CDN NEWS | 
US NEWS 
By Brian Platt, Thomas Seal, and Robert Tuttle
Enbridge Inc. plans to sell a stake in a natural gas pipeline system in British Columbia to Indigenous communities in a deal that will be financially backed by the Canadian government.
The government will provide a C$400 million ($286 million) loan guarantee to support a partnership of 36 First Nations in their purchase of a 12.5% interest in the Westcoast pipeline system, which transports gas from Fort Nelson, in the northeastern part of BC, to the Canada-US border.
The group, known as the Stonlasec8 Indigenous Alliance Limited Partnership, is buying the stake for C$715 million. The transaction is expected to close by the end of June.
“The agreement between Stonlasec8, Enbridge and the Government of Canada is truly groundbreaking,” Justin Napoleon, a director of Stonlasec8 and former Chief of Saulteau First Nation, said in a statement Thursday.
Enbridge and other Canadian energy companies have increasingly been partnering with Indigenous communities on operations that affect their land, moves that both improve relations with the groups and also seek to head off environmental and legal opposition. Enbridge in 2022 agreed to sell a 12% stake in seven pipelines in Alberta to First Nations and Métis communities in a deal it called “Project Rocket.”
Rival pipeline operator TC Energy Corp. announced in July of last year that it would sell a 5.3% stake in its NGTL gas system and Foothills Pipeline assets to a consortium including as many as 72 Indigenous communities in western Canada. But that deal didn’t to go through after a bond deal to finance the transaction failed to close.
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