Laurie Storrie has built many tiny homes, but this was the first one to be used as part of a protest action.
"It's a physical representation that the little things we do — they matter, and they come to build something bigger," he told a crowd gathered in Centennial Square in Victoria on Wednesday, July 9.
The home is being sent more than 1,000 kilometres north to aid a Gitxsan woman's effort to stop a natural gas pipeline from being built in her First Nation's traditional territory. The woman, Teresa Brown, will be putting the tiny home on her dog sanctuary in Gitxsan territory, which organizers say is directly in the right-of-way of the Prince Rupert Gas Transmission (PRGT) pipeline project.
Gina Mowatt, an organizer and spokesperson for the effort, referred to the planned tiny home location as a "resistance camp." Mowatt and Brown are both members of the Gitxsan Nation.
"The tiny house is going there for her to live in — for her to have a safe space so she can continue to be on her territory," Mowatt said.
Storrie and a crew of approximately 120 volunteers built the tiny home in just two weeks at the University of Victoria's Campus Community Gardens.
On Wednesday afternoon, organizers held a send-off protest march in downtown Victoria, walking with the tiny home — built onto a trailer and towed by a pickup — from Centennial Park to the B.C. government's Environmental Assessment Office, which has approved the pipeline's construction.
Pipeline recently given the go-ahead
The PRGT pipeline project is slated to go from Hudson's Hope near Dawson's Creek to a terminal site north of Prince Rupert, where the liquefied natural gas would be loaded onto ships.
First approved by the province in 2014, the pipeline was originally owned by TC Energy, with a planned export terminal to be built by Petronas. But Petronas backed out in 2017, and the project was put on hold.
In March 2024, TC sold its stake to the Nisg̱a’a Nation and Texas-based Western LNG, with a new plan for the export site north of Prince Rupert on Nisg̱a’a territory. The terminal still does not have final environmental assessment approval.
Because the environmental assessment permit for the pipeline was only valid for ten years, the project needed to have been "substantially started" by November 2024, or it would need to go through that process again. Construction began in August.
With construction starting so close to the 10-year mark, the substantially started designation became a potential sticking point. Alex MacLennan, chief executive assessment officer for the Environmental Assessment Office, was tasked with making a ruling.
On June 5, he ruled that the PRGT had substantially started and the new owners could proceed with the current permit.
Western LNG highlighted the indigenous ownership of the pipeline after gaining the substantial started designation.
“This is an important step—not just for PRGT, but for the Nisg̱a’a Nation’s vision of self-determination and long-term prosperity,” said Eva Clayton, Nisg̱a’a Lisims president, in a news release from Western LNG after MacLennan's decision.
Protesters say sovereignty at stake
The terminal site for the pipeline is proposed at a site roughly 50 kilometres north of Prince Rupert at a floating liquefaction platform in Nisg̱a’a territory to be called Ksi Lisims LNG.
This environmental assessment process is underway, but some First Nations upstream, including the Gitxsan Nation and the Gitanyow Hereditary Chiefs (a politically independent group of Gitxsan people), say it will negatively impact salmon populations. Lawsuits have been filed challenging both the pipeline and the terminal.
A protest attendee who identified himself as Nii Lax Aks lives in Anspayaxw, a Kispiox village (another Gitxsan band), which he said is about 15 kilometres south of where the pipeline is to be built. He was in Victoria to celebrate the send-off of the tiny home.
He said he grew up fishing for salmon in the local rivers, as his people have done for thousands of years.
"This is just another step in attacking our food systems and our survival, our governance, our laws," he said. "This is an attack on our whole way of life."
Mowatt said the original engagement process was flawed and unfair to her people, resulting in a deal that violates their sovereignty.
"To destroy our land and to bombard our people with man camps, socially and economically, is just not good for our nation," she said. "The bottom line is for our sovereignty to be recognized and to be respected."
