The newly released emails are the first indication that federal enforcement officers were using vandalism as an excuse not to do required monitoring and inspections.
On a dreary gray day in late October, passers by gawked at a scene outside a hotel in Smithers, B.C. The charred remnants of several trucks sat in the parking lot in the wake of what police described as a “targeted attack” in the pre-dawn hours of the morning.
Ironically, the emails also indicate federal officials were concerned they were not doing enough monitoring during a period when the company reported an “abnormal amount” of fish deaths during ongoing construction. Corporal Madonna Saunderson, with the RCMP’s communications service, said investigations are ongoing but did not answer questions about the incidents or provide updates.
“None whatsoever. We want them out there. We’ve never instigated any form of violence. We’re the people that are trying to protect the water and the salmon. We would never stand in the way of proper monitoring.” “DFO has compliance monitoring targets depending on risks to fish and fish habitat and whether a regulatory approval was issued for a project,” the spokesperson explained. “For example, where Fisheries Act authorizations are issued, staff monitor sites more frequently during construction and again after construction to ensure that conditions of the approval were followed.
“Not sure if you see these mortality reports from CGL or not?” Jason Davey, a fishery officer with the department, wrote. “I have received seven mortality notifications, such as the one below, in the last 11 days. The total number of mortalities reported is now at 31. This is an abnormal amount of mortality notifications for the CGL project.”
The department told The Narwhal it was unable to provide additional mortality reports and said the company made a “minor fix” that resolved the problem. It is unclear whether any additional field inspections of the sites took place. Around the same time, Bergsma told one of his managers, Brenda Rotinsky, the situation “sounds pretty tense up there” in an instant message.
“They need to prove to us that they can get their shit together and actually do this right,” she said. “If you’re gonna force a project down the throats of Wet’suwet’en people violently against their will, then you better be ready to make sure that every single crossing site for salmon is being done right and not rely on an industry that clearly has a habit of destroying or harming fish habitat to be the ones to report on themselves.
On Jan. 29, Wet’suwet’en chiefs flew over the site a second time to document what appeared to be breaches of the company’s water isolation measures — dams put in place that dry out the section where a trench is dug to install the pipeline under the river. According to reports and photos, those measures failed and icy water spilled into the worksite, flooding equipment and sending more sediment into the river system.
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