It’s very apparent the Metlakatla won't back any new developments until Ottawa addresses their anger over a questionable propane contract

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One oil spill would destroy a way of life, is what Marilyn Slett said she told Mark Carney when he visited Prince Rupert, B.C., to discuss conservation and economic opportunities in the region.

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“There is no technology to clean up a spill at sea,” she said in a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Slett, elected chief of the Heiltsuk Nation, is president of the Coastal First Nations group, which opposes an oil pipeline to the north Pacific coast.

Members of the alliance of eight B.C. First Nations lobbied the prime minister on the downside of economic development when it comes to climate change and potential spills.

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The group said it remains committed to upholding the oil tanker moratorium off the West Coast, while the government has opened the door to exemptions as part of its memorandum of understanding with Alberta.

Carney said it was a day for listening, rather than big announcements.

“It’s about a dialogue and what’s happening in the region,” he said, before entering the meeting, reiterating “the imperative for conservation.”

Given the law stipulates that project proponents must seek free, prior and informed consent from Indigenous people, that would appear to be that for a pipeline — a unanimous front in opposition to a project that does not even have a champion, beyond the premier of Alberta.

Except, the opposition is not unanimous. The Metlakatla and Nisga’a First........

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