just rude realities (not much political capital up for grabs in No. 23).29dk2902l
The people of regions like this tend to be absent from all sorts of things, including resource development, even if it happens in these regions. Yes, there will be some local employment, and positive economic spinoffs, but nothing in the way of meaningful ownership or control.
But that may be about to change, for a significant swath of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the northeastern part of Alberta. Underway is the NeeStaNan utility corridor, stretching from northern Alberta through north-central Saskatchewan and on to the shores of Hudson Bay in Manitoba.
The significance of this corridor could be profound. It will provide tidewater access for landlocked western Canadian resources that otherwise need to travel to the west coast, or other less efficient routes. As one of the best examples, Saskatchewan must move potash to market via Vancouver, meaning a trip through the Rocky Mountains and on to the coast.
By utilizing the NeeStaNan utility corridor, potash will be able to move to large markets like Brazil far more efficiently. The distance to seawater via Hudson Bay is 630 km/390 miles less than by going through BC ports, and here’s the real economic kicker: the sea route to Brazil’s market is actually 3,800 km less than current routes. That’s almost 2,400 miles, for American friends and for old times’ sake.
The corridor is planned to enter Hudson Bay not at Churchill, but at a much more direct and accessible point called Port Nelson. Port Nelson is some 300 kilometres/180 miles south of Churchill (Hudson Bay is really freaking big) and has a longer ice-free season. In fact, a concrete jetty constructed (and never used) at Port Nelson nearly a hundred years ago remains in place. Port Nelson isn’t a new idea.
The utility corridor isn’t simply a project to enhance the wellbeing of the FN bands along the way, although it will most certainly do that. It is also far more grand in scope: the utility corridor will help Canada’s heartland deliver industrial products to global markets in a more efficient way, and provide the sort of efficiencies that can help multiple Canadian industries enhance global competitiveness, all the while providing an economic boost that is infinitely better than what locals and First Nations along the way have ever known.
Many industries could benefit, including the oil and gas sector, and I’m going to say that now before any legislation passes that makes it illegal. There is potential to utilize the corridor to move rail cargoes, pipelines, lumber, agricultural products, raw materials, manufactured goods… an endless array of the stuff that makes Canada wealthy.
The project is enormously captivating right from its very name. “NeeStaNan” translates as “all of us”. How cool is that; inclusiveness not under the guise some overwrought mandate, but in the sense that the project is being structured to benefit a great number of parties. The home page of the NeeStaNan website describes the project as a utility corridor “uniting Canadians”. Now, doesn’t that phrase sound far more powerful coming from the heartland, from people with skin in the game, as opposed to insincere platitudes thrown about like confetti on the campaign trail?
The utility corridor really could unite Canadians; it is a slingshot of vitality into Canada’s industrial base. It could benefit many critical industries, and open up new trade possibilities. It is a project designed to bring in many First Nations along the route that have very little to show for Canada’s development. It’s not a handout, it’s the opposite – a benefit to Canada and a great many Canadians.
Isn’t this what First Nations Self Determination should be about? Isn’t this a perfect dovetail with the interests of the people who live in these remote areas, who are the only ones there, and who deserve a say in how it is developed? Isn’t it amazing that it is a collaborative effort that by design will benefit industries that these First Nations have no direct stake in?
Isn’t it the best possible goal and achievement of all the efforts to bring First Nations fully into the Canadian matrix on a way that works for everyone, and that benefits everyone?
And who would be better than First Nations along the corridor’s path as the stewards of the corridor itself? Who knows the terrain better? I’ve been there, I grew up not in the path of the corridor but I could see it from a north facing window, and I’ll tell you it’s not territory for the faint of heart. Winters are brutal and long, summers are hot and buggy, and nature is relentless. Local expertise and wisdom would be invaluable.
I can’t really think of an infrastructure project of the past fifty years that could have such multi-dimensional benefits to so many Canadians. It is uplifting to see collaboration across many First Nations and the governments of three provinces. Ottawa may not like it, because the corridor is sure to empower an area of the country that has few votes to harvest, but that is all the more reason to get behind and support the project’s owners, organizers, and operators.
The NeeStaNan utility corridor might do more for a forgotten region of Canada, and its First Nations, than 150 years of federal government “help”. Let’s hope all three prairie provinces and the First Nations along the way bring the corridor into life and to its full potential.
Terry Etam is a columnist with the BOE Report, a leading energy industry newsletter based in Calgary. He is the author of The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity. You can watch his Policy on the Frontier session from May 5, 2022 here.
Alberta
Alberta introduces bill banning sex reassignment surgery on minors
From LifeSiteNews
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith followed through on a promised bill banning so-called ‘top and bottom’ surgeries for minors.
Alberta Conservative Premier Danielle Smith made good on her promise to protect kids from extreme transgender ideology after introducing a bill banning so-called “top and bottom” surgeries for minors.
“It is so important that all youth can enter adulthood equipped to make adult decisions. In order to do that, we need to preserve their ability to make those decisions, and that’s what we’re doing,” Smith said in a press release.
“The changes we’re introducing are founded on compassion and science, both of which are vital for the development of youth throughout a time that can be difficult and confusing.”
Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024 “reflects the government’s commitment to build a health care system that responds to the changing needs of Albertans,” the government says.
The bill will amend the Health Act to “prohibit regulated health professionals from performing sex reassignment surgeries on minors.”
It will also ban the “use of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for the treatment of gender dysphoria or gender incongruence” to kids 15 and under “except for those who have already commenced treatment and would allow for minors aged 16 and 17 to choose to commence puberty blockers and hormone therapies for gender reassignment and affirmation purposes with parental, physician and psychologist approval.”
Alberta Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange, the bill’s sponsor, said the province’s legislative priorities include “implementing policy changes to continue our refocusing work, position our health care system to respond to pressures and public health emergencies, and to preserve choice for minors. These amendments reflect our dedication to ensuring our health care system meets the needs of every Albertan.”
Earlier this year, the United Conservative Party (UCP) provincial government under Smith announced she would introduce the strong pro-family legislation that strengthens parental rights, protecting kids from life-altering, so-called “top and bottom” surgeries as well as other extreme forms of transgender ideology.
With Smith’s UCP holding a majority in the provincial legislature, the passage of Bill 26 is almost certain.
About the proposed law, Smith said that her government believes it is “vitally important to preserve the time” kids have as a “youth.” She added that she believes this is so kids can “gain sufficient amount of knowledge, experience, and perspective so that you can fully understand who you are, who you want to be and what opportunities you may want to have as an adult before making permanent life-altering decisions related to your body.”
While Smith has done far more than predecessor Jason Kenney to satisfy social conservatives, she has been mostly soft on social issues such as abortion and has publicly expressed pro-LGBT views, telling Jordan Peterson that conservatives must embrace homosexual “couples” as “nuclear families.”
This weekend, thousands of UCP members will gather for the party’s annual general meeting, where Smith’s leadership will be voted on along with many other pro-freedom and family policy proposals from members. Smith is expected to pass her leadership review vote with a large majority.
Alberta
Alberta court upholds conviction of Pastor Artur Pawlowski for preaching at Freedom Convoy protest
From LifeSiteNews
Lawyers argued that Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s sermon was intended to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, but the statement was characterized as a call for mischief.
An Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski is guilty of mischief for his sermon at the Freedom Convoy-related border protest blockade in February 2022 in Coutts, Alberta.
On October 29, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Gordon Krinke sentenced the pro-freedom pastor to 60 days in jail for “counselling mischief” by encouraging protesters to continue blocking Highway 4 to protest COVID mandates.
“A reasonable person would understand the appellant’s speech to be an active inducement of the illegal activity that was ongoing and that the appellant intended for his speech to be so understood,” the decision reads.
Pawlowski addressed a group of truckers and protesters blocking entrance into the U.S. state of Montana on February 3, the fifth day of the Freedom Convoy-styled protest. He encouraged the protesters to “hold the line” after they had reportedly made a deal with Royal Canadian Mounted Police to leave the border crossing and travel to Edmonton.
“The eyes of the world are fixed right here on you guys. You are the heroes,” Pawlowski said. “Don’t you dare go breaking the line.”
After Pawlowski’s sermon, the protesters remained at the border crossing for two additional weeks. While his lawyers argued that his speech was made to encourage protesters to find a peaceful solution to the blockade, the statement is being characterized as a call for mischief.
Days later, on February 8, Pawlowski was arrested – for the fifth time – by an undercover SWAT team just before he was slated to speak again to the Coutts protesters.
He was subsequently jailed for nearly three months for what he said was for speaking out against COVID mandates, the subject of all the Freedom Convoy-related protests.
In Krinke’s decision, he argued that Pawlowski’s sermon incited the continuation of the protest, saying, “The Charter does not provide justification to anybody who incites a third party to commit such crimes.”
However, defence lawyer Sarah Miller pointed out that that Pawlowski’s sermon was protected under freedom of speech, an argument that Krinke quickly dismissed.
“While the appellant is correct that peaceful, lawful and nonviolent communication is entitled to protection, blockading a highway is an inherently aggressive and potentially violent form of conduct, designed to intimidate and impede the movement of third parties,” he wrote.
Pawlowski was released after the verdict. He has already spent 78 days in jail before the trial.
Pawlowski is the first Albertan to be charged for violating the province’s Critical Infrastructure Defence Act (CIDA), which was put in place in 2020 under then-Premier Jason Kenney.
The CIDA, however, was not put in place due to COVID mandates but rather after anti-pipeline protesters blockaded key infrastructure points such as railway lines in Alberta a few years ago.
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