Canada Aboriginals Reject $960 Million Petronas Gas Deal [1]

Happy to see some people who understand what's truly valuable.

An aboriginal group along Canada’s Pacific Coast turned down Petroliam Nasional Bhd.’s offer of C$319,000 ($267,000) for each member as compensation for building a natural gas export terminal on ancestral lands.

The Lax Kw’alaams Band in northern British Columbia spurned the C$1.15 billion package after the community unanimously voted against the $30 billion project in three polls. The group is concerned that the project will harm the environment. The rejection is a new obstacle to plans to export liquefied natural gas from North America to Asian markets.

The public should recognize that “this is not a money issue: this is environmental and cultural,” the group said in a statement Wednesday. Opposition to the plan was overwhelming, Garry Reece, mayor of the town of Lax Kw’alaams, said in an interview in Vancouver Tuesday, before the band leadership made a final decision.