Vancouver lawyer Doug Eyford, who I worked with on EXPO 86 and the Canada Pavilion in Vancouver (we all had a ball) has written a report about the impossible conditions between native Canadians (although they're not really "native", just got here before the rest of us) and the resource industry. It's resistance and obstruction all 'round from the "natives".
Well, of course it is. They resist and object to anything and everything, while doing nothing themselves to harvest this country's riches. There are currently 600 resource projects planned in the next decade, valued at $650 billion, which the Fraser Institute says face major obstacles with natives. What is wrong with these people? Where do those 630 "first nations" communities think the money they are handed comes from?! Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver has repeatedly warned that Canada must move quickly on these projects to take advantage of lucrative energy markets in Asia or the window will close.
And what are the natives doing? Going to court to stop everything. What do they care? They know they'll get their $80 billion a year every year anyway, so who cares if no oil and gas get out of the ground and into international markets? Harper wants to make Canada an "energy superpower", but it will never happen if the natives keep fighting everything in the courts. For them it's all about land claims, er I mean money. If you want to get down to their position, the natives believe they own every square inch of Canada. Hey, that makes everything impossible and no one will get richer -- not Canadians and certainly not natives, just lawyers. Sadly, the "natives" will continue to live in squalor on isolated reservations while money sits undeveloped right underneath their shacks. Canada is a very rich country if only we could get to the riches! We don't have to end up like Bulgaria.
Eyford says, "This won't be an easy process." How about impossible. I'm sick of it.
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