February 13, 2020
VICTORIA — The B.C. government has agreed to meet with Indigenous hereditary chiefs over ongoing pipeline protests and rail blockades across B.C. and Canada.
In a letter to Gitxsan Nation hereditary chief Norman Stephens, Premier John Horgan says he, or a senior member of his cabinet, would be willing to meet with Indigenous leaders on the condition that an ongoing rail blockade in northern B.C. is lifted.
The letter was in response to a proposal from Stephens and hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en Nation to meet with provincial and federal ministers to resolve the impasse over the Coastal GasLink pipeline.
“I confirm our government’s willingness to participate in such a meeting on the basis you propose. Further, my office has informed the federal government of our responses and we have urged the federal government to respond as quickly as possible to the proposal,” Horgan wrote Wednesday.