RE:Aboriginal group withdraws oppositionThis was filed on the UARB website this afternoon. The information is really thin. SFN “dropping its objections” by no means closes things, but it is a radical step forward from the endless delays that PEA blundered into by paying no attention to Board processes, then freaking out. So they got smart, stopped trying to pilot the UARB process from in house and got experienced lawyers, who probably told them right off they needed to cut a benefits deal with SFN.
I made a couple phone calls. Turns out the Band election is in several weeks- so there is no Council in place to vote on anything. No one has seen anything, they heard about it from me. It looks like only the Chief and Band lawyer were involved.
Even without a signed deal, whatever it is will be in play during the election. Not an ideal time for getting a deal (assuming there is one) hammered out and voted on. If there is an agreement then it looks like there has to be a referendum. Even if deal supporters do well in the elections there still has to be a referendum, which takes at least several weeks. Its at least a couple months of Band politics in a community that will likely be pretty divided. But I kind of expect the UARB will see this as now out of their hands.
keng1968 wrote: The Sipeknekatik first nation has dropped it's objection to the Pieridae Energy Goldboro LNG project application before the NSPURB.