The chiefs of three native groups are calling on Quebec to impose a 12-year moratorium on oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The chiefs say the Gulf waters are vital to the livelihoods of the Innu, Mi’Maq and Maliseet nations and they fear an environmental catastrophe similar to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Speaking at the Assembly of First Nations meeting in Montreal, Mi’kmaq Chief Scott Martin said he wants an “integrated assessment” of all the risks involved with resource exploitation in the area before Quebec grants exploration or drilling permits.
Innu Chief Jean-Charles Pietacho said his people will not be bought off with petrodollars.
The grand chief of the Viger Maliseet First Nation, Anne Archambault, said 95 per cent of her community’s revenue comes from the salmon industry and her people’s ancestral rights to the Atlantic salmon “take precedence over oil.”
The chiefs said resource exploitation along the St. Lawrence River cannot be carried out without their consent and cited a Supreme Court of Canada ruling that native people must be consulted and accommodated before their territory can be used for commercial development.
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