A Lesson for Pipeline Landowners

A Manitoba landowner is facing expropriation at the behest of First Nations leaders.

The landowner is being targeted because his property – a privately owned campground near Brandon – is the site of a graveyard where it is suspected children who attended a nearby Indian Residential School over a century ago are buried.

The Indigenous leaders and activists want Ottawa and the province to take the land and turn it over to a local First Nations government.

The story broke late last fall and has yet to be resolved as camping season approaches, leaving the landowner businessman in limbo.

This case should be of particular interest to pipeline landowners.

CAEPLA began warning of similar risks facing farmers, ranchers, woodlot and other rural landowners several years ago.

We did so when it became clear to us that the Canadian Energy Regulator (CER) had embraced the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), of which the Truth and Reconciliation and Unmarked Graves agendas are part.

CAEPLA discovered the threat facing pipeline landowners after we learned that energy transport companies and the CER were actively partnering with “Indigenous Monitors” on routine visits to easements.

It became obvious to us that the discovery of so much as a bone fragment or arrowhead during these visits could result in precisely what this campground owner is facing now…

Specifically, loss of land and a shutdown of operations.

Our message is that Indigenous Rights, so-called, trump your property rights.

As Dave Core explains elsewhere, with the trend toward transferring ownership of Canadian pipelines to First Nations groups, landowners need to be extra vigilant.

Because when the activists who own the pipe and the easement that gives them easy access to your farm, pipeline landowners become vulnerable to expropriation all over again, like never before.

Some landowners doubted us when we first sounded the alarm.

Several instances since, culminating (so far) with this one in Brandon, vindicate our analysis of the risks you now face.

Sadly, we suspect this is still early days.

Which is why pipeline landowners must become proactive again, and join CAEPLA in pursuit of a new deal with new terms, conditions and protections from new owners.