BC LNG: Sarita Bay LNG Vote Came with Promise of Multimilli

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Sarita Bay LNG Vote Came with Promise of Multimillion-Dollar Education Fund

[ https://thetyee.ca/News/2017/04/06/Sari ... ign=060417 ]

‘It was like an ultimatum to vote yes,’ says citizen of Huu-ay-aht First Nation.

By Andrew Nikiforuk , TheTyee.ca April 6, 2017

Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist who has been writing about the energy industry for two decades and is a contributing editor to The Tyee. Find his previous stories here.

Huu-ay-aht First Nation members were coerced into supporting a liquefied natural gas project on Sarita Bay on Vancouver Island’s west coast, an opponent of the development has charged.

On March 25 Huu-ay-aht members voted 140 to 61 in favour of moving ahead with a “co-management development arrangement” with Steelhead LNG. The Huu-ay-aht First Nation government said it is the first such agreement for an LNG plant in the province.

But Stella M. Peters, a citizen of the nation, said members were left with little choice after leaders promised $2 million for education and training and to more than double monthly grants to elders — but only if the LNG development was approved in the referendum.

“It was like an ultimatum to vote yes,” charged Peters. “It seemed to me like a sellout.”

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