In its ongoing efforts to win over hearts and minds, Woodfibre LNG has recruited an influential young Squamish Nation woman.
Taylor McCarthy, who ran unsuccessfully for Squamish Nation council last fall, previously voiced opposition to the Woodfibre LNG project. However, she has recently taken a summer intern job with the company as a project representative. There are also plans for her to do further, future work with the company, she said.
McCarthy was previously in this paper for her activism and council candidacy.
When she ran in 2017, she opposed the Woodfibre LNG project because she 鈥渂lindly followed what [her] family and friends were opposing,鈥� McCarthy acknowledged.
She had been engaged in the LNG consultation process since 2014, but until she did a lot of her own research, she didn鈥檛 really understand the project, she says.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know what the extraction process was, how it was being transported and just really what it was until I attended more meetings... started reading more documents.鈥�
She said analyzing the independent assessment process the Nation undertook 鈥� and its 25 conditions 鈥� helped sway her.
鈥淭he Squamish Nation, leadership, negotiating team and even Woodfibre has to really implement this as a legally binding document,鈥� she said.聽
She also got to recently sit down with Woodfibre鈥檚 Ratnesh Bedi, President of Pacific Oil & Gas since 2011.
He told her to ask any questions she wanted and not sugarcoat her concerns.
鈥淚 pretty much shared with him that Nation members are really concerned about the territory from an environmental perspective, environmental sustainability and he understood that,鈥� he said.
McCarthy, who is going into her fourth year of communications study at Capilano University, is not representing the Nation or members in her role with Woodfibre LNG, she stressed.
鈥淎s much as I wanted to be, I am not a Nation councillor 鈥� I鈥檓 a Nation member like everyone else.鈥�
Her role will include providing cultural awareness training for Woodfibre LNG employees.
鈥淭he same way people will have to go through鈥� site safety training, archaeological training 鈥� what to do if they find an artifact 鈥� they will have to go through a cultural awareness program,鈥� she said, adding the training is one of the reasons she took the job.
鈥淚 wanted to share with people that this is Squamish territory, this is where you will be working for the next four to 40 years鈥�
She has also been helping develop an app on cultural awareness and will be doing more community outreach.
She says the process the Nation went through with the project and her role are part of reconciliation.
鈥淚 see it as a re-balance of power between First Nations, Canadian governments, and corporations,鈥� she said.
鈥淓specially after the Tsilhqot鈥檌n court case decision confirming Aboriginal title, the rights to the land and deciding on how it will be used has really followed through with this project and the Squamish Nation,鈥� she said.
In 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada granted the declaration of Aboriginal title to approximately 1,700 square kilometres of land in the province to the Tsilhqot鈥檌n First Nation.
This marked the first such court ruling regarding Aboriginal land.
McCarthy has already taken some heat for her about-face and new job.
A fellow Nation member said on Facebook McCarthy鈥檚 being hired by Woodfibre represents colonialism.
But McCarthy stands by her decision and her right to make it.
鈥淚t is actually the opposite of colonialism,鈥� she said.
Just having attended Squamish Days, which honours those in the forest industry, McCarthy said it is important Nation members and other citizens in Squamish value careers in industry.
She used to think everyone should go to university, she said, but has come to see the importance of trades, including in building Woodfibre.
鈥淚 would personally be ashamed if the Squamish Nation didn鈥檛 negotiate with Woodfibre and have a priority in jobs,鈥� she said.
鈥淢y sister and brother, my cousins, my distant relatives 鈥� if they didn鈥檛 have an opportunity to work on a project in our own territory, I would be livid.鈥�
