PRINCE RUPERT — Prime Minister Mark Carney says his meeting Tuesday with Coastal First Nations in Prince Rupert, B.C. is about “dialogue” and exploring how First Nations can partner with the federal government to build the economy.
Speaking just before entering a meeting with Coastal First Nations, an advocacy group that works to works to protect the B.C. coastline and the Great Bear Rainforest, Carney said there’s a “huge responsibility” to protect the environment.
“So how do we work together to preserve that, to enhance it while we’re looking for opportunities for development?” he said.
“Today is not a day for big announcements. It is a day, as I said, for dialogue, for listening and working.”
Carney is being joined at the meeting by a handful of ministers, including Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson and Housing and Infrastructure Minister Gregor Robertson. Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty is not in attendance.
Tensions between the federal government and Coastal First Nations heated up in the fall when federal officials failed to meet with the group before signing an agreement with Alberta opening the door to a pipeline to B.C.’s coast.
Hodgson was forced to apologize after quipping in a television interview that he could have met with alliance members through Zoom.
Coastal First Nations president Marilyn Slett has said there is no support among the group’s members for a pipeline to the Pacific coast or the suspension of the legislated ban that keeps large oil tankers off the northern B.C. coast.
Asked about those tensions, Carney said the meeting was arranged to work through those issues and find ways Ottawa and Coastal First Nations can move forward together.
Slett is expected to speak with media after the meeting, alongside Gaagwiis (Jason Alsop), vice president of Coastal First Nations and president of Haida Nation, and Maureen Nyce, chief councillor of Haisla Nation.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 13, 2026.
The Canadian Press
