“I’ve done the right thing for our people and my heart is in the right place… If our people are living in poverty, the way to overcome it is through proper training, trades, education and a job.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n By September 2018, CGL had signed agreements with all 20 elected Indigenous bands along the pipeline route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gary Naziel, a councillor for Witset First Nation and hereditary sub-chief, said: “This project will provide jobs<\/a>, contracts and financial benefits that Witset First Nation can use to enhance programs and initiatives for our citizens, such as language and cultural programs. We look forward to continuing to work together with the Coastal GasLink project toward these common goals.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n CGL also offered a 10% stake in the $6.6 billion project to the 20 First Nations<\/a> whose elected leadership signed agreements. Other benefits include $1 billion in employment and contract opportunities for local First Nations and additional training and scholarships for workers and students. In January 2020, Indigenous workers comprised 25% of the pipeline’s active workforce<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Canadian Energy Centre, “The Coastal GasLink agreements (and other, future resource projects) have the potential to provide revenues to communities where existing own source tax revenues are scarce. Also, direct work on pipelines or other resource projects including from future spin-off economic activity has the potential to raise employment rates and lower unemployment<\/a> rates.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Philip Tait experienced this first hand. The Wet’suwet’en member of Beaver Clan drives a haul truck for Kyah Resources, a business owned by Witset First Nation and Moricetown Band Development Corporation. The company was hired to help build the right-of-way for the pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tait used to work in forestry. But, he said, “with the forestry going down, we need every little bit more that we can get right now. And this is going to pump a lot of money into the taxes and into the communities and feed a lot of families<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But not everyone shares Tait’s practical concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn social media, if you\u2019re against the hereditary chiefs, their supporters jump right on you. Right from the beginning, I\u2019ve said I\u2019m going to say my piece and I\u2019m not going to be bullied<\/a>,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the past, Tait had been prevented from accessing his worksite by blockaders. In the small community, it’s easy to notice locals. Yet, when Resource Works interviewed Tait, he said he only saw two Wet’suwet’en at the blockade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “These people are stopping me from going in, and they’re not Wet’suwet’en<\/a>. And I found it a really hard feeling to find other people stopping me to work on my own land\u2026.my experience with all the people I talk with, my friends and other people, they are for it. Because our band council and our chief, they made the deal. And they were voted by the people of Moricetown [Witset]. And I believe they were right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other Wet’suwet’en community members shared Tait’s frustration at the actions of outsiders claiming to speak in their name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people out there that don\u2019t even belong from Witset,” said Clement Mitchell, a Witset band councillor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They\u2019re kinda ruining our names<\/a> and stuff like that. Making us look bad… If they\u2019re not natives from our village, they shouldn\u2019t even be involved in what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bonnie George, a respected member of the Wet’suwet’en community, agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en nation that\u2019s been publicized in the media right now [is] only a small group that doesn\u2019t represent that nation<\/a>… the negative things that are happening in the media, all the protests… it\u2019s shedding bad light on the Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en people”, she said. George says her clan elders do not like what they see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “They said, in our language, ‘we say kai ays lee,’ which means, ‘it\u2019s shameful<\/a>.’ It\u2019s shameful to our people, and it hurts my heart.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/resourcework2.devstudio.work\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/KOT-1024x683.jpg\")
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