Indigenous leaders, protesters gather in Vancouverto oppose Trans Mountain pipeline

Protesters against the federally-owned Trans Mountainpipeline gathered outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Saturday toshow the government and investors that opposition to the project isstill strong and they believe funding it would be a "riskyinvestment.''

Signs that read "Don't fund the Trans Mountain,'' "Protect theOcean'' and "Protect the Land'' littered the square in front of thegallery where a few hundred people gathered.

Rally planners from the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation's SacredTrust Initiative say this marked the first time since the COVID-19pandemic began that Indigenous leaders have come together topublicly oppose the pipeline.

Rueben George, manager of the Sacred Trust Initiative, says thepandemic restricted gatherings and hindered their outreach, but thatthe rally will lift spirits and signal the start of more events andpublic outreach.

The federal government said in February that no more public moneywould go toward the pipeline as its new projected price tagincreased to $21.4 billion.

George says the project now relies on funding from investors andthe group hopes to send the message that it is a "stranded asset''and should not be built.

"It's not a good investment, let alone the destruction that'sgoing to cause,'' he said. "We have to wake up our country again.We have to do something to create change for our futuregenerations.''

The federal government paid $4.5 billion dollars to take over the expansion project from Kinder Morgan in 2018 in a bid to almosttriple the amount of crude oil moving from Alberta to customers overseas.

The pipeline expansion was originally expected to be completesometime this year but the Trans Mountain Corporation also pushedback the projected completion date to the third quarter of 2023.

Itsaid severe flooding in southern B.C. last fall, coupled with theeffects of the COVID-19 pandemic, forced the delays.