Indigenous group to invest in 7 Enbridge pipelines

Communities expected to get $10M annually in deal

Enbridge Inc. has signed a deal to sell a minority stake in seven pipelines in the Athabasca region of northern Alberta to a group of 23 First Nation and Métis communities for $1.12 billion.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney called the purchase a “historic, game-changing deal” at a press conference Wednesday with multiple stakeholders present, including Enbridge executives and members of some of the communities involved in the purchase.

“This is a big deal,” he said. “This is the single largest Indigenous transaction in the natural resource sector in the history of North America.”

Athabasca Indigenous Investments (Aii), a limited partnership of 23 Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 First Nations and Métis communities, will manage the investment which includes an 11.57 per cent non-operating interest in the pipelines.

Aii said the deal is expected to bring in more than $10 million annually to the communities represented in the partnership.

The Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corp., a provincial Crown corporation, said it provided a loan guarantee that enabled the communities to borrow the $250 million for their equity stake in the assets instead of contributing their own capital.

“These communities may not otherwise (have) been able to access the kind of capital required to facilitate equity share ownership in projects of this size and magnitude,” said AIOC CEO Chana Martineau.

The rest of the financing comes from a private placement completed earlier in the week, said Enbridge chief executive Al Monaco.

The AIOC was created in 2019 to help Indigenous communities get ownership stakes in the Alberta energy sector.

Monaco called the deal one of Enbridge’s proudest moments.

The pipelines included in the agreement are the Athabasca, Wood Buffalo/Athabasca Twin and associated tanks, Norlite Diluent, Waupisoo, Wood Buffalo, Woodland and the Woodland extension.

Aii president Justin Bourque said in the release Wednesday the assets will “help enhance quality of life in our communities for many years to come.”

Chief Greg Desjarlais of Frog Lake First Nation said in the statement that the investment supports economic sovereignty for the Athabasca region communities.

At the conference, Desjarlais called the deal “a new path for our people.”

Richard Masson, an executive fellow at the University of Calgary School of Public Policy and chair of the World Petroleum Council, said energy companies are increasingly seeking ways to bring Indigenous ownership into the sector, giving as an example Suncor Energy selling 49 per cent of its East Tank Farm Development facility to two First Nations in 2017.