Prince George, B.C. – When it comes to  developing discussion on Canada’s  natural resources,  Carrier Sekani Tribal Chief, Terry Teegee, says there needs to be a plan “There has to be that overall discussion nationally  on energy strategy that involves First Nations and the two levels of government where we come together and  decide how we  develop the energy sector.”

Chief Teegee says the pace of development is rapid, and the landuse plan is lacking “You’ve got all these pipelines that want to develop but there’s no plan  that deals with the cumulative impacts, all the issues with  the development, the seismic lines, all the wells that need to be put in  in the northeast, there’s been no real discussion on how this is going to play out, moreover there has been no real discussion  on  a  land use plan.”

Chief Teegee says the development seems to be  pushing forward  with a “gold rush mentality” .  While the  natural gas  reserves are estimated to be  sufficient to keep  production  going for 175 years,  he questions what will happen if  several  projects start pumping out the  natural gas, “You’re  cutting that down to maybe 50 years supply, then who’s left with the baggage?”  It’s an issue of  sustainability says Chief Teegee “ You know we see this with mining, some mines have a life of 20, 30 years and what’s going to happen  at the end, there’s going to have to be a transition to a different economy.  There has to be a plan,  we can’t have this boom, bust development.”

He says he is in line with the work of  his  predecessors in calling for discussion on the land use plans,  the development of a strategy that will make it clear on what  will or won’t be allowed,  which areas  are sensitive, “It would save people  a lot of energy and a lot of money.”

Earlier this week, the Chief of the Wet’suwet’en, Karen Ogen, was calling for a  discussion with the Premier on the  pipeline and development issues.  Chief Teegee says  progress is being made towards having that discussion.