Neoliberalism as Shape-Shifter: The Case of Aboriginal Title and the Northern Gateway Pipeline

ABSTRACT

Neoliberalism is a political economic ideology whose proponents adopt diverse project strategies to achieve similar goals. The Northern Gateway Pipeline proposal to carry bitumen from the oil sands in Alberta to the coast of British Columbia (BC) is one such project. Developing the concept of the “shape-shifter” employed by Aboriginal legal scholars, we highlight neoliberalism’s disruptive effects as it negotiates the province’s history of Aboriginal land claims. Proposed in 2010, the Northern Gateway project has been controversial, seemingly pitting environmentalists against developers. At the same time, recent court decisions have placed resource development inextricably in the context of Aboriginal title; governments are obliged to consult and accommodate affected First Nations. Responses to these requirements reveal neoliberal strategies that consistently aim to fix the landscape for the investment of capital but collide with an equally determined claim of Aboriginal sovereignty. Neoliberalism is a “shape-shifter” obscuring the unresolved question of Aboriginal title.

KEYWORDS:

• Aboriginal title
• British Columbia
• neoliberalism
• northern gateway
• oil sands
• pipelines

Acknowledgments

Our thanks to the three anonymous reviewers and the editors for helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

¹This riffs off of Jamie Peck’s characterization of neoliberalism as “shapeshifting” (2010, 30).

²News outlets reviewed comprehensively since 2009 included The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Vancouver Sun, National Post, and cbc.ca. The many hundreds of articles reviewed provide a comprehensive archive of the discursive terrain of the Northern Gateway approval debate.

³Principal documents analyzed were the eight-volume project application and Enbridge responses to Aboriginal opposition.

⁴Advertisements promoting the safety and benefits of Northern Gateway appeared during 2011–2014 in Canadian national and metropolitan newspapers and on the major national television networks.