Liard First Nation says it will veto oil and gas projects
The Liard First Nation says it will use its veto powers to block oil and gas development in southeast Yukon as a response to what it describes as a lack of respect from the Yukon government.
Chief Liard McMillan said the Kaska Nation was recently snubbed over demands to share in the billion-dollar reclamation project at the Faro mine.
"The Liard First Nation and the Kaska are not getting the respect from the Yukon government it deserves and we are just asking for very basic things in a government-to-government relationship," he said.
The southeast Yukon is home to the Kotaneelee gas fields, the only producing gas wells in the territory.
McMillan said they will now enforce their legal right to veto future development in the region.
"That is something that is a matter of law and we will definitely exercise that veto,” he said. “We are announcing today that we are exercising that veto."
There is no word from the Yukon government on how the move might affect developments, or how it plans to react.
